To define the objectives of Demand Management, it is necessary to understand how this process is strategic within business organizations.
The Demand Management process can be considered as a "request organizer" in the relationship between the IT service provider and its users.
It is a preliminary and preparatory process for the management of projects and the application portfolio: it manages and analyzes the requests for IT services by the business, determining a real value of the function of the IT department and of the company information systems.
The demand process in the service strategy, what objectives?
The management of the relationship that is established between those who provide information services and those who use them is a current issue and is precisely processed through Demand Management.
According to the ITIL guidelines, this process is located within the Service Strategy section.
Demand Management according to ITIL
aims to understand, anticipate and influence users' demand for services. This process works in parallel with capacity management to ensure that the service provider has sufficient capacity to meet the demands of the services.
Demand Management rationalizes and optimizes the use of IT resources, ensuring that the technical and human resources correspond to the actual expected demand for the provision of the service.
What are the objectives of demand management?
• analyze consumption by users of the IT Service
• anticipate the future demand of IT service users
• influence the demand of users of IT services
• optimize the decision-making process of service applications
• reduce low-value projects by managing the budget appropriately
Why is proper management of this process so important?
Many requests that come from business users, especially in Enterprise companies, can have different origins and be transmitted through various channels, making it difficult to track and manage these questions. As a result, many requests fall into a black hole, are not properly addressed and processed.
The Demand process ensures a correct evaluation of requests, as it follows a precise flow, which is often identified in this request status set: draft, analyzed, qualified, approved, completed.
By following these flows, Demand management will be more organized, linear and measurable and the following 3 objectives will be quickly achieved:
• Have a clear picture of the demand
• Being able to predict the demand for services
• Optimize the process
Measuring the objectives of Demand Management: performance indicators
The Demand process aims to analyze, predict and control the request for IT services, according to technical and economic/financial aspects.
For this reason, the effectiveness of Demand Management is measured as a "Critical Success Factor", through the following KPI:
• Current use of services by type of service (%)
• Number of unplanned corrective actions by service capacity (in absolute)
• Number of control activities on demand requests (in absolute)
• Success rate of control activities on demand requests (%)
By applying these KPI, it is possible to correctly monitor the process, reducing the number of low added value projects and avoiding economic and production waste.
Achieve Demand Management objectives with HelpdeskAdvanced
It is possible to manage this process thanks to Service Management solutions, such as HelpdeskAdvanced, which help to process applications according to specific flows: collection of requests, evaluation, assignment by priority and approval.
Pat's HelpdeskAdvanced allows you to manage the Demand process effectively: requests are opened through the self-service portal, triggering the evaluation and approval process.
The prioritization of requests is defined and their directing or not towards the executive phases, up to the activation of a possible project management service.