How do I move from IT support into a people and process role in service management?

Many people spend a few years in IT support and realise that what they enjoy most is not the deep technical work but sorting out messy processes, helping colleagues and seeing a new way of working stick. This article explains that service management offers several roles built around exactly those strengths, including service desk manager, process manager, process owner, service delivery manager, ITSM platform administrator and enterprise service management roles in HR, facilities and finance. It draws on John Sansbury's book The Journey to Service Excellence, which argues that frontline support experience is valuable in back office roles because it brings an understanding of the consumer experience, and which describes the ability to influence without authority as a key skill for process owners. The article sets out practical steps: describe the work you enjoy in concrete terms, turn past improvements into honest evidence, ask for a small named piece of process work in your current job, map target roles to skills using the Skills Framework for the Information Age, and add one relevant qualification such as ITIL Foundation once the evidence is in place. A short illustrative example shows how owning a new starter process for one quarter can become a strong interview story. It closes with common mistakes, such as collecting certificates instead of evidence, and links to further reading on ESM's Exchange.