Unified Service Management (USM) & ITIL. Understanding Their Different Approaches to Value (USM vs ITIL)

🔍 Introduction

In service management, organisations rely on different approaches to structure, manage, and optimise their IT and business services.

🔹 ITIL (a framework) remains one of the most widely adopted approaches to service management, while USM (a method) offers a newer, universal alternative designed to simplify and streamline service management across industries.

While both aim to improve service delivery and business alignment, they fundamentally differ in how they define value and the role of IT services. ITIL follows a structured framework, while USM provides a universal, systematic method that applies to any service organisation, not just IT.

This post explores the differences between ITIL and USM, its not really a USM vs ITIL. It focuses on their approaches to value creation, service delivery, and long-term business impact.

1️⃣ The Key Difference. Framework vs. Method

The most striking difference between USM and ITIL is how they define value and position IT services within an organisation.

Lets look at an example we can understand..

The Information Technology team enables and maintains analytics and telemetry platforms that predict breakdowns across mining operations. These platforms also integrate IoT sensor data, enabling the business to optimise fuel consumption and improve overall equipment efficiency.

🔄 How ITIL Supports This.

✔ Service Level Management (SLAs) → Ensures analytics and telemetry services meet agreed performance and uptime requirements with vendors and internal IT teams.

✔ Incident & Problem Management → Detects, categorises, and resolves failures or performance issues in the telemetry system, ensuring reliability.

✔ Change Management → Ensures any updates, enhancements, or system integrations are planned, approved, and implemented with minimal disruption to mining operations.

✔ Capacity & Availability Management → Ensures the analytics system can handle large-scale IoT data efficiently, preventing performance issues.

🔄 How USM Supports This.

USM does not focus on managing IT services through predefined SLAs, processes, and ITSM functions the way ITIL does. Instead, USM supports this business goal by ensuring that IT operates as a streamlined service organisation that continuously improves system vitality.

✔ Agree → Define and standardise agreements on service expectations, ensuring IT and business stakeholders align on the role of analytics and telemetry in operational success. Instead of traditional SLAs, business and IT collaborate on shared success measures.

✔ Change → Continuously improve analytics platforms and IoT integrations in response to business needs, ensuring that enhancements to predictive maintenance are executed without unnecessary delays or bureaucratic approval cycles.

✔ Recover → Design services with built-in resilience so that failures are automatically detected and mitigated through self-healing systems and proactive IT interventions, rather than relying purely on reactive incident management.

✔ Operate → Ensure that IT maintains seamless delivery of telemetry and analytics services by embedding cost transparency, performance insights, and service dependencies directly into the operational model.

✔ Improve → Continuously analyse how IT-enabled telemetry contributes to business success, ensuring ongoing optimisations that drive efficiency, reduce downtime, and enhance decision-making.

🔹 The Core Differences Summarised

Both ITIL and USM aim to improve service management and business alignment, but they take fundamentally different approaches.

✔ ITIL is a structured framework focused on governance, process management, and adherence to SLAs to maintain IT service reliability.

✔ USM is a universal method that integrates service management into the organisation’s overall system, ensuring continuous improvement and adaptability.

✔ ITIL emphasises structured workflows, guiding IT teams through well-defined processes such as Incident, Problem, and Change Management.

✔ USM simplifies service management, standardising only five core processes (Agree, Change, Recover, Operate, Improve) that apply across any service organisation.

✔ ITIL is prescriptive, defining best practices for managing IT services, while USM is systemic, ensuring IT plays a role in business value creation.

🔍 In short ITIL manages services; USM optimises business value through service improvement.

🚀 Key Takeaways.

🔹 ITIL is process-heavy and structured, making it ideal for organisations needing detailed service governance, compliance, and predefined ITSM workflows.

🔹 USM is a simplified method that applies beyond IT, making it valuable for organisations looking to align service management across all functions, not just technology.

🔹 ITIL prioritises stability and governance, while USM prioritises adaptability, continuous improvement, and long-term business impact.

🔹 For traditional IT service teams, ITIL provides structure and standardisation, while USM offers a more holistic and integrated approach that can evolve alongside business needs.

🔹 Both can work together—ITIL provides structured ITSM processes, while USM ensures that service management is embedded across all organisational functions for long-term resilience and efficiency.

🚀 Ultimately, the right choice depends on whether the organisation values structured service governance (ITIL) or adaptable service evolution (USM).

What Do I Prefer as a Mine Manager?

As a mine manager, my priority is keeping operations running efficiently, safely, and cost-effectively. IT plays a critical role in enabling mining operations, from supporting autonomous haul trucks to maintaining real-time telemetry for predictive maintenance.

From my perspective.

🔹 ITIL provides structured processes that ensure service stability, meaning networks stay online, issues are resolved quickly, and IT operates with defined governance. However, its focus on SLAs and reactive service management doesn’t always translate directly into operational improvements that drive efficiency in mining operations.

🔹 USM, on the other hand, focuses on long-term business value and adaptability. It ensures IT is not just a support function but an integrated enabler of mining efficiency, risk reduction, and cost optimisation. USM’s focus on continuous improvement, system vitality, and business alignment better reflects how IT can support the evolution of mining operations over time.

🚀 For me as a mine manager, USM is the preferred approach because it ensures IT contributes directly to operational excellence, rather than just maintaining service uptime. IT should be a strategic enabler, not just a back-office function. USM vs ITIL