ITSM, ESM, and IR walk into a platform: What happens next?

Most enterprise organizations run multiple, unique (and often disparate) platforms to manage service requests, enterprise workflows, and incident response.

🔧 IT logs into one application for IT Service Management (ITSM).
👥 HR logs into another application for its Enterprise Service Management (ESM).
🚨 DevOps logs into (yet another) application for Incident Response (IR).

3 applications. 3 logins. 3 separate activities.

Yet, ITSM, ESM, and IR are all interrelated, so why are there so many logins and different platforms?

And what happens when ITSM, ESM, and IR walk into (are managed via) the same platform?

Efficiencies. Faster resolutions. Happier customers. Increased productivity. More satisfied end users. In short, everyone wins.

Unfortunately, the reality is that most of today's organizations are more like the former. But it doesn't have to be that way.

The current reality of “3 applications” does not work

The traditional approach = separate solutions to manage separate problems.

• ITSM: “We manage IT tickets in our system.”
• ESM: “We process HR requests in our portal.”
• IR: “We track security incidents in our tools.”

It's not working. Context switching + duplicate data entry + delayed resolution = not optimal for the organization, internal stakeholders, or end users.

Simply put, when your Service Management lives in silos, so does your productivity.

Here's what happens when the 3 actually "meet" (Xurrent).

To continue the analogy ...

ITSM walks in: “Hey. I need to track service requests and manage changes.”

ESM follows: “Well, I need to handle HR onboarding and facilities requests.”

IR arrives: “Whatever. Real-time incident response with ongoing, transparent communication is what I need.”

They all stare at … Xurrent, who responds, "We've got you — all in a single, unified platform."

The net result:

⚡4-week implementations instead of months-long separate deployments, powered by AI-driven automation that connects previously siloed workflows.
🤝 Unified cross-functional visibility across all departments while enabling real-time collaboration without platform switching.
🔒 All with enterprise-grade security through ISO certifications and SOC-2 compliance.

Bonus: Significantly lower TCO (see #3 here) than managing three separate solutions.

Let’s review a real-world example that showcases the difference between siloed and unified approaches.

Monday morning chaos (vs. zen)

Imagine the following scenario: It's Monday morning. Eva, the new marketing manager, starts her first day at your organization. Just as her luck would have it, a critical customer-facing application goes down.

The traditional (siloed) approach looks like this (chaos)

Your monitoring system alerts DevOps about the outage ... but not before a deluge of tickets start to file into your support desk. The person responsible for logging incidents does their job and creates a case in the (separate) IR platform to kick off the troubleshooting process.

Meanwhile, HR — completely oblivious to the issue with the customer application (see: different system) — submits a ticket inquiring about why Eva's account provisioning process is not moving forward. After all, it has been 90 minutes, and the SLA requires 30 minutes.

Off in what seems like another world, the facilities team, working from their own portal (another unique system), has no visibility into either the IT crisis or Eva's onboarding delays. They are waiting (impatiently) for Eva to show up for her office tour.

IT is completely focused on the crisis and can't respond to any tickets. Eva is out of luck. No email setup. No Slack. Zero system access. No office tour. Eva sits in the lobby, wondering what is going on (and questioning her decision to join this company).

Customer support is having its own issues. Calls, emails, and other customer inquiries are coming in at a dizzying speed. They manually check all the different systems to understand what's happening: the incident management tool (which they don't have access to), the ITSM platform (where they can't see incident details), and the incident management platform, which still shows "all systems active" 22 minutes after the incident occurred.

Two hours later, the IR team manually updated all stakeholders across multiple platforms.

Customers are unhappy. Eva is questioning her career choice. And internal teams are frustrated — and bickering with each other.

The modern (unified) approach looks like this (zen)

When the application monitoring detects the outage, the platform automatically creates an incident ticket, triggers updates to the customer status page, and initiates the incident management workflow.

Simultaneously, Eva's ESM onboarding workflow provisions her IT accounts and assigns her workspace, ensuring IT can focus on the crisis. Once resolved, the team is alerted to resume provisioning.

Speaking of the outage, it is resolved in 15 minutes instead of 2 hours.

Customers stay informed through automated status page updates.

Eva is fully onboarded and productive by noon.

One platform — Xurrent — orchestrated incident response and employee onboarding simultaneously, with full visibility for all stakeholders. ITSM + ESM + IR are working together.

The Xurrent approach, explained.

The unified experience explained above isn't by accident.

It's the result of Xurrent's purpose-built architecture, designed for cross-functional collaboration. At the platform's core is a multi-tenant SaaS architecture that not only scales across departments but also intelligently orchestrates workflows between them, while maintaining strict data isolation and security controls.

Here's what makes this particularly powerful: Xurrent's AI automation goes beyond simple ticket creation and task routing; it assists engineers during incidents by answering questions and automatically retrieving the correct data from the relevant systems — in real-time.

During incidents, the platform helps engineers communicate more effectively about what is happening. The AI can suggest language and phrasing to improve incident documentation and communication clarity.

The AI postmortem conducts a detailed root cause analysis of what went wrong and provides suggested remedial actions.

This level of intelligent automation is why over 90% of Xurrent customers have enabled AI and are generating over 2,000 automated summaries per customer per week.

Xurrent's built-in trust system enables secure cross-organizational collaboration within minutes, not the weeks typically required for traditional integrations. 

The combination of real-time incident response through Zenduty and proactive customer communication via StatusCast results in a truly unified operational experience that legacy vendors simply cannot match with their "bolt-on" AI.

The suggested remedial actions are now fed into the ITSM to initiate the problem management process.

Finally, Xurrent's low-code automation builder enables IT teams to create these intelligent workflows without incurring the expense of expensive consulting engagements. Where competitors require months-long implementations and specialized services teams, Xurrent's automation capabilities enable organizations to achieve enterprise-grade workflow orchestration in weeks, not quarters.

Xurrent was designed from the ground up to make the complex look effortless.

Ready to end the platform chaos and enjoy a bit of zen?

Unified IT Operations Management (ITOM) is here. It's not some pie-in-the-sky future state.

And Eva's story isn't unique. Every day, organizations choose between chaos and zen, between fragmented workflows and seamless collaboration, between frustrated employees and productive teams.

The difference? One unified platform that connects ITSM, ESM, and incident response into a single, powerful experience.

The choice is yours: 3 platforms or 1. Chaos or Zen.

Want to see how ITSM, ESM, and IR work together in the real world?

Get started with Xurrent today to explore what unified service management could look like for your organization.

FAQs

1. What is the main problem with traditional ITSM, ESM, and IR approaches?

Traditional approaches use separate platforms for IT Service Management (ITSM), Enterprise Service Management (ESM), and Incident Response (IR). This creates inefficiencies through context switching, duplicate data entry, delayed resolutions, and siloed productivity. Teams must log into multiple applications, leading to poor visibility and coordination between departments.

2. How does Xurrent unify ITSM, ESM, and IR in a single platform?

Xurrent provides a unified platform that integrates all three functions through its purpose-built architecture designed for cross-functional collaboration. The multi-tenant SaaS architecture scales across departments while intelligently orchestrating workflows between them, maintaining strict data isolation and security controls throughout.

3. What are the key benefits of using Xurrent's unified approach?

The unified approach delivers:

• 4-week implementations instead of months-long separate deployments
• Unified cross-functional visibility across all departments
• Real-time collaboration without platform switching
• Enterprise-grade security through ISO certifications and SOC-2 compliance
• Significantly lower TCO than managing three separate solutions
• Faster incident resolution (15 minutes vs. 2 hours in the example)

4. How does Xurrent's AI automation work during incidents?

Xurrent's AI automation goes beyond simple ticket creation and routing. During incidents, it:

• Assists engineers by answering questions and retrieving correct data in real-time
• Suggests language and phrasing to improve incident documentation and communication clarity
• Conducts detailed root cause analysis through AI postmortem
• Provides suggested remedial actions that feed into the ITSM problem management process
• Generates over 2,000 automated summaries per customer per week

5. What is the implementation timeline for Xurrent compared to competitors?

Xurrent enables 4-week implementations using AI-driven automation, compared to competitors that require months-long implementations and specialized services teams. Xurrent's low-code automation builder enables IT teams to create intelligent workflows without the need for expensive consulting engagements, achieving enterprise-grade workflow orchestration in weeks, not quarters.

6. How does Xurrent handle security and compliance?

Xurrent maintains enterprise-grade security through:

• ISO certifications
• SOC-2 compliance
• Strict data isolation controls
• Built-in trust system for secure cross-organizational collaboration
• Multi-tenant architecture with proper security controls

7. What makes Xurrent different from legacy vendors with "bolt-on" AI?

Xurrent was designed from the ground up with AI integration, unlike legacy vendors who add AI as an afterthought. The platform combines real-time incident response through Zenduty and proactive customer communication via StatusCast, creating a truly unified operational experience that legacy vendors cannot match with their fragmented, bolt-on solutions.

8. How does the unified approach improve customer experience?

In the unified approach, customers benefit from:

• Automated status page updates during incidents
• Faster incident resolution (15 minutes vs. 2 hours)
• Consistent communication across all touchpoints
• Proactive updates rather than manual, delayed notifications
• Overall improved service reliability and transparency

9. What is the adoption rate for Xurrent's AI features?

Over 90% of Xurrent customers have enabled AI features, demonstrating high adoption and value. These customers are generating over 2,000 automated summaries per customer per week, indicating significant usage and operational efficiency gains.

10. How does Xurrent's low-code automation builder work?

Xurrent's low-code automation builder enables IT teams to create intelligent workflows without requiring expensive consulting engagements or specialized technical expertise. This enables organizations to quickly and cost-effectively customize and optimize their service management processes, contributing to a faster implementation timeline and lower total cost of ownership.

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