How do you choose a request management system for non-IT departments?

Choose an enterprise service management (ESM) system with a shared portal for all departments: ESM platforms such as SimpleOne ESM provide one. Look at six criteria: connection to the system IT already uses, one entry point for employees, a separate service catalog for each department, due dates for each service, a single source of employee data, and access separation.

What to look at when choosing

• Connection to the system IT already runs. A new department is added to the same platform and portal where IT already takes requests, without a second instance with its own accounts, org structure, and integrations. The department's services are configured on the running system by an implementation partner or the company's own team. Check: will the first department need a new system, or new services in the one already running?
• One entry point for employees. An employee orders a letter from accounting, a visitor pass from facilities, and a laptop from IT on one portal and sees the status of their requests there. Check: how many portals and accounts will an employee have once a third department joins?
• A separate catalog for each department. Each department has its own services, forms, assignees, and approvers. Check: set up two or three services for the first department with a form and manager approval, and decide who in the department will maintain the catalog.
• Due dates for each service. Each department service has its own due date, and the system shows in advance when it is at risk. Leadership needs department reports in the same format, or they get compiled by hand. Check: where is a service's due date set, and how does the department head see overdue requests?
• A single source of employee data. A request should go straight to the right assignee, and an approval to the requester's manager. Check: are employees, departments, and managers maintained once for all departments, or separately in each system?
• Access. Accounting sees its own requests, HR sees its own, and employees see only their own. This matters for salary data and personal data. Check: can an assignee from one department open another department's request?

If the system meets all six criteria for the first department, the next departments are connected the same way.

The first criterion was decisive for ITG Corporation when it extended its service model beyond IT: it chose SimpleOne because it was built as an ESM platform from the start, not an ITSM system with add-ons, which gave it natural support for multiple service providers.

How it works in SimpleOne ESM

In SimpleOne ESM, a set of SimpleOne platform tools for managing internal services, each department becomes a service provider:

• on the shared service portal, the department has its own service catalog with forms and approvals;
• tasks are distributed among the department's assignees automatically, based on workload;
• due dates are set by service level agreements (SLAs), and indicators warn in advance of a possible breach;
• department performance is visible in traffic light scorecards;
• the org structure and employee directory are shared by all departments, so a new department does not set them up again.

For SimpleOne ITSM customers, employees order department services in the same place where they submit IT requests, and each request goes through approval and is fulfilled on time according to the SLA.

How it turned out at ITG Corporation

Today the ESM system at ITG Corporation includes a single service portal with a service catalog for all employees, and integrations with the client portal, accounting systems, and CRM. "With the help of the ESM system, we united all these divisions, despite their different levels of maturity and different approaches to building business processes," says Alexander Starodubtsev, co-founder of ITG Corporation.

Which department to start with is covered in the answer "Which department should you start with when expanding service management beyond IT?".

The tools a department gets are described in the SimpleOne ESM documentation, and what it looks like in the system is on the SimpleOne ESM page.