For state and local governments looking to improve service and project delivery while battling limited resources and tight budgets, a one-platform approach to managing services and projects could be the answer. Here’s why – by using a single platform for IT Service Management (ITSM) and Project Portfolio Management (PPM) you can better understand your resource capacity and plan accordingly.

Resource capacity planning allows you to get a big-picture view of your entire IT organization, allowing you to balance workloads across projects and support; and to see the different types of work that need to be done at any given time.

The benefits of a one-platform solution for ITSM and PPM are enhanced even more when you can include an integration component. By combining iPaaS (integration platform as a service) with your ITSM/PPM platform you can automate both complex and simple tasks, as well as connect disparate systems throughout your entire organization.

Employees no longer need to spend time on the repetitive, mundane tasks they normally have to complete before working on bigger projects – things like system name changes, resetting passwords or granting certain permissions to software. All of these, and more, can be automated with workflows using iPaaS.

Bringing ITSM, PPM and iPaaS Together

There are many benefits to managing ITSM, PPM and iPaaS together on one platform, including:

  1. Improved collaboration and communication – When ITSM, PPM and iPaaS are all on a single platform, it’s easier for teams to collaborate and communicate effectively. With all the tools in one place, everyone can access the same information and work together more efficiently. This can lead to faster decision-making and more effective problem-solving.
  2. Streamlined processes – Having ITSM, PPM and iPaaS on a single platform can also help streamline processes. IT teams can create workflows that automatically trigger tasks for project-based events, for example. And departments outside of IT (if employing an Enterprise Service Management approach to service delivery) can utilize integration and automation for processes like onboarding employees and more. This reduces the amount of manual work that needs to be done and helps ensure that nothing falls through the cracks both in IT and other departments – all utilizing the same codeless platform.
  3. Better visibility and control – When all IT functions are consolidated on one platform, it’s easier to get a comprehensive view of the organization’s technology landscape. IT leaders can see all of the projects, tasks, tickets and resources in use at any given time and can adjust as needed to improve performance. This increased visibility and control can also help teams identify areas for improvement and optimize their workflows.
  4. Reduced costs and complexity – Using a single platform for ITSM, PPM and iPaaS can also help reduce costs and complexity. Rather than purchasing and maintaining separate tools, and building homegrown automations between everything, IT teams can use one platform that covers all of their needs. This can reduce the time and resources required to manage multiple tools, as well as the costs associated with purchasing and maintaining them. With everyone on one platform, you have a lower total cost of ownership.

Working Better Together on a Single Platform

In the City of Sunnyvale, CA, they use TeamDynamix for ITSM and PPM.

“Before TeamDynamix the [IT] work was managed essentially by memory,” Dhiren Gandhi, applications and analytics manager said.

Kathleen Boutte, Chief Information Officer, said the system they had in place for ticketing and managing IT assets prior to TeamDynamix was very antiquated.

“It was very difficult for us to understand where our resources were, how we were using our people. We needed better reporting, we needed visibility of staff and resource management, but we also needed better asset management,” she said. “We were managing assets on spreadsheets and different systems, if anyone asked how many PCs we have in the city it would take us a few moments to gather that information and give an answer.”

With TeamDynamix in place, Boutte said they now have all of that information and more at the click of a button.

Hema Nekkanti, project management office manager, touts the benefits of bringing ITSM and PPM together on a single platform, “With one platform now we can actually see the tickets that are being worked on as well as the projects that are in the pipeline,” she said. “This gives us the ability to actually allocate the resources appropriately, and there’s no resource conflict.”

Eddie Soliven, infrastructure services manager, finds great value in the dashboards provided within the TeamDynamix platform. Nekkanti agrees, “The dashboards are the coolest things in TeamDynamix, I enjoy creating them as well as using them,” she said. Nekkanti said she and her team use the dashboards internally to view projects in the pipeline as well as tickets.

At Sunnyvale, each department has its own dashboard specific to its projects and tickets – within these dashboards, they can view both the entire portfolio of work across the city, as well as their own projects.

“It’s all there, and when they drill down into each of those projects they can tell how far they are into the project. There’s a Gantt chart that shows the execution time and when the start time of each project is,” Nekkanti said. “This actually helps us (in the project management office) and those in the departments to understand exactly where the projects are and when they can be finished.”

Soliven said the dashboards also give him a good snapshot of the condition of Sunnyvale’s systems and where the service requests lie, as well as where the bottlenecks are, “It gives us an opportunity to address those in the background proactively.”

CIO Boutte said she highly values the resource management visibility she gets from TeamDynamix, “We really needed that visibility, and it’s why this has been such a great tool for us. Having both the service side and the project side means I can see whether my team is working on a ticket or a project and how busy are they. I get visibility into their availability, and I can forecast more accurately to know that I am not overworking staff or that we’re not just sitting on the bench twiddling our thumbs.”

Want to learn more about the benefits of bringing ITSM, PPM and iPaaS together on one platform? Check out:

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