Every couple of years, ITSM.tools runs a short poll to understand whether organizations are changing their IT service management (ITSM) tools and – importantly – why. “Churn” is a funny word to use, but given that searches for “ITSM tool change” bring back results related to change management (or change enablement in ITIL 4), I’m sticking with the phrase “ITSM tool churn” for this article.
Our last ITSM tool churn poll was run in Q3 2023, and the results were shared in this article: Why Organizations Are Still Changing Their ITSM Tools? For the new poll, in Q3 2025, we asked the same two questions:
- How do you feel about your organization’s primary ITSM tool?
- If you have an ITSM tool – Why did you, or will you, change it? (The primary reason)
This article shares the latest ITSM tool churn poll findings, along with insights and opinions on the data and the most significant changes since 2023. For those of you who love numbers, the poll sample size was 229 respondents.
Our feelings about ITSM tools
We all have feelings about technology, whether used at work or socially. It might sound weird, but we do. The good news from the 2025 ITSM tool churn poll is that more respondents were happy with their ITSM tools. This could be due to the sample makeup, but I’m taking it as a win for ITSM tools and their ability to better deliver against customer needs in 2025.
47% of respondents stated they’re happy with their tool (the first two rows in the table below), with this a significant uplift on the 2023 poll data (37%). However, and this is the “bad news,” 40% of poll respondents still said they’re:
- Replacing their ITSM tool (19%)
- Replacing their ITSM tool when they can (11%)
- Reimplementing the current ITSM tool (10%).
All these percentages are shown in the table below.
How do you feel about your organization’s primary ITSM tool?
| Response | Percentage |
|---|---|
| It’s great, we’ve used it for years | 31% |
| It’s great, it’s less than two years old | 16% |
| Undecided | 2% |
| We are replacing it (now or soon) | 19% |
| We’ll replace it when we can | 11% |
| We are or will reimplement the existing tool | 10% |
| We don’t have an ITSM tool | 2% |
| Don’t know | 0% |
| Other | 9% |
But even the ITSM tool churn bad news has good news this time. As shown in the extended table below, these percentages are an improvement over the poll two years ago, with replacements down and reimplementation up significantly. Although we lack deeper data or insights into these figures, the fact that reimplementation and happiness with tools implemented in the last two years show the biggest positive changes (along with the significant drop in replacements) gives me hope that we’re collectively getting better at choosing and implementing ITSM tools relative to organizational needs.
| Response | 2025 | 2023 | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|
| It’s great, we’ve used it for years | 31% | 27% | +4 |
| It’s great, it’s less than two years old | 16% | 10% | +6 |
| Undecided | 2% | 8% | -6 |
| We are replacing it (now or soon) | 19% | 27% | -8 |
| We’ll replace it when we can | 11% | 15% | -4 |
| We are or will reimplement the existing tool | 10% | 4% | +6 |
| We don’t have an ITSM tool | 2% | 3% | -1 |
| Don’t know | 0% | 0% | - |
| Other | 9% | 8% | +1 |
Why organizations change ITSM tool
The top three primary reasons for changing ITSM tool (which could relate to ITSM tool change prior to 2023) were:
- Tool dissatisfaction related to: ITIL-alignment, usability, manual activity, flexibility, or customization (16%)
- Excessive costs related to maintenance fees, admin effort, or upgrading the existing tool (14%)
- Tool was end-of-life or simply outdated or a homegrown ITSM tool was no longer workable (12%).
The top three haven’t changed from the 2023 poll data, when excessive costs jumped from sixth to second place. In fact, the table below shows that the primary reasons for change are still consistent with previous ITSM tool churn polls (despite the lower level of churn detailed above). The only significant change is in the “New ITSM process adoption required a new tool, including enterprise service management support” option, which has dropped five percentage points since 2023.
There’s likely some sample bias in this data, as in most surveys, but it’s hard to argue with tool dissatisfaction consistently being in the top two places across all four polls we’ve run since 2017. As an industry, we still seem to fail somewhere between ITSM tool selection (based on agreed requirements) and the tool being “used in anger.” Interestingly, though, “Old tool failed to deliver the expected benefits” has again dropped for 2025.
If you have an ITSM tool – Why did you, or will you, change it? (The primary reason)
| Response | 2025 | 2023 | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|
| We don’t have an ITSM tool | 4% | 2% | +2 |
| Old tool failed to deliver the expected benefits | 8% | 8% | - |
| Tool dissatisfaction related to: ITIL-alignment, usability, manual activity, flexibility, or customization | 16% | 16% | - |
| Multiple service desk and tool rationalization project | 7% | 6% | +1 |
| Corporate cloud strategy, a larger transformation project, a senior employee dictated it, procurement rules | 4% | 6% | -2 |
| New ITSM process adoption required a new tool, including enterprise service management support | 8% | 13% | -5 |
| Dissatisfaction with vendor support and/or relationship | 4% | 4% | - |
| Excessive costs related to maintenance fees, admin effort, or upgrading the existing tool | 14% | 14% | - |
| Tool was end-of-life or simply outdated or a homegrown ITSM tool was no longer workable | 12% | 13% | -1 |
| Liked the look of an alternative tool or convincing vendor marketing or industry hype | 3% | 2% | +1 |
| We wanted AI capabilities that worked | 5% | - | N/A |
| Other | 15% | 18% | -3 |
What this all means for ITSM tool churn
As the above table shows, we are still (as an industry) changing ITSM tool because of what I consider “negative” reasons, i.e. we’re moving away from the incumbent rather than moving toward the replacement ITSM tool.
With hindsight, we should have added an additional question for the 2025 ITSM tool churn poll to better understand the root causes rather than the symptoms of these ITSM tool churn drivers. For example, with the above ITSM tool dissatisfaction option, we don’t know whether this was caused by the tool’s capability limitations, the implementation of the tool, or both.
I’m still hopeful, though, that we will eventually run the ITSM tool churn poll and discover the change drivers to be positive rather than negative reasons (along with the lower levels of churn). Although I still appreciate that when ITSM tool A is considered better than ITSM tool B, a respondent or their organization could either see this as dissatisfaction with tool B rather than the opportunity of tool A (a “glass half empty” perspective).
What do you think about the current state of ITSM tool churn? Please let me know in the comments.
Sophie Danby
Sophie is a freelance ITSM marketing consultant, helping ITSM solution vendors to develop and implement effective marketing strategies.
She covers both traditional areas of marketing (such as advertising, trade shows, and events) and digital marketing (such as video, social media, and email marketing). She is also a trained editor.
