9 Best Change Management SoftwareTools in 2024

The only constant in business is change, especially in the digital age. As companies migrate more and more workloads to the cloud, adopt AI and machine learning, and integrate apps to build robust tech stacks and sophisticated networks, change management has become a business imperative. Change management software helps to organize and optimize the change management process, minimizing business disruptions and ensuring important tasks don’t fall through the cracks.

Why does your company need software for change management? What are the best change management tools on the market today? And how do you determine which is best for your business?

What is change management, and why is it important?

Change management is a process that tech teams use to modify software, systems, or IT infrastructures. It is the core component of IT service management (ITSM)—a set of interdependent processes that streamline the design, delivery, and management of IT services. 

ITSM is guided by best practices called frameworks. The most commonly used framework is the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL).

According to ITIL, the goal of change management is “to ensure that standardized methods and procedures are used for efficient and prompt handling of all changes, in order to minimize the impact of change-related incidents upon service quality, and consequently improve the day-to-day operations of the organization.” Put simply: The goal is to standardize procedures so changes improve operations without disrupting business operations.

The change management process  includes four basic steps:

1. Request for change (RFC): The change management team receives an RFC, usually from another ITSM department such as the problem management or incident management team. The RFC details the reason for the change and outlines known risks, pricing, and steps for implementation.

2. Change evaluation and change planning: Change managers assess the RFC to ensure it includes all the required information and is feasible. They conduct a risk/benefit analysis and cost/benefit analysis. Then they prioritize and schedule the proposed change, and create a rollout plan and back-out plan that minimize disruptions on business processes.

3. Change approvals: The change management team coordinates with the change advisory board (CAB) to gather feedback on change planning from affected stakeholders and technical experts and get approvals from decision-makers.

4. Change implementation and review: The change management team coordinates with the release management team, which builds, tests, and implements the change. After implementation, the change management team reviews the implementation to ensure everything has gone according to plan and captures important insights for knowledge management.

This change management process enables tech teams to:

• Improve risk management IT environments are complex, with vast networks of interconnected hardware and software. Every change your team makes introduces the risk of breaking something else. Change managers’ job is to assess the risks and rewards of proposed changes and identify potential problems. Decision-makers use this information to determine whether changes are worth implementing. Change managers also monitor the change in real time throughout the implementation process to gauge whether it’s successful or should be aborted before it can cause serious problems.

• Enable coordination and tracking of changes Change managers coordinate individual changes to avoid bottlenecks and conflicts and to minimize downtime for users. Change managers also document the details of each change management process, preserving this information in the knowledge base for future reference.

• Facilitate communications between IT teams and end users Some changes don’t result in downtime for users or create new features, but many do. Change management helps ensure users are aware of new features and changes taking place so they can plan for downtime.

What is change management software?

IT change management software is a tool that enables your tech team to:

• Track and visualize all ongoing and future changes in one place

• Monitor the progress of changes in real time

• Optimize the change management process

The best change management solutions are AI-enhanced and enable you to automate many steps along the way. 

Software for change management can be a standalone solution. Better yet, it can be part of a sophisticated ITSM software solution that integrates change management with other ITSM processes—including incident, problem, knowledge, and asset management—all in one platform.

Change management software use cases and examples

A robust change management solution can be used to:

Manage RFC creation and tracking

Your change management system serves as a central hub for all RFCs. Users or IT agents can submit RFCs via the software, and the change management team members can track them all in one place. AI-enhanced change management solutions further simplify the RFC creation process by streamlining data entry. Instead of requiring users to complete long forms, a chatbot can ask them questions to create the RFC or even convert transcripted contact center conversations into RFCs.

Chilean healthcare provider RedSalud relies on the Freshservice ITSM platform to streamline change management across nine hospitals and more than 40 medical and dental centers. Users and helpdesk agents use it to request changes. The CAB then uses it to track RFCs, monitor implementation, and report back after requests have been deployed.

Automate RFC assessment and approvals

Using preset criteria and AI algorithms, change management systems can automate many steps in the RFC assessment workflow. It can verify that all RFCs meet specific criteria and include all required information before they reach CABs. It can prioritize changes, schedule CAB meetings to review them, and even automate change approvals based on recommendations and comments CABs make in the platform.

Catholic Education Western Australia (CEWA) leveraged Freshservice to transform the user experience across 164 schools. CEWA’s change advisory board manages the entire change management process through Freshservice, automating workflows wherever possible. Ben Beaton, digital services team leader for CEWA, explains, “Any time you're dealing with people in a large environment with lots of history and lots of context, there is a constant need to be able to make it a fairly easy journey towards change.”

Streamline change-related communication

Modern change management and ITSM solutions send automated alerts and notifications to keep tech teams and end users updated throughout the change management process. 

Trax Retail relied on automated communication from Freshservice while the change management team focused on transforming the customer experience. The team laid out a clear transition plan, and the system sent regular updates to affected users. “We ensured that the users understood the platform well,” says Meir Naim, senior architecture manager of business applications for Trax Retail. “Our planning was impeccable, so there wasn't any gap in what we drew out as a plan, and what got executed. … We started the process of change management a year ago. And it's going very, very well.”

Benefits of change management software

By implementing the right solution, your change management team can:

Minimize risks

Change management software ensures risks are sufficiently assessed. This aids with decision-making and enables change managers to put plans in place to avoid risks whenever possible. Change management software tracks change effectiveness throughout the implementation process and provides traceability for change-related defects and change management mistakes.

Reduce downtime

For enterprises with global business operations and frequent changes, the software enables tech teams to easily visualize how changes will affect interdependent systems as well as different teams and locations. They use this information to schedule changes at optimal times to avoid bottlenecks and minimize the impact on system users and business processes. 

Simplify change management processes

IT staff and end users often complain that change management processes are complex, frustrating, and too slow to support the speed of change required for modern businesses to be successful. The best change management software simplifies these processes by automating workflows, reducing manual data entry, and simplifying approvals.

Boost IT efficiency

Change managers leverage the technology to optimize resources, anticipate roadblocks, and plan accordingly—all of which leads to a smoother (and faster) implementation process. Done right, change management improves IT operations, reducing the number of IT incidents and problems that must be addressed in the future.

Improve communication and collaboration

By ensuring change and release managers all receive the same information about planned changes, the software keeps the team on the same page, working toward the same goal. It also ensures that end users receive timely updates so they understand why a change is happening, how it will affect them, and how to work around any service disruptions.

Key features of change management software

There are many change management solutions on the market, all with different user interfaces, features, and functionality. Yet the most high-performing tools have some advanced features in common, including:

• AI-enhanced automations

Most software for change management will enable basic activities, such as capturing change requests, assessing the potential business impact, prioritizing RFCs, and managing the approval process. The best change management software intelligently automates these steps wherever possible, which increases efficiency and minimizes the human error associated with manual data entry.

• Lifecycle visualization and optimization

Every solution’s dashboard is different, but best-in-class solutions let you visualize the full lifecycle of each change—from RFC to fulfillment. They also provide controls that ensure fulfillment of mandatory checks and requirements before letting changes from progress from one stage to the next. 

• Automated notifications

Communication is key during the change management process, but it can also be time-consuming. With multiple stakeholders spread across multiple teams and/or locations, it can also be challenging for busy change managers to identify all affected users and keep them abreast of shifting plans and timelines. A good change management solution solves that problem by keeping everyone who needs to know “in the know.”

• Approval controls

Just like it can be hard to identify stakeholders, it can be challenging to know which technical experts and decision-makers should be consulted for different types of change requests—especially in large enterprises with complex leadership structures and multiple locations. Intelligent change management systems enable you to set up hierarchical approvals for different RFC categories, automatically assemble the appropriate CAB, and notify them about RFCs. Some solutions even let you automate approvals based on certain criteria being met or based on CAB recommendations and notes in the portal.

• ITIL alignment

The best change management solutions do far more than manage changes; they optimize ITSM. At the very least, they integrate with the tools that your incident and problem management teams use. Better yet, they’re part of a full ITSM product suite such as Freshservice, which includes incident, problem, asset, and knowledge management functionality. With a robust ITSM solution, you can coordinate all your ITIL processes in one place, create and manage important IT databases such as a change management database (CMDB) and knowledge base, and power your AI-powered service desk.

How to select the right change management software

Change management software is an essential part of your company’s ITSM solution. It also plays a key role in determining how fast your organization can change and how safely those changes can be made. Selecting the right tool means making sure it aligns to your company’s unique needs. Consider the following as you shop for a change management solution:

Time to value

The faster you can deploy and start using your change management software, the faster it can start demonstrating ROI. Time to value varies dramatically from one vendor to the next, depending on the complexity of the solution, the vendor’s deployment backlog, and how much training and support they provide. Freshservice is a drag-and-drop solution that can be rolled out in three to six months, roughly a third of the time it takes to deploy the average ITSM platform.

Questions to ask:

• How much configuration is required? Will we need to hire a coding expert, or is this an out-of-the-box solution?

• How much time and training will be required for my team?

• How long is the average time to value for this solution?

• How much support and training does the vendor provide during (and after) deployment

Business size

With ITSM or any other software for change management, one size does not fit all. Large enterprises typically require features that small to midsize businesses (SMBs) will never use. You want a right-sized solution or a software partner that will tailor their offerings to meet your unique needs. 

Questions to ask:

• Does the solution include all the features that my organization needs now and might need in the future?

• Can we turn off features we don’t need, or will we have to pay for bells and whistles we may never use?

• Will the solution scale up or down as our business size changes over time?

Workflow automation and AI capabilities

Not all change management solutions are AI-enabled or provide the same workflow automation capabilities. Yet many vendors reserve AI functionality and automation for enterprise-level users only. With Freshservice ITSM, all software plans include drag-and-drop automation and Freddy AI, which enables businesses of all sizes to have service chatbots, AI-enhanced insights and recommendations, and predictive analytics.

Questions to ask:

• Which, if any, parts of the change management process can be automated?

• How complex is the automation process?

• Does it cost extra?

Integration

Much of the value of change management software comes from its ability to integrate and orchestrate workflows across multiple systems. When selecting a change management software solution, consider how it will integrate with your other systems used for things like project management, engineering, and configuration management.

Questions to ask:

• Does the solution integrate with automated deployment systems, or will you still need to execute the production changes manually?

• Can the change management software provide status updates back to product management and engineering systems and route any errors that are discovered during deployment?

Change management software comparison: Find the best vendors in 2024

What are the best change management software tools available today? How do these solutions compare?

Freshservice

Freshservice—the Freshworks ITSM system—is a cloud-based, AI-enhanced solution that can be right-sized for your business and works out of the box, with no coding required. Freshservice offers change incident management capabilities and tools for incident management, problem management, asset management, and other key IT services—all in one easy-to-use platform.

Key features

• Intelligent automation that lets you automatically assess, approve, and implement changes

• User-friendly dashboard that lets you visualize the full lifecycle of all ongoing changes, track their progress at a glance, and collaborate with your change management team from a single screen

• Automated notifications that keep agents and end users in the loop about change-related events

• Collaborative change calendar enables change managers to view tasks and changes scheduled for the day (which are automatically added to agent’s calendars) and to view other agents’ schedules for easy CAB meeting setup

• Tools for risk analysis and cost-benefit analysis

• Automatic customer satisfaction (CSAT) survey to drive service improvements

• Intelligent insights from post-implementation review 

• Advanced reporting capabilities to help you evaluate your change management process with predefined and custom reports

Why customers rave about Freshservice 

“Prior to FreshService, the business used spreadsheets and email to log, track and manage tickets and changes. We were unable to see any trends or perform any root cause analysis as the data was held in multiple repositories. Also, we had no way of tracking our assets and software. All our users are now able to see the status and any updates on their tickets, they also have access to the knowledge base which means that they don't even need to log a ticket in the first place. We love the pace and ambition of the team at Fresh. Always coming up with new and innovative ideas and solutions which keeps us ahead of the game and makes us more efficient as a team and business.” — Verified user

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus

An ITIL-aligned service desk software solution, ManageEngine offers integrated change management capabilities to help support teams deliver world-class service with reduced costs and complexity.

Key change management features

• Configurable automated change workflows 

• Automated notifications and publishable announcements for end users

• Ability to assess, prioritize, and schedule changes with inputs from the CAB

• Implementation checklists

• Change calendar 

Pros and cons of ManageEngine

• Codeless and extensive out-of-the-box customizations for a personalized support experience

• Integrated IT environment with ITSM, patch management, alert monitoring, and endpoint management in one platform

• Intelligent workflow automations

• Integrated asset/endpoint management and project management capabilities

• Limited reporting features

• Limited ITSM system configuration capabilities

SysAid

SysAid is a service desk and ITSM solution that combines incident management and other ITIL process management into one platform to help teams work smarter, not harder.

Key change management features

• Built-in, customizable templates for different change scenarios

• Change-overview PDFs with detailed notes to keep CAB fully informed

• Change notifications

• Change management module integrated with service desk, CMDB, and problem management module

Pros and cons of SysAid

• ITIL-aligned solution 

• Limited problem management functionality

• Cloud-based, out-of-the-box solution

• Limited dashboard customization 

• Limited AI and workflow automation capabilities

Wrike

Wrike is a versatile, all-in-one work management platform that combines project management and change management in one highly secure, collaborative tool.

Key change management features

• Collaborative workspace makes it easy to gather feedback needed for change approvals

• Customizable dashboards let you visualize change lifecycle

• Tailored, team-specific workflows

• Shared calendars

• Dynamic reporting and analytics

• Built-in chat functionality

Pros and cons of Wrike

• Not an ITSM platform—doesn’t include incident management or problem management capabilities, CMDBs, or other tools used for managing IT services

• Intuitive dashboard makes it easy to track change lifecycle

• Easy integrations with leading productivity and collaboration apps

• No IT workflow automation

ServiceNow 

ServiceNow is a cloud‑based, unified ITSM platform designed to help large enterprises find smarter, faster, better ways to work. 

Key change management features

• Templated, automated change workflows

• Automated approvals based on numeric “change success score”

• AI-based risk predictions

• Interactive change calendar

• CAB workbench

Pros and cons of ServiceNow

• Cloud-based and AI-enhanced

• Expensive enterprise-grade solution

• Complicated search functionality

• Limited asset management capabilities

• Extensive API library to support third-party integrations

• Complicated configuration process and advanced functionality that SMBs probably won’t need

Jira Service Management

Jira Service Management from Atlassian is an ITSM solution built for high-velocity development and IT operations teams.

Key change management features

• Configurable approval workflows

• Automated approvals 

• Change calendar

• Risk assessment tools

• Easy integrations with popular DevOps tools

Pros and cons of JIRA Service Management

• Many key features only available in Premium and Enterprise plans

• Combines incident, problem, change, and configuration management into one platform (asset management and CMDB only available in top-tier plans)

• Offers an open, collaborative platform with tight integrations to other Atlassian products and 900+ apps to create context-aware, well-informed decisions

• Lacks deep customization capabilities

• Not an out-of-the-box solution

Serviceaide ChangeGear

ChangeGear is a cloud-based, AI-enhanced ITSM platform from Serviceaide that promises to reduce costs and improve service delivery.

Key change management features

• Intuitive dashboards with visual reporting, metrics, and KPIs

• Easy scheduling for change windows and blackout periods

• Automated email notifications to keep end users informed

• CAB management tools that support in-person or virtual CAB meetings

Pros and cons of ChangeGear

• Includes modular solutions for change management, asset management, and service desk

• Limited problem management capabilities

• ITIL-aligned

• Configurations may require coding specialists

Issuetrak

Issuetrak is a helpdesk platform specializing in incident management, change management, and customer support. The platform is designed to help you manage, track, and resolve issues quickly and efficiently.

Key change management features

• Task manager to help manage RFCs and expedite approvals

• Compliance control reporting

• Auto-assignment of RFCs

• Templates and custom forms for RFCs

• Alerts and notifications

Pros and cons of Issuetrak

• Not a full ITSM platform, but it does include incident management, change management, and asset management capabilities

• Limited workflow automations and AI enhancements

• No auto-approval functionality

The Change Shop

The Change Shop is a workplace change management solution designed to help leaders easily manage organizational change, lower costs, and better analyze and manage employee feedback in a single platform.

Key change management features

• Single dashboard to manage all organizational change initiatives and measure their success

• Assess people-related risks that could impede change

• Change budget calculator

Pros and cons of The Change Shop

• Not an ITSM solution—does not include helpdesk functionality or tools for problem management, asset management, knowledge management, CMDB, etc.

• No workflow automations

• No change calendar

Implementing change management software

To realize the full value of your company’s change management software investment, a thoughtful implementation is essential. Every implementation plan will be different based on the unique nature of your company culture, delivery processes, IT environment, and change management objectives. However, most successful change management implementations include these crucial steps:

1. Automate as much of the process as possible: Look for opportunities to optimize your process by eliminating unnecessary steps, reducing the number of process variants through standardization, leveraging templates, and automating decision rules to avoid manual data-entry tasks.

2. Integrate change management software with other ITSM and development tools to provide closed-loop change management processes that span the entire change lifecycle. 

3. Provide adequate software training so everyone feels comfortable and confident using the solution out of the gate.

4. Set up alerts and notifications to ensure RFC creators and affected stakeholders receive regular updates about ongoing change management efforts.

Ready to take the next step?

Change is essential to growth, but it does not have to be complicated, risky, or time-consuming if you have the right tools to support your process—and progress. The right tool is one that meets your business’ unique needs, lets you automate as much of the change management process as possible, and integrates with all the other technology your business uses for ITSM.

Freshservice can support your automation needs with rules-based decision support and change templates that enable routine changes to be automatically approved—enabling your change managers to focus on managing changes, not on managing the process.