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What is the difference between ITSM and ITIL?

The difference between ITSM and ITIL is pretty straightforward: ITSM (IT Service Management) is about managing how IT services deliver value to the business, covering everything from design to support. ITIL, on the other hand, is a toolkit of best practices for doing ITSM well.

Think of ITSM as the "what" you need to do—like ensuring IT meets business needs—and ITIL as the "how" you can do it, offering guidance on proven methods. The key point about ITIL is that it's not a rigid standard; it's a flexible framework. You pick and choose the parts that work best for your organization, adapting them to fit your specific needs. So, if you're looking to improve your ITSM processes, ITIL is a great place to start for ideas and inspiration.

More about ALVAO ITSM  Go to all ITSM terms

Example of Incident Management in ALVAO

Example of ITIL in ALVAO ITSM tool

Imagine a company that wants to improve its IT support processes. They already manage IT services (that’s ITSM in action) in ALVAO Service Desk, but they notice recurring issues take too long to resolve. To improve, they decide to look at ITIL for guidance.

For instance, they adopt ITIL's Incident Management process to streamline how they handle issues. Instead of each IT team member using their own method, they all follow a standardized process from ITIL, ensuring quicker and more consistent responses to problems.

They don’t have to adopt all of ITIL, just the parts that make sense. They might also pick ITIL’s Change Management practices to help them manage system updates with fewer disruptions. This way, the company improves its ITSM by using ITIL as a flexible guide, choosing the parts that best fit their needs and helping them deliver better IT services overall.