University of Wisconsin–Madison

ITSM Tool Replacement

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DoIT’s IT service management (ITSM) tool is a crucial part of IT service delivery and enables functions of the DoIT operational framework. Cherwell, the software that runs our ITSM tool known as WiscIT, will reach end-of-life on December 17, 2026 and will no longer be supported by its vendor, Ivanti. We will need to replace Cherwell to maintain DoIT essential IT service management functions.

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Project planning

Successfully implementing a new ITSM tool requires gathering input from multiple stakeholders including: current users, DoIT staff who play a role in service delivery who may or may not currently use the tool, DoIT managers and executive stakeholders, and campus stakeholders.

A portion of the stakeholder socialization–including initial feedback and needs gathering–was done through the IT Service Excellence Discovery Project, carried out in 2024. In the fall of 2024 DoIT leadership engaged in tool selection discovery and decided to move forward with the cloud instance of Ivanti’s ITSM product, Neurons. This is the same product used by the Universities of Wisconsin and UW-Milwaukee, and will be used by the new team supporting Workday (WEST). Throughout 2025 and 2026, a project team will implement Neurons and will continually engage stakeholders for the duration of the project.

Project goals

The main goal of the ITSM Tool Replacement Project is:

  • To have a new ITSM tool and its associated processes and relevant documentation in place by July 2026 to allow DoIT Operational Framework practices to continue within DoIT and for groups currently using the tool.

The new ITSM tool will:

  • Be highly operational at go-live
  • Have migrated workflows actively in use
  • Allow DoIT to meet audit and policy requirements
  • Continue to offer self-service incident or service request capabilities
  • Provide improvements on accessibility and meet cybersecurity standards

The processes, as well as the roles and responsibilities between process owners and the WiscIT team, will be documented and clear for all stakeholders.

Project approach

The project team will engage DoIT stakeholders by leveraging the DoIT Service Management Subteam meeting series, which currently meets twice a month. DoIT team members interested in actively participating in the project will be encouraged to sign up for these meetings. Additionally, we plan to reach out to DoIT groups and external stakeholders currently interacting with WiscIT throughout the duration of the project to gather needs, create user stories and solicit volunteers for user testing. Project updates will be shared primarily through the DoIT Service Management Subteam meeting series, via email and posted to this project webpage.

DoIT colleagues should reach out to project manager Jesse Henderson to be added–or to add DoIT colleagues–to this meeting series. Campus colleagues can also contact the project manager directly or use this form to share feedback or ask questions.

The project team will be divided into a Business Analysis and Requirements team and a Technical team, working in sprints driven by user stories to work through the implementation. Other supporting team members are assisting with procurement, communications, testing, feedback and stakeholder engagement throughout the project. The project team is listed below.

Project team

Executive sponsors

  • Jamie Gutkowski, director of User Services (Patrick Johnson serving as interim)
  • Tadd Smejkal, director of Systems Engineering & Operations

Project Leads

  • Miguel Garcia-Gosalvez, associate director, IT Service Management
  • Hannah Pringle, associate director, Help Desk

Project team members

Technical team

  • Bernie Bernstein, ITSM technical integration lead
  • Will Crickman, WiscIT product owner
  • Brian Gratrix, WiscIT technical integration engineer
  • Greg Thornburg, ITSM technical integration engineer

Other project team members

  • Laura Grady, user experience architect
  • Whitney Jacobson, project communications co-lead
  • Dawn Karls, product & vendor relations manager
  • Brianna Kuhn, project communications co-lead
  • Victor Ponelis, configuration manager
  • Jennifer Sutherland, business continuity manager

Project updates

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