50% Lower ITSM Costs After Migrating to JSM Here’s How

IT teams across industries are being asked to do more with less. Whether it's tightening budgets, shifting to cloud-first models, or simplifying toolchains, cost efficiency is now a core part of IT strategy. One area where many organizations are finding real savings? IT Service Management (ITSM).

Specifically, enterprises moving from legacy tools like Cherwell to Atlassian Jira Service Management (JSM) are seeing up to 50% reduction in ITSM-related costs without sacrificing performance or control.

In this blog, we break down exactly how these savings are achieved: where the money is going in legacy tools, how JSM simplifies spend and what changes after the migration.

Where Legacy ITSM Tools Inflate Costs

Before diving into Jira Service Management, it's helpful to understand where the inefficiencies typically lie in older platforms like Cherwell. These tools were built in a different era prior to cloud maturity, modern DevOps, or no-code configuration models.

1. High Licensing Overhead

Cherwell’s licensing is typically priced by named users or concurrent users with add-ons for advanced features like reporting, integrations, or configuration management. As organizations scale, these licenses add up often leading to overspending on underutilized seats or modules.

2. Custom Development & Maintenance

Cherwell is known for its flexibility but that flexibility often comes with a price. Many customizations require scripting, third-party tools or dedicated developer time. Maintaining those configurations also adds long-term maintenance costs and dependencies on a small set of skilled admins.

3. Infrastructure & Hosting

For on-premise or managed Cherwell environments, organizations pay for servers, hosting, monitoring, backups and disaster recovery. These costs are fixed, whether usage is high or low.

4. Slow Implementation Cycles

Changes to workflows, automations, or forms often require long lead times and testing cycles in Cherwell. Delays in implementing improvements can directly impact service quality and indirectly, operating costs.

How Jira Service Management Reduces ITSM Costs

Organizations that switch to JSM often see dramatic cost reductions not because they “cut corners” but because the platform is built differently. It’s designed for modular adoption, user-friendly configuration, and integration with a broader ecosystem of tools.

Here’s a breakdown of the areas where JSM cuts cost:

1. Simplified Licensing Structure

Jira Service Management offers flexible, agent-based licensing, meaning you only pay for actual service desk agents. Users who submit requests (employees, customers) are free. Approvers, collaborators and external users can be included without the need for a full agent license.

Typical Savings:

• No cost for portal users
• Tiered pricing for different support levels (Standard, Premium, Enterprise)
• Ability to scale agent seats as needed without penalty

Example: An organization with 50 agents and 2,000 employees can save thousands per year by only licensing the agents.

2. No-Code / Low-Code Configuration

JSM empowers teams to manage workflows, request types, forms, and automations using drag-and-drop builders and visual editors. There’s no need to bring in external developers or write custom scripts for every process change.

Typical Savings:

• Less reliance on consultants or technical admins
• Faster time to implement changes
• Fewer hours spent maintaining legacy logic

Result: Internal teams can manage JSM without needing constant third-party support, reducing professional services spend.

3. Native Cloud Hosting Included

With Atlassian Cloud, there’s no need for infrastructure costs. No servers to manage, no separate monitoring tools, no patching schedules. Atlassian handles uptime, security, backups, and performance optimization.

Typical Savings:

• Eliminate server and hardware costs
• Reduce internal IT time managing infrastructure
• Built-in compliance certifications (SOC2, ISO27001, GDPR, etc.)

Bonus: Cloud-native scaling means you don’t pay for unused capacity or over-provisioned environments.

4. Consolidation of Tools

Many organizations running Cherwell also rely on third-party tools for documentation, knowledge bases, change management or DevOps visibility.

JSM is part of the Atlassian ecosystem and integrates seamlessly with:

• Confluence for knowledge management
• Jira Software for project and DevOps work tracking
• Opsgenie for incident response
• Assets (formerly Insight) for asset and configuration management

This eliminates the need for point solutions, API maintenance, and disconnected systems.

Typical Savings:

• Consolidated license footprint
• Less time spent switching between tools
• Easier user training across a unified experience

Example: Organizations often retire up to 3–5 additional tools after moving to Atlassian.

5. Faster Deployment Timelines

Jira Service Management implementations, especially for standard ITSM use cases, can be completed in as little as 4–6 weeks. Compared to legacy tools that might take months or even quarters, this results in faster ROI and lower upfront deployment costs.

Typical Savings:

• Reduced implementation fees
• Faster go-live = earlier time to value
• Reduced impact on internal IT teams during setup

Case in point: Clovity clients have seen 6-week Cherwell-to-JSM migrations with full data transfer and end-user training.

6. Ongoing Innovation at No Extra Cost

Atlassian continuously adds new features to JSM like generative AI, improved automation rules, or tighter integrations. Unlike legacy tools where new modules mean new fees, most of JSM’s innovation is included in your plan.

Typical Savings:

• No need to pay for major version upgrades
• Faster access to modern features
• No vendor lock-in with expensive module add-ons

Impact: ITSM teams get better over time—without renegotiating licenses every year.

The Numbers: Before vs. After

Result: Annual savings of over 65% in this scenario and that’s before considering long-term maintenance.

What Organizations Are Saying

Many IT leaders express similar sentiments after moving to JSM:

• “Our team now spends more time solving tickets and less time managing the tool.”
• “We consolidated three platforms into one.”
• “We cut our service desk costs in half and improved user experience at the same time.”

These aren’t isolated experiences. Organizations across finance, healthcare, education, manufacturing, and government are all seeing similar gains.

How to Get Started

If you’re currently using Cherwell or any other legacy ITSM tool the path to savings begins with a focused evaluation of your current environment. A Clovity-led assessment can help you:

• Identify areas of waste and opportunity
• Build a tailored migration plan
• Design a JSM setup that works for your teams
• Execute migration with minimal business disruption

With templates, accelerators, and a proven migration methodology, Clovity enables cost-efficient transitions in a fraction of the time.

Final Word

Cost reduction isn’t just about cutting corners it’s about using tools that are designed to operate efficiently, scale sensibly, and support continuous improvement.

If your organization is spending more than necessary on ITSM and still struggling with outdated interfaces, long lead times, or complex licensing it might be time for a change.

Jira Service Management offers a modern, modular, and cost-efficient alternative—and the savings speak for themselves.

📧 Contact us at sales@clovity.com or visit 🌐 atlassian.clovity.com to get started today.