ESM: How to raise service levels across HR, Facility and IT in 2026
In 2026, Enterprise Service Management (ESM) is no longer a buzzword – it’s the foundation of the modern digital workplace. How many organizations find IT running efficiently in Jira, while HR and Facilities are drowning in emails.
By extending your existing Jira Service Management (JSM) to the entire organization, you can create a single point of entry for employees. It’s about removing friction in everyday life so that an onboarding or facility request feels as easy as ordering a new laptop via a professional Enterprise Service Management solution.
And there are big gains to be made by joining forces:
Companies realize an average productivity gain of $1.4 million over three years by streamlining their service desk (Forrester, 2025). As the absolute market leader in The Forrester Wave™ Enterprise Service Management, Atlassian delivers the most future-proof platform to break down your internal silos and drive measurable results.
By extending your existing Jira Service Management (JSM) to your entire organization, you can create a single point of entry for employees. It’s not just about tools; it’s about removing friction in everyday life so that an onboarding or facility request feels as easy as ordering a new laptop.
Your quick overview
In short, Enterprise Service Management (ESM) is about professionalizing your internal service delivery so that all departments work as efficiently as IT. But to understand why 2026 is the right time to move on this, we need to look at the technological opportunities that have now become available to everyone. We dive into one of the most
One portal for everything: Employees only need to go to one place, whether they need a new employment contract or a coffee machine repair.
Fast Time-to-Value: With Atlassian’s standard HR and Facility templates, new departments can go live in a matter of weeks.
AI across silos: Atlassian Intelligence (AI) can now answer questions across departments – for example, “What is your maternity leave policy?” or “How do I get access to the canteen?”.
Privacy and security: Although the platform is unified, strict access controls ensure that HR data stays in HR and IT data stays in IT.
Why is 2026 the year of the Enterprise Service Management breakthrough?
ESM used to be complex and expensive to set up. But with the latest updates to Jira Service Management in 2026, the boundaries between departments have softened while security has become stronger. This means you can consolidate your system landscape and save on licenses across the organization.
Here’s what you get:
Preconfigured templates: Specifically designed for HR onboarding, facility records management and legal document management.
Better integrations: Direct connection to your HR systems (like Workday or SuccessFactors).
AI-driven workflows: Suggesting solutions based on previous cases in other departments.
By leveraging these ready-made solutions, you can consolidate your system landscape and save on licenses across the organization. However, this collection of tools requires that security comes with it, especially when we’re talking about the most sensitive data in the organization.
By leveraging these ready-made solutions, you can consolidate your system landscape and save on licenses across the organization. However, this collection of tools requires that security comes with it, especially when we’re talking about the most sensitive data in the organization
"Enterprise Service Management removes the invisible walls between departments.
It's about seeing the organization as a single service provider for the employee"
Why Enterprise Service Management in JSM beats traditional legacy systems
While many departments used to buy their own small niche systems, we are now seeing a wave of consolidation. This is mainly due to the need to reduce technical debt and create a consistent user experience for employees.
Area of interest
User experience
One single portal (Help Center)
5 different portals and logins
Data & Reporting
Full overview of your organization's service performance
Impossible to see the total load
Automation
Automated workflows (e.g. IT equipment is automatically ordered during HR onboarding)
Manual handoffs between departments
AI support
Atlassian Intelligence helps all departments
Rarely found or limited to IT
While many departments used to buy their own small niche systems, we are now seeing a wave of consolidation. This is mainly due to the need to reduce technical debt and create a consistent user experience for employees.
Isolated Cloud and ESM: Security for the most sensitive data
One of the biggest concerns about moving HR or Legal into the same system as IT, for example, is data protection. With the introduction of Isolated Cloud in 2026, this barrier is removed.
You can now offer your HR department an environment that is physically and logically separate, but still benefits from the same user-friendly platform.
Here you get, among other things:
Full isolation: No risk of IT administrators accidentally accessing sensitive personnel files.
Region-specific data: Ability to place data in a specific region (e.g. EU) to meet strict data residency requirements.
Customer Managed Keys (BYOK): You own the encryption keys for your most critical business data.
Highest standards: Supports security requirements such as FedRAMP High and DoD IL5.
In short, Isolated Cloud gives you the security that used to require heavy on-premise solutions, but with all the benefits of a modern cloud platform. Once the foundation for security and isolation is in place, we can start looking at the practical rollout to get new departments up and running safely and efficiently.
Streamlined service across the house: The numbers behind ESM success
When we talk about deploying ESM, it’s about removing the “hidden stumbling blocks” in the organization. The results from companies that have consolidated their processes into a single portal show a significant improvement in both speed and ability to scale.
The benefits of consolidating your services into one platform include:
61% improvement in turnaround time: Teams solve tasks significantly faster through better tracking and collaboration (Forrester, 2025).
$1.4 million in increased productivity: Improved service desk efficiency over a three-year period (Forrester, 2025).
30% increase in ticket-handling efficiency: By year 3, AI and automation ensure significant time savings for agents (Forrester, 2025).
One unified truth: Integration between IT, HR, and Facilities creates visibility across risk, hardware, and software (Forrester, 2025).
These results highlight that ESM is not just a technical upgrade, but a strategic investment in the future scalability of your organization. By removing manual bottlenecks, you free up time for the tasks that actually create value for your customers and employees.
Guide: Successful deployment of Enterprise Service Management
When we help organizations expand their Service Management, it’s rarely about the technology – it’s about understanding the needs of each department. An HR professional doesn’t think in “Incidents”, but in “People”
A typical ESM journey looks like this:
- Maturity analysis: Which departments have the greatest need right now? (Often HR or Facility).
- Template customization: We use Atlassian’s best-practice templates so we don’t have to reinvent the wheel.
- Governance setup: We ensure rights and data separation are in place from day one.
- Rollout and Training: We onboard the new “agents” in the other departments so they feel comfortable in the Jira universe.
By following this structured approach, you avoid the classic pitfalls where the system feels forced. Instead, you create departmental ownership, which is key to achieving the proven results that a modern cloud platform offers.
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