Essential IT Service Management Metrics to Track

ITSM metrics and KPIs help you evaluate how well your IT services align with your business goals. They give you a measurable framework to gauge the effectiveness of your ITSM process. 

In its absence, you lack visibility into areas that are not performing well, and consequently, fail to determine whether your ITSM process and platform are generating the desired ROI. This extends to incidents and security disruptions, costing your business heavily. 

So, what IT support metrics should you be measuring and monitoring? Let’s dig into that without further ado. 

Objectives of ITSM Metrics and KPIs 

Some of the key objectives of ITSM KPIs and metrics in ITSM are: 

• To gauge the performance, processes, and tools for ITSM services with respect to benchmarks and goals
• To ensure reliability and quality of IT services to maintain high-quality standards
• To improve operational efficiency by identifying areas for improvement and streamlining processes
• To assist with incident and problem management
• To ensure regulatory compliance to mitigate risks, avoid penalties, and maintain regulatory standards.

Connecting ITSM metrics to overall organizational goals ensures everybody contributes towards the strategic objectives. The quantifiable insights help make data-driven decisions for better resource allocation, process improvement, and strategic planning.

Top ITSM metrics and KPIs to track 

Tracking the right ITSM KPIs and metrics can help you meet your business goals. Here are the top 16 metrics to consider: 

1. Incident Response Time

This metric evaluates the time the IT team takes to acknowledge and respond to the reported incident. A low incident response time indicates fast acknowledgment of issues. 

• This signifies a proactive approach to incident management. 
• Prompt response minimizes the impact of the incident on business, enhances user satisfaction, and reduces downtime. 
• It indicates agility and readiness of the IT team in tackling challenges.

2. Incident Resolution Time

This metric measures the time to resolve the issue when reporting the incident. It includes the entire lifecycle of the incident, including analysis and resolutions. You can refine your incident management process by tracking resolution time and upholding a responsive and resilient IT infrastructure.

• A shorter incident resolution time reflects the efficiency of the IT team in diagnosing and problem-solving.
• It is directly correlated to an organization’s ability to promptly restore normal operations, minimizing disruptions and downtimes.

3. First-Call Resolution Rate

This metric evaluates the ability to resolve issues on the first customer contact. A high rate indicates a proficient IT support team proactively addressing and resolving user concerns in the first call. 

• It signifies the ability of IT services to resolve issues on the first interaction, reducing subsequent tickets and streamlining operations.
• It ensures cost-effectiveness by reducing resources and time required for resolution.

4. Number of Active Tickets

This represents the number of tickets that are yet to be resolved and the workload of the IT team. It offers insights into the volume of issues that need attention. This metric helps you in effective workload management and better allocation of resources. 

• You get insights into emerging issues, enabling proactive addressing of the challenges and planning for required support. 
• You also learn about the effectiveness of the incident management process, identify patterns, and can make informed decisions.

5. Service-Level Agreement (SLA) Adherence Ratio

This measures the ability of the organization to meet the contractual obligations of the SLA. This ratio is crucial as it accesses the service quality and builds trust. Failing to meet the agreed SLA commitments can result in penalties, impacting the brand's reputation. It helps you track, analyze, and optimize SLA adherence. 

• A high SLA ratio demonstrates a commitment to delivering reliable and timely service.
• It instills confidence among users and enhances customer satisfaction.

6. Change Success Rate

This assesses the effectiveness of changes implemented in the IT environment of the organization. It measures the successful deployment of changes that cause disruptions in ongoing IT services. A high change success rate indicates operational stability and a reliable IT infrastructure. 

• It indicates an organization’s ability to manage risks.
• It leads to a streamlined change process and reduced errors.

7. Request Fulfillment Time

This measures the duration of fulfilling user requests, including service requests, resources, information, access permissions, hardware upgrades, etc. A shorter request fulfillment time indicates the organization's ability to fulfill requests and meet user expectations. 

• It indicates operational efficiency.
• It ensures swift service delivery that directly impacts user satisfaction and the time-sensitivity of requests.

8. Customer Satisfaction

This measures customer satisfaction with the ITSM provided. It includes quick responsiveness, issue resolution, and overall service quality. It is usually measured through feedback forms and surveys. Low customer satisfaction indicates areas of improvement in underlying issues. 

• It helps in the continuous improvement of IT services based on user experience and expectation.
• It is a tool to understand customer needs and foster trust.

9. System Uptime and Downtime Percentage

This measures the amount of time a system is operational or experiences downtime. It is crucial to monitor uptime and downtime to minimize disruptions. A higher uptime indicates a reliable IT infrastructure that ensures seamless operations, and downtime indicates the need to improve, identifying areas for improvement and flaws in the system. 

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10. Mean Time to Repair (MTTR)

MTTR measures the average time to restore or repair a system after an incident. A lower MTTR indicates a quick incident resolution and minimized impact of disruptions. It helps in understanding the bottlenecks or recurring issues and areas that require immediate attention for process improvement and system efficiency. 

11. Number of Recurring Incidents

This metric identifies and addresses recurring issues that repeatedly impact IT services in a given timeframe. It helps identify the underlying causes, patterns, and challenges that impact the IT system. A higher number of recurring incidents indicate the need for proactive problem management. 

• It helps in identifying root causes and not just current issues and resolving them.
• It prevents future occurrences of similar problems and creates a more robust and resilient IT infrastructure.

12. Cost per Ticket

This metric measures the average cost of resolving an incident of IT support ticket. It includes the cost of incident resolution like labor, tools and other resources. It is simply calculated by dividing the total IT support cost by the number of tickets. 

• It provides insights into resource allocation and utilization.
• It helps understand the financial impact of IT support services and enables better resource allocation.
• It enables budgeting and financial planning and optimizes spending.
• It helps evaluate the efficiency of IT support processes and how well they are performing.

13. Service Request Volume

The service request volume measures the number of service requests an IT service desk received in a given period. It includes various incidents and non-incident-related requests. It helps with the following: 

• Managing the workload of the IT support teams 
• Ensuring resources are effectively allocated to handle service requests
• Understanding the type of requests to plan resources and allocate tools, personnel, and infrastructure for specific services, when required
• Identifying trends to predict the ticket volumes.

14. Reopen Rate

This measures the percentage of incidents or service requests reopened by users. This indicates the reoccurrence of an issue or persistent issue that stays unresolved even after the initial resolution. It helps in identifying patterns of issues, finding root causes, and improving the incident resolution process.

• A low reopen rate indicates that issues are resolved promptly in initial requests.
• A high rate indicates underlying issues and dissatisfaction with the initial resolution.

15. Incidents Not Initiated via Self-Service

This measures the number of incidents reported via traditional channels like email and phone calls rather than the self-service portal provided by the ITSM platform. This helps access self-service adoption and determine staffing levels for different support channels. It also highlights potential usability issues or lack of awareness of the self-service option. 

16. Knowledge articles created

This measures the number of articles generated in the knowledge base that provide information, guidance, solutions for common issues, documentation, etc. Monitoring this reflects commitment towards promoting self-service among employees for faster resolution and improving the overall system performance. 

How Does a Tool Help to Measure ITSM Metrics and KPIs?

An effective ITSM tool plays a vital role in measuring the ITSM metrics. It streamlines processes, optimizes workflows, and offers insights into the performance of the IT services. 

• The automation capabilities of the tool reduce manual effort and automate incident routing, ensuring they are directed to the right team. This helps in reducing response time and minimizes human errors 
• It promotes resolving common issues independently using the knowledge base articles. This reduces service request volume and promotes a proactive ITSM approach. 
• It reduces the number of incidents not initiated by self-service by providing intelligent solutions based on user queries. For example, Rezolve.ai, an AITSM tool that offers a GenAI sidekick chatbot to promote self-service, gives suggestions based on user queries. 
• It leverages ML, GenAI, and NLP technologies to recommend context-based knowledge articles, leading to quicker issue resolution and also helping to reduce the number of recurring incidents.
• GenAI-based tools offer predictive analytics by analyzing past data to address challenges before they escalate. It also reduces recurring issues and proactive problem management. 
• They help create streamlined workflows by automating them and orchestrating them like clockwork with accuracy. This saves time and resources, reduces the workload of the support teams, and ensures the incidents are directed toward the right team, leading to a streamlined process.
• Good ITSM tools integrate with tools like MS Teams and will function as an ITSM sidekick. With features like GenAI-based chatbots, it automatically creates tickets and acts as a conversational ticketing tool. 
• They help you track the origin of a ticket and provide insights for the IT team to track, analyze, and manage incidents. 
• An ITSM tool provides a bird’s-eye view of the service delivery and SLAs to support agents, enabling informed decision-making. You can monitor key metrics like service request volume, MTTR, reopen rate, etc. 

Boost ITSM functionality with Rezolve.ai

ITSM metrics are a quantitative measure of the performance of your IT service management processes, and a Gen AITSM platform is a medium to monitor the performance of these ITSM metrics. Such platforms act as a catalyst for improving your ITSM processes and proactive issue resolution. They enable easy monitoring and analysis, which promotes proactive problem management. 

Rezolve.ai is one such tool that brings advanced features and functionalities powered by GenAI. It integrates with your MS Teams and transforms it into an efficient service desk. 

Want to see it for yourself? Take a demo now!

FAQs

1. What are the measures of IT service management?

ITSM measures typically include KPIs to assess the effectiveness of the ITSM process and performance of IT services. They include incident resolution time, customer satisfaction, SLA compliance, service availability, MTTR, change success rate, first-level resolution, first-call resolution, and many others.

2. What is KPI in service management?

KPI in service management means quantifiable metrics to evaluate the performance and success of enterprise processes specially related to IT service management. They provide insights into the various aspects of IT performance, like service delivery, operational effectiveness, etc. 

3. What are the five phases of the IT service management lifecycle?

The five stages of ITSM include service strategy, design, transition, operations and continuous improvement.

‍4. What are the responsibilities of IT service management?

ITSM responsibilities include: 

• Planning and designing IT services 
• Incident management 
• Problem management
• Change management 
• SLA management 
• Improving processes and services 

‍5. What are the goals of ITSM performance?

ITSM performance goals lay focus on improving the quality of IT services, minimizing downtime, ensuring efficient utilization of resources, adherence to SLAs and ongoing enhancement of IT services and processes.