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    Independent Federal Agency Partners with Isos Technology to Replace ServiceNow 
    with Jira Service Management

    120
    service desk agents

    100
    customers served

    40k+
    total users

    Project Snapshot

    • A federal agency’s engineering teams were using Jira Software, but their ITSM team was using ServiceNow, limiting the ability to collaborate, share information and data, and track metrics.
    • Service desk processes were cumbersome, needed information was not being captured in intake forms, nothing was automated, and there was no visibility into the status of work being done.
    • The federal agency could not easily make changes to their workflows and had to rely on a third-party vendor, which was costly and time consuming.
    • Isos implemented Jira Service Management, improving intake forms, streamlining and automating workflows, creating reports, and enabling the agency to make changes on their own.
    • The federal agency has direct traceability between issues logged through the service desk and work being done in Jira to resolve it, and all stakeholders have full visibility into the process.
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    Case Study

    This independent agency of the U.S. government, which helps manage and support the functioning of other government agencies, has several different business lines. One such business line is focused on the procurement of goods and services. Within that procurement-focused business line, there is a large IT organization supporting the cloud infrastructure that all of the parent agency’s applications run on. The IT service desk for that group has more than 120 service desk agents, serving around 100 customers, which they refer to as tenants, and supporting over 40,000 total users.
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    Challenge

    While the federal agency’s program management and engineering teams were working in Jira Software, their ITSM team was using ServiceNow, which presented several challenges. First, with work taking place in two separate systems, there was a disconnect between governance, project planning, and tenant support. This meant that when a feature or support request was submitted to the service desk, there was no way to pass that information and data to Jira, where the work was being done. Instead, this work, as well as critical processes like change and incident management, were being tracked in spreadsheets, while communication was happening via email. The two-system setup made it difficult to track organizational metrics, in addition to making it harder for teams to collaborate.

    Second, not all stakeholders had access to the service portal, and the functionality was not as comprehensive as needed. When users submitted tickets, complete information wasn’t being captured upfront, necessitating back-and-forth communication outside of the system. In addition, there was no visibility for agents, engineering teams, tenants, or other stakeholders into how or even if the issue was progressing. As a federal agency, the lack of visibility into complex, required approval processes was particularly challenging. Even straightforward requests were taking too long, and items were falling through the cracks.

    Due to the complexity of ServiceNow, every time the federal agency needed to make a small change, they had to reach out to a third-party vendor for assistance, which was time-consuming and costly. From a configuration perspective, system and project admins needed the ability to create and update workflows efficiently. Lastly, with so many laborious and manual processes, they were seeking the ability to automate repetitive, manual tasks. Part of their desire was the ability to make automated calls to other applications, which would help them to minimize the burden on software engineers.

     

    Solution

    Isos Technology worked closely with the federal agency to understand their needs, and to develop a strategic plan for implementing Jira Service Management (JSM) to replace ServiceNow. The team decided to approach the implementation as a new build, rather than a migration, so they could get up-and-running quickly. This provided the opportunity to completely reevaluate and optimize processes, so that their team could operate with maximum efficiency and enhance functionality over time.

    Isos set up a centralized service portal, serving as a one-stop shop where program managers, engineers, and tenants can easily submit and view tickets. The information from these tickets can flow seamlessly into Jira Software for more efficient data management and tracking. Additionally, Isos developed detailed intake forms that ensure all the necessary information is captured up front, and streamlined workflows for common issue types, leveraging automation whenever possible. Then, the Isos team provided training so that system and project admins could independently create and edit workflows as needs evolved. Isos also implemented automatic assignment functionality so users could clearly see who was working on what, what the next steps were, and queue functionality so users could organize lists of work by assignee, tenant, issue type, and other variables. The implementation also included enabling automated calls to other applications, helping to keep information updated and building out comprehensive reporting functionality for operational metrics.

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    Results

    A single, integrated platform: With all work taking place in one platform, teams can collaborate around incident and change management and do not have to use multiple systems.

    Streamlined incident management: With direct traceability between change requests, service desk tickets, and development work in Jira, incidents can be resolved more efficiently.

    Simplified, automated processes: Processes have been simplified and automated, including complex
    approvals, which saves time, increases accuracy, and speeds up time to resolution.

    Flexibility & customizability: System admins and project teams can now make small changes like
    editing workflows and screens themselves, without hiring a costly third-party resource.

    Increased visibility and transparency: JSM agents, engineering teams, tenants, and other stakeholders can easily check the status of relevant issues as they are being worked on.

    Enhanced reporting: Using out of the box reporting, the agency can now report on operational metrics, track performance against service level agreements, and continuously improve.

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