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How to Migrate Existing Legacy ITSM Tools to JSM

How to Migrate Existing Legacy ITSM Tools to JSM

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ITSM organizations have long been looking to improve the speed and efficiency with which they design, plan, and deliver IT services to customers. But despite taking all necessary steps, efforts put towards enhancing service delivery outcomes are far from successful. And the principal reason for this is the reliance on a legacy ITSM tool that restricts an organization’s ability to respond to market changes, meet customer needs, and drive long-term innovation. To enable real value, modern ITSM organizations must leverage the capabilities of a modern tool like JSM that allows teams to collaborate and respond to business changes while delivering unmatched customer experiences.

How legacy ITSM tools restrict innovation

Legacy ITSM tools, although an integral part of most organizations today, often come in the way of success and innovation due to their inherent capabilities. Most tools:

  •     Are rigid and difficult to configure: Most legacy ITSM tools are built using proprietary programming technologies that make them extremely rigid. Any changes or modifications require a thorough knowledge of the (now obsolete) code base and niche skills – both of which are difficult to acquire today.
  •     Offer poor security: Legacy ITSM tools are known to be extremely poor at security. Given that they were built using technology that is no longer supported today, lack of security updates and patches make them extremely susceptible to attacks – especially in today’s world where even a minor bug can cause the tool to act up and/or the ITSM organization to crumble.
  •     Are costly to manage and maintain: The presence of proprietary technologies, unsupported infrastructure, a monolithic architecture, and outdated frameworks make legacy ITSM systems extremely costly to manage and maintain. Constant review of the underlying code and efforts made towards rewriting or refactoring tends to drain ITSM employees of precious time and resources.
  •     Are complex to customize: Legacy ITSM tools are also difficult to customize. Since these tools have already undergone several rounds and levels of customization, any attempt at further customization only makes the tool more complex to operate and difficult to maintain.
  •     Offer poor integration: Legacy ITSM tools also bring with them the challenge of poor integration; since these tools run on legacy hardware and software, they were not built to support newer versions of the technology – making maintenance, improvement, integration, and expansion extremely demanding.
  •     Deliver poor User Experience: What’s more, the lack of performance and speed of legacy ITSM systems tend to negatively impact productivity (and profitability) – restricting the business from moving at a pace needed to keep up with market changes.

The Benefits of Jira Service Management (JSM)

A modern Service Management tool like JSM allows ITSM teams to respond to evolving market dynamics and deliver modern customer and employee service experiences.

  •     High availability of JSM means customer requests and issues can always be addressed and SLAs can always be met – 24×7 and without interruption.
  •     Built-in security and compliance with features across SSO, permissions, encryption, IP allowlisting, user provisioning mean customer data is always protected.
  •     Improved collaboration between Dev and Ops means teams can work together to resolve customer issues and easily meet their RTO and RPO objectives.
  •     Automated processes enable ITSM employees to accelerate turnaround time: whether they are managing incoming requests, standardizing workflows, or just seeking approvals.
  •     Flexible deployments across cloud, on-premises, and hybrid as well as the option to choose from Free, Standard, Premium, and Enterprise plans mean organizations can select a deployment that best fits the needs of their business.

Moving legacy ITSM tools to JSM

Moving legacy ITSM tools to JSM can open doors to a variety of benefits, allowing teams to manage work using a single, feature-rich platform and provide customers with the help they need when they need it.

Here are some tips and best practices that can aid you in moving your legacy ITSM tools to JSM:

  •     Assess your existing ITSM landscape: The first step in the migration process is the assessment of your existing ITSM landscape. An assessment can allow you to get a clear and detailed understanding of where you are currently, and where you want to reach. It can help identify possible risks as well as allow you to get a good idea of what data to migrate, what strategy to use, and the costs involved – while minimizing negative impact.
  •     Identify tools to migrate: If you’ve been in the ITSM space for long, chances are that you are using a handful of different legacy ITSM tools to meet your business objectives. But instead of migrating all of these tools to JSM, take the time to determine which tools you really need. Carry out a thorough analysis of the tools that are an integral part of your business and take necessary steps accordingly.
  •     Choose the right migration strategy: Choosing the right strategy can have a huge impact on the success of your migration. While moving from your legacy ITSM tool, you can choose from 4 different options:

o   Optimize and shift which includes assessing and optimizing your current data and moving all of it at once to JSM.

o   Lift and shift which includes taking all your current ITSM data, users, and apps and move it to JSM in a single migration.

o   Phased which includes migrating data in stages, so issues can be worked out and users can be trained in small batches.

o   From scratch which includes leaving your legacy ITSM tool behind and implementing JSM from scratch.

  •     Be prepared for downtime: ITSM tool migration, like any other technology migration, is likely to cause a small amount of downtime. In fact, the more the amount of data and number of users, the more the downtime. Therefore, to avoid any interruptions in service, make sure to replicate important ITSM data in a separate location and have proper failover mechanisms in place to ensure your customers continue to receive the support they need.
  •     Understand app and data migration: While migrating your legacy ITSM tool, it is also important for you to consider the complexities involved in the app and data migration. Clearly define what you need to migrate and avoid moving data that is no longer useful or relevant – to reduce migration time as well as associated risks.
  •     Work with a partner: Given how complex data migration can be, working with qualified and experienced marketplace partners can help you in curating an app and data migration path that best matches the needs of your business. A partner can help in building a robust migration roadmap and also guide on best practices while automating as many tasks as possible for quicker results.

In an era where keeping up with customer needs has become a key driver for business excellence, moving away from rigid, complex, and legacy ITSM tools is no longer a question of if, but when. Opting for a modern, feature-rich, and future-ready ITSM tool like JSM is a great way to accelerate service delivery. So, plan your migration today and equip your business with the capabilities it needs to drive results and revenue.

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