What Is Enterprise Service Management?

In most cases, and at the enterprise level, “managed services” is typically associated with outsourcing support and service of business IT and often referred to as ITSM (information technology service management). But with enterprise service management (ESM), we are now seeing a sea change of sorts as “managed services” principles, tools, and teams are extended into other business departments like HR, finance, and facilities.

Why? Because, as part of their overarching digital transformation strategies, businesses are realizing the benefits that may be quickly gained by standardizing, automating, and centralizing service delivery across the enterprise through a unified platform, service catalog, and self-service portals.

Before we take a deeper dive into these benefits, ESM frameworks, and success metrics businesses often use to measure ESM program efficacy, let’s define the term a little more clearly—specifically, in light of what executives and stakeholders can and should expect from an ESM provider.

Enterprise Service Management typically refers to a third-party expert organization that implements and manages a unified platform to extend service management across all business departments.

This provider helps centralize, standardize, and automate how services are requested, delivered, and managed throughout the entire enterprise architecture, moving away from fragmented, manual processes toward automated systems that help improve speed and quality in service delivery, and provide a more systemized means of measuring service processes and outcomes. Outcomes like benefits…

Benefits of implementing ESM

By leveraging the proven strategies of ITSM, enterprise service management unlocks a range of benefits that optimize operations, enhance satisfaction, and drive significant value.

• Extending ITSM beyond just IT: ESM takes the structured, process-driven approach of ITSM — which includes incident management, service requests, and knowledge bases — and applies it to departments like HR, finance, legal, and facilities. This means these departments can also streamline their internal service delivery, manage requests more effectively, and provide a consistent, professional experience to employees, moving away from ad-hoc email or phone-based requests.
• Centralized service delivery: ESM consolidates various departmental service channels into a single, unified platform, often featuring a comprehensive service delivery catalog and self-service portal. This eliminates the need for employees to navigate different systems or contact various departments individually for their needs. It simplifies access to information and support, making it easier for employees to find what they need quickly and efficiently.
• Improved efficiency and productivity: By automating routine tasks, standardizing workflows, and providing self-service options, ESM significantly boosts organizational efficiency. Manual processing, redundant efforts, and delays are minimized, allowing employees to focus on higher-value work. Through ESM automation tools, departments can process requests faster and with greater accuracy, leading to a noticeable increase in overall productivity across the enterprise.
• Improved service quality: ESM's framework brings consistency and structure to service delivery across all departments. By defining clear service level agreements, implementing standardized processes, and leveraging robust tracking capabilities, organizations can ensure services are delivered reliably and predictably. This leads to higher quality outcomes, fewer errors, and a more professional and dependable service experience for all stakeholders.
• Enhanced employee/customer experience: A unified and efficient ESM platform dramatically improves how employees interact with internal services. With easy access to a service catalog, clear communication, and quicker resolution times for requests, employees feel more supported and empowered. This positive internal experience can translate directly into a better external customer experience, as satisfied employees are more likely to deliver excellent service themselves.
• Cost reduction: ESM contributes to significant cost savings by optimizing resource utilization and reducing operational overhead. Automation lessens the need for extensive manual intervention, while improved efficiency and reduced errors cut down on rework and wasted resources. Consolidating tools and systems into a single ESM platform can also decrease software licensing fees and maintenance costs, leading to a strong return on investment.

Enterprise service management examples

Time to get concrete and dig into specific functional areas that immediately benefit from ESM implementation. The following enterprise service management examples are derived from actual Argano clients utilizing our ESM teams and solutions.

• HR onboarding automation: New hire onboarding workflows are automated (using cloud-based processes, of course, be it public, private or enterprise hybrid cloud), triggering IT provisioning, access requests, and benefits enrollment seamlessly. This ensures a consistent, efficient, and rapid welcoming experience for new employees, reducing HR administrative burden.
• Centralized facilities requests: Employees submit all facilities requests (e.g., meeting room booking, maintenance, cleaning) through a single portal. This streamlines task assignments, improves response times, and provides facilities management with clear oversight of all requests.
• Enterprise-wide help desk: A single help desk manages all employee queries, from IT issues to HR questions and administrative support. This simplifies access to help, ensures consistent service, and provides a unified view of employee support needs.
• Self-service password resets: Employees can securely reset their own passwords for various enterprise applications via a self-service portal. This empowers users, reduces calls to the IT help desk, and significantly improves resolution times for a common issue.

This is only part of what we have seen when rolling our ESM tour clients. And while their business needs often vary, the ESM framework Argano utilizes remains remarkably consistent.

ESM implementation frameworks

While there isn't a single, universally adopted "ESM framework," ESM implementations often draw upon and adapt concepts from established service management methodologies—such as information technology infrastructure library, or ITIL, which provides a set of best practices for aligning IT with business needs, improving service delivery, and optimizing operations.

Frameworks like ITIL are essential for operationalizing enterprise service management across an organization. Such frameworks aid ESM in the following ways:

• Common language and principles: They establish a standardized vocabulary and guiding principles, fostering cross-departmental understanding and alignment.
• Standardized practices: Frameworks provide proven practices for common service activities like Service Request, Incident, Problem, Change Enablement, and Knowledge Management. Applying these consistently creates efficient workflows.
• Delivering value through collaboration: They emphasize collaborating with internal "customers" to ensure services deliver tangible benefits, focusing on "delivering value" not just "doing tasks."
• Continual improvement: Frameworks promote ongoing monitoring, feedback, and iterative enhancements, ensuring ESM remains relevant and continually adds value.

Frameworks like ITIL serve as a blueprint, providing the structure and shared understanding to transform fragmented departmental operations into a cohesive, efficient, and customer-centric enterprise service delivery model. They can also help make calculating ROI an easier undertaking.

How to measure ESM ROI

Like everything, implementing ESM requires stakeholder buy-in, and typically at C-level where questions run the gamut from “How will we know it’s working?” to “What’s the cost of not doing this?”

Calculating ROI in ESM means getting granular and digging into workflows and processes such as cost-per-request, time-to-resolution, and onboarding cycle times.

• Cost-per-request measures the average cost incurred to fulfill a single service request. It includes all associated expenses: personnel salaries, software licenses, infrastructure, and overheads. Lowering this indicates process efficiency and cost savings.
• Time-to-resolution tracks the average time taken to resolve an issue or fulfill a request, from initiation to closure. It highlights the speed and effectiveness of service delivery. A shorter time-to-resolution typically leads to higher user satisfaction and improved operational agility.
• Onboarding cycle time measures the total time required to fully integrate a new employee or supplier into the organization, from initial contact to full productivity or system integration. Optimizing this reduces delays, improves new hire/supplier experience, and accelerates value contribution.

The ability to dig into specifics such as these is absolutely something you should look for in an ESM partner. Another capability you should require of your partner is the ability to work across various technology platform—especially legacy systems.

ESM integration for legacy and modern systems

Whether providing ESM services, or building robust enterprise architectures, or helping design a simple mobile app, Argano prides itself on being “technology agnostic.” (Explore our comprehensive enterprise technology solutions.)

Unifying legacy systems like Oracle, SAP, and Microsoft with modern ESM tools is crucial for a cohesive service delivery ecosystem. This typically involves a multi-pronged approach focused on integration, data synchronization, and process orchestration.

A primary method is API-led integration. Most modern ESM platforms and many legacy systems expose Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). These APIs allow systems to "talk" to each other, enabling the exchange of data and the triggering of actions. For instance, an ESM tool could use an API to pull employee data from a legacy SAP HR module for an onboarding process or update asset information in Oracle E-Business Suite after a service request is fulfilled.

And while getting systems to “talk to each other” is important in ensuring ESM success, it typically takes a backseat to getting people to embrace ESM, which is where change management is critical.

Change management approaches for ESM adoption

"People-first" change management strategies, rooted in Organizational Change Management (OCM), are vital for successful ESM adoption. A cornerstone of any successful digital transformation strategies, OCM prioritizes the human element, acknowledging that people drive success.

Key strategies include early and continuous communication, which involves transparently sharing the "why" behind ESM, its benefits to individual roles, and expected changes.

Stakeholder engagement is crucial as well. Involve key users and departmental leaders in the design and implementation phases to foster ownership and gather valuable feedback to ensure ESM aligns with actual needs.

And comprehensive training and support are non-negotiable. Tailored training programs, readily available resources, and ongoing support empower users to confidently embrace new processes and tools.

Remember, successful ESM is not just about implementing software; it's about transforming how people work and interact, requiring a compassionate and well-executed change journey.

Ready to lead with smarter service management?

What’s next for your business and ESM? It starts with partnering with the right provider like Argano, a technology-agnostic digital consultancy with managed services expertise, organizational change management teams and tools, enterprise technology services and solutions, and deep experience in supporting organizations of all sizes across all verticals.

Explore our managed services expertise and  contact us for a free assessment on your organization’s ESM-readiness.