Are you feeling the heat from your ITSM vendor?

When your ITSM vendor is acquired by another company, there are only a few things you can do:

1. 1. Pretend it never happened.

   2. Eagerly await communication from your ITSM vendor.

   3. Reach out to your ITSM vendor to learn how the transition might affect you.

   4. Reassess your help desk vendor and tool.

   5. Look for alternatives. 

The first choice might seem the most tempting, but it is also the least helpful if your entire IT infrastructure is supported by that single help desk tool. The second option is a bit more helpful because you hear from your ITSM vendor directly about its plans going forward. Alas, it could take a couple of months—maybe even years—for the plans to actually be implemented given the pace of any acquisition. The bigger the deal, the longer it usually takes.

The last three options are proactive, as they involve taking initiative. You can go on your own to learn about the acquisition, reassess your help desk vendor’s goals with your business goals to see if they still align, or look for alternatives. The problem with options three and four is that they don’t factor in time. For example, imagine you were to scale 100x in the next year. That vendor acquisition is going to complicate things a little bit, isn’t it?

The only option you have left is looking for an alternative ITSM solution. Oh, not that again, right? I mean, how many alternatives are there, how do you filter them, and how do you choose another “right” one? Though this task might sound tedious, the recent acquisition has just made it easy for you.

Minimize the uncertainties

Of course, you can’t avoid all the uncertainties in your business environment, but you can minimize risks. Take, for example, the task of choosing a help desk tool. The usual protocol is to make a checklist of your requirements and choose the vendor whose product meets your specifications. But at this point, take a step back and see not just the tool the vendor offers, but the vendor’s business as a whole. That way, it’s easier for you to set expectations and assess risks. A couple of criteria you might come across in your search for a help desk vendor are:

1. 1. VC or investor funded vs. privately bootstrapped

   2. Small vendor vs. big vendor

   3. Young vendor vs. experienced vendor

   4. Single product vs. suite of products

For example, offering a single product might indicate a vendor’s technology prowess, while a wide portfolio of products could indicate the ability to fulfill needs that are beyond the help desk. A newly launched company might just require a simple stand-alone help desk. However, a mid-sized, growing company might prefer a vendor that offers a suite of products to minimize the learning curve and increase adaptability. Similarly, a young vendor might not have an extensive geographic presence—unlike an experienced vendor—but might be quick in adopting change. By learning about the vendor as a business, you can choose a company that shares your organization’s business goals and risk appetite.

We at ManageEngine have been bootstrapped from the first day, nurturing a customer base of 100,000+ help desks across 185 countries. We’ve offered product portfolios across IT Management functions for over a decade. We have kept many companies cool with our extensive range of capabilities, as shown by our established record.

We understand that there is only so much you can do when your ITSM vendor gets acquired. As veterans of the ITSM industry, we would like to extend a helping hand to you.

You don’t need to sweat it if your help desk has been hit by the ITSM heat wave!

Your help desk is on us for a year.

Think of it as our way of giving back to the industry that helped us prosper.

Learn more about it www.beatthehelpdeskheat.com