Gartner defines artificial intelligence applications in IT service management as tools that augment and extend IT service management (ITSM) workflows using AI. These analyze ITSM data and metadata (primarily found in ITSM platforms) to provide intelligent advice and actions on ITSM practices and workflows, such as IT service desk and support activities. This software can either be a stand-alone product, capabilities within an ITSM platform or an add-on to an ITSM platform.
Hardware asset management (HAM) tools are software applications and technology used by enterprise companies to manage all types of hardware assets, including IT, line of business and facilities management — regardless of location and industry. Key functionality includes the ability to: - Discover, identify, normalize, aggregate and store data for hardware assets. - Reconcile and manage the complete asset life cycle: procurement, arrival, storage, provisioning, use, transfer, service and disposition. - Govern access, visibility and control to specific assets based on the user’s role. - Optimize and integrate with other IT and financial systems for data, processes and workflow. - Flexibly assign asset ownership to a person, department or location. - Scale in record size and number of records as the organization grows. - Share standardized reports, create custom reporting and export data into other reporting systems. - Offer APIs for asset information to be ingested/entered through integration with procurement systems, software asset management (SAM) solutions or inventoried through CMDB or network discovery tools — as well as bar codes or RFID tags.
Gartner defines IT service management (ITSM) platforms as software that offers cohesive workflow management and automation for organizations to plan, deliver, support and improve integrated IT services. ITSM platforms provide a system of record for ITSM practices, including request, incident, problem, change, knowledge, service level and configuration management. Typically offered as SaaS, ITSM platforms are also available for on-premises deployments as per organizational needs. ITSM platforms are key tools used to manage IT support issues and aid employee productivity. IT leaders require robust ITSM platforms to drive business value in the services they provide, and are increasingly looking for these products to support digital business transformation outside IT. By capturing, tracking and reporting on service-related activities across the estate, the platform acts as a coherent system of record for ITSM-related actions. ITSM platforms boost infrastructure and operations (I&O) teams’ efficiency through automating processes, streamlining decision making and providing seamless integration with third-party applications. As organizational needs grow, advanced multichannel support features enhance the end-user experience, helping IT services remain agile and aligned with business goals.
Software asset management (SAM) tools aim to decipher the complex and ever-changing world of software licensing. Core capability of SAM tools include discovery, normalization, reconciliation, optimization and reporting. SAM tools help address these common use cases: Discovery of software on on-premises, virtual and cloud platforms; Software entitlement management through a central repository, to track purchase data and contractual commitments; Spend management through demand forecasting, downgrading of entitlements, and reallocating of unused licenses or licenses assigned to leavers; Provision of software data insights by identifying licenses allocated to users and devices, software metering, providing usage data to procurement teams, and rightsizing. Ability to share data on software rationalization opportunities; Risk identification by detecting shadow usage, as well as end-of-life and end-of-support software; Increased collaboration between teams that participate in the software application life cycle, including all stakeholders internal and external to IT; Creation of reporting dashboards for operations teams and management.