Jira Service Management vs ServiceNow

Jira Service Management (JSM) and ServiceNow are topping the charts, enabling businesses to deliver exceptional IT services:

• JSM delivers ITIL best practices out-of-the-box, empowering teams to adapt service management processes that align with the way they work to resolve issues faster.
• ServiceNow allows IT departments to handle incidents, requests, problems, and changes with increased precision, while continually managing and optimizing the delivery of IT services.

Together they account for 58% of the ITSM market, according to the latest Apps Run The World report.

ITSM tools help infrastructure and operations (I&O) businesses manage the consumption of IT services, the infrastructure that supports them, and the responsibility of IT to deliver business value. These tools are most frequently used by IT service desks and service delivery functions to support tasks and workflows for processes, including incident, request, problem, change, service level, knowledge, and configuration management.

There are several products on the market for teams to choose from, and Jira Service Management and ServiceNow feature on Gartner’s IT Service Management Tools Reviews and Ratings list. When deciding between the two, there’s a lot to consider.

Deciding between Jira Service Management and ServiceNow

You could always go with the second biggest SaaS company in the world, ServiceNow, which has a customer base of 1,093. Established in 2004, ServiceNow offers complete ITSM/ITIL capabilities.

Or you could opt for Jira Service Management (JSM), built on Jira — the leading platform for tracking work across the enterprise at scale, with more than 65,000 companies worldwide using it to manage projects.

Let’s look at each platform in more detail.

Jira Service Management

Jira Service Management, previously known as Jira Service Desk, brings together dev, IT operations, and business teams, allowing organizations to respond to business changes faster and deliver great service experiences.

In 2022, Atlassian was named a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for IT Service Management Tools. As an all-in-one solution, JSM lets you filter, ticket, report, and use dashboards and more in one place.

ServiceNow

ServiceNow is a born-in-the-cloud SaaS platform often referred to as the ‘Salesforce.com of IT’ due to the plentiful third-party developed solutions in its ecosystem.

Today, ServiceNow offers a myriad of apps for IT service management, HR, legal, and more. The platform provides a single view of all systems in a given IT service delivery ecosystem, integrating with existing systems and competing solutions such as BMC, Salesforce, and Jira. However, such integrations tend to be cumbersome and weak.

Implementing JSM and ServiceNow

With Jira Service Management, it doesn’t matter if you have 5,000 agent instances or 1; you can implement it without help and with simple configuration and management. There’s no need for expert assistance, and you can expect an average implementation time of 6 weeks.

For ServiceNow, companies may struggle with the configuration, especially without developers or in-house assistance capabilities. Many will have to seek and pay for help from third parties. In fact, for customers with fewer than 35 agents, ServiceNow requires users to have a partner deliver the solution.

JSM and ServiceNow pricing

Jira Service Management has all the features your team needs to deliver great services at a fraction of the cost of ServiceNow.

In a report by Apps Run the World, it was revealed at the end of 2021 that ServiceNow made $2.5 billion, taking the average ServiceNow customer spend to around $362,318. This is a rise from the equivalent $273,000 previously calculated by Atlassian. This shows that since then, transactions with ServiceNow have increased significantly. On the contrary, when performing the same calculation for Jira Service Management customers, the spend was $33,428.

Switching to Jira Service Management from ServiceNow

Despite all of its qualities, there are several reasons why a business might want to make the switch from ServiceNow to JSM.

ServiceNow vs. Jira Service Management

In a world where most ITSM tools have been designed to manage incidents, problems, and changes, JSM empowers the workforce with the services, processes, and technologies they need to continuously win, serve, and retain customers. The open platform helps IT function more effectively, enabling the whole business to be more efficient in operations.

JSM’s simplified and easy-to-use UI allows users to collaborate effectively and foster continued business growth. ITIL best practices empower teams to adopt service management processes to match how they work, driving continued value from ITSM.

It provides service desk agents with end-to-end visibility over changes whilst seamlessly linking JSM tickets to Jira Software issues and creating permanent fixes. In addition, JSM allows teams to leverage the powerful post-incident review process to quickly close feedback loops and boost learning and sharing.

Tips for teams looking to switch from ServiceNow to JSM

• Find an experienced Atlassian Platinum Solution Partner that has managed such projects before.
• When you’ve found the right expert(s), define the project's scope and analyze the data, workflows, and processes needed.
• Have them design the JSM system based on the needs of the business.
• Customize and integrate as needed by exploring supported apps and extensions.
• Pilot and review the JSM solution and monitor it to ensure users aren’t facing challenges when using the new system.

If you’re thinking of switching from ServiceNow to JSM, our consultants tick all the boxes regarding experience, assuring a smooth transition.