IT Service Management in the Education Sector: Improving Visibility and Service Reliability

Executive Perspective

Education authorities today operate complex digital environments that support schools, educators, administrators, and external stakeholders. As reliance on digital platforms increases, so does the expectation for reliable and responsive internal IT services.

In the context of IT service management in the education sector, the challenge is not only scale, but consistency. When service requests are handled through fragmented channels, IT teams struggle to maintain visibility, prioritisation, and predictable service outcomes across a diverse user base.

“Strong internal services are a prerequisite for delivering reliable outcomes in education systems at scale.”

- Harvard Business Review, Public Sector Insights

The Challenge of IT Service Management in the Education Sector

An education authority supported by Cognigate faced growing demand for IT support across multiple departments and user groups. While support teams were actively resolving issues, the underlying service model lacked structure.

Key challenges included:

• Limited visibility into request volumes and resolution status

• Difficulty enforcing service levels across different request types

• Inconsistent user experience depending on how support was accessed

Without a centralised ITSM model, reporting and service improvement efforts were largely reactive, making it harder for leadership to plan or prioritise effectively.

Cognigate’s Approach

Cognigate approached the engagement with a focus on clarity and operational alignment.

Rather than introducing complexity, the priority was to:

• Establish a single, structured entry point for IT support

• Define clear request categories and service workflows

• Align service processes with education-sector governance requirements

The goal was to create a service management model that could support scale, while remaining simple enough to encourage adoption across the organisation.

The Solution in Practice

Freshservice was implemented as the education authority’s central IT service management platform, providing a unified view of IT support activity.

The solution included:

• Clearly defined service request and incident workflows

• SLA tracking to support predictable response and resolution times

• Reporting dashboards for management visibility

• A user-friendly portal designed to support broad adoption

Special attention was given to usability, ensuring that employees could submit and track requests easily without extensive training.

Outcomes and Organisational Impact

Following implementation, the authority gained significantly improved visibility into IT service operations.

IT teams were better equipped to manage workload and prioritisation, while leadership gained access to reliable service metrics to support planning and decision-making. Recurring issues became easier to identify, enabling more proactive service improvements.

From the user perspective, the experience became more consistent. Requests were handled through a single channel, with clearer expectations and improved transparency throughout the resolution process.

Industry Insight & Practical Takeaway

As education organisations continue to scale digital services, structured IT service management becomes essential for maintaining reliability and trust.

“Visibility and consistency in internal services are key enablers of performance in large, distributed organisations.”

- McKinsey & Company, Public Sector Practice

For education authorities, investing in a clear ITSM framework helps ensure that technology supports learning outcomes rather than becoming an operational bottleneck.