European IT departments are embracing and investing in business service management (BSM), according to a new survey by the Help Desk Institute Europe.

The research shows that the concept of BSM – a systems management technology that provides organisations with a real-time and holistic business view of the impact IT outages have on critical processes – is gaining ground. Over 80% of the 300 IT support professionals surveyed had an understanding of BSM, and 20% named BSM as a top spending priority for the next year.

Neil Whyte, solutions alliance manager at IT service management software company, Axios Systems, which sponsored the research, commented: "A year or two ago BSM was regarded as a very new concept. Now awareness is rising fast as the market realises the enormous benefits which it offers. It is an excellent example of aligning IT with the business."