Phase 1: Assess your organization's needs and Service Desk

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Introduction

Assessment is the first step of your migration journey. The assessment tasks guide you through evaluating your current IT service management needs, your infrastructure, and your long-term goals. The work you do during assessment will help ensure you choose the solution that best supports your business requirements and future growth.

See the PDF version of this Migration Guide.

Assessment tasks

1. Assess your organization's capability needs based on your maturity model.

   Understanding your organization's IT service management (ITSM) maturity is key to making an informed migration decision. By using the SolarWinds ITSM Maturity Model, you can assess your current capabilities and identify gaps that Service Desk can help address. Whether your organization operates with ad hoc processes or has a fully optimized service management strategy, this assessment will provide insights into areas for improvement, automation opportunities, and long-term scalability. Take a few minutes to evaluate your maturity level and ensure your move to Service Desk aligns with your IT and business objectives.

2. Develop your migration strategy.

   After you complete your own Maturity Model matrix, a few additional parameters may help determine whether migrating to cloud-based Service Desk is the right choice for your organization. Assessing your current ITSM setup, defining your ideal future state, and evaluating the potential benefits of a SaaS solution will help you develop a clear strategy and make an informed decision about the best path forward.

   Consider the following questions as you assess:

   • What would your IT and business goals be with the move, and what are you hoping to accomplish in the long-term?

   • What’s your timeline? Is some data ready to move now versus later?

   • What’s your budget?

   • How much time can you and your team dedicate to migration? Who will be involved?

   • Are there new or better ways of working you want to accomplish after migrating?

   • Do you want to clean up or standardize workflows as you transition to the cloud?

   • Are there other departments (for example, HR, Facilities, and Payroll) that could benefit from using Service Desk requests and processes?

3. Consider what integrations your organization will need.

   A successful migration to Service Desk requires ensuring your new service desk software integrates seamlessly with your existing IT ecosystem. Service Desk offers a wide range of integrations with popular solutions like Microsoft Azure AD, Jira, Slack, and SolarWinds Observability tools, enabling a smooth exchange of data and automation across your tech stack. Evaluating your integration needs early helps you streamline processes, reduce manual effort, and maximize the value of your new service desk software. In addition, Open Rest API capabilities allow organizations to build custom integrations that support individual business needs.

   Some questions to consider as you understand your current and future integration needs:

   • What third-party tools, systems, or platforms do you currently have in your tech stack that you would like to integrate with Service Desk?

   • For those identified, are they native integrations or would they require an API?

   • Will end-users experience any changes in their workflows due to new or modified integrations?

   • Can the integrations handle increased data volumes or additional users as the organization grows?

   • Are the integrated tools or platforms likely to evolve or be replaced in the near future?

   • Can you eliminate redundant integrations or replace multiple tools with a single solution?

   • Are there new integration opportunities with Service Desk that could improve efficiency or user experience?

4. Identify size and scalability.

   Before starting your migration, it’s important to evaluate your user needs and data amounts to ensure the migration will be successful and your new instance will perform as highly as possible in the cloud.

   Some questions to consider are:

   • How many users are you planning to migrate to the cloud?

   • Is there any unused data that could be left behind to improve performance in the cloud?

   • Will you be setting up any service providers in addition to IT as part of an Enterprise Service Management (ESM) environment (for example, HR, Facilities, and Legal)? If so, how many users from each department will be required? Learn more about ESM.

   Your answers to the questions above will affect your migration strategy by informing your decision on what your ideal footprint looks like. You might decide to migrate data from your existing service desk, or you might decide to start new and build your instance of Service Desk from scratch.

5. Determine what user requirements you will need to help you manage user accounts.

   Understanding user requirements and account management is essential to ensure your instance of Service Desk aligns with your organization's operational, security, and compliance needs. By clearly defining how users will interact with the system before migration, you can ensure the software supports your workflows, enhances security, and integrates seamlessly with existing tools. This foundational step helps create a streamlined and efficient user experience while maintaining control over access and accountability before, during, and after migration.

   Some items to consider may be:

   • What roles and permissions will different users need (administrator, technician, and end user)?

   • How might roles and permissions be customized to fit the organizational structure?

   • What authentication methods are you currently using or would you like to use (SSO, MFA, LDAP, and SAML)?

   • Does Service Desk support integration with your current identity provider (Azure AD, Okta)?

   • Do you have a requirement for audit logs on user account activities?

6. Identify your organization's compliance and security requirements.

   At SolarWinds, we prioritize data security, privacy, and compliance with the utmost seriousness. As your organization transitions to the cloud, you gain access to robust data protection measures, enabling your teams to focus on driving innovation with confidence. A critical first step in this journey is understanding your specific requirements. We encourage you to engage your security, legal, and compliance stakeholders early in the process to ensure they are informed about how SolarWinds safeguards and manages data in the cloud.

   Adopting cloud technology involves a collaborative approach, where SolarWinds works alongside your organization to ensure security and compliance. To learn more about how SolarWinds can help your business navigate the dynamic landscape of regulatory and data security challenges, visit our Security Statement page. For any questions about security and compliance, contact your account manager or get in touch through the customer support portal.

7. Compare the cost of your on-premise product (Web Help Desk) vs Service Desk's SaaS costs, including maintenance.

   When comparing on-premise and SaaS solutions, the financial implications and benefits differ significantly. On-premise software can require substantial upfront costs for servers, licenses, and infrastructure, along with ongoing expenses for maintenance, upgrades, and IT staff. While it offers control and customization, these costs can be burdensome, especially for growing or budget-constrained businesses.

   SaaS, on the other hand, operates on a subscription model, eliminating large initial investments. It includes hosting, maintenance, and updates in predictable fees, simplifying cash flow and enabling scalability. This makes SaaS ideal for businesses with fluctuating demand or growth. Long-term, SaaS reduces operational costs by outsourcing hardware, energy, and compatibility management, allowing companies to focus on core operations.

   While on-premise solutions provide control, SaaS often offers a lower total cost of ownership (TCO), greater financial flexibility, and scalability. Organizations should evaluate both options based on immediate needs and long-term goals to ensure alignment with growth and innovation strategies.

   Some questions to ask when considering associated costs may be:

   • How predictable do you need your IT costs to be?

   • What is the TCO over three to five years for each option? Have you accounted for hidden costs like maintenance, upgrades, and IT staffing?

   • What is your current IT infrastructure, and how much effort would it take to maintain or upgrade it?

   • How important is scalability to your operations? Do you need the ability to quickly scale resources up or down based on demand, which SaaS offers, or is your workload stable enough for a fixed on-premise infrastructure?

   • What are your growth projections, and how might they impact your IT needs?

   • How do you prioritize innovation versus stability?

   • What is your long-term IT strategy? Are you planning to transition to cloud-based solutions in the future, or do you intend to maintain on-premise systems indefinitely?

   • What is the expected user experience for your employees? Will your users benefit from the ease of use and accessibility of SaaS, or do they require the specific features and performance of an on-premise system?

Evaluating your existing environment and identifying your cloud requirements is an essential starting point for a smooth migration. It’s important to dedicate sufficient time to this step to fully assess the complexity of the migration process.

After gaining a clear understanding of your situation, you can proceed to develop a detailed migration plan.

Next phase

Phase 2: Plan your migration.