ITSM vs. ESM: The Differences
And how to apply these two concepts to improve service delivery across departments.
Enterprise service management (ESM) and IT service management (ITSM) are two distinct but related disciplines. ITSM defines and manages how IT services are delivered. ESM builds on ITSM principles but extends them across departments like HR, Facilities, and Finance. While ITSM focuses specifically on IT services, ESM applies the same customer-centric, process-driven approach organization-wide.
Sysadmins are often asked to take on tasks well outside their responsibilities—sometimes even playing the role of handyman or electrician. What might sound like a common gripe is actually a deeper issue. It can be a sign that your organization doesn’t have proper channels for routing non-IT service requests.
Enterprise Service Management (ESM) offers a solution to this challenge. By extending the proven best practices of IT Service Management (ITSM) to other departments, ESM helps organizations streamline how services are delivered across the board. In this article, we’ll explain what ITSM and ESM are, highlight the differences between them, and show how both can improve the way your organization provides services.
What is ITSM?
IT Service Management (ITSM) is the discipline that defines and oversees how IT services are delivered within an organization, as well as the work of the IT team itself. The term also refers to the software solutions used to automate these processes. Such tools are often known as “ticketing systems,” “help desks,” or simply “tech support.”
Looking for ITSM and ITAM software? Check out Alloy Navigator. With Navigator:
- You can forget about manual ticket handling and routing. Convert emails into tickets, or create a user portal with a service catalog, knowledge base, and ticket creation forms. No coding required.
- All key support processes are pre-configured, including incident management, problem management, and change management.
- Our powerful workflow engine will take care of more complex processes if you need them. Any business logic can be automated within Alloy Navigator.
Want to learn more about our solution? Connect with our sales team.
What does ITIL mean for ITSM?
ITIL, or Information Technology Infrastructure Library, is a framework that gathers best practices of IT service delivery and gives recommendations on how to best manage the processes in IT support.
ITIL is a de-facto industry standard for IT service management. All major ITSM concepts, such as SLA, service request, incident and change, have been introduced in ITIL.
ITIL is centered on treating IT requests as services, with the primary goal of ensuring customer satisfaction. This approach raises the bar for service quality: requests need to be resolved within defined time frames, customers should receive regular updates, and issues must be escalated to subject-matter experts when frontline staff can’t resolve them.
ITIL: Customer at the center
Since ITIL approaches IT through the lens of service delivery, it quickly became clear that its workflows and processes could be applied far beyond IT.
The practices described in ITIL and adopted through ITSM consistently improve the customer experience. For instance, service level agreements (SLAs) set clear, time-bound commitments for service delivery, with potential financial penalties if those commitments aren’t met. This structure ensures reliability for customers while holding providers accountable.
Today, SLAs are widely used outside of IT as well, serving as a common framework to balance expectations between service providers and clients across many industries.
What is ESM?
Enterprise Service Management (ESM) extends the customer-focused principles of IT Service Management and ITIL processes to departments beyond IT. Common areas where ESM is applied include human resources, facilities, and finance.
What does this look like in practice? Take Facilities as an example.
The team offers a service catalog that might include badge access, desk moves, temperature issues, or cleaning requests.
Employees simply submit a form through the portal, and workflows automatically route the request: temperature issues to a building engineer, cleaning to a vendor, safety hazards escalated with a two-hour SLA.
Requesters see real-time status updates and ETAs. Knowledge articles—such as how to request a desk move or what counts as urgent—help reduce ticket volume.
Meanwhile, managers track metrics like mean time to resolution and backlog by building, allowing them to plan staffing and identify recurring issues.
For a deeper dive into Enterprise Service Management and its full definition, see our dedicated article here -> Enterprise Service Management: The Force of ITSM Across the Enterprise.
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What is the difference between ITSM and ESM?
Enterprise service management and IT service management are related but distinct concepts.
ITSM refers to a structured set of processes and policies designed to help organizations plan, deliver, operate, and continuously improve IT services. These services cover everything the IT department provides to support the rest of the company—from basic tasks like password resets to larger initiatives such as migrating data to the cloud.
ESM, on the other hand, takes the proven practices of ITSM and extends them to other business units across the organization. Its goal is to bring consistency, efficiency, and best practices to service delivery outside of IT.
How ITSM and ESM connect:
- Origins: ESM grew out of ITSM and is best understood as its extension rather than as a competing discipline.
- Shared foundation: Everything covered by ESM falls within the broader scope of ITSM. Ultimately, both are about managing services to improve organizational effectiveness.
- Distinct focus: ESM selectively applies ITSM principles and adapts them to suit the unique needs of different business functions, tailoring processes where they deliver the most value.
ITSM and ESM: Examples
Enterprise service management (ESM) examples:
- HR onboarding automation
When a new employee joins, an ESM platform automatically triggers tasks across HR, IT, and Facilities. From provisioning accounts to ordering equipment, everything is coordinated seamlessly, reducing delays and improving the employee’s first-day experience. - Facilities request handling
An ESM portal allows staff to submit maintenance requests, such as fixing broken equipment or booking meeting rooms. Automated workflows assign the right facilities team, track progress, and provide status updates, improving transparency and service quality.
IT service management (ITSM) examples:
- Password reset requests
Instead of contacting the IT helpdesk, employees use a self-service ITSM portal to reset forgotten passwords. Automated verification and reset tools significantly reduce downtime, minimize support costs, and improve user satisfaction. - Cloud migration support
ITSM frameworks guide organizations through structured cloud migration projects. Processes ensure tasks like data transfer, system testing, and risk management are executed methodically, reducing errors and ensuring smooth adoption of cloud infrastructure services.
The benefits of enterprise service management
By adopting enterprise service management (ESM), organizations can achieve several key advantages:
- Higher service quality: ESM encourages a standardized, customer-focused approach to service delivery. This ensures that services are consistently reliable and aligned with both user and customer expectations.
- Greater efficiency: Through process automation and streamlined workflows, ESM reduces manual effort and accelerates service fulfilment. For example, an automated approval system can save significant time compared to a project manager manually collecting stakeholder signoffs.
- Stronger employee satisfaction: With intuitive self-service portals, faster response times, and a seamless service experience, ESM improves the day-to-day interactions employees have with internal services. This is especially important in the post-COVID era, where digital service standards are higher than ever.
Key takeaways
Organizations often face challenges when IT teams are asked to handle non-IT tasks due to the absence of proper service channels.
Enterprise service management addresses this by applying the best practices of IT service management in other departments.
The key difference between ESM and ITSM lies in the application areas. For ITSM, it’s the IT team. For ESM, it’s other departments and business services in the enterprise.
By adopting ESM, companies gain higher service quality, greater efficiency, and stronger employee satisfaction, ensuring all internal services—not just IT—are delivered with the same level of professionalism and reliability.
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