When your IT service management (ITSM) tool reaches end of life (EOL), your organization is faced with both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge lies in ensuring continuity of IT services, processes, and knowledge without disruption. The opportunity arises from rethinking ITSM to better align with modern business needs, AI, and experience management.
With Cherwell Service Management officially going EOL at the end of 2026, customers must confront the realities of its EOL status. Ideally, this should have happened earlier, but the statement “we are where we are” often applies, with work frequently getting in the way of change planning.
So, whether your organization uses Cherwell Service Management or another ITSM tool (or platform) heading toward retirement, the following steps should be helpful.
Understand What ITSM Tool EOL Means
EOL isn’t just the ITSM tool vendor saying, “We no longer sell this product.” Instead, it typically means:
- There will be no new features or enhancements
- Support windows will shrink – critical patches may still be issued for a limited time, but non-critical bugs will go unresolved
- Related security risks will increase because vulnerabilities aren’t patched
- Integration roadmaps will stop, which means APIs or connectors will become outdated.
Start Sooner Rather Than Later
If you’re reading this in 2026, I hope you’re sitting down. Waiting until the last 12 months before EOL usually rushes any replacement decision, and the migration timeline is compressed. Even if the right replacement decision is made, it’s still likely accompanied by unnecessary stress and implementation mistakes.
According to industry analyst firms, a typical ITSM tool migration – from requirements gathering, vendor selection, configuration, integration, testing, and rollout – can take from 12 to 24 months depending on the complexity involved. So starting “sooner rather than later” is more than prudence. Plus, who’s to say that the prices being quoted for your new ITSM tool and the associated consultancy services aren’t inflated when the need to change is more urgent?
Reassess Your ITSM and Wider Business Needs
Before rushing into a like-for-like ITSM tool replacement in an EOL scenario, question whether:
- IT service delivery and support processes have evolved
- Business needs have changed
- Experience is now a primary driver for service receivers and providers
- Artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled capabilities will enable “better, faster, cheaper” ITSM capabilities (and where best to use them)
- What the IT industry has called enterprise service management (ESM) should be offered to other business functions, such as human resources (HR), facilities, legal, and finance.
It’s a great opportunity to reimagine service management rather than taking a “lift and shift” approach.
Evaluate the ITSM Tool Market (in the Context of Your Organization)
The ITSM tool market has changed significantly since customer organizations adopted Cherwell. What was once a decision likely involving the “big three” from a decade ago – BMC, Cherwell, and ServiceNow – (plus other ITSM tools recommended by network contacts or industry analyst firms) now includes many other ITSM tools. I won’t list them, but you can always refer to our list of ITSM tools for an idea of what’s available now.
There’s a lot to consider when evaluating your ITSM tool “long list.” I like the advice from (stolen by?) ChatGPT – “Remember: the ‘best’ ITSM tool isn’t universal. It’s the one that best fits your organizational needs and culture.”
In addition to considering the available AI and automation use cases, integration capabilities, flexibility (vs. complexity), and the total cost of ownership (TCO), for Cherwell customers, EOL might mean the need to “go SaaS” after a period of using an on-premises ITSM tool.
Additional EOL Steps
Extra EOL activities depend on what your organization wishes to achieve with its new ITSM tool. This includes:
- Opportunities to improve and rationalize existing ITSM processes, unless a “like-for-like” replacement is preferred.
- Data migration and archiving based on regulatory requirements, existing data quality, and operational needs.
- ITSM tool (or platform) use beyond ITSM, whether called ESM, digital transformation, or something else.
Don’t Forget Organizational Change Management (OCM) Applies to EOL Too
There are many risks associated with ITSM tool change. But it’s vital not to overlook the people change associated with what are the technology and potentially process changes resulting from EOL. Over the last two decades, it’s unknown how much the chosen tool, implementation issues, or other factors have contributed to ITSM tool dissatisfaction. However, the absence of effective OCM tools and techniques is likely in the mix in organizations looking to replace their existing ITSM tool after a short tenure.
If you want to read more about the need for and key outcomes of OCM, please read this ITSM.tools article: Organizational Change Management Practices – An ITSM Overview.
What else would you add to this deliberately concise article on what to do when your ITSM tool reaches EOL? 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.
One Response
Nice read. Who “owns” this problem? Is it procurement? users? managers? who(m) is ITSM these days? I fear this will be wrapped in a Somebody Else’s Problem field and made invisible, or kicked down the road like you say, Sophie.
But maybe there’s a huge win here: is this an opportunity to rewire the old the building and give it a new lease of modern life? I have an idea…