IT Service Management systems are a crucial element of the IT structure of well-developed organizations. They help teams better handle, prioritize, and organize the end-to-end delivery of services to end-users. That is why choosing the right IT service management tool is an important step for those businesses that aim to scale. Systems like ServiceNow and Jira Service Management are two of the most popular names in the ITSM domain.
In the following lines, we’ll focus on the most prominent features of each of the systems and take a closer look at their pros and cons to help with the choice of the best solution.
What is ServiceNow?
At its core, ServiceNow is a multifunctional software solution that provides users with comprehensive service/help desk functionality. It enhances workflows, team collaboration, and automation of crucial activities such as incident management.
Thanks to its comprehensiveness, ServiceNow fits both the iPaaS (allows the users to create their apps) and SaaS (enables workflow automation in the company) categories. ServiceNow’s scalable nature allows users to manage incoming requests with flexibility and promptness. As a result, different internal processes and operations gain much-needed visibility.
ServiceNow key features:
- ITSM module – fulfill service requests, streamline services, and govern access and availability
- Orchestration module – automates IT and business processes and helps you reduce tasks, improve productivity, and automate and accelerate processes
- Cloud Management – manage public, private, or hybrid cloud-infrastructure resources and services
- Security Operations – get full control over your data and choose between flexible encryption options to meet your specific criteria
What is Jira Service Management?
Previously known as Jira Service Desk, Jira Service Management is another widely used IT service management product. Stepping on the famous Atlassian platform, the system bears some core similarities with no other but Jira Software. Relevantly simple to deploy and use, Jira Service Management helps responsible IT teams cope easily with crucial incidents, changes, problems, asset and configuration management tasks, and operations.
When deployed into the IT ecosystem of the organization, Jira Service Management brings crucial visibility and speed to various workflows that run between its IT, DEV, and Business units.
Jira Service Management key features:
- Request Management
- Incident Management
- Problem Management
- Asset Management
- Configuration Management
- Knowledge Management
Similarities and Differences
Both ServiceNow and Jira Service Management are flexible and scalable solutions that help enterprises focus on vital tasks and goals, automate recurring work-related actions, and apply agile methodologies in customer-related issues resolutions. The accumulated data and metrics from ServiceNow and Jira Service Management enable the responsible teams build multi-tier reports. This helps them further analyze each step of the operations in their IT framework.
ServiceNow is a more complex and vaster platform and thus takes longer to implement (sometimes you might need the help of a developer), while Jira SM is more straightforward, but might lack some more sophisticated functionalities. ServiceNow has well-established reporting and search functions, as well.
There are, however, a few notable differences between ServiceNow and Jira Service Management that deserve mention. With the following table we’ll try to dig deeper into them:
| ServiceNow | Jira Service Management | |
| Deployment | Cloud, On-prem | On-prem, Atlassian cloud |
| Product overview | Single pane of glass – list of comprehensive modules aiming to help mid- to large enterprises scale their performance and leverage their goals | Easy to configure platform with an extensive list of modules and add-ons. Aims to help companies (regardless of their size) to scale up their results by instantly deploying it |
| Self-service | Service Portal with peer-to-peer knowledge sharing | Service Portal with advanced smart search option |
| Incident/ Problem Management | Problems from Incidents creation/management
Advanced search in existing related Incidents and Knowledge base ITOM module – focused on Incident discovery |
Incidents to Problems creation/management |
| Configuration | Variety of modules to address the specific needs of the organization
Advanced Service Mapping, Orchestration and Discovery features Advanced data aggregation for health reports and metrics
|
Advanced CMDB add-ons
A variety of add-ons that can scale up with the company’s evolution
|
| Knowledge Management | Designated Knowledge Base for each user audience (Wiki style)
Support in a variety of languages Workflow approval Allows the import of Knowledge Base in file different formats Article improvements and refresh are available as an option |
Scalable Article creation, based on ticket creation
Content creation withing the Incidents/Requests |
| Reporting | Advanced filtering options, allowing users to make reports for different audience groups
Advanced function on tracking of accumulated data across the ServiceNow platform Easy to use tools for report creation Inclusion of SLAs and metrics into the reports Performance analytics available withing the report creation |
Out-of-the Box reports and filtering options
Advanced data filtering Easy data and reports export/import Variety of add-ons for more comprehensive filtering inside the report |
| Security | Prominent level of security/encryption
SSO – 2FA ACLs (Roles/Groups) |
Prominent levels of security/encryption
SSO – 2FA ACLs (Roles/Groups) |
| Enterprise options | Fits the needs of any department in a company (from HR to Legal) | Covers the needs of any of the company’s departments |
| Automation | Advanced automation/workflow features | Advanced automation/workflow features |
| Licenses | Separate subscription for the different modules | Add-ons based on the count of agents/users
|
| Administration | Allows administration of each of the deployed modules | Easy validation of errors/issues |
| Pricing | Subscription based; License starts at $100 user/month | 4 pricing plans (free, standard, premium and Enterprise) |
| Interface | More advanced and sophisticated interface | Easy to navigate and intuitive interface |
| Time for Implementation | Depends on the size of the company; The average time is between 12 and 18 months | Up to 2 months |
ServiceNow is a larger platform, incorporates lots of different modules, and needs more time to be set up. The system is also more suitable for larger enterprises and more complex environments and use cases.
In general, by choosing either of the systems, businesses will have a solid grip on pivotal for their business growth operations like management and resolution of customer-related problems and internal communication between their teams. On some occasions, it’s ServiceNow’s highly advanced features that draw companies towards it. On other occasions, it’s Jira Service Management ‘s intuitive and plain design that weighs in on in their favor.
Comparison chart
| ServiceNow | Jira Service Management | |
| IT Knowledge Management | Great | Great |
| Integrated AI | Great | Great |
| Service Configuration Management | Good | Good |
| User Experience | Good | Great |
| Ease of Deployment | Good | Good |
| Availability of 3rd-Party Resources | Good | Good |
| Quality of End-User Training | Great | Great |
If a company uses both ServiceNow and Jira Service Management
Sometimes, large companies use more than one ITSM system. If ServiceNow and Jira Service Management are both present in your organization, an integration between them will have а significant impact on your overall operations. It will allow you to combine and use many functionalities that aim to lift the pressure off your employees’ shoulders and improve internal communication and workflows. Additionally, ticket resolution will speed up – leading to boosted customer satisfaction. Manual work, data gaps, and human-related errors will diminish.
With an out-of-the-box integration tool like ZigiOps, the connection of ServiceNow and Jira Service Management happens within minutes without a single line of additional coding. The integration platform seamlessly establishes a bi-directional connection between the two ITMS tools – allowing instant data transfer. With its advanced filtering and data mapping capabilities, ZigiOps allows full control over the information collected and transferred between the systems.
ZigiOps allows the seamless transfer of the following data types:
- Tickets
- Incidents
- Issues
Summary
IT service management tools play a significant role in the development and growth of businesses. They allow them to focus their attention and efforts on providing high-quality, client-oriented services on time. However, facing a sea of possibilities on the market to choose from could be an issue. Picking the right tool can often take a lot of time and be frustrating. The choice must be based on the current company needs but with room for future scalability.
ServiceNow and Jira Service Management are two of the most popular names and can be found embedded in the IT systems of most modern-day enterprises. If integrated, the two have a positive impact on the quality and speed of services provided to the end customers, team collaboration and overall business results.
ZigiOps no-code integration platform can help you achieve all this in a matter of minutes. Choose smart automation. Book a technical demo with us and start your free trial.
