From ITSM to ESM: bringing service management beyond IT

Many organizations have their IT service desk in good shape. Tickets, a catalog, fixed processes: ITSM does its job. The next question is almost always the same. Why should only IT work this way? HR, facilities and finance handle the same kind of requests, often through loose emails and spreadsheets. ESM brings that same way of working to those departments. This post explains what ESM is, how to build it, and when a partner makes the difference.

TL;DR

• ITSM is service management for IT. ESM is the same approach extended to other departments such as HR and facilities.
• ESM is not a new product, but applying familiar principles (catalog, processes, self-service) outside IT.
• You grow per department, not all at once. Start where volume is high and the request is predictable.
• ESM maturity follows the same line as ITSM: from reactive to standardized to rule-driven.
• A consultancy partner pays off for vision, strategy, a maturity assessment, tool selection and guiding the project.

What ESM is

ITSM stands for IT service management: the way an IT team handles requests, incidents and changes with fixed processes and a service catalog. ESM stands for enterprise service management. It is the same way of working, but applied to departments outside IT.

The idea is simple. HR receives requests for leave, onboarding and employment terms. Facilities receives requests for access badges, workspaces and repairs. Finance receives requests for expenses and purchasing. These are all requests with a requester, a handler and a desired outcome. Exactly what service management was built for. So ESM is not new technology, but the recognition that the approach that works for IT also works elsewhere.

Why organizations move from ITSM to ESM

The trigger usually is not IT, but the rest of the organization. An employee submits an IT request neatly through a portal and gets an expected turnaround. That same request at HR disappears into a mailbox with no status. That difference stands out.

ESM solves a few concrete problems:

• No overview. Requests in loose emails have no status, no priority and no history.
• No standard. Every request is handled slightly differently, depending on who picks it up.
• No measurability. Without recorded requests you do not know how much work comes in or where it stalls.
• A fragmented experience. Employees have to request things a different way for each department.

One place to submit standard requests, with a fixed flow and a visible status, removes those problems. That is the core of what ESM delivers.

How to grow your maturity

ESM maturity follows the same line as ITSM maturity. You move from reactive, where everything is a loose request, to standardized, where processes and a catalog are set, to rule-driven, where the system handles standard steps itself. You do not jump up in one go; you shift per department.

A workable route:

1. Pick a department with clear requests. HR onboarding or facilities requests are good starting points, because the steps are predictable.
2. Standardize first. Record which requests exist, who handles them and what the steps are. Without that there is little to automate.
3. Open up self-service. Give the department its own entry point in the same portal, so requesters can submit themselves.
4. Automate the repetitive parts. Tie approvals and standard steps to a fixed flow.
5. Expand to the next department. Repeat the approach, now with the lessons learned.

Start small and let it work before you scale. One smoothly running department convinces the rest faster than a big plan that has not delivered anything yet. Our service desk strategy goes deeper into where to begin.

When a consultancy partner pays off

ESM is easy enough to start yourself, but there are moments where an independent view makes the project shorter and more certain. Things often go wrong at the question of where to begin and which tool fits, not in the execution itself.

ServiceChanger offers ITSM and ESM consultancy for this under the service name Service Management Partner. That service covers:

• Vision and strategy. Deciding what service management should mean for your organization and at what pace you expand.
• Maturity assessment. Honestly establishing where you stand today per department and what the smartest next step is.
• ITSM tool selection and IT advice. Independent help choosing which tool fits, rather than a tool from a vendor.
• Guidance on ITSM projects. Walking alongside the rollout so the project does not stall halfway.

A partner is most useful when judging your own situation is hard, or when a tool choice has large consequences. The ITSM maturity assessment shows what such an assessment looks like.

FAQ

Is ESM a different product from ITSM? No. ESM is the same approach as ITSM, applied outside IT. You often use the same tool and the same principles for it.

Which department is best to connect first? A department with many predictable requests, such as HR onboarding or facilities requests. That is where you see results fastest.

Do I need a consultancy partner? Not necessarily. You can start small yourself. A partner pays off mainly for vision, strategy, a maturity assessment and tool selection, where a choice has large consequences.

What is Service Management Partner? That is the service name under which ServiceChanger offers ITSM and ESM consultancy, separate from the product.

Further reading

• ITSM maturity assessment: where does your service desk stand? for a model to find your starting point.
• Service desk strategy for the choice of where to begin automating.

Next step

Thinking about the step from ITSM to ESM, or unsure where to begin? ServiceChanger offers ITSM and ESM consultancy under the service name Service Management Partner: vision, strategy, a maturity assessment, tool selection and guidance through the project. Start a conversation.