There used to be a really useful person in almost every office in the world. His name -- and it was almost always a he -- was the IT man.

Whenever you had a problem with your PC, you could just go to him, explain, and he would magically make things better for you. Things have changed quickly.

Absolutely everything - from patients' lists at hospitals to accounts records at golf courses - has been computerized. As just about everyone in the modern-day office now has a PC, networked, with complicated, custom-designed software and a myriad of printers, wireless keyboards and the rest, the IT man has swiftly evolved into an entire department.

Alas, it seems even this is not enough. With banks and other companies now operating with networks they share in some part with customers, there are countless things that can go wrong with computers and software.

Many people have come to the conclusion that with potentially hundreds of requests and complaints flooding IT specialists every day, a proper strategy to deal with IT issues is now vital. Without one, companies all over the world could find themselves in trouble.

IT Service Management (ITSM) as a concept was born in the late 1980s, when the British government started developing the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) to cope with computerization. However, it has since evolved into a science all its own. A huge amount of companies of varying sizes worldwide have seen fit to adopt ITSM or aspects of it.

Lee Jong-chul is an IT Researcher at the Korean credit card company BC Card. BC has been planning the introduction of ITSM into their operations for over a year now. Lee explains: "It's about moving away from an individualistic, technicallybased view and towards a more business service-centered approach to IT."

Korean companies started to introduce concepts of ITSM in 2000, with varying degrees of success. Banks are leading the way, and some governmental offices are quickly following suit.

The need for ITSM has never been greater, though. As foreign companies realize that they need a strategy for managing IT services, Korea desperately needs to keep up with the competition.

Forrester Research found in a 2006 survey that although only 9% of European companies had already incorporated ITSM strategic planning into their businesses. A massive 57% said they were planning to introduce it in the next 2-3 years, as opposed to only 26% who felt it was not necessary.

In the modern climate, IT businesses here have also evolved. International companies in Korea - the likes of Sun Korea, BMC Korea and HP Korea - have developed quickly into ITSM specialists, designing IT management solutions for major businesses.

Yang Jung-ju, an ITSM Consultant at HP Korea, explains the benefits of ITSM for Korean business. He says: "With ITSM, Korean companies can shorten the time needed to sort out errors and increase worker productivity by using simple tools. All this just goes to improve the quality of service to customers."

Ahn Mi-young, Senior Software Consultant at BMC Software Korea, believes companies here can benefit greatly from the new strategy. She says: "ITSM can supply a foundation which provides high quality service through systemic and automatic processes. It has the potential to bring in an infrastructure which could bring about a better standard of business and customer service. Korean companies could definitely increase their profit margins with strategic IT planning in place."

HP Korea's Yang goes a step further, saying: "No matter who you are, you need service management.

Where there is IT, ITSM is essential." ITSM is not concerned with producing IT hardware or software per se. Instead it focuses on how IT issues can be planned in advance; how difficulties are dealt with they arise. While bigger companies have the resources and a more immediate need for ITSM, most experts agree that businesses of all sizes are now feeling the need for strategic IT planning. BMC's Ahn is one of those experts.

She says: "It depends on how well-organized companies are and the leadership qualities of the management, not the size of the business. Big companies generally have the budget and manpower to increase the efficiency of system management.

But if smaller companies proceed with the strategic plans of ITSM, they could also boost their efficiency."

Yang Jung-ju of HP Korea is not so optimistic. He says that smaller businesses might find ITSM overwhelming. "Personally I think bigger Korean companies can afford to invest more time and money on ITSM, meaning they can apply it better than smaller businesses who don't have the resources to apply it," he says.

Korean IT Management company CA specialize in ITSM solutions, where Shin Kyoung-hwan is an ITSM Consultant. He believes that there is some confusion in Korea when it comes to perceptions of ITSM.

"Some Korean people think ITSM is a vast, complicated system but others think it is something they can adapt to almost overnight," he says.

In Korea, the new ideas and complicated technical language of ITSM has already led to difficulties. Experts like Ahn think that ITSM has caused a lot of problems when companies have tried to put it into practice, so in many cases they have had to invest more time and money to sort those difficulties out.

And Ahn says that there is plenty of room for things to go wrong. "As some Korean companies who introduced ITIL earlier on experienced lots of difficulties, there is the possibility of having this kind of trouble crop up again and again." HP Korea's Yang says that the temperament of many Koreans is often a barrier for progress in ITSM. He says: "Some Korean companies tried to introduce all of the processes of ITSM right from the start and it caused a lot of confusion. Korean people are generally quick-tempered and extreme and it's often a case of all or nothing when it comes to ITSM."

He goes on to add that things do not have to be like this. "In the case of western countries, they have been introducing ITSM step by step, trying to win over their workers with new ideas, so it has worked more smoothly."

But implementing ITSM is no bed of roses wherever you are. As the Forrester Research survey revealed, 52% of European companies reported that internal resistance to change was the biggest problem they faced when trying to implement the ideas and vocabulary of ITIL or ITSM.

BMC's Ahn says the same goes for Korea. "It is natural that new ideas and terminology could cause confusion and even controversy within a business."

BC Card's Lee Jong-chul says there may be other difficulties for businesses trying to set up ITSM in Korea. "Korean companies often find inter-divisional cooperation hard for cultural reasons. It's not easy to set up ITSM in an environment like that."

The days of "the IT man" have come and gone, not just here, but everywhere in the world. There is no doubt that Korea is slowly warming to the ideas of service management. But if Korean businesses want to keep up with the competition, they have no choice in the matter - they will simply have to overcome their demons and get on the ITSM boat.