Spectrum Benchmark

Introduction to ITSM and ESM

market overview.

2023 Edition 1
Sommaire

Preamble 03

Presentation of ITSM 06

Market Overview 23

Solutions 35

2
Preamble

3
About us
First launched in 2011, Spectrum Benchmark’s goal was to provide a Asset Management
pragmatic and straightforward reading of the market for collaborative CMDB
solutions, CMS, or ECM. 10 years later, Spectrum Groupe’s Benchmark Change management
activity has expanded to other software domains: project management, Quality management
ITSM, Business solutions. Reports
Satisfaction analysis
Spectrum Group is proud to present the 2023 edition of the Enterprise
Service Management market report. The report first introduces the Spectrum Benchmark offers a «balanced» method for measuring a
concepts of ITSM and then presents a panel of vendors representative solution’s potential. Each criterion representing a technical specificity,
of the ESM market a functionality, a use case or a strategic criterion is thoroughly tested
and/or analysed for all selected products. Two measures are evaluated:
The Concept
Completeness / Coverage: to assess the level of coverage of the
This Benchmark has been developed to provide insight into the global criterion by the product.
ESM market.
Ease / Applicability: a measure representing different aspects such as
Each solution has been evaluated against over 70 functional criteria, accessibility, ease of use, ease of technical handling of the criterion in
categorised as follows question.

Customer interfaces Thus, the use value of a solution cannot be summarised solely by
Ticket entry its functional coverage. Some solutions lack significant functional
Ticket processing coverage but are perfectly suited to the contexts for which they were
Automation designed.
Knowledge base
Dialogue
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The tool The Panel
Spectrum Benchmark is : Spectrum Groupe has chosen to focus on 8 quality solutions, each with
a different approach towards representing the market:
An open and accessible online tool

BMC Helix
More information about the work of the Spectrum Benchmark is
Easy Vista
available online atbenchmark.spectrumgroupe.fr. All assessments are
Freshservice
accessible online via a simple clic.
iTop
A visual and interactive tool Jira Service Management
Matrix42
An interactive and visual application is offered free of charge upon Mint Service Desk
registration. It allows the user to consult the analyses of the tools ServiceNow
studied, to compare solutions along selected axes and to export graphs
(radars) to image format.

The tool allows the user to build analyses based on these criteria and
evaluations made by Spectrum Groupe. With Spectrum Benchmark, you
can perform customized analyses by selecting the levels, families and
criteria most important for its context.

An pedagogical tool

With a selection of products, users will find presentation sheets

highlighting their philosophies, strengths, and key concepts. This
is a synthesis of studies conducted by our Spectrum Group experts,
presented from different angles and levels of analysis.

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ITSM Overview
IT is becoming increasingly complex in many organisations, the number
of elements is growing, and it is becoming a major expense centre. It
is therefore more and more important to control and monitor it, and
above all to have a clear vision of the hardware, software, contracts and
licences in order to provide an optimal service to employees in need of
answers to their questions or assistance. The need for tools is therefore
increasingly felt in organisations that are sometimes overwhelmed by
the management of IT assets and problems.
Although IT management products have long been offered mainly to
large organisations, their association with the service desk is still fairly
recent. Today, a mature offer for the internal service desk exists. It
primarily concerns IT, but other areas of the company are often covered
(general services, legal, HR, etc.).

Service and ticket management software has been around for a very
long time (Mantis....), but was initially aimed at customer/provider
ticketing in the IT world, and then the BtoC after-sales sector in general.

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1 - ITIL recommendations
ITIL is the Information Technology Infrastructure Library. This is a rather
barbaric acronym whose purpose has evolved over time to become a
collection of best practices for information systems management. These
recommendations are therefore addressed to organisations, but the
solutions on the market will put them into practice to help companies
respect this approach, which is the guarantee of an efficient IS.
These recommendations aim to help organise the IS, improve its efficiency,
reduce risks and increase the quality of services to users. Thus, an ITSM
solution is intended to be largely in line with these recommendations, which
are highly recognised and have a certain officiality since they are defined
by field experts. Compliance with these «standards» is not mandatory, but
the most popular solutions, including those in this study, are aligned with
ITIL.
system, and the value creation chain. Finally, ITIL is also, and perhaps
above all, «practices», precisely defined. These concepts are often similar
to functional modules in the tooling: service center, change management,
problem management, service level management, asset management, etc.
There are 34 of them.
The current ITSM market is in compliance with ITIL v4. Thus, the solutions
are already structured to engage organisations in the recommendations that
allow them to move towards serene, if not optimal, IS management. Support
will always be useful, and sometimes essential, to observe best practices
according to the chosen solution.

In general, the recommendations aim to help the organisation create value

through services. A simple example: when a new computer is added to the
fleet, what value does it bring? If it equips an employee with a previously
ageing workstation, it will bring value for a while. The system must allow
for this tracking and reconcile it with the cost of the device.

More precisely, ITIL gives definitions and recommendations, starting

with the guiding principles, then the definition of the global service value

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ITIL is structured around 4 main areas, the 4 dimensions of service
management:
1. The organisation, its structure and culture.
2. The organisation, its structure and culture.
3. Partners and suppliers. To a certain extent, IT management
depends on third parties.
4. Processes and value flows, or how to enable value creation
(providing products or services to employees) through processes.

Organisation & People Information &Technology

Products and services

Value

Partners and Suppliers Value & Processes

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1.1 - Guiding Principles
The guiding principles are to be taken into account as much as possible for
each of them for any situation of the service management.

Start where you are

In any service creation or improvement process, it is recommended

not to start from a blank page. In most situations, it is a matter
of being aware of the current state of things, keeping what works,
Focus on value changing or improving what needs to be changed.

Focusing on value creation is the very foundation of the ITIL

Of course in the case of creating something totally new, a product,
principles. Here, the principle is to be taken in the broadest
a service, it can sometimes be interesting to start from scratch.
possible sense. Value creation must benefit the customer, but
However, there will always be things that need to be changed.
why not also the employee, the supplier, or the financial income.
Processes, machines, etc.
The value creation may not directly benefit the customer. In the
simple process of buying a new computer for an employee, value When we recommend to start where we are, it is first of all a
is brought to the work comfort and productivity of the person, question of being aware of where we are at the start.
which will have an impact on the value creation with the customer
at some point.

This principle only indicates that we must not lose sight of the
creation of value, even if the purpose of ITIL processes is to
provide a service, and therefore value to a service consumer.

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Progress iteratively with feeedback
Agility is indeed one of the guiding principles of ITIL. The objective
is to provide value quickly and regularly, taking into account
feedback in order to improve in the process.
This is a proven way of working. It is better to move forward in
small packages to be able, after each delivery, to correct and
adapt to change.
Collaborate and promote visibility
This is another major component of agile. Along with iterative
work, the recommendations on collaboration are at the heart
of the agile manifesto. Teams should indeed maintain constant
communication, and regular check-ins to share progress,
difficulties, improvement points, and plan the work.
Think and work holistically
In order to offer a quality service that is efficient for the
organization, we must keep in mind that everything is connected
and interdependent. We must think without forgetting the impact
on the whole. Even the guiding principles are linked and this one
is a reminder. In order to respect this guiding principle, we must
collaborate, optimize, focus on value...
Keep it simple and practical
Indeed, complexity must be avoided at all costs. If every process
to solve a problem has its exceptions, it is not a matter of finding
a solution to each of them. The best is the enemy of the good, so
to speak. We must move forward in a pragmatic way and look for
simple solutions, making sure we never get into systems that are
too complex to maintain. Sometimes it’s a matter of doing fewer
things, but better, getting rid of things that don’t bring enough
value.
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Optimize and automate
As mentioned above, a task must be able to bring value. Anything
that can be automated allows you to focus on creating value by
getting rid of repetitive and time-consuming tasks. But before
that, it’s all about optimization. Before automation, a process
must be studied and improved. And automation must obviously
be at the service of value creation.

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1.2 - Service Value System

Guiding principles

Governance

Opportunity/ Service value chain Value

demand

Practices

Continual improvement

The service value system is a simple representation of the activities
involved in the value creation process, starting from the demand or
opportunity, to the value provided by the service.
the governance of the organization, how it is managed, controlled
ITIL practices, about thirty of them, which describe all the activities of
service management

In between, the value chain explained below is surrounded by : and continuous improvement, to be applied to any activity.

the guiding principles explained above, which should never be forgotten

in any service creation activity

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1.3 Service Value Chain

Plan

Design
& transition
Demand Engage Product & Value
services

Obtain/ Deliver &

Build support

Improve

The value chain explains the value creation process starting from a
demand.
It starts with a first step that aims to ensure the commitment and
understanding of all stakeholders. Customer, suppliers, employees, etc.
execute. Indeed, a request can require the complete development of a
new product, but also the support of an existing product. Around this,
continuous improvement is recommended, as well as the planning of
actions.

Then, it is a service or a product that will bring the expected value. This
product or service can be to create, to correct, to maintain, or simply to

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This chain can be used to create a value stream according to each request. For example:

Plan

Create

Product &
Demand Engage Value
service

Obtain Deliver

Migrate my data Data is migrateed to

to the cloud the cloud solution
Understand the need, recruit Migration service with
a team dedicated tool

Obtain the cloud Organise and realise

solution work

Create a script
routine

Improve quality of service

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1.4 Practices
Practices represent all activities related to IT service management. General Service Catalog Management
management practices, as their name indicates, are rather general in Business Analysis
nature at the IT level: project management, architecture, security, risks, etc. Service Configuration Management
Service management practices describe the ITSM building blocks that can Capacity and Performance Management
be found in most tools on the market. Finally, some practices are described Service Continuity Management
as more technical. Change Enablement
Service Design
General Management Practices Incident Management
Architecture Management Service Desk
Continuous Improvement IT Asset Management
Information Security Management Service Level Management
Knowledge Management Monitoring and Event Management
Measurement and Reporting Service Request Management
Organizational Change Management Problem Management
Portfolio Management Service Validation and Testing
Project Management Production Release Management
Relationship Management
Technical Management Practices
Risk Management
Deployment management
Service Financial Management
Infrastructure and platform management
Strategy Management
Software development and management
Supplier Management
Workforce and Talent Management
The current ITSM market is in compliance with ITIL v4. Thus, the solutions are already structured
to engage organisations in the recommendations that allow them to move towards serene, if not
Service Management Practices
optimal, IS management. Support will always be useful, and sometimes essential, to observe best
Availability management practices according to the chosen solution.
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2 - ITSM building blocks

Service Desk Configuration Management Database

Contracts/
Licences

Incident management Software

Knowledge base
Hardware
3 configuration
Software

Catalog of services
User data

Problem Management Dependencies

Asset Management Change Management

V1 V2
Risks

Attributions Life cycle

Change project
management

Dependencies Planning 17
Cost vs. Value
2.1 - Service desk
The service desk is the most important part of ITSM, as it links to the rather than searching for information that they may not find. Chatbots are
employee seeking service. This is where customers submit their requests often able to understand natural language, and when properly configured,
and incidents, and where agents treat them. can effectively direct tickets or provide an answer that is already listed.

The service desk is a very well-represented and mature component of the
market. In 2021, we are far from simple ticket management systems such
as Mantis: with most editors, the processes are optimised at all stages:
2.1.1 Service portal
Finally, the implementation of a service catalogue can make a difference
for the comfort of the employee and the agents. The catalogue is the
provision of various products that employees can request. Each product
(hardware, software, etc.) is associated with a validation workflow
depending on the person connected (their manager, the IT manager, etc.).

The customer first has access to a clear and friendly service portal. Before For example, changing a computer for an employee can be automated as

posting a ticket, he has access to a self-service section, a knowledge base soon as the employee requests it. The validators receive the request, get

consisting of troubleshooting articles, known problems, instructions for the information from the old machine in order to make their decision, and

use, etc. A good ITSM software makes sure that posting a ticket is the can validate the change so that it is assigned to the agents responsible

last resort. Of course, a knowledge base must be fed by the IT service for receiving the new machine and its initial configuration before the final

agents, but the ITSM software must offer the tools for: a practical content provision to the employee who made the request.

management part for the agents, identifying problems and incidents as

representative, offering the customer to search the database of solved
tickets, etc.

The service portal also enables the customer to be guided in the best
possible way and then to distribute the tickets to the right people. This is
where requests can be categorised. The customer must be accompanied
optimally in order to optimise the subsequent processing of the request.
Chatbots are part of the offer and are becoming more and more present.
The customer often appreciates the ease of simply asking a question
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2.1.2 Agent dashboard

There may be many approaches used here, but the main objective is to essential tools for good support, but they are sometimes only offered by
provide maximum transparency for the agent, who must be able to process third-party solutions outside the ITSM tool.
the requests that are relevant to him as quickly as possible. To achieve
this, the tools often focus on the notification system, the workflow and 2.1.4 Satisfaction
the assignment of requests to the right people. In fact, in order to improve
An ITSM tool that respects the ITIL approach must remain in a systematic
processing rate, the time spent on processing is often the most critical.
analysis of service satisfaction. Continuous service improvement is an
Once the request has been identified by the right agent, it can be treated
integral part of ITSM.
quite quickly, but it has to reach the person concerned in an efficient way.
This stage of processing time is the subject of many innovations on the
The basic logic is that an incident is considered resolved when the
market. Some do not hesitate to use artificial intelligence to optimise the
customer validates it, not before. Afterwards, customer satisfaction can
transfer of requests to the right departments, for example, while others
be analysed on the spot at each incident, or on the fly through regular
(or the same ones!) develop very sophisticated notification systems that
satisfaction surveys. For the most optimal assessment of satisfaction,
know how to detect criticality and, above all, how to avoid drowning the
some propose the analysis of the tone used by customers during their
agent in requests to be processed. Fast processing of tickets requires
requests and conversations with agents, thanks to AI.
optimised prioritisation, even when the customer has already provided the
information, since the information must be reviewed.

2.1.3 Interaction

The interaction with the agent is an important part of the processing, and
in particular the correct interpretation of the incident. In addition to the
conversation that is systematically attached to the ticket, a more direct
dialogue can be initiated, through a chat integrated into the application,
a videoconference, or a remote control of the workstation. These are

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2.2 Incident management
Incident management is at the heart of ITSM systems. The efficiency agent. The artificial intelligence of the product can be of great help to
and speed of incident resolution, as well as the reduction of incidents, achieve high efficiency, but only the most mature (and most expensive?)
depends in large part on a well-designed software system. Thus, on the solutions will really be able to offer it.
market, software vendors are working to provide all the comfort and tools
necessary for agents to resolve incidents.

First, and as soon as a ticket is registered, the systems can identify the
hardware and software related to the person making the request. Based
on its content and what the requester has entered, the ticket can be
categorized and sent directly to the appropriate agents. Then, the agent
has access to all solved tickets approaching to help him solve the problem
quickly. In the context of the knowledge base, resolved tickets can also be
offered directly to the customer, who can often find answers there. To do
this, the system must be able to maintain a clean and well-organized ticket
database.

Often, incidents are linked and can lead to the identification of a problem
that the teams must solve. Problem management can then lead to a simple
resolution, a change (see below), or a workaround (temporary or not,
depending on the cost of resolution). When a problem cannot be solved, it
generates a known error that must be documented.

The efficiency of incident management in the broadest sense of the term

is then achieved through numerous software mechanisms that help the

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2.3 - Change management
In ITSM, change management is the management of changes or evolutions
of items listed in the configuration database (CMDB). A change can be
initiated in several ways:
Either by a customer request: to upgrade a professional software
version which implies the purchase of a licence, to change the
workstation for better performing hardware, etc.
Or by an incident, or more often by a problem (group of incidents):
changing hardware or updating firmware can resolve malfunctions
Or because it is planned in the life cycle of the elements, or simply
decided by the managers.
A change may have a more substantial impact than on the element
directly concerned. Upgrading an element may require cascading updates
upstream of the element for which the change is requested. A server
application change, for example, requires other mandatory updates
that it may be able to anticipate and plan for. A change may involve the
management of a project of a certain scale and the ITSM solution must
be able to support the agents with tools for steering, planning and at least
analysing the impact of a change on other elements.
2.4 - Configuration Management Data Base (CMDB)
The CMDB is a central component of the ITSM solution. This database
contains all the information related to the IS elements that are useful to
other services (Service Desk, Asset Management, Change). It is here that
we find the identification of hardware and software: to whom they are
allocated, their version, the dependencies with one another, the details of
contracts and licences, etc. This is an information base that can be very
useful for problem solving: when a user reports a problem with his or her
workstation, the agent immediately recognises its model and the software
installed.
On the market, the CMDB is always available, but some offer innovations
such as automatic health audits (ageing of certain elements, potential
incompatibilities in dependencies, incompleteness of the database, etc. ).
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2.5 - Asset management
Asset management is the management of IS assets. Whether hardware or
software, assets are costly elements that need to be monitored throughout
their life cycle. Asset Management first of all makes it possible to ensure
that everything within the organisation is used and has a value in relation
to what it has cost. An asset must provide value. This part of the ITSM
solution helps to manage the life cycle of assets and to optimise their
ownership through cost measurement tools and even ROI.

Asset Management is an important asset for decision-makers and even

more so in large organisations to optimise the important cost centre that
IT has become.

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Market Overview

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1 - The ITSM and ESM market in 2023
In 2023, the ITSM market is already large and growing. According
to Gartner, it will represent 8 billion dollars in 2023. It is also highly
competitive.
Start-ups
We can no longer count the tools focused on the Help Desk, which are
also very difficult to differentiate. The market is clearly shrinking as we
move towards ITSM and even more towards ESM. In terms of market
share, ServiceNow and BMC have the largest share. They have the most
advanced products on the market and know how to address the largest
organizations with complex contexts and constraints. Then there are Challengers
a number of solutions, often very mature and ITIL-certified (Jira SM,
EasyVista, Freshservice, etc.), but for which the competition will be the
toughest.

These products are aimed at medium-sized companies that are looking

for efficient software at a good price, without trying to go for the best
at the risk of getting lost in useless interfaces. Then, start-ups are
innovative and very specialised products that sometimes try to reinvent Leaders
certain concepts. They can also come as a complement to a more
traditional tool and the rest of the IS...

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The ITSM market is made up of diverse players: while some come from
the B-to-C service desk, others come from IT management in the broadest
sense, workflow and business applications, or project management.
ITSM brings together all these concepts to help organisations optimise
IT asset management and employee service. It is a logical next step for
many vendors who are already mature in enough aspects of ITSM to offer
a packaged product. The graph below illustrates the software domains
addressed by the vendors selected for this study. A distinction is made
between ITSM specialists and those who work in other areas that can be
linked to enrich the customer experience and even further optimise their
organisation.
The graph below illustrates the software domains addressed by the
vendors selected for this study.
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 Software domains of selected vendors

Infrastructure, Security,
Work Management
Governance

Workflows and Devops

business apps

Atlassian Combodo

Matrix42 FreshWorks

ServiceNow Easyvista

BMC Mint
Service Management 26
There are a certain number of Service Management specialists, the others
being much more generalists without offering more modest solutions, on
the contrary, as we will see below.
Atlassian is the latest player in the ITSM field, leveraging the power of
Jira to build a service desk solution and then an ITSM solution thanks to
strategic acquisitions (Mindville for the CMDB). ServiceNow, on the other
hand, is more derived from the service desk concept and has evolved a
great deal, particularly towards workflow and IT management, to achieve
what is probably today the most advanced ITSM and ESM solution,
closely followed by BMC. Others are pure specialists (EasyVista, Mint
SD, Freshworks, Combodo), interesting products that often allow costs
to be reduced as the product tends to focus on the essentials without
encouraging subscription to other solutions in the editor ecosystem.
In fact, opting for certain solutions will be worthwhile especially if you
happen to be a customer of other products in the vendor’s ecosystem as
well. ServiceNow tends to be an expensive platform, but if the overall power
of the platform is well exploited, the return on investment can be very
interesting. This will require a high level of maturity in IT, business workflow,
employee services catalogue, etc. Choosing ServiceNow (or BMC) means
gaining access to the best technologies, provided you have the appropriate
corporate culture and internal processes. Another «ecosystem» player:
Atlassian. The Jira Service Management solution will certainly be the
best choice for organisations that already use Confluence, since the latter
manages the knowledge base part, which JSM unfortunately lacks. Too
bad because in terms of licences, Confluence is the most expensive. It
will then be a question of exploiting all its qualities as a collaborative tool.
Also, Jira Software will be able to support Jira Service Management for the
project management part, and if necessary, Jira Align will enable teams
and projects to be aligned with the global strategy. JSM will continue to
evolve and making this choice independently of the rest of the Atlassian
ecosystem is becoming more and more relevant.
For organisations looking to get a foothold in ITSM, it seems wiser to
look at more specialised and basic solutions such as Mint, Freshservice
(Freshworks), or iTop (Combodo) for an open source alternative. These
well-packaged products allow for fast implementation and scalability
of uses as the organisation grows in maturity. Intermediate solutions,
Matrix42 or EasyVista offer advanced products that do not, however,
offer to stray too far from the ITSM domain. We remain on the basis of
relatively rapid deployment and a great capacity to develop uses. Then,
the price proposed by each company will undoubtedly make the difference,
but beyond the pure cost of the licence, attention should be paid to the
implementation work and, above all, to the increase in maturity that is
sometimes necessary to make good use of a product.
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The graph below summarizes the functional scope of each product, versus
the ease of its interfaces and the speed of implementation of use. We can
see that it is logically difficult to reconcile the two. A powerful product
will necessarily require a greater maturity on the part of the organization
and a consequent implementation time as a greater number of processes
will have to be modeled. The leading products on the market (BMC,
ServiceNow) are to be exploited, and therefore integrated as finely as
possible according to the organization’s business and work context. Then,
a group of challenger products (JiraSM, EasyVista, Freshservice, Matrix42)
are more difficult to differentiate by their functional coverage. They are all
capable of providing advanced ITSM tools in a relatively short time with a
good to very good user experience. These products have a lot of room for
improvement on the market. iTop is a bit behind in terms of functionality,
but does not offer an excellent interface experience. Mint SD will be the
«lightest» solution but also the simplest for a quick implementation.
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 Mint SD
Ease of use, integration times

EasyVista
Freshservice

Jira Service Management

Matrix42
iTop

BMC Helix

ServiceNow

Functional scope

29
Another way of highlighting this point is via a table that shows the maturity from the market. The implementation effort is also assessed and often
of the organisation on ITSM issues in order to acquire a particular product linked to the functional scope.

The required maturity

of the organisation on Quick to set up Functional scope
ITSM issues

BMC Helix

EasyVista

Freshservice

iTop

Jira Service Management

Matrix42

MintSD

ServiceNow

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2 - Innovations
2.1 - Towards ESM
An ITSM tool offers optimal management of the IT assets and a practical
service for employees regarding any incident or question relating to IT. But
an employee may need many other services in his daily work in the company
than IT: HR, Legal, general services, etc. Today, the various business lines
in the company are often equipped in a mixed way: the IT department may
have a service desk tool, HR may have a tool for a few procedures, the
legal department may simply have people who are identified as capable of
answering questions, and the general services department may not have
any way of making official contact in the event of a problem or question. It
is easy to imagine how much time is wasted in finding the right people to
answer problems, and above all, how much is not solved due to a lack of
processes or tools.
Therefore, the ESM holds great promise. It offers a single solution for
handling all employee requests in all areas of the company. In a single
service portal, each area has its own processes, agents and knowledge
base for handling requests. As ITSM has reached a certain maturity in
the market, it is increasingly turning to ESM. It is an easy exercise since
the basis for managing tickets is the same. If you can do IT, you can do
just about anything else, because you don’t have to do all the IT asset
management anymore. The challenge lies elsewhere: now that it is aimed
much less at technical profiles, it will simply be a matter of creating the
most effective interfaces possible to help agents process requests and set
up services easily. And there may be work to do, as the interfaces of ITSM
tools are sometimes not very engaging, at least for back office agents.
In addition to the ESM interface issue, going beyond IT to service faces
another barrier: the profound change in the way services are offered.
Beyond change, some areas simply do not offer direct service to employees.
Of course, an ESM is scalable and can initially offer service management to
departments that are ready, and eventually expand the tool to other areas
of the organisation once the corporate culture has matured towards the
ESM.
It is easy to understand the contribution of a centralised ESM capable of
optimising the day-to-day operation of an organisation, and thus reducing
lost time. The market is naturally moving in this direction, but beware
of promises, as it is not trivial to apply a sometimes complex IT logic to
non-technical departments of the organisation. It is therefore all the more
important for companies to be supported in moving towards ESM: auditing
the processes to be implemented by business line, configuring the platform
as closely as possible to the organisation’s identity, etc.
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2.2 - Artificial intelligence and automation
Artificial intelligence has emerged in the software industry in recent years.
In the field of ITSM, it can have a strong added value, and still has good
prospects of evolution on the current market which has not yet reached its
maturity at this level.
Today, the tools are ready for CMDBs, asset management, and especially
the service desk, but AI can still improve the experience to save time and
efficiency for agents. And it can have a role to play in many aspects of
ITSM. Here’s an overview of the features the market can offer:
2.2.1 Automatic ticket enhancement
The user with the request or problem may not always be able to provide
sufficient details, often because they simply do not have them.
Automated systems can first automatically link the hardware of the person
affected to the ticket. So if the user has an incident on his PC, the CMDB
knows which model is concerned, and the ticket can fetch the information
by itself, provided that the automation is set up beforehand. When this is
possible, it is often an action that can be done in NoCode. (Jira Service
Management, Service Now, BMC, ... )
Finally, for a last example, the solution can make an impact analysis when
a ticket is submitted: an incident on a particular product or software may
have an impact or risks on others. The information can be deduced thanks
to a CMDB that is finely tuned, particularly in terms of the dependencies
between assets.
2.2.2 Problem solving assistance
The ITSM solution can help the agent to speed up the problem solving
process, by offering different information automatically. If the customer
has not found any similar tickets at the time of publishing the request,
they can be suggested to the agent in an enhanced way, as well as the
articles in the knowledge base of course. Also, the tool can investigate
by searching the CMDB dependencies and inform the agent about the
hardware or software elements that may impact the incident. The better
the database is populated, the better the tool will be able to assist in
the resolution and the more efficient the incident handling will be. Much
depends on the tool’s ability to be proactive, but the database is a well-
organised and well-informed solution, even if the platform chosen does
not offer an advanced intelligent system.

Then, an AI can try to categorise the ticket to be automatically transferred

to the right team, even if it means that the team can adjust it afterwards if
necessary, and then help the AI to do better next time (Service Now).
32
2.2.3 Satisfaction analysis

This is the logic of an ITSM tool: offering services and providing satisfaction
in order to optimise service quality. The tool often analyses this satisfaction
by means of surveys, either immediately after the resolution of an incident,
or with more hindsight by means of regular surveys on the overall service.

Where satisfaction can be expressed, without being really measurable, is in

the conversations between agents and customers: the thread associated
with the ticket, the chat, the telephone, etc. To measure this expression
of satisfaction, which is in fact the most sincere, AI can have the ability
to detect emotions in the different channels to provide a metric for real
satisfaction. ServiceNow is one of the pioneers in this field.

33
2.3 Integration with the software factory
An ITSM system that is connected to development and project
management tools will be more efficient in resolving incidents, especially
problems and managing changes. The symbiosis between development
and support teams (internal, external) is a real asset for performance. A
large number of editors offer connectors, at least with the most common
project management tool: Jira. Sometimes, however, it will be necessary to
use the API for the link with the project management (iTop, Mint). Atlassian
is the only editor to provide project management tools with Jira Software
which can be intimately linked to Jira SM, through projects, reporting, etc.
For the DevOps chain, Atlassian is also present with its dedicated
solutions, and privileged connectors like the one of GitLab. Among the
other editors, only the leaders of the ITSM market know how to propose
direct connectors with Devops (BMC, ServiceNow). The others rely on the
connected project management tool (most often Jira) to take care of the
link with Devops, which makes sense.

Project Management DevOps

BMC Helix Connectors : Jira, Azure Devops, Planview, Rally, ... Connectors : Gitlab, ...

EasyVista Connectors : Jira / Azure Devops Through Jira / Azure

Freshservice Jira Connector Through Jira

iTop Trough API Through API

Bitbucket, SourceTree, Bamboo, ...

Jira Service Management Jira Software
Connectors : GitLab, ...

MintSD Through API Through API

Matrix42 Jira connector Through Jira

ServiceNow Connectors : Jira, Monday, Wrike, Rally, .. Connectors : Gitlab, GitHub, ...

* Subject to an additional license fee. 34

Solutions

35
BMC Helix is a set of solutions for building an ITSM platform with other BMC is one of the market leaders with a cutting-edge solution, aimed at
IT-related uses, a customised platform at the cutting edge of technology. mature and demanding organisations.
In fact, Helix is first and foremost one of the most mature ITSM products,
in line with the latest ITIL recommendations. It can be enhanced with other
products to manage advanced processing workflows, a knowledge base, a
virtual assistant, a self-service platform, etc.

The solution will therefore have the advantage of being modular, but
BMC stands out for its ability to propose intelligent mechanisms to
optimise each stage of the service. The editor provides a platform for the
management of very fine automation, which, once parameterised, will
allow considerable time savings in processing. Also, and above all, BMC is
working on the Machine Learning dimension of its products. The software
is proactive and improves its recommendations for action as the platform
evolves. For example, Helix will be able to analyse data from a well-filled
CMDB and the ticket database to warn of potential future problems to be
Solution’s strengths
corrected before being detected by end users.

Automation everywhere
Solution’s proactivity (AI)

36
 Cloud provider
Oracle, AWS, Azure, ...

On Premise Open Source

Customer Portal

ESM Ticket processing UX

Scalability

Connectivity

Change
Automatism
management
Price

Recommended level of accompaniment

CMDB Knowledge base
1 2 3 4 5

Asset Management

Recommended company size

< 250 250 - 5000 >5000

37
38
Easy Vista is a comprehensive ITSM product designed to be easy to use, EasyVista is a specialist with a very exhaustive solution, with a good degree
without compromising on functionality. Customised service portal, change of intelligence and capable of centralising the company’s IT management
manager, asset manager, performance monitoring, virtual assistant, etc. thanks to its connectivity.
The solution is very complete for this leading ITSM specialist.

The editor is working in particular on the interfaces, and first of all those of
the client, who will have access to a contextualised service portal. For their
part, the agents have access to «EVie», an intelligent assistant that aims
to automate certain regular tasks to save time and improve the quality of
the experience for the agent, who can then concentrate on the real added
value. In general, the product is designed to automate all the regular
processes that can be automated, thanks to an efficient configurator.

Solution’s strengths

Good compromise between functional

richness and ease of use
Regular task automation

39
 Cloud provider
EasyVista

On Premise Open Source

Customer Portal

ESM Ticket processing UX

Scalability

Connectivity

Change
Automatism
management
Price

Recommended level of accompaniment

CMDB Knowledge base
1 2 3 4 5

Asset Management

Recommended company size

< 250 250 - 5000 >5000

40
41
Freshworks started out as a B-to-C service desk player offering a simple
and practical solution that optimised the user experience by understanding
that if the customer already has a problem when they contact the company,
they shouldn’t be frustrated again in their after-sales process. Today,
Freshworks has adapted its solution to the internal service desk by adding
the requirements needed for IT Service Management.
The Freshservice solution does not skip any functional brick and focuses
on the basics while keeping as a priority the intuitiveness of the interfaces.
There are more advanced solutions, but can they claim to be 100% used by
their customers?

Freshworks offers a solid ITSM solution with traditional building blocks

such as CMDB, asset management, change management, in addition to
the inevitable service desk that Freshworks has mastered. Freshservice
also offers a notion of AI with the automation of regular tasks, and a
chatbot to accompany the customer and relieve the agents.

Solution’s strengths

User experience
Tailored functional coverage

42
 Cloud provider
AWS

On Premise Open Source

Customer Portal

ESM Ticket processing UX

Scalability

Connectivity

Change
Automatism
management
Price

Recommended level of accompaniment

CMDB Knowledge base
1 2 3 4 5

Asset Management

Recommended company size

< 250 250 - 5000 >5000

43
44
iTop is an open source ITSM solution developed by Combodo. It is a a service access portal that can be customised and contextualised. We are
product that respects the latest ITIL recommendations and offers all the therefore in line with market standards.
expected functional bricks: Service Desk, change management, CMDB,
asset management, workflows, self-service catalogue, etc. iTOP is logically very open to third-party solutions, for example to integrate
external data, particularly for the configuration database (CMDB).
Despite a slightly out-of-date interface design, it is still intuitive and
well organised for operators. The solution is not highly configurable,
which requires a great deal of work to set up, but this will allow for better
adaptation to the context, within the limits of the tool’s capabilities, which
remain behind the market leaders that allow for more sophisticated
configurations. iTop therefore provides a certain flexibility of integration
with a broad functional coverage. Only the notion of chatbot will have to be
added by a third party solution if necessary, and knowledge management
falls short of the market, but here too an additional solution can do the job,
which is not the added value of an ITSM tool. The customer has access to

Solution’s strengths

Open source flexibility

Low cost solution for an efficient first
level of ITSM

45
 Cloud provider
Hosting partner

On Premise Open Source

Customer Portal

ESM Ticket processing UX

Scalability

Connectivity

Change
Automatism
management
Price

Recommended level of accompaniment

CMDB Knowledge base
1 2 3 4 5

Asset Management

Recommended company size

< 250 250 - 5000 >5000

46
47
Jira Service Management has quickly become a complete ITSM and even Jira’s reputation shines on this offering, and rightly so. Jira SM is also a
ESM solution, especially following the acquisition of Insight (Mindville) highly configurable solution that takes advantage of the very large and
which comes to equip CMDB and asset management needs. largely compatible Jira marketplace. Starting from a pure Help Desk
offer, Atlassian has quickly reached the maturity of the ESM market at
Historically, Jira is a powerful tool for managing tickets and tasks in competitive prices.
general, and Jira SM is a package of Jira Software optimized for ITSM and
ESM thanks to project models adapted to the various business lines of an
organization (IT, but also HR, Legal, etc.). The association with OpsGenie,
which optimizes the follow-up and processing by agents, or Halp, which
integrates the management of tickets into the usual conversation tools,
makes Jira Service Management an innovative solution for ITSM.

Also, the integration of Insight is now more transparent, and the product
is evolving rapidly. From now on, Confluence is a seamless knowledge
management tool, and what better way to manage service management
knowledge than with Confluence? This is a strong point of Atlassian’s Solution’s strengths
solution.
The power of integration with
Confluence
Jira and OpsGenie’s experience with
ticket management

48
 Cloud provider
AWS

On Premise Open Source

Customer Portal

ESM Ticket processing UX

Scalability

Connectivity

Change
Automatism
management
Price

Recommended level of accompaniment

CMDB Knowledge base
1 2 3 4 5

Asset Management

Recommended company size

< 250 250 - 5000 >5000

49
50
Mint Service Desk is the «lightest» solution of the selection for getting
started in ITSM with a product that is very easy to access. Mint goes
straight to the point but covers what is recommended by ITIL and provides
the important functional bricks such as CMDB and asset management. For
a solution that claims to be a «Service Desk», this is actually a real plus!
Mint will be the least expensive tool of the selection with functions that
address the essentials, but with little compromise on the services part. It
is a tool that is suitable for organisations that want an IT service desk that
allows them to step calmly into ITSM.

Mint therefore does not offer many things: first of all, the automation and
other «intelligent» functionalities which often significantly increase the
licence costs and which may be superfluous for many organisations. Also,
the knowledge base remains basic, as does the Change Management part
which will need to be configured if it is needed. To add to Mint what may
be missing, the editor has an answer: Custom Fields. Thanks to them, you
can configure custom services, add change management, and above all
manage assets in symbiosis with your organisational context.

Solution’s strengths

Custom Fields to customise services

and management
An essential tool for a reasonable cost

51
 Cloud provider
-

On Premise Open Source

Customer Portal

ESM Ticket processing UX

Scalability

Connectivity

Change
Automatism
management
Price

Recommended level of accompaniment

CMDB Knowledge base
1 2 3 4 5

Asset Management

Recommended company sizeS

< 250 250 - 5000 >5000

52
53
Matrix42 is a German company that offers technical management solutions activate his request and wait for the workflow to take place. Matrix 42 has
in general. ITSM is therefore just one part of the package. At Matrix42, we default workflows in its service catalogue and wherever they are needed
also address ESM, which indicates that IT is not the only area covered, but (changes, etc.) and they can be customised as required.
that IT will be the main focus.
Matrix 42 is an easy-to-access and highly customisable solution. It can be
The solution is well packaged for ready-to-use in simple contexts, and easily and quickly integrated into many contexts.
remains highly customisable, particularly for contextualising displays
to the connected person. Matrix 42 shows great maturity in IT asset
management with a CMDB and an asset management system well
integrated with the service desk. The interfaces are easy to access and
finely contextualised.

Matrix can differentiate itself with its service catalogue, developed as an

online shop. In the case of a material need, the customer can shop around,

Solution’s strengths

Service catalogue
Editor’s expertise in IT management

54
 Cloud provider
AWS, Google Cloud, Azure

On Premise Open Source

Customer Portal

ESM Ticket processing UX

Scalability

Connectivity

Change
Automatism
management
Price

Recommended level of accompaniment

CMDB Knowledge base
1 2 3 4 5

Asset Management

Recommended company size

< 250 250 - 5000 >5000

55
56
ServiceNow is considered the market leader in ITSM. In fact, it has an ServiceNow may be the platform to consider when the organisation has
impressive offering and an all-in-one platform that goes far beyond ITSM. reached a high level of maturity in the field, with demanding needs that
require the latest technologies.
As the market leader, ServiceNow incorporates a number of innovations
and is a forerunner in AI, which will bring a lot of value to its solution.
From the automatic categorisation of requests to the analysis of customer
emotion to assess satisfaction, ServiceNow literally takes the work out of
the agents’ hands, always in well-designed interfaces.

ServiceNow offers a product focused on ITSM, but it is primarily designed

for large organisations that will be able to exploit the full range of the
platform’s offering, which has extensive uses in IT workflow or customer
service in general. In terms of cost, the platform remains at the top end of
the market for excellent services that may be overpriced in some cases.

Solution’s strengths

Pervasive AI
Highly rich platform

57
 Cloud provider
ServiceNow

On Premise Open Source

Customer Portal

ESM Ticket processing UX

Scalability

Connectivity

Change
Automatism
management
Price

Recommended level of accompaniment

CMDB Knowledge base
1 2 3 4 5

Asset Management

Recommended company size

< 250 250 - 5000 >5000

58
59
The authors of this study :

Thomas Poinsot
Chief of Studies

Yosra Morjane
UI/UX Designer

60
Press Contact
Dora Delaporte
Director of Communications

Office : +33 (0)1 41 10 09 94

Mobile : +33 (0)6 15 77 62 82
Email : dora.delaporte@spectrumgroupe.fr

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