Atlassian ITSM Trial - Need Expert Support for JSM - CSM - Pitching to CEO

[QMSpot _ Patrick Gehlich]

Hello Atlassian Community,

we are currently evaluating Atlassian with the goal of using it for external IT support.
So far, my overall impression is very positive – the product vision, UI, and capabilities look modern and promising.

However, I am currently struggling with some fundamental understanding and architecture questions, and I hope an experienced Atlassian expert can help clarify them. Ideally, I would also appreciate a short Teams call, if possible.

Context:
My CEO is generally ready to approve the license costs, but the final decision currently depends on clarifying exactly these basic topics.

Current situation

I understand that Atlassian now clearly positions Customer Service Management (CSM) for external customer support, rather than using Jira Service Management (JSM) alone.

At first glance, CSM does many things very well:

• dedicated support portal
• dedicated knowledge base
• AI agent
• strong customer experience focus

However, several things currently confuse me.

1️⃣ CSM service projects feel very limited

Compared to a classic JSM service project, a CSM service project feels extremely limited:

• no summary view
• no comprehensive agent workspace
• limited configuration and automation options

At the same time, we need to support multiple pipelines:

• classic IT support
• SaaS support
• dedicated enterprise support for different large customers

This leads to my first key question:

Is CSM intentionally not designed as the main agent workspace?

2️⃣ Where is the summary / central overview?

At the moment, I do not understand:

• how to get a summary overview in CSM
• or whether such a summary is intentionally not part of CSM

Which leads directly to the next question:

Are CSM tickets expected to be automatically transferred into a JSM project where the actual agent work happens?

3️⃣ Central visibility & agent workload

Our target state is quite clear:

• all tickets (IT, SaaS, Enterprise) should flow into a central place
• we need:
  • consolidated agent workload views
  • summary dashboards
  • reports
  • boards

across projects and pipelines.

Right now, it is unclear to me:

Whether this is supposed to be achieved mainly in CSM, in JSM, or by combining both.

4️⃣ Customer contacts & phone support

In addition to portal‑based support, we also provide phone support.

Therefore, it must be easy for us to:

• quickly create a customer contact
• including:
  • first name
  • last name
  • email address
  • phone number

Currently, I do not clearly see where customer contacts are meant to be maintained in a “classic” way – at least not as I would expect from other ITSM or CRM‑like systems.

Is customer contact management now exclusively part of CSM and no longer of classic JSM?

5️⃣ Overall impression / confusion

At the moment, my impression is:

• Atlassian is very powerful
• but in the area of external IT support / ITSM, it still feels either unfinished or insufficiently explained

I strongly suspect that I have not yet fully understood the paradigm shift between JSM and CSM, and I would like to clarify this before making a final licensing decision.

I would greatly appreciate:

• architectural guidance
• real‑world best practices
• and possibly a short exchange (Teams call) with an Atlassian expert

Thank you very much in advance!

Best regards,
Patrick

[Marc -Devoteam-]

Hi @QMSpot _ Patrick Gehlich 

Your required type is a JSM space.

Atlassian indeed positions CSM (which includes JSM) as the main proposition for Customers.

But in my opinion, you need to look at your requirements of your company and what you require from customers.

Based on your requirements, simply use a JSM space for your company.

Most features that are currently or where already within JSM are not or not even will be in CSM.

For me CSM feels limited on what JSM can do.

CSM will probably be extended with features, but currently for me if feels like JSM light and I have been in the Atlassian realm for quite some tine now.

It feels, like the product is not finished yet!

[Arkadiusz Wroblewski]

Hello @QMSpot _ Patrick Gehlich 

If you need consulting, please contact with Atlassian partners.

https://www.atlassian.com/partners

[Arkadiusz Wroblewski]

@QMSpot _ Patrick Gehlich 

I would keep JSM as the main agent workspace here and treat CSM as the customer-facing layer, not as a separate system that needs tickets handed over into Jira later.

Atlassian’s current direction is that existing JSM sites move to Service Collection on the same site, with no migration of users or data. They also document that customer and organization detail fields can be used for things like queues, SLAs, reports, and automations, so the customer-context side is already there. 

For your CEO, I would frame it simply:

CSM = better external customer experience

JSM = the operational workspace for agents

If you need somebody to help shape the setup, I would go to an Atlassian Partner for a short workshop rather than expect that from Community.

Also I'm sure it will take months or longer till CSM will be polished enough...