IT service management and ITIL
IT provides services to the rest of the company: “the ERP works”, “email”, “support”. IT service management (ITSM) organises how those services are delivered at consistent quality. Its best-known framework is ITIL: Version 5 arrived in 2026, and ITIL 4 remains widespread and recognised.
| Practice | Goal | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Incident management | Restore service as fast as possible. | The warehouse printer stopped: get it working, even with a workaround |
| Problem management | Find the root cause and stop it recurring. | Why does it stop every week? A missing driver update |
| Change enablement | Change safely: assess, review and approve before modifying anything. | An ERP update is tested and approved before Thursday's release |
| Service desk | A single point of contact for every request and report. | A ticket portal or an extension number |
| Service level management | Agree clear targets and measure them. | An SLA |
A service level agreement (SLA) turns “good service” into numbers: “ERP available 99.5% per month”, “critical incidents answered within 15 minutes, resolved within 4 hours”. Without one, everyone expects something different.
Watch out99.5% monthly availability sounds high, but it allows roughly 3.6 hours of downtime a month. Choosing the number is a business decision, not just a technical one.