Intelligent automation, Big Data analytics and machine learning systems will become a significant part of information technology (IT) services and support decision-making, enhance staff productivity and facilitate smart self-service for end-users, says workflow specialist firm Marval Africa executive director Edward Carbutt.

The volume of data streams entering IT service management is large and growing constantly; however, IT service management revolves around quality of service provision, which enables customers to access faster, better and cheaper services and support.

“IT service management teams are inundated with streams of data, often too large to process manually. The application of machine learning to sift, sort, analyse and manage Big Data can help to simplify the tasks. The velocity of data means that it arrives so fast that it must be processed immediately or is lost,” he explains.

Information exploited immediately improves operations and service delivery. Additional challenges in IT service management are the accuracy, integrity and validity of data. Therefore, machine learning is invaluable to extract meaningful data from unprocessed bulk data.

Immediate, real-time access to information and solutions and the ability to effectively address client demands or needs in real time are achievable using data combined with machine-learning capability.

“Applying machine learning and Big Data principles to IT service management, with the backing of IT infrastructure library frameworks, will help companies to improve services and time to resolution.”

Machine learning is an effective tool because it enables the support IT staff to understand patterns from the past and make predictions for the future from the large amounts of accumulated data.

Traditionally, IT service management uses intelligent computing, which collects data. Machine learning, however, automates the process of sorting through the data, identifying patterns and applying them to provide possible solutions for common issues.

“In an age where customer experience is a critical component of a business, the ability to answer requests with more accuracy, speed and precision becomes a differentiator,” emphasises Carbutt.

“Machine learning enables self-service functionality that customers can leverage to resolve common issues. “The automated process should relieve some pressure on IT service management departments and free up time to focus on the more complex requirements.”