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Governments Reset Expectations for Digital Work, Lean On Enterprise Service Management

State governments can adopt enterprise service management to unify services, meet workforce demands and deploy artificial intelligence.

Mickey McCarter

Mickey McCarter is the senior editor of StateTech Magazine.

State and local government IT leaders are facing a reset in the expectations of their employees, driven by workplace pressures and the advent of artificial intelligence. That shift is fueling growing interest in enterprise service management, or ESM, as agencies look to streamline internal services across departments and modernize how employees interact with government systems.

“I think it’s really a shift in expectations within their workforce,” says Jimmy Schmitzer, a principal field solution architect at CDW. “Hybrid work, automation opportunities and the rising awareness of what AI can do is resetting the baseline. Customers are starting to realize they can apply that across every part of their business.”

Rather than viewing IT support, HR services and payroll requests as isolated workflows, ESM treats them as part of a unified experience. For government agencies, that can mean fewer handoffs, less duplication and faster resolution times — a shift that mirrors the personalized, on-demand services employees experience in their personal lives.

“Most organizations are looking to invest in a platform that can account for multiple departments, not just a single problem,” Schmitzer says. “They’re seeing what’s possible at home with digital services and asking why they can’t have that same experience at work.”

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From Point Solutions to a Unified Experience

Schmitzer says most organizations don’t begin their modernization journeys by asking for enterprise service management. Instead, they often approach CDW looking to replace an aging IT service management tool — only to discover that similar pain points exist across the enterprise.

“Customers usually come to us saying, ‘We need to replace our IT service management solution,’” he says. “But what we uncover is a larger enterprise service management opportunity because that same disjointed experience exists across all their departments.”

For state and local agencies, that fragmentation can be especially costly. Separate systems for HR, procurement, facilities and IT often lead to siloed data, inconsistent processes and frustrated employees. ESM consolidates those experiences into a single digital front door.

Schmitzer described it as creating a “Grand Central Station of services,” where employees can request support, search for information and interact with automated agents through one platform. The result, he says, is faster fulfillment, higher satisfaction and less friction.

“This is about automation improvements, faster time-to-fulfillment and better experiences,” he says. “Instead of going to 18 different systems, you’re going to one place — and you’re getting answers faster.”

AI Raises the Bar for Government Services

AI is becoming a central part of those conversations, Schmitzer says, but not necessarily the starting point.

“AI comes up in almost every conversation now,” he says. “The demand is already there. The real question is whether it can be done practically — something agencies can actually get up and running and prove value from.”

However, he cautioned that AI cannot succeed without clear processes and strong data governance.

“You can’t solve with AI if you don’t know the destination you’re trying to get to,” he says.

That message resonates with government leaders navigating both the promise and the demands of AI. Without well-defined workflows and reliable data, agencies risk automating inefficiencies rather than fixing them.

I don’t take a step unless I know what at least three steps down the road look like. You have to plan for the future.”

Jimmy Schmitzer Principal Field Solution Architect, CDW

Change Management Comes First

While platforms like ServiceNow enable automation and integration, Schmitzer emphasized that technology is often the easiest part of the transformation.

“The hard part is the people and the process,” he says. “Technology follows what you want to get out of those two things.”

That perspective is especially relevant for public sector organizations, where change often requires alignment across multiple departments, unions and leadership structures. Schmitzer says CDW begins most engagements by assessing not just technical readiness but cultural readiness as well.

“It really depends on the organization,” he says. “Their culture, their appetite for change and what they’re actually ready to consume successfully.”

Rather than pushing a predefined solution, CDW focuses on understanding agency goals, key performance indicators and past challenges before recommending a path forward.

“We start away from the technology,” Schmitzer says. “We ask about outcomes, priorities and what success actually looks like for that organization.”

DIVE DEEPER: Governments should test platforms, not projects.

Quick Wins Build Momentum

For many agencies, Schmitzer says, early success is critical. That’s why CDW often targets employee-facing use cases first — where improvements are visible and immediately useful.

“Quick wins typically come with employee-facing use cases,” he says. “If you can show your workforce there’s one place to go for help, that builds momentum.”

Those early wins also create political capital inside organizations, helping IT leaders secure buy-in for larger, multiphase transformations.

“I don’t take a step unless I know what at least three steps down the road look like,” Schmitzer says. “You have to plan for the future.”

He says CDW strives to assist its partners with these challenges with a focus on long-term outcomes over short-term deployments.

“We want to be a doctor, not a waiter,” he says. “We don’t just take orders — we want to be prescriptive.”

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