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A beginner's guide to Enterprise Service Management

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Last updated on: January 06, 2025

As enterprises embraced digital transformation and turned digital-first, every enterprise department—from HR and Payroll to Facilities and Travel—adopted its own toolsets to manage services. However, without a referenceable service standard that might be unique to each department, users might find themselves staring at too many processes that are scattered across disparate tools.

For example, consider an employee preparing for an overseas client visit. They'll need their itinerary finalized by the Travel desk, their laptop encrypted and VPN provisioned by IT, forex allowances and corporate credit card processed by Finance, and so on.

These tasks need to be performed in a very specific order for an ideal service experience. Without an integrated approach that unifies the flow of work, these tasks would be handled in isolation, with no cross-functional collaboration or context.

This is where enterprise service management (ESM) steps in.

What is ESM?

ESM meaning

Expanding on ITSM principles perfected over decades, ESM applies fine-tuned best practices to other lines of business such as HR, Facilities, and Finance to support workflows and ensure standardization in service delivery. ESM extends ITSM's proven end-to-end delivery of IT support capabilities across the enterprise, enhancing benefits for the organization.

To put ESM into practice, enterprise service departments could share workspace with IT for an ITSM solution, or could implement a unified enterprise service management platform like ServiceDesk Plus to provide dedicated support for HR, Facilities, and other departments.

What is enterprise service management software?

ESM software provides a unified system that consolidates service operations across business verticals like IT, HR, Facilities, and Payroll. This enables end users to discover and access services from a single console, and service providers to benefit from a single workspace where work, information, and insights flow across departments.

This in turn fosters a more agile approach to service delivery, resetting expectations on time to value while also simplifying the ease of implementation.

Before we delve further into the nuts and bolts, let's look at why you should consider ESM.

Why do you need ESM?

Why is enterprise service management important

When employees rely on a multitude of services ranging from IT and HR to Finance and Facilities, managing these services without proper structure can lead to siloed departments and fragmented processes.

Consider an employee onboarding scenario. When a new hire joins the organization, a series of interconnected tasks need to be executed across multiple departments.

Tasks from multiple departments
Figure 1: The long list of tasks spanning multiple departments

HR needs to complete paperwork, IT must provision hardware and software, Facilities needs to assign workspace, Finance sets up payroll, legal drafts contracts and validates employee details, and the list goes on. Each department operates using its own tools, and the lack of a centralized system leads to disjointed service operations, lost productivity, and poor employee experiences.

Without a unified system, this entire process is cumbersome with a flood of emails going back and forth, and tasks being handled in isolation and efficient completion slipping through the cracks. For example, IT might be waiting on HR for final approval to create an Active Directory account, or Facilities might miss a request to set up workspace because it got buried in an email thread.

Now, let's assume for a single hire you'd have at least four email threads exchanged between departments just to coordinate and track progress.

Enterprise disconnect
Figure 2: The enterprise disconnect during service delivery

Scale this to about 100 employees being onboarded, and you’re looking at more than 400 emails, not to mention the endless context switching, delays, and missed steps due to disjointed workflows.

ESM solves this by providing a single system of record for the entire enterprise. It consolidates processes for various organization departments by offering a single source for details about these disparate business verticals. A unified platform, where workflows are automated, tasks are tracked, and service-level agreements (SLAs) and operational-level agreements (OLAs) are kept intact, ensures departments collaborate seamlessly.

Instead of relying on spreadsheets, emails, phone calls, and calendar entries, the involved departments accomplish their tasks via a shared platform. The goal is not to overwhelm teams with more tools and extra steps, but to consolidate and simplify their work.

When scaled to support large numbers of employees, ESM ensures consistency, reduces errors, and improves overall productivity, allowing businesses to focus on strategic initiatives.

Some key benefits of ESM include:

  • Improved and consistent service delivery ensuring unified experiences across all departments.
  • Elevated productivity levels due to consistent process adherence and workflow automation.
  • Enhanced visibility and governance due to a single system of record and seamless tracking of the flow of work.
  • Optimized resource allocation and usage due to improved control and governance.
  • Increased ROI with multiple departments leveraging a unified platform to manage and deliver services and support.

Who can benefit from ESM and how?

Enterprise service management benefits

Take the same employee onboarding scenario. Once the HR department initiates the onboarding request, the system can automatically trigger tasks for IT to create user accounts and provision hardware, for Facilities to prepare the workspace, and for Finance to process payroll details. Self-service portals allow new hires to submit additional requests, such as benefits enrollment or equipment preferences, directly through the platform.

This structured, automated approach not only streamlines the onboarding process, but also ensures that each department knows exactly what needs to be done and when, reducing errors and delays. As a result, ESM delivers a smooth and efficient onboarding experience.

Here's a breakdown of how various business functions can benefit from adopting this approach.

Business function Use cases

HR

  • Employee onboarding and offboarding with automated workflows.
  • Leave management with a centralized system for submitting, tracking, and approving leave requests.
  • Easier submission and tracking of HR-related inquiries through a self-service portal.

Facilities

  • Centralized system for raising and managing maintenance or repair requests, office relocation requests, and more.
  • Space management and better resource allocation with proper governance on available resources.

Finance

  • Expense management with a centralized system for the submission, approval, and reimbursement of employee expenses.
  • Standardized processes for budget approvals across departments.

Legal

  • Standardized processes for submitting and managing legal service requests and contracts.
  • Improved document management and knowledge retrieval with a comprehensive knowledge base.

Procurement

  • Vendor management with a centralized system for tracking purchase orders.
  • Improved visibility into procurement and approval processes.

ESM vs. ITSM—Two sides of the same coin?

ESM vs ITSM

While enterprise service management and IT service management share common ground, they are distinct in their scope and objectives since IT's service delivery imperatives are different from that of other enterprise departments

ESM borrows established ITSM principles and practices that have been in vogue for decades now. Key practices, such as support ticket management, knowledge management, service catalogs, and self-service portals, are some of the core practices that are common to both. ESM also inherits some of ITSM’s advanced technology capabilities, such as workflow automation, orchestration, and conversational AI, helping other business verticals to enhance their service delivery.

The must haves for an ESM software

ESM platform features

A unified portal with unique service desks for various verticals

One of the must-haves in an ESM solution is the ability to create unique service desks tailored to different business verticals while also making them accessible from a single portal. This enables organizations to set up dedicated service desk instances that have their own set of purpose-built templates, workflows, and service catalogs, allowing for customized processes that cater to the unique needs of each department.

Providing role-based access to these instances empowers employees to access the relevant service desk based on their roles and access permissions while also granting departments the autonomy to maintain their own request templates, users, automations, knowledge documentations, and services.

Unified portal
Figure 4: Central portal with unique service desks for various business verticals

Self-service portals that end users can access at any given time

Self-service portals are one of the most important features to look for in an ESM solution. They empower users by providing them with direct access to the services and information they need, without having them rely on IT or support teams. This enhances the overall user experience by reducing wait times and improving efficiency.

A robust self-service portal would include:

  • Detailed service catalogs that act as a one-stop shop for all the services and support end users can utilize, ensuring clarity in service offerings.
  • A user-friendly and intuitive interface that enables them to log tickets and track them
  • A comprehensive knowledge base that helps end users find solutions and resources independently without having to rely on a technician.
  • Virtual agents or chatbots that provide assistance around the clock.
Self service portal in esm
Figure 5: Employee self-service portal

Ticketing capabilities

Ticketing systems play a crucial role in ESM solutions by serving as the primary point of contact between end users and service providers. They enable service desk teams to consolidate support requests from various channels, convert them into tickets, and manage them centrally. They also help streamline the entire service process from start to finish by automating various routine tasks like ticket categorization and prioritization, technician assignment, escalations, and status updates, ensuring that service teams are provided the means to stay efficient and organized.

Enterprise service management software
Figure 6: Ticket queue to track, manage, and handle tickets

Workflow automation and orchestrations

With visual process workflows, businesses can define and map out the sequence of steps required to complete various processes, whether it's handling a major incident, onboarding a new employee, or processing an invoice. Automations are conditional or trigger-based events, and when performed in a certain order or branched into multiple paths to perform different actions, can be referred to as workflows.

Workflow orchestration goes one step further and serves as a powerful layer that connects disparate tools and systems, whether they are legacy or modern, hosted on-premises or in the cloud. By acting as a bridge between different technology infrastructures, workflow orchestration helps create repeatable, automated movements that simplify complex workflows.

For employee onboarding, once HR initiates the process, IT needs to import the employee’s data into the organization's directory and create user accounts, update legacy SQL databases, add the new hire to the necessary communication channels, and so on. IT has to switch between systems like AD, databases, and Microsoft Teams and manually perform each step.

With workflow orchestration, you create a powerful layer that handles the complexities of integrating and automating these tasks, ensuring that all necessary actions are executed in the correct sequence. Each step is automated based on predefined triggers and dependencies, removing the need for manual intervention.This way, teams can break down silos, standardize service delivery, and create agile, responsive processes.

Workflow orchestrations
Figure 7: Workflow orchestration in the cloud version of ServiceDesk Plus

No-code customizations

No-code customizations enabled by an intuitive and easy-to-use drag and drop GUI can empower service teams to build and customize workflows and processes without requiring any coding skills. From creating custom self-service portals to building user-friendly forms, no-code functionality helps teams accomplish this and more—without writing a single line of code.

Self service portal customization
Figure 8: Easy to use drag and drop GUI to build and customize a self-service portal landing screen

Support for core ITSM practices

Extending and applying core ITSM practices across the different non-IT departments across the enterprise can help in several ways. With integrated modules, teams can work cohesively, creating unified and holistic experiences.

Here's how core ITSM practices help with optimized and consistent service delivery:

Incident Management: Quickly restore service operations to normal by logging, tracking, and resolving incidents to minimize disruptions and maintain service levels.

Problem Management: Identify and eliminate the root causes of incidents to fix them and thwart recurrences.

Request Fulfillment: Manage and fulfill service requests through consistent and automated processes, ensuring prompt response and satisfaction.

Change Management: Control the life cycle of changes with a structured approach that minimizes risk and impact, ensuring that changes are implemented smoothly and effectively.

Project Management: Manage projects better by enabling proper planning, tracking, and execution of projects while aligning them with organizational goals and resources.

Asset Management: Maintain a comprehensive inventory of IT and business assets, tracking their life cycle, usage, and associated costs.

Also, having purpose-built modules, like space management for the facilities department or contract and purchase management for procurement teams, help streamline processes for those specific departments according to their requirements.

ITSM modules
Figure 9: Integrated modules that support core ITSM practices

Knowledge management for better knowledge documentation, search, and retrieval

Having a good knowledge management system for the enterprise translates to better documentation, search, and retrieval of information, benefiting both technicians and end users.

For enterprise service technicians, it provides a centralized repository of knowledge articles, guides, and troubleshooting steps, empowering them to resolve IT and non-IT issues quickly and share best practices across the organization. For end users, a well-organized knowledge management system enables self-service access to a wealth of information, guiding them to find answers to their questions or troubleshoot issues independently. This reduces the need to contact support, leading to faster resolutions and a more satisfying user experience.

Knowledge documentation
Figure 10: Central knowledge repository that documents internal knowledge articles and an AI virtual agent that helps access knowledge sources

Integrations with other essential business applications

In today's interconnected business environment, your employees often rely on a robust ecosystem comprised of various applications. That's why it is important to look for an ESM solution that seamlessly integrates with those disparate tools to create unified end-to-end experiences for your users. Integrations could be with IAM solutions like Azure, collaboration tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams, seamless out of the box integrations, or with robust API capabilities. Ultimately, integrations should enable the smooth flow of data, help drive better service delivery, and improve overall business performance.

ntegrations with applications
Figure 11: Integration with disparate tools

Reporting and analytics

When evaluating an ESM solution, comprehensive reporting and analytics is a must-have for any organization seeking to optimize service delivery and decision-making. By generating custom dashboards and detailed reports, business teams can keep tabs on important KPIs that provide deeper insights into ticket trends, response times, resolution rates, and user satisfaction levels. This helps teams, monitor performance targets and adherence to SLAs, allocate resources strategically, identify areas for improvement, and ultimately deliver better services.

Service desk reporting
Figure 12: Dashboards to provide a bird's eye view of service desk data

AI and machine learning for ESM

AI for Enterprise Service Management

AI and ML technologies can further augment everything that we've been seeing in the previous section. Here's how these capabilities can be taken one step further with AI-driven ESM.

Conversational assistance: Conversational assistance in ESM involves AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants that use natural language processing (NLP) to interact with users. These AI assistants can understand and process natural language commands, enabling users to perform tasks such as submitting service requests or checking ticket status simply by giving prompts. This enhances user experiences by making interactions more intuitive, accessible, and efficient.

Enhanced knowledge search and discovery: Other than carrying out tasks, users can also self-resolve issues and find solutions to the issue they're facing by tapping into the organization's internal knowledge base or external sources with intelligent search. Unlike rule-based knowledge search, you need not worry about rigid keyword overlap requirements or semantic gaps. Through NLP and natural language understanding (NLU), the model will be competent enough to understand user intent and process the required output.

Smart automations powered by predictive intelligence: Predictive intelligence in ESM leverages machine learning algorithms to analyze historical data, identify patterns, and forecast future outcomes. With a service desk powered by a predictive engine, it becomes easy to anticipate ticket attributes, recommend technicians with the right expertise, predict approval decisions, and more by training the model on historical ticketing data.

Ticket summarization: This is particularly useful for service teams that need to quickly understand the context and urgency of an issue without reading through lengthy descriptions. By extracting key information and condensing it, AI-driven ticket summarization helps technicians grasp the core issue at a glance, speeding up the resolution process.

Intelligent analytics: By leveraging machine learning to discover insights and relationships in the data, the model can automatically generate reports, summarize long documents, and highlight important trends or anomalies that might otherwise go unnoticed. This ensures that teams have access to the most relevant information, enabling better strategic planning and decision-making.

ServiceDesk Plus for ESM

ServiceDesk Plus ESM capabilities

Establish a one-stop shop for all IT and business services with ServiceDesk Plus, the unified service management solution that combines IT service management, IT asset management, and CMDB along with enterprise service management capabilities. Built on industry-recommended ITSM best practices, ServiceDesk Plus features contextual IT and business integrations that help service teams blend autonomy and service consistency across the enterprise. With native enterprise service management capabilities powered by AI, ServiceDesk Plus helps organizations foster AI-driven service management by intelligently designing, delivering, and supporting their business and IT services.

Drive service excellence across your enterprise with the scalable AI-driven capabilities of ServiecDesk Plus

Alexandria

Author's bio

Alexandria is a passionate explorer of the ITSM realm and is keen on learning and sharing insights about the ever-evolving ITSM landscape. With a fresh perspective on the world of ITSM, she loves writing best practice articles and blogs that help IT service delivery teams address their everyday service management challenges. In her free time, you can catch her binge-watching all things Formula 1 and talking about, like her life depended on it, why Lewis Hamilton is one of the best racers ever.