ITSM and Digital Transformation

The ITSM-digital transformation connection has become impossible to ignore, with nearly 60% of organizations reporting “great” IT Service Management success also achieving “great” results in their digital transformation initiatives. This correlation reveals a fundamental truth: your ITSM foundation directly determines your digital transformation outcomes. Organizations treating ITSM as an afterthought face predictable consequences, while those prioritizing it see measurable returns.

Strong ITSM foundations don’t just support digital transformation—they directly determine its success, with correlation rates approaching 60%.

The numbers tell a compelling story. While 54% of organizations classify their digital transformation efforts as at least “good,” 22% continue to struggle. The difference often comes down to ITSM maturity. Organizations with “good” ITSM success achieved corresponding “good” digital transformation results 58% of the time. This pattern holds across all success levels, demonstrating that ITSM capabilities and transformation outcomes move in lockstep.

Investment trends underscore the urgency. Direct digital transformation spending reached $6.8 trillion in 2023, reflecting a 15.5% compound annual growth rate since 2020. The pandemic accelerated this shift, with 80% of organizations fast-tracking their digital initiatives. Support case volumes increased for 61% of organizations pre-pandemic and rose further afterward, creating pressure that only robust ITSM can handle. Integrated ITSM reduces downtime and lowers churn by enabling real-time data sharing across systems.

Yet success remains elusive for many. Only 30% of companies consider their transformation projects fully successful. The main barriers include unclear vision and integration difficulties with existing systems—problems that mature ITSM directly addresses through governance frameworks and data harmonization. Organizations with “great” ITSM success are twice as likely to have used their ITSM tools for over two years, suggesting that sustained commitment pays dividends. Over 90% of these organizations had enterprise service management initiatives in flight, compared to just 51% across all surveyed organizations. By 2022, 70% of organizations had accelerated their use of digital technologies to transform processes for customer engagement, employee productivity, and resilience.

The self-service challenge highlights this gap. Despite widespread adoption, only 20% of organizations achieved expected ROI on IT self-service implementations. Another 30% rated their efforts “just good enough,” while 2% abandoned self-service entirely. These failures often stem from inadequate ITSM foundations that cannot support advanced capabilities like AI-powered chatbots and automated workflows.

Modern ITSM provides the governance and control necessary for faster product delivery while maintaining service quality. Organizations reporting ITSM-business strategy alignment at 56% understand this principle. Your digital transformation depends on building this foundation first.