Skip to main content
For IT leaders at scaling, remote-first companies with 500 to 3,000 employees, complexity grows faster than visibility. As organizations expand across regions, devices, and distributed teams, service requests multiply: access issues, hardware failures, onboarding delays, and offboarding risks that cover customs, time zones, and compliance needs.
The promise of modern IT is speed and reliability, yet many teams still manage incidents, assets, and workflows across disconnected systems, creating gaps between requests and real-world execution.
The operational strain becomes especially apparent during global expansion. Cresta’s Head of IT, Jared Allenbrand, explains the challenge as: “We ship internationally to Canada and Germany, and we didn't have an IT presence there. We had to ship everything out of the U.S., which made things quite difficult.”
As the company expanded into India, Romania, and Germany, keeping inventory moving for onboarding and offboarding became increasingly complex, turning hardware logistics into a significant operational risk for a lean IT team.
That’s why choosing the best IT service management software (ITSM) has become a strategic decision. The right ITSM platform connects requests to real-world outcomes, like whether a new hire actually has a laptop on Day 1, or whether an exited employee’s device is retrieved and wiped on time.
In this blog, we’ll break down what truly separates leading IT service management software from the rest, and review top platforms through the lens of globally distributed teams.
We’ll also look at where traditional ITSM tools stop and how lifecycle platforms like Firstbase extend them by handling the complete physical side of IT.
Most IT service management discussions stop at ticketing and device support. In reality, the highest operational cost sits underneath: global device logistics across procurement, deployment, retrieval, and IT asset disposition (ITAD).
This hidden layer determines how much an organization actually spends per employee, and how much value it recovers at the end.
Procure → Deploy → Support → Retrieve → ITAD (what this really costs)
Teams using Firstbase report a 30%+ reduction in lost asset costs in Year 1 through automated retrieval and return workflows. Take a self-guided tour to see how Firstbase aligns with ITSM processes and removes the physical logistics gaps most tools leave behind.
We’ll now review the leading IT service management tools for 2026 and see how they perform across service workflows and actual operational fit.
Ideal for: IT leaders and service operations teams at remote-first, high-growth companies with 50 to 5,000 employees, particularly in SaaS, fintech, and global services, that need to extend conventional ITSM workflows into physical asset execution.
Firstbase isn’t a traditional IT service management tool, and that’s precisely the advantage. While most ITSM platforms focus on tickets and workflows, Firstbase operates at an additional layer, handling the physical IT lifecycle that ultimately determines whether those tickets are ever resolved.
With 70,000+ devices deployed across 150+ countries and 97-98% on-time delivery, it works well for distributed teams managing employees across multiple countries.
It covers everything from device procurement to zero-touch deployment to ITAD in a single system. IT teams can use it alongside their ITSM to close the gap between approved requests and working hardware.
Firstbase reduces friction between IT, finance, and HR teams by standardizing hardware workflows as teams scale globally. However, it focuses on asset execution rather than service desk depth and works best alongside a core ITSM platform.
Ideal for: Organizations with complex IT environments to manage incidents, changes, requests, and configuration data through a centralized system of record.
ServiceNow ITSM is an ITIL-aligned service management platform built to standardize and automate IT service delivery across complex and distributed environments.
At its core is the ServiceNow CMDB, which maps relationships between services, infrastructure, and applications to support impact analysis and controlled change management.
The platform emphasizes process standardization and automation through rule-based approvals and SLA-driven request fulfillment, helping teams reduce variability in how IT services are delivered.
It is a long-term system of record for IT operations, for organizations that prioritize process consistency, auditability, and centralized control as they scale. However, it comes with a higher total cost of ownership and longer setup cycles, particularly for small teams.
ServiceNow ITSM supports hardware asset management and lifecycle governance, but relies on external vendors and modules for execution. Whereas Firstbase provides an exclusive global device logistics layer covering delivery, retrieval, and ITAD.
Ideal for: Scaling organizations that need an integrated, cloud-hosted ITSM solution with asset visibility, service catalog functionality, and automation.
SolarWinds is a cloud-based IT service management platform that centralizes key IT support processes, including incident, problem, change, and service request management using ITIL-aligned workflows.
It integrates service desk functions with asset management and a configuration management database (CMDB) to give IT teams a unified view of tickets, assets, and service delivery performance.
It delivers faster time-to-value, offering core ITSM and asset visibility on a cloud-based platform that is easier to deploy and manage than enterprise tools. However, asset and automation capabilities are lighter-weight and lack built-in support for advanced lifecycle operations.
SolarWinds Service Desk focuses on ITSM workflows with built-in asset inventory and lifecycle tracking inside the service desk. Whereas Firstbase takes ownership of the physical layer itself, handling device provisioning, cross-border delivery, and retrieval.
Ideal for: Small to mid-sized and scaling organizations looking for a single platform that integrates help desk ticketing with tracking and basic ITIL processes.
ManageEngine helps organizations that want ITIL-aligned service management with strong deployment and configuration flexibility.
It is available in cloud, on-premises, and hybrid deployments, making it suitable for teams with specific data residency, security, or internal infrastructure requirements.
It combines ticketing, asset management, CMDB, and self-service portals to provide visibility into service delivery and IT operations across distributed teams.
ManageEngine provides deployment flexibility and a modular ITSM approach. This helps organizations that need data control while standardizing service desk operations and asset visibility. However, advanced automation, analytics, and large-scale customization typically require higher editions.
ManageEngine provides ITIL-aligned service desk workflows and asset tracking for managing tickets and asset records. Whereas Firstbase is the better fit when ITSM requests must translate into executed hardware outcomes, embedding global delivery, bonded warehousing, and retrieval/ITAD directly into the workflow.
Ideal for: Teams requiring an ITSM platform that balances enterprise capabilities with ease of use and quick deployment.
Freshservice, developed by Freshworks, helps IT teams manage service requests, incidents, changes, and assets through a single, unified interface. It provides faster onboarding, with ITIL-aligned workflows and automation that reduces setup effort compared to more heavily customized ITSM platforms.
For organizations operating with lean IT teams, Freshservice combines service desk functionality with asset tracking and incident management to support day-to-day IT operations without requiring extensive administrative overhead.
Provides flexible integrations and asset tracking linked to tickets, supporting mid-market ITSM needs. However, it has limitations in reporting depth and ticket modifications, affecting visibility as service operations mature.
Freshservice manages hardware lifecycles within ITSM: tracking procurement, assignment, and retirement, but does not handle the actual hardware devices. Firstbase executes and covers the physical part, including global delivery and warehouse management, directly on the platform.
Ideal for: Teams looking for an enterprise-level automation, cognitive workflows, and predictive problem resolution without losing sight of core ITSM practices.
BMC Helix ITSM standardizes, automates, and scales IT operations across incident, problem, change, request, and asset management. It offers traditional ITSM capabilities with AI-assisted automation, predictive insights, and multi-cloud support.
HR and finance teams can benefit from its standardized processes, which help maintain cost oversight and consistent service delivery across globally distributed workforces.
BMC Helix ITSM delivers AI-driven service operations and deep ITSM maturity, particularly in incident correlation, change risk analysis, and cross-team collaboration. However, its enterprise depth and configurability often translate into higher implementation effort and operational overhead.
BMC Helix ITSM automates IT service processes through AI-assisted incident, change, and asset management within the ITSM layer. Although it handles asset lifecycle management, Firstbase goes a step further by offering comprehensive features, including address verification, bonded warehouses, and IT Asset Disposition.
When you “ship it yourself,” the cost doesn’t show up as logistics spend. It shows up as lost time, asset leakage, and delayed productivity, areas that most ITSM tools can record but cannot resolve.
Shipping, duties, and handling: Cross-border shipments typically add customs duties, import taxes (often up to 18% depending on destination and device classification), insurance, and brokerage fees, all of which sit outside standard IT budgets.
Unreturned or written-off devices: 71% of HR professionals report that departing employees fail to return company equipment, increasing asset write-offs, emergency replacements, and data exposure. Each unrecovered device adds replacement cost while remaining invisible to ITSM workflows once the offboarding ticket is closed.
End-of-life handling and compliance risk: Only 22% of electronic waste is formally collected and recycled, leaving an estimated $62 billion in recoverable material unused each year. Informal or undocumented device retirement increases the risk of data leakage, audit gaps, and regulatory scrutiny once assets leave active ITSM workflows.
Total cost beyond the device price: Accessories, setup, tax handling, internal coordination, and lifecycle management add 20–30% to the hardware purchase price when devices are managed in fragmented systems. ITSM tools usually capture assets only after procurement, leaving these costs outside reporting and skewing per-employee IT spend as teams scale.
Firstbase closes the loop by turning ITSM records into completed device actions. It gives you:
See how Firstbase fits into your existing ITSM, HRIS, and MDM environment. Get a tailored workflow walkthrough to understand how service approvals stay within ServiceNow while device provisioning, retrieval, and lifecycle execution are automated in Firstbase.
Step 1: Connect ITSM and HR systems with Firstbase
Connect your ITSM platform (ServiceNow or Zendesk) to Firstbase, along with your HRIS. The ITSM system continues to manage service requests, approvals, asset assignment, and offboarding, while Firstbase handles the physical device lifecycle.
Step 2: Synchronize identity and organizational data
Link employee and organizational data from the HRIS into Firstbase. This includes company structure, departments or cost centers, locations, and employee records. Use optional SSO for identity validation. This shared identity layer allows ITSM requests to reference consistent employee, location, and cost-center information.
Step 3: Align ITSM and Firstbase data models
Align the ITSM data model with Firstbase’s lifecycle model by mapping requesters, catalog items, ticket states, and asset records to employees, hardware SKUs, lifecycle stages, and device identifiers in Firstbase. IT owns the mapping logic, Finance validates cost fields, and Security defines access scope.
Step 4: Execute approval requests through Firstbase
Requests can start in either the ITSM platform or Firstbase, depending on your setup. Approvals remain within the ITSM system. Once approved, Firstbase handles the execution, including device allocation or procurement, provisioning, shipping, assignment, and return handling. Execution details such as asset identifiers, shipment status, and delivery confirmation are reflected back into the ITSM system.
After alignment
The ITSM platform remains responsible for tickets, incidents, and approval workflows. Firstbase handles device provisioning, recovery, and retirement. The HRIS remains the source of truth for identity. Asset records in the ITSM system reflect lifecycle changes based on physical device actions rather than manual updates.
Most of the IT asset management still breaks down at the execution layer. Tickets get approved, policies exist, but devices go missing, retrievals slip, and compliance becomes reactive, especially for distributed teams.
Adding Firstbase introduces an execution layer that turns asset records into outcomes. From procurement and zero-touch deployment to retrieval and ITAD, Firstbase manages the physical lifecycle alongside your existing ITSM and finance stack.
Teams using Firstbase automate 75%+ of manual asset lifecycle tasks and achieve 97-98% on-time delivery, giving IT, HR, and Finance predictable, auditable control over assets.
If you want to eliminate manual handoffs and finally run a fully accountable global asset lifecycle, book a demo and see how Firstbase fits into your existing stack. During this session, you’ll get:
