Where Should Enterprise Service Management Start?

Many organisations begin their Enterprise Service Management (ESM) journey within IT, often implementing Jira Service Management (JSM) to modernise incident management, service requests, and operational change.

As Atlassian customers mature their service management capabilities, the opportunity to extend these practices beyond IT quickly becomes clear. The conversation shifts from improving a single department to improving how services operate across the entire organisation.

At this point, the way organisations think about Enterprise Service Management needs to evolve.

It’s time to stop thinking about ESM as a ticketing function and evolve our thinking to ESM as an orchestration engine, driving business efficiency and tangible outcomes at all levels of an organisation.

Rather than simply managing requests within individual teams, ESM enables organisations to connect processes, coordinate services across departments, and create smoother employee experiences.

For organisations looking to improve internal service delivery and scale these capabilities across the business, HR is often the most effective place to begin.

From ITSM to Enterprise Service Management in Jira

Jira Service Management is frequently introduced to improve the way IT teams manage requests, incidents, and change processes.

Over time, organisations recognise that the same capabilities - request management, workflow automation, knowledge management, and SLAs - can support a wide range of service functions across the business.

Many teams begin exploring how Jira Service Management can support HR, Finance, Facilities, and other operational departments.

However, successful Enterprise Service Management is not achieved simply by replicating IT workflows across new teams.

Employees rarely interact with services in isolation. Their experience of work often involves multiple departments working together behind the scenes.

Take employee onboarding as an example. A single onboarding event can trigger several coordinated activities:

• HR documentation and approvals
• IT access provisioning and equipment requests
• Payroll system setup
• Facilities access and workspace preparation
• Manager onboarding tasks and documentation in Confluence

When these processes operate independently, each team may function effectively, but the overall employee experience can still feel fragmented.

Enterprise Service Management brings these services together. Using Jira Service Management as the orchestration layer, organisations can coordinate workflows across teams and create a more connected service experience.

Why HR Is Often the Ideal Starting Point

HR sits at the centre of the employee lifecycle, making it a natural anchor when expanding service management beyond IT.

Many key organisational processes - onboarding, employee changes, internal mobility, and offboarding - require coordination between multiple teams.

Starting Enterprise Service Management with HR allows organisations to:

• Design end-to-end employee journeys in Jira Service Management
• Provide employees with a unified service portal
• Connect HR workflows with IT, Finance, and Facilities processes
• Expand Atlassian adoption beyond technical teams

Framing Enterprise Service Management around HR also helps position the initiative more strategically.

Instead of appearing as an extension of IT tooling, ESM becomes a way to improve employee experience, organisational efficiency, and workforce productivity.

What “Right-Sized” Enterprise Service Management Looks Like in Jira

A common mistake organisations make when adopting Enterprise Service Management is trying to transform every department simultaneously.

A more effective approach starts with clarity and focus.

Above all, organisations need to define their core business objectives for the year. Rather than attempting to change everything at once, businesses need to understand the goals that matter most and work towards mapping success.

In practice, this often means:

• Starting with high-impact HR workflows such as onboarding or employee changes
• Connecting HR and IT services through Jira Service Management automation
• Creating shared visibility across teams through dashboards and reporting
• Expanding gradually as processes mature and adoption grows

By focusing on meaningful business outcomes first, organisations can scale Enterprise Service Management in Jira without introducing unnecessary complexity.

Expanding Atlassian’s Value Across the Enterprise

Enterprise Service Management ultimately enables organisations to build a connected system of work.

For businesses already using Atlassian, HR provides a practical and high-impact starting point for extending Jira Service Management beyond IT.

When organisations approach ESM as an orchestration layer - rather than simply a ticketing capability - they unlock new opportunities to coordinate services, streamline internal processes, and deliver meaningful operational improvements across the enterprise.

Watch the On-Demand Session

In ESM Talk Series – Part 3 (On-Demand), we explore:

• How to design cross-functional service models in Jira Service Management
• What “right-sized” Enterprise Service Management looks like in practice
• Lessons from organisations expanding Atlassian beyond IT

Watch the session to see how HR can become a powerful starting point for Enterprise Service Management - powered by Atlassian.