Main differences between ITSM and Customer Service modules

[Milan13]

Hello

I currently have a Madrid Version, however I would like to know what are the main differences between ITSM and Customer Service modules (and also what is the difference between these two modules in general).

To be perfectly honest I have found plenty of articles on this but it seems to be quite similar - Case is being used instead of Incident etc., but looks a bit confusing to me.

Anyone has any interesting link on this?

Many thanks,

Milan

[AbhishekGardade · Accepted solution]

Hello Milan,

As you've said, CSM is where you start to incorporate external users, so most companies purchase that (outside of the people who buy CSM as a way to get around higher priced ITIL licenses and contracts) would want them separate. So if the company isn't planning to use that, then yea, just one portal would be fine, otherwise, if there's any plan to have external customers, then you'd want to work with CSM as well.

Here are some of the differences which may help you:

1. External customers do not raise Incidents, they raise Cases. Case is a new table extension off of Task. You can then use this case to link together tasks, problems, etc which may involve multiple departments within your organization while having a single entity with which to communicate with your external customer and maintain ownership with the support team.
2. You can apply Contracts and Service Entitlements to various Customer Accounts to restrict what they can enter Cases for. (previously contracts/entitlements applied to external vendors.)
3. You can define account hierarchies for your external customers.
4. For any / each customer account / subaccount you can define their contacts, assets, contracts and entitlements separately.
5. There are multiple ways to solve the issue of assigning a case to a specific support rep or support team. This will need to be worked out through discussion of your business processes.

I hope the info helps.

Also Check out this :

https://www.crossfuze.com/servicenow-resources/crossfuze/servicenow-it-service-management-vs-custome...

Please mark as Correct Answer/Helpful, if applicable.
Thanks!
Abhishek Gardade
Hexaware Technologies

[Robert van Mill]

Hi Milan,

My 2 cents....

CSM and ITSM are two different way to approach you clients or users.

You would need to see this in a Customer / Employee journey.

Although the CSM module adds features like self-registration and community (yes, we are here communicating in the CSM function of ServiceNow), for me it is also the way to express the difference between an EndUser (ITSM) and a Customer (CSM). For me the Customer is someone who has budget and who can, direct or indirect, impact your (companies) sales revenue.

(I do understand that an EndUser can also select a catalog item with financial consequences, but most of the time they can only pick what is presented and cannot go to another vendor.)

Therefore the process in CSM, is one where the case would stay with one agent, like a sales representative. The case agent would also have different skills then a Service Desk agent: more sales oriented.

Conclusion, for me it’s not about the technical side of the module, but the who and how of Customer Experience.

Regards.