On Freshworks - ESM for Business Teams
One platform. Every department.
Fixed-scope packages that take Freshservice beyond IT (HR, Facilities, Finance, Legal), one department at a time. Each package delivers a live departmental workspace: service catalogue, workflows, integrations and adoption, with the AI capabilities IT already proved extended to the new team.
Per department
One fixed-scope package per team: repeatable
Weeks each
Design to live workspace, gated throughout
One platform
Every service request in one place, on licences you already hold
One department at a time
Every team wants the same platform. None of them want the same workspace.
The mistake is rolling out one generic service desk and asking four departments to live in it. Each package below is the same sprint and the same gates, configured around what that team is actually accountable for.
Select a department
Usually the strongest first case
The highest volume of repeatable requests outside IT, and the one where confidentiality is non-negotiable. Get the privacy model right here and the other three departments become straightforward.
What the workspace includes
Live at the end of the sprint.
- Joiner, mover and leaver workflows with the tasks that cross into IT and Facilities
- Confidential case handling with visibility rules that hold up under scrutiny
- A policy and benefits knowledge base people can self-serve against
- Employee-facing request forms for the queries that currently arrive by email
Typical first requests
Where the volume actually is.
- Onboarding and offboarding
- Policy questions
- Payroll queries
- Absence and leave
- Letters and references
Approval chains are the whole design
Finance requests are rarely complicated, but they are almost always conditional on who approved what and at which threshold. The workspace lives or dies on getting the approval matrix right.
What the workspace includes
Live at the end of the sprint.
- Threshold-based approval routing that matches your delegated authority schedule
- Purchase and expense request intake with the evidence attached at submission
- Supplier and invoice queries tracked instead of chased
- An audit trail showing who approved what, when, and on what basis
Typical first requests
Where the volume actually is.
- Purchase requests
- Expense queries
- New supplier setup
- Invoice chasing
- Budget code questions
The most visible win
Facilities requests are physical, locatable and immediately obvious when they go wrong. That makes this the department where staff notice the improvement fastest, which is useful when you need internal momentum.
What the workspace includes
Live at the end of the sprint.
- Location-aware request intake so a fault is tied to a building, floor and room
- Maintenance scheduling for planned work alongside reactive requests
- Space and desk requests handled in the same place as everything else
- Contractor visibility for the work your own team does not perform
Typical first requests
Where the volume actually is.
- Repairs and faults
- Desk and room bookings
- Access and passes
- Moves and setups
- Health and safety reports
Smallest volume, highest sensitivity
Legal rarely has the request volume to justify its own platform, which is exactly why it belongs on one you already own. The design question is confidentiality and intake quality, not throughput.
What the workspace includes
Live at the end of the sprint.
- Structured intake so a request arrives with the context counsel needs to triage it
- Matter tracking across the life of a piece of work rather than a single ticket
- Restricted visibility including privilege-aware handling where it applies
- Contract request routing with turnaround expectations set at submission
Typical first requests
Where the volume actually is.
- Contract review
- NDA requests
- Policy sign-off
- Supplier terms
- General counsel queries
Start with the department that complains loudest and has the most repeatable requests. That is usually HR or Facilities, and it is almost never Legal, whatever the internal politics suggest.
The teams IT left behind
IT proved it works. The rest of the business is still on email.
HR requests live in inboxes. Facilities runs on a spreadsheet. Finance queries vanish into shared mailboxes. Meanwhile IT has a working service desk with workflows, SLAs and self-service, on a platform priced and built to serve every team, not just one.
Enterprise service management fails when it's attempted as one big programme. A department at a time, each with its own fixed scope and its own champion, is how ESM actually lands, and each success makes the next department easier.
- Departmental service requests handled in email, with no tracking, SLAs or knowledge.
- ESM ambitions stalled because "roll it out everywhere" was too big to sponsor.
- Platform value capped at IT while the licence supports the whole business.
What each package delivers
A live departmental workspace, not a rollout plan
-
A departmental service catalogue
The team's real services (onboarding, access, maintenance, queries), designed with the people who deliver them, in their language.
-
Workflows and approvals that fit
Requests routed, approved and fulfilled the way the department actually works, using out-of-the-box capability first.
-
Integration where it counts
Connected to the systems the department lives in (HRIS, identity, finance tools) so the workspace joins the platform rather than sitting beside it.
-
Adoption and self-service
Department champions trained, knowledge seeded, employee self-service launched, with usage measured from day one.
How it runs
A repeatable sprint, one department at a time
- Phase 1
Design with the department
Service catalogue workshop, workflow design, integration needs agreed.
- Phase 2
Build and connect
Workspace configured, integrations connected, piloted with the team.
- Phase 3
Launch and adopt
Champions trained, self-service live, usage baseline captured.
- Repeat
Next department
Each completed workspace becomes the template, and the internal proof, for the next.
Start with the department that hurts most, usually HR or Facilities, and let the wins compound.
Who it's for
For organisations ready to make the platform earn its licence
- Existing Freshservice customers with IT live
- COOs, HR Directors, Heads of Facilities, IT Directors
- One department first, then repeat
A department at a time
Fixed scope per team: small enough to sponsor, complete enough to prove.
Designed with, not for
The department's own people shape their catalogue and workflows. That's what makes adoption stick.
Measured from launch
Usage and satisfaction baselines from day one, so the business case for the next department writes itself.
The Freshservice family
Multiply what's already working
Freddy AI Activation
Every new workspace is a new surface for measured AI value: deflection and copilot for HR and Facilities too.
Explore Activation Check firstFreshservice Health Check
Expanding on a shaky foundation compounds the shake. An evidence-led read first costs nothing.
Explore the Health CheckWhich department hurts most? Start there.
Pick the department that complains loudest. That is usually the right place to start.