Teams | Collaboration | Customer Service | Project Management

March 2022

How to use ITAM to support your IT support game

Historically IT asset management (ITAM) is the practice that was forgotten about by IT service management (ITSM) practitioners because it wasn’t considered a “core” ITIL process. This changed with the publication of ITIL 4, and now ITAM sits firmly in the ITIL management practice section of the service value stream. Done well, ITAM can help organizations to manage, control and support their IT services.

Chrome Zero Day: Find vulnerable devices for patching

Google issued an emergency security update due to the severity of exploit CVE-2022-1096. A few days later, Microsoft joined the recommendation, advising Chromium Edge users to update their browsers as well. Therefore, if you haven’t already, you should check your browser details to check if it’s updated to version 99.0.4844.84 of Chrome or version 99.0.1150.55 or higher of Edge. Matt Beran shows you how you can find vulnerable devices across your inventory for proactive patching using InvGate Insight.

Chrome zero-day: find devices with vulnerabilities across your inventory

If you’re an asset manager or an application administrator, you must have had - or are about to have - a lot of work since there’s a new Chrome zero-day vulnerability in the wild. Google issued an emergency security update due to the severity of exploit CVE-2022-1096. A few days later, Microsoft joined the recommendation, advising Chromium Edge users to update their browsers as well.

The Most Important Considerations When Setting Up a Virtual Service Desk

With the rapid digital transformation of enterprises, the role of robust IT service and ITSM in keeping businesses processes running smoothly is paramount. They’re necessary to keep the organization online and to make sure that digital processes create the best customer and employee experience. With more organizations going into completely remote or hybrid modes of work, the service desk has to adapt to provide robust IT to employees and empower them to carry out their jobs.

How to Use Automation to Streamline IT Support

Though change is not a new concept in IT -- one might say it is intrinsic to the very nature of it -- the rate of change has accelerated dramatically over the last few years. We’ve recognized that people are everything and that we need to use technology to do more of the heavy lifting. This blog will look at how to automate customer service, streamlining IT support and improving your organization’s overall service delivery.

What to Look For in Configuration and Change Management Tools?

In an industry already loaded with jargon, it's easy to feel overwhelmed. If you've never heard of Configuration and Change Management (CCM), you might be wondering: Is it the same as run-of-the-mill change management? Is it a combination of the dual concepts of change management and configuration management? A new, third thing entirely? Our guide will help you navigate these troubled waters with ease.

Swarming, Scrum, and How They Can Benefit Your Organization

Project management is hard. Even if you arm yourself with the best team and the best resources, unexpected issues may arise creating delays or other bottlenecks. In fact, according to a 2021 report, the role of project managers is so stressful that 37% of them have considered leaving their jobs. The good news is that, over the decades, the industry has developed frameworks to consistently deliver projects without exceeding the resources or missing the deadlines.

Incident Ticket vs. Problem Ticket: What's the Difference?

It is very common for outsiders to the world of IT (or at least people who aren't familiar with the ITIL framework) to think of "incidents" and "problems" as synonyms. You can’t really blame them, as people tend to use these two terms interchangeably in everyday life. However, in the world of IT service management (ITSM), these two terms are inextricably linked but not the same.

The Best ITSM Blogs You Should Be Following

With so much information that’s repurposed, repackaged, and frankly, not worth even a passing glance, it makes sense to be a bit cynical when it comes to blog content. When everybody seems to be doing the same thing, originality and good writing are rare features that should be celebrated. Since we’re content snobs ourselves, we thought we’d share our take on the 10 best ITSM blogs with you.

Asset Inventory Management Tips & Best Practices

There are many aspects to keeping your IT house in order. And IT asset inventory management is just one of the many heads of this ever-shifting hydra. It’s also one of those practices that managers may sometimes gloss over in their effort to go after “the big issues.” In this guide, we’ll clue you into some best practices that you absolutely have to take into account to run things smoothly.

5 Steps to Creating an ITIL Maintenance Plan

It was Einstein who once said “the secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.” The world of IT isn’t exactly known for being a creator’s paradise but navigating obstacles within problem management or incident management may take creative solutions. Regardless, it helps to borrow ideas, or in this case systems. One such popular system in IT service management is ITIL.

CMDB Benefits for Service Delivery Across Your Organization

A configuration management database or CMDB can be a game changer in terms of service delivery. Done well, a CMDB benefits incident resolution, speeds up request fulfillment and makes change assessment safer. Implementing a CMDB is a significant task and it’s something that many IT departments struggle with. It’s very easy to make things complicated or difficult to maintain.

The Most Common Service Catalog Mistakes (And How to Fix 'Em)

There's a lot that goes into creating an IT service catalog. And as much planning and research as you can do, you can still end up making some beginner service catalog mistakes. But one of the worst things about these mistakes is that you can be knee-deep in them before you even know their full effect on your processes. In this article, we’ll tell you what things you have to avoid when designing your service catalog.

Metrics for Problem and Incident Report Managers

Many IT professionals are familiar with the popular metrics and measures of IT operational success. Such metrics as Customer Satisfaction, Average Handle Time and First Contact Resolution are typically memorized by service desk managers and stored for quick reference during planning and other types of meetings. But how do we measure the effectiveness of the processes that support those teams?

InvGate Insight Try-It-Yourself Online Demo

It's one thing to watch a video demo, and yet another to try a tool yourself. If you're on the lookout for a top-of-the-line, comprehensive IT Asset Management solution, the new free-to-use InvGate Insight online demo instance allows you to actually get your hands on the software and try it out. In this demo sandbox environment, you'll be able to log in as either a technician or administrator in order to explore the various functionalities the software offers.

Help Desk Manager Duties & Responsibilities: How to Start Your Career

The help desk plays a critical role in the customer experience and the relationship customers have toward the organization. They are often the point of communication between the customer and a company and they help a customer understand and use the organization’s products and services. A similar relationship exists between a service desk and company employees; they help employee productivity by offering IT services in a timely and efficient manner.

InvGate Workflows: Plan Tasks in One Step, Execute in Another

A new feature in InvGate Service Desk has been added to the workflow engine. This feature will help teams coordinate semi-structured work where planning the work occurs during one stage of the workflow and then those tasks are fulfilled in another. This is particularly common in Change Management scenarios where: This is great for structured work which is semi-flexible.

What Are the ITIL Change Categories?

ITIL is widely considered the gold standard when it comes to IT Service Management (ITSM) best practices and some of the most successful companies in the business have been using it and its multiple iterations over the years. Though we won’t go into detail as to what ITIL is (we’ve got a Definitive ITIL Guide for those who want a complete rundown), it could be quickly defined as a set of suggestions, best practices, and different approaches of how to do ITSM.

How to Boost Help Desk Agent Productivity (By Avoiding Burnout)

IT help desk agent productivity is a much-discussed subject, but one that few seem to actually get a handle on. But what are the basics when it comes to increasing the productivity of your service desk agents and still treating them with kindness and empathy? Today, we’ll find out. Plus, we’ll offer some common-sense tips to get you on the right track. If there’s one thing that we can take for granted in the world, it’s that customers need around-the-clock service.