From ITSM and ESM to SXPs
ITSM is undergoing a transformation. Thinking in terms of tickets and processes—as was predominant for a long time—is certainly useful and important, but it is not adapted to the new reality: Increasingly, the focus is on AI, intelligent automation, and digital experiences, which are meeting rising customer requirements and expectations.
In this environment, typical Service Level Agreements (SLAs) as central performance indicators fall short. They need to be supplemented by additional factors relating to the experience of users or employees. This paves the way for Experience Level Agreements (XLAs), which weight the user perspective more heavily.
When considering the platform being used, it also needs a reorientation. Classic service management is supplemented by additional factors intended to improve the user experience and becomes a Service Experience Platform (SXP). This is less a rigid term than a description of a changed orientation.
There is no universally accepted definition of SXP, but rather a description of a particular state. The shift takes place in three stages and includes Enterprise Service Management (ESM):
- The starting point is ITSM, which is primarily focused on organizing IT services efficiently.
- ESM applies ITSM principles to the entire organization, with areas such as customer service, human resources, finance, or facility management playing an important role.
- SXP focuses on creating a good, simple, and consistent user experience for services.
Note: ESM is relevant in the context of a Service Experience Platform because it generally does not stop at ITSM, but also includes other areas.
This could be presented as an evolutionary development that expands ITSM and moves it into a modern era. But that framing would be both dramatic and overstated. In reality, ITSM, ESM, and SXP can coexist perfectly well and simply represent different orientations.
- Those with an ITSM focus concentrate primarily on optimizing the delivery of typical IT services.
- With an ESM focus, the aim is to enable other departments to benefit from valuable ITSM principles.
- With an SXP focus, the main emphasis is on user experiences with the services being delivered. The perspective shifts from the inside to the outside: How do users perceive the services, and how can this perception be improved?
What Is Included in a Service Experience Platform?
In principle, a Service Experience Platform is not all that different from an ITSM platform. An SXP could also quite comfortably be described as an (extended) ITSM platform. The foundation is the same, while the focus and structure are slightly different.
Broadly speaking, a Service Experience Platform consists of these components:
- classic ITSM functions
- self-service and service catalogs
- knowledge management
- automation
- AI integrations
- measurement of experience factors
The main difference from ITSM therefore lies primarily in designing the platform with a stronger focus on experience factors and measuring them. Even automation (initially basic and now increasingly intelligent) and AI integrations have played a role in ITSM for quite some time. Nevertheless, they characterize SXPs because they represent progress that enables further optimization of user experiences.
It is therefore worth taking a closer look at experience factors, which will be discussed below.
How to Measure the Service Experience
An SXP requires experience data in order to clearly distinguish it from classic ITSM and place greater emphasis on the actual user experience.
The service experience can be modeled based on a combination of different data. This involves examining how user feedback relates to technical data (availability, performance, observability), service data (tickets, SLAs, response times, etc.), and experience data.
A good mix of quantitative and qualitative data makes it possible to clearly determine which problems cause the greatest frustration and difficulty, so they can ultimately be addressed in a targeted manner.
Tip: Data collection may sound daunting, but in reality it doesn’t require a heavy lift. In the context of a Service Experience Platform, it simply makes sense to obtain customer feedback on services that are as valid as possible.
Experience data can be collected in the following ways, for example:
- CSAT: The Customer Satisfaction Score is the classic satisfaction survey and is usually measured using a five-point scale. It is important not to be too general and to specifically ask about satisfaction with a particular service. The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is an alternative.
- Interaction quality: This is usually a hard-to-quantify indicator. In most cases, those responsible have to rely on unstructured feedback and collected customer comments, which may not be representative. Nevertheless, this can provide a useful picture, for example by using AI to systematically analyze feedback and examine it for sentiment (sentiment analysis) and recurring patterns. Ideally, the result should show that the majority of customers feel well supported.
- Outcome: As the name suggests, only the result matters here. This indicator examines the extent to which the interaction achieved something. If, for example, an affected employee was able to work productively again after an incident and experienced no further limitations, the experience can clearly be considered positive. In this context, metrics such as First Contact Resolution (FCR) or successful self-service usage play a role.
- User effort: This factor should not be underestimated, although it is often overlooked. It is about how easily the respective user was able to achieve their goal, a key factor in avoiding user frustration. Key indicators include the number of necessary contacts, possible transfers, (unsuccessful) self-service attempts, and the perceived competence of service employees.
When looking at experience data, one should not make the mistake of neglecting typical ITSM metrics and the fulfillment of Service Level Agreements. For example, fast resolutions, balanced ticket volumes, and consistently meeting agreed-upon timeframes still matter. These should not be replaced by experience data, but rather combined with it to provide a reliable picture that offers as much insight as possible into the experiences of customers or employees.
How Established Is the Term Service Experience Platform?
A Service Experience Platform is a new concept that describes the shifted focus toward customer experiences. It is intended to give greater weight to the external perspective (user experiences) in areas such as ITSM and customer service, since typical indicators tend to reflect the internal perspective of the IT department.
This does not mean that classic ITSM platforms have become obsolete. Rather, they are being expanded with concepts such as SXP and brought into the modern era, which is characterized by greater possibilities through AI and intelligent automation as well as rising customer expectations. In short: What is needed is a combination of classic metrics, which also affect the customer experience, and new experience metrics.
One abbreviation already gaining traction is DEX (Digital Employee Experience), which places experiences during service delivery at the forefront.DEX refers to employees’ experiences in the digital workplace and is therefore significantly influenced by IT applications. The term is relatively new, but already well established among some ITSM providers.
In general, experience factors are becoming increasingly important, meaning that terms such as SXP certainly have potential and represent customer centricity as well as the implementation of new requirements. Given the importance of positive service experiences and user satisfaction, it’s worth adopting an SXP mindset and aligning service delivery more closely with it. The term is new, and precisely for this reason, “early adopters” can benefit the most from it.
Service Experience Platform (SXP) – Summary
A Service Experience Platform is less about defining a new software category and more about focusing on the positive experiences users have during service delivery.
It therefore makes more sense to place satisfaction and productivity at the forefront than to focus one-sidedly on technical parameters and SLA compliance.
There are many terms for a stronger focus on experiences, including Experience Management, experience data, Digital Employee Experience, and Service Experience Platform. The aim is not to replace established KPIs and metrics, but rather to combine them to create a holistic picture that reflects service management as it really is—including the user perspective.
There are therefore no conflicts with ITSM and ESM either, for which an experience focus represents a useful complement rather than a rigid evolutionary stage of development.