Think fast
Thoughts and ideas on how to build tools, automate workflows and speed-up the workplace.
Service Request Management | In-Depth Guide
IT teams handle huge volumes of service requests every day. This is a key part of how we deliver internal services to colleagues and customers. How we handle interaction between IT and the wider organization has a huge impact, across security, service up-time, operational efficiency, resource utilization, and more. Today, we’re covering everything you need to know about service request management within ITIL. Specifically, we’ll start by checking out some basic definitions of service requests, and how these differ from other common ITSM workflows before moving on to the specific framework laid out for managing these in ITIL.
Ronan McQuillan
Jun 4, 2024
ITIL Application Management | In-Depth Guide
The IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is a popular framework for delivering effective IT services to customers and internal users. Application management is a core part of this, dealing with how we furnish users with the tools they need to carry out defined tasks within internal processes. Like any other aspect of ITSM, the goal is ultimately to deliver the best quality services to users while minimizing the burden placed on our internal IT resources.
Ronan McQuillan
May 30, 2024
Top 5 Open-Source Data Governance Tools
As a modern business, your data is your most valuable asset. Data underpins all of our internal processes and informs critical decision-making. However, it can also be a massive risk factor, especially if we don’t know what information we’re storing and how it’s being used. This means that lifecycle management for our data assets is a top priority. This is where governance comes into play. Today, we’re examining the market for open-source data governance tools.
Ronan McQuillan
May 29, 2024
Top 5 Open-Source Digital Asset Management Tools
Digital asset management tools are critical to teams that need to store, share, and collaborate on large volumes of media, like images, videos, and other files. However, choosing the right platform can be difficult. For example, requirements can vary greatly from one team to the next, depending on the scale of our processes, our user volumes, security needs, and specific workflows. Today, we’re exploring the market for open-source digital asset management tools.
Ronan McQuillan
May 24, 2024
Top 5 Open-Source Help Desk Software Tools
Help desk software is one of the most critical parts of your ITSM tool stack. Enabling employees and other users to access service quickly and easily has an enormous impact on your wider operational efficiency. Today, we’re checking out some of the best options out there for open-source help desk software. This can be a particularly tricky market to navigate. Many businesses prioritize open-source solutions for their help desk for security reasons.
Ronan McQuillan
May 22, 2024
Top 5 Free Field Service Management Software Tools
Field service management can be a mission-critical process for a wide range of businesses, from large enterprises to small contractors. Therefore, the tools that we use to handle this are central to our bottom line. Today, we’re looking at a range of options for free field service management software. However, this is a slightly tricky question. As we’ll see, there are a few approaches to handling field services without incurring big licensing costs for a COTS solution.
Ronan McQuillan
May 21, 2024
Throwaway Prototyping | In-Depth Guide
Throwaway prototyping is an alternative way of thinking about building applications. Prototypes play several vital roles in the development process. For instance, providing proof of concept, fleshing out NFRs, experimenting with ideas, or simply gathering feedback. There’s an innate tension here though. On the one hand, prototyping obviously drains resources. Namely, development hours and the labor costs that come along with them. On the flip side, this expenditure can be hugely beneficial, or even completely central to a project.
Ronan McQuillan
Mar 19, 2024
What are the Components of an API?
Knowing the components of an API is obviously important for setting them up to do what you want. Otherwise, how can you ever expect to use them correctly? Today, we’re covering everything you need to know. We’re going to take each of the constituent parts of an API in turn and explain exactly what they are, what they do, and how you can use them. Along the way, we’ll think about real-world examples of why each one is important, and the specific scenarios where they’re useful.
Ronan McQuillan
Mar 14, 2024