Today, IT technologies are essential for businesses of any size – they streamline workflow, enhance task accuracy, automate routine operations, and optimize resource utilization. Behind all these benefits of business process automation stands ITIL support – an internationally recognized methodology for managing IT services.


The data from Statista shows the size of the IT service management software market worldwide from 2016 to 2021. In 2016, the global IT service management software market was valued at 1.9 billion U.S. dollars.

It means that companies see the impact in business growth and effectiveness of IT service management that includes ITIL support.

IT service management software market revenues worldwide from 2016 to 2021(in million U.S. dollars).

In this article, we will delve deeper into the role and significance of ITIL support in company IT infrastructure, analyze the key processes and roles associated with ITIL support, and present case studies from our team to reinforce the theory with practical examples.

What is ITIL in ITSM?

Companies are accustomed to working with resources. For example, a company may have an electrician to fix wiring issues and address problems in the electrical network. In this case, the intended use of the resource is clearly defined – the business knows how much time and resources will be required for the electrician to complete the work. There is little room for surprises or uncertainties.

However, when it comes to using IT infrastructure, the situation becomes less transparent. Why does the restoration of an IT system, such as corporate email, take only 5 minutes in some cases, while in others it requires several days of waiting or acquiring a new server?

This is where ITSM services come into play – processes for managing IT services and providing them to customers at all stages. This approach goes beyond addressing individual user requests and becomes formalized service provision. It is manifested in the creation of a structured service catalog, the development of service level agreements (SLAs), and the systematic provision of services upon request.

ITSM services control all types of technology in the workplace, ranging from laptops and servers to business-critical software applications.

So, what role does ITIL play in technical support? Let’s dig deeper. ITIL, also known as IT Infrastructure Library, is a library of IT infrastructure consisting of a set of recommendations aimed at helping companies maximize the efficient use of IT by aligning IT services with business strategy.

In other words, ITSM is a kind of methodology for delivering IT services to the business, and the ITIL framework is designed to implement ITSM in the business through its practices.

5 stages of ITIL in SDLC

There is an IT product lifecycle designed for successful software deployment in the market. In order to deliver a high-quality product to users, it is necessary to go through all stages of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). Some of these stages are repeated in the ITIL framework but have a broader scope related to managing IT services and infrastructure.

1. Service Strategy

• In this stage, business and customer requirements are identified and analyzed.
• Strategic goals and software development plans are defined to support these requirements.

2. Service Design

• This stage involves designing IT services, including software.
• Design concepts and architecture are created for the developed software.

3. Service Transition

• This stage is related to the implementation of the developed software and transitioning from the current state to a new version or service.
• It includes testing, change management, and deployment of new software.

4. Service Operation

• At this stage, the developed and implemented software is actively used.
• Support and management of IT services take place, including incident handling and problem management.

5. Continual Service Improvement

• This stage involves monitoring, analysis, and continuous improvement of the quality and performance of IT services, including software.
• Measures are taken to resolve issues and enhance the efficiency of software utilization.

Thus, ITIL service management defines the lifecycle of an IT product. It is important to adapt the ITIL approach in technical support to the business needs and software development tools.

Practices of ITIL support

Earlier, we understood that the ITIL framework implements the principles described in ITSM through practices. The concept of “practices” is broader than “processes” in SDLC and takes into account factors such as personnel, their key competencies, technologies, etc.

Here are some of the key ITIL service management practices in technical support:

1. Incident Management

• A practice focused on detecting, registering, classifying, and restoring incidents affecting the functioning of IT services.
• It includes managing incident priorities, communicating with users, and aligning with service level agreements.

2. Problem Management

• A practice aimed at identifying and eliminating the root causes of recurring incidents or significant issues in the IT infrastructure.
• It involves problem analysis, creating action plans to prevent future incidents, and improving service quality.

3. Change Management

• A practice related to planning, controlling, and monitoring changes in IT services and infrastructure.
• It includes processes for evaluating changes, implementing them, and managing associated risks and disruptions.

4. Release Management

• A practice focused on planning, coordinating, and managing the release of new software versions or updates in the IT infrastructure.
• It includes version control, testing, deployment, and change management processes within releases.

5. Service Level Management

• A practice related to establishing, negotiating, and monitoring service levels according to user and business requirements.
• It involves defining service levels, agreeing on service level agreements (SLAs), measuring and reporting on achieved service levels.

6. Configuration Management

• A practice aimed at maintaining and managing the configuration and status of all IT infrastructure components and related services.
• It includes processes and methods for identification, control, recording, and analysis of configurations to ensure system integrity and availability.

7. IT Service Continuity Management

• A practice related to planning and ensuring the continuous functioning of IT services in the event of catastrophic events or emergencies.
• It involves creating recovery plans, data backups, and testing systems in emergency situations.

8. Service Desk

• A practice related to providing a user contact center for incident registration, requests, and customer service.
• It includes processes for initial support, request management, and timely and quality resolution of user issues.

Applying ITIL service management practices in technical support enables more structured and efficient management of incidents, problems, and changes in software, as well as improving user service quality.

Through these practices, companies introduce standardization, automation, and optimization in software technical support processes, leading to increased user satisfaction and software stability.

Benefits of ITIL management in IT

🔴 Service Transparency

ITIL support provides a structured way of documenting and presenting IT services to customers, users, and stakeholders. This transparency allows them to understand the available services and their current status.

🔴 Lifecycle Management

ITIL support covers the entire lifecycle of IT services, from initial concept to development, deployment, and retirement. This comprehensive approach ensures structured service management from start to finish.

🔴 Risk Management

ITIL support helps organizations understand the service ecosystem, including any dependencies, enabling them to identify weaknesses, plan for potential failures, and develop appropriate action plans for unforeseen circumstances.

🔴 Customer-Centric Approach

ITIL support focuses on meeting the needs of customers and stakeholders, aligning services accordingly. This customer-centric approach enhances outcomes, experiences, and customer satisfaction levels.

What companies gain from ITIL service management:

⚪️ Unified system

By implementing ITIL service management, companies have a centralized repository where all registered IT incidents are stored. Each incident is carefully documented and accessible in a single repository, which the support team can utilize to swiftly resolve issues.

⚪️ Time and resource savings

IT incidents are automatically classified based on various parameters such as priority, urgency, impact, and the relevant department. This enables the IT team to focus solely on resolving the problem, bypassing the stages of troubleshooting and assigning priority.

⚪️ Guarantee and reliability

IT incident requests are matched with corresponding Service Level Agreements (SLAs) to ensure compliance with requirements. For example, a company has a signed SLA agreement with an outsourcing agency. New incidents are automatically included in the agreement, providing a guarantee for issue resolution.

⚪️ Improved responsiveness

Automatic assignment of technical specialist or support group for further investigation and consideration of the incident. For instance, a delay in addressing a software bug led to a decline in a company’s profit. With the ITIL system, incidents are promptly categorized by level and priority, then assigned to the appropriate specialists for quick resolution.

⚪️ Priority setting

Determining optimal solutions or temporary fixes for each incident. ITIL helps guide technical specialists on the decisions to be made to rectify software errors and failures while mitigating negative consequences.

⚪️ Leveraging past incident resolutions

Solutions are documented in a knowledge base, allowing for future utilization.

⚪️ Analytics

Creation of interactive dashboards and reports based on support data for incident resolution analysis. This enables companies to assess the current situation and evaluate the performance of technical specialists.

What ITIL support looks like: 10 steps

By implementing ITIL support in their business processes, companies make a statement about themselves. ITIL service management provides customers, users, and stakeholders with an understanding that the company cares about its services, making them efficient and user-friendly.

Steps for ITIL service management:

1. Provide multiple options for submitting requests, including email, phone, or self-service portal. This ensures flexibility and convenience for users to choose the most suitable way to report incidents to the IT support team.
2. Publish individually customizable forms to effectively collect information about reported IT incidents. This facilitates obtaining the necessary details and context about the event, greatly simplifying the problem-solving process.
3. Configure automatic classification and prioritization of IT incidents based on predefined criteria of the request. This helps determine the importance and urgency of resolving each incident, allowing for more efficient resource allocation and addressing the most significant issues first.
4. Link SLA conditions to IT incidents using parameters such as priority. This ensures that service level commitments are accurately met, ensuring that customers receive solutions in line with their expectations and agreements.
5. If all technical specialists have the same level of knowledge and skills, algorithms such as load balancing or round-robin can be used to automatically distribute requests among them. The ITIL system ensures a more equitable distribution of workload and increases the efficiency of incident handling.
6. Connect IT asset data, IT problems, and IT changes with IT incident requests. This integration helps create a unified information system where the relationships between different aspects of the IT infrastructure can be easily tracked, enabling faster identification of causes and solutions.
7. Ensure that incidents are closed only after providing appropriate solutions and obtaining confirmation from the end-user. This can be achieved by using specific closure codes, which allow for tracking the status of resolved incidents and ensuring a high quality of service provided.
8. Configure a communication process with end-users at each stage of the ITIL service management lifecycle. Transparent and timely communication keeps process participants informed about the current situation, reduces uncertainty, and increases user satisfaction with the support services.
9. Create and actively update a knowledge base with solutions. This helps reduce the time spent on resolving recurring issues, streamlines the work of technical specialists, and increases service efficiency.
10. Provide access to end-users and technical specialists based on their roles and the complexity of the solutions. ITIL service management enables granting appropriate access to functionality for users and providing technical specialists with the necessary rights for solving tasks with the corresponding level of complexity.

Roles and Responsibilities in ITIL Support

End User

Also known as the user or requestor, the end-user is a key participant who typically experiences issues with services and creates an incident request to initiate the incident management process.

Level 1 Support

This role serves as the first point of contact for requestors wishing to report an incident. Level 1 support consists of technical specialists with practical knowledge in the most common issues users may face in the IT environment.

Level 2 Support

Level 2 support consists of technical specialists with in-depth knowledge in incident management. They typically handle more complex requests from end-users and receive escalated issues from Level 1 specialists.

Level 3 (and above) Support

This level comprises specialists with expert knowledge in specific areas of information technology. For example, this may include specialists who focus on equipment maintenance and server support in highly specialized domains.

Incident Manager

The incident manager plays a crucial role in the incident management process. Among other responsibilities, the incident manager monitors the effectiveness of the process, provides recommendations for improvement, and ensures compliance with the process.

Process Owner

The process owner is responsible for ensuring adherence to the incident management process. Additionally, they analyze, modify, and enhance the process to align with the organization’s needs.

These roles form the foundation for effective incident management in an IT environment.

❗️ Roles and responsibilities may vary in different organizations based on their specific needs. It is possible to create custom roles as needed, following ITIL best practices.

ITIL Support from Our Team

We present three cases from our team where ITIL systems are the key to solving business process issues:

Case 1: User Request Processing

Problem:

Processing 50 user requests takes approximately 2 seconds for an e-commerce website, while the optimal processing rate should be up to 300 requests per second. This is causing delays in other processes.

Our team’s proposal, following ITIL IT service management:

Shift request processing to a ServiceDesk tool for automating technical support.

Result:

The website started processing up to 300 requests per second, allowing simultaneous support for up to 20,000 active users. It is important to note that this performance is maintained regardless of traffic intensity, ensuring stable and uninterrupted portal operation even during peak periods.

Case 2: IT Infrastructure Changes

Problem:

Making changes to the marketplace’s IT infrastructure resulted in software disruptions across the board.

ITIL-based solution from our specialists:

Configure a change management system.

Result:

After implementing the change management system, any integration into the software from other complex systems minimizes risks and disruptions.

Case 3: Database for Employees

Problem:

A new employee joined the IT department but is struggling to navigate the company’s operations and is mainly occupied with fixing unexpected issues left behind by their predecessor.

Our team’s suggestion:

Maintain documentation on the IT infrastructure and an internal database for employees.

Result:

Errors and software disruptions are logged in the database. Future software fixes can be quickly implemented as all errors and their solutions are already documented in the database.

By using ITIL, we:

1. Drive standardization: Provide standardized models and processes for managing IT services.
2. Improve service quality: ITIL in technical support defines customer expectations, constantly improving the quality of services provided.
3. Clarify responsibilities and increase transparency: Establish clear and agreed-upon parameters in SLAs, such as service levels, response times, and recovery times.
4. Optimize resources and minimize costs: ITIL in technical support provides methods for effectively managing time, budget, and company infrastructure.
5. Ensure incident handling: ITIL IT management swiftly detects and resolves issues in accordance with SLAs, aiming to minimize potential negative consequences for customers.
6. Impact communication: Reduce the risk of conflicts between IT specialists and clients by documenting stated requirements and expectations.

Our Technical Support Services:

• Conduct audits of software and systems.
• Identify and address vulnerabilities in software code.
• Restore and/or enhance program functionality.
• Minimize reputational and business losses due to software outages.
• Provide consultation on software quality and functionality.
• Establish necessary support levels to address your company’s needs.
• Timely update software products to the latest version.
• Customize design to enhance user comfort.
• Adjust program code to align with business objectives, if necessary.

In summary

ITIL in technical support is crucial for business processes as it helps organizations improve IT service management, increase customer satisfaction, optimize resource utilization, and reduce costs. Implementing ITIL IT management promotes the development of effective and flexible IT practices that support the achievement of business goals and contribute to organizational success.

ITIL encompasses several key management areas, such as incident management, change management, problem management, release management, and more. Each of these areas outlines a set of processes, methodologies, and best practices that help organizations effectively manage their IT services.

The advantages of ITIL include:

1. Improving the quality of IT services and customer satisfaction.
2. Standardizing processes and enhancing transparency.
3. Optimizing resource utilization and reducing costs.
4. Increasing flexibility and readiness for change.
5. Improving communication and collaboration between the business and IT department.
6. Managing risks and complying with relevant regulations and standards.

ITIL IT management is a widely adopted and used standard in the field of IT service management. It provides organizations with frameworks and guidance to create an efficient and flexible IT infrastructure that supports the achievement of business goals.