ServiceNow migration to JSM

Question

Has anyone here moved from ServiceNow to Jira Service Management?

Curious how you approached it:

* How did you plan and phase the migration?
* Did you use a migration tool, or build your own scripts?
* What did you bring over e.g request types, workflows, custom fields, CMDB, knowledge base, catalog items and what did you leave behind?
* Any lessons learned or things you'd do differently?

Thanks in advance!

Dr. Ankita Mehta-OpsHub, Inc · Answer

Hi @Prabhu Palanisamy {Onward},

I have seen teams approach this in different ways. I suggest taking a phased way – start with a pilot, check results, and then plan the rest in phases. To your second point, scripts can work for simpler migrations, but if you have historical records, comments, attachments, custom fields, and relationships, then yes, a migration tool is the right choice. All fields of incidents, system and custom artifacts were all intact, but I would strongly advise to be selective, reviewing items for what's worth migrating and what's not. I think the biggest mistake to avoid would be stopping your operations during migration. Reverse synchronization capability lets you continue working in ServiceNow while data is migrating to JSM. Whatever changes you make stays aligned between SNOW and JSM, and this continues till the final cutover.

A little more on how a migration tool can help with no downtime.

Tintu Paul · Answer

Hi @Prabhu Palanisamy {Onward}

Yes I have experience working in both SN & JSM. We have customers moved completely to JSM, on multi-phase roll out.

* We used Exalate as migration tool for complex data mapping and state syncing, paired with custom webhooks for ticket creation during transition.
* We built webhooks to sync new ServiceNow requests & incidents into JSM, set up native JSM KB and mapped assets for CMDB.
* We brought over active request types, workflows, core assets, and KB. Left behind closed historical tickets, redundant custom fields and ServiceNow’s heavy custom scripts & business rules—rebuilding those lean using JSM’s native low-code automation and Forms instead.
* Don't try to recreate ServiceNow 1:1 in Jira—embrace JSM's simplicity instead of porting over legacy complexity. Avoid ServiceNow's habit of creating custom variables for every form—too many custom fields degrade Jira performance, so use JSM Forms instead. ServiceNow’s CMDB is deeply relational out of the box, whereas JSM Assets is flexible; keep your Object Schema structures clean and lightweight. JSM excels at developer-led changes via CI/CD integrations (GitHub/GitLab/Bitbucket) to automatically log changes from pull requests.

Nikola Perisic · Answer

Hello @Prabhu Palanisamy {Onward} , here is how I have done it:

* Created a global webhook that receives requests from SNow based on the events
* Created an automation rule that based on webhook sends attachments (this was a pain, but it was solved)
* SNow developers built everything else from their side