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Why More Companies Are Switching From ServiceNow to Jira Service Management

Written by Admin | Sep 22, 2025 3:23:20 PM

Disconnected processes, organizational silos, and costly upgrades are often a reality with complex legacy IT Service Management (ITSM) solutions. But even with these challenges, many companies are hesitant to make the switch to a modern service provider. 

ServiceNow and other legacy solutions have played a significant role across organizations for decades, creating fear that a switch will be too disruptive or difficult. But migrating to a modern ITSM solution like Jira Service Management (JSM) doesn’t have to be a painful process. 

Jira Service Management brings teams together, unlocking enterprise service management (ESM), operational efficiency, and increased productivity. Here’s why more companies are making the switch to Jira Service Management to deliver best-in-class service at scale, and how companies can navigate challenges to migrate successfully. 

 

Why Companies Make the Switch

A few key factors drive the decision to migrate to Jira Service Management from ServiceNow:

  • Cost: The total cost of ownership for ServiceNow is high, particularly for organizations seeking modern functionality. Licensing, maintenance fees, and a dedicated, specialized team to manage the platform are expensive. It also often requires add-ons and annual upgrades to maintain support and performance. 
  • Organizational silos: There is no easy way for cross-organizational teams to collaborate on ServiceNow. This results in organizational silos, bottlenecks, and inefficient, manual processes that prevent true cross-team collaboration. Jira Service Management is an ESM solution that brings teams across an organization together on a single platform. 
  • Internal advocacy: There is often an internal push to adopt the Atlassian ecosystem, whether it comes from teams already using Atlassian tools or new hires who have used Atlassian previously. 
  • AI: ServiceNow’s AI capabilities are often additional add-ons, making AI adoption more expensive. It can also be more difficult to implement enterprise-wide. JSM includes built-in AI with its Premium and Enterprise plans at no extra cost, streamlining AI adoption across your business.  
  • Governance: The size and customizations available in ServiceNow can make governance challenging. JSM has built-in, intuitive workflows that are easier for teams to manage. 
  • Integrations: JSM seamlessly integrates into teams’ existing processes. JSM offers more third-party integrations and APIs than ServiceNow, and can easily adapt to complex environments.

 

Common Migration Challenges to Prepare For

The migration process can be complex, even when it ultimately benefits a company. Common challenges organizations face during migration include:

  • Asset discovery: When migrating to a new solution, organizations must identify and catalog all assets. In many cases, teams lack a clear, centralized view of all their assets, resulting in unexpected costs during migration. 
  • Data and integration complexity: Working in highly regulated industries, like automotive, financial services, or pharmaceuticals, requires strict compliance, which makes migration complex. If data isn't auditable and immutable during migration, companies can face technical debt.
  • Change management: Change is difficult, and many companies struggle to implement new tools and solutions effectively. Factors like the fear of AI adoption or transitioning to a new solution require companies to build buy-in throughout the migration process.
  • ServiceNow buybacks: While it can be tempting to accept a buyback deal, cost-cutting alone won't fix the underlying issues that prompted a switch in the first place.

Understanding common challenges before making the switch to JSM can help ensure a smoother transition, but the real “art” of the switch lies in knowing how to approach it. 

 

How to successfully approach Migration

While companies may push for rapid migration, a phased approach is often more effective. Gradual change is easier to implement and provides opportunities to address any issues upfront. A phased approach typically involves incrementally rolling out changes to standard processes and workflows first, and then gradually building up to more complex instances. This helps reduce risk and increase buy-in across an organization.

Other ways companies can ensure a successful migration and long-term success with JSM are: 

  • Measuring success and outcomes through total cost of ownership, mean time to resolution (MTTR), deflection rates for lower-level tickets, and automation coverage. 
  • Creating feedback loops across teams to create a system of proactive improvement versus reactive decisions.
  • Implementing AI thoughtfully throughout workflows, not just ornamentally. 
  • Creating synergy and breaking down silos across departments by implementing an enterprise-wide service management approach. 

By focusing on your business’s needs and processes first, you can configure JSM to fit the way your teams work best, instead of adapting your work to the tool’s capabilities. Ultimately, this creates a more efficient and modern service management solution for your entire organization.


How Valiantys Helps You Master the Switch

Valiantys has executed over 30 migrations from ServiceNow to JSM, making us the perfect strategic partner to ensure your business gains value from the start. We don’t just migrate your data, we help you master the switch. With our Precision Framework, we take a risk-based approach to every migration, using our specialized migration tooling, best practices, and change enablement specialists to ensure a smooth transition and deliver high-value, sustainable outcomes for your organization. 

 

To learn how Valiantys can help your team master the art of the switch with Atlassian, contact us today