AESMP Employs Continual Improvement

Service Now

By Edward Jones, U.S. Army Enterprise Service Desk

Article published on: June 20, 2025 in the Summer 2025 edition of Army Communicator

Read Time: < 3 mins

On Sept. 21, 2023, the Army Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Deputy Chief of Staff G6, in coordination with U.S. Army Cyber Command and U.S. Army Network Enterprise Technology Command, transitioned Army Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) operations to the Army Enterprise Management Platform (AESMP). The transition included consolidating Non-Classified Internet Router Network (NIPRNet) and Secret Internet Router Network (SIPRNet) service management platforms and services to globally accessible, cloud-based, ServiceNow-based platform solutions. The consolidation of Army’s six legacy ITSM systems and more than 1.2 million customers into one enterprise-level Service-Now system was successfully completed in less than one year.

Following the successful implementation of AESMP, efforts are now concentrated on enhancing its functional and technical capabilities through the addition of new features and improvements to core functionality – putting the Information Technology Infrastructure Library’s continual service improvement practice into tangible use for the field.

At the forefront of every new technology release into Army’s enterprise environment is security, and that is indeed a critical focus across the platform as it evolves globally. Other key focus areas are: accountability and visibility of Army’s assets e.g. hardware and software; integration of Virtual Agent (VA) into other Army technologies, such as Microsoft Teams, to allow easy transitions onto the platform; and the enhancement of the customer/user experience during service support/request interactions on the platform.

Additional improvements to support under the AESMP umbrella include simplification of the service desk call tree to ensure calls are routed correctly and expeditiously. These three areas enhance the platform functional and technical capabilities across the Army and are briefly discussed below.

‌Hardware and Software Management

AESMP rolled out the Service Now Information Technology Operations Management (ITOM) module for asset discovery in 2023, and the Hardware and Software Asset Management (HAM and SAM) modules in 2024. AESMP Asset Discovery uses more than 50 Management, Instrumentation, and Discovery‌ (MID) servers deployed across the entire Army enterprise, both NIPR and SIPR, to discover networked hardware devices, the software installed on those devices, and the relationships between them. Asset data is also ingested from interfaces with the Army's Tier-0 Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager (MECM) system, which provides information about systems on the legacy Active Directory domains, and from Microsoft's Intune cloud service, which provides data about systems that have migrated to the new Army Unified Domain System (AUDS).

As of June 1, AESMP is tracking more than 1 million hardware devices, with more than 70 million installed software packages across those devices.

The HAM module allows Army hardware asset managers to track the life cycles of the hardware for which they are responsible, from purchasing to retiring. They work with the AESMP team as needed to upload data about devices that are not discoverable on the network, and track costs, end of support dates, and device locations and assignments at each echelon.

The SAM module allows Army software asset managers to track license purchases via entitlement records, including costs and license renewal or expiration dates, and license consumption via allocation records, noting which user or device has that software installed and if more or fewer licenses were purchased than needed.

AESMP Virtual Agent (VA) Integration

The AESMP Platform Engineering team is working to integrate AESMP with Army 365 Teams before end-of-year 2025. Combined with the existing bring your own device (BYOD) solutions available, this integration will put AESMP “in the pocket” of every Army user.

AESD Call Tree Simplification

Redesign of the Enterprise Service Desk call tree simplifies the call tree for our customers by reducing the number of prompt options, allowing quicker navigation connecting them to the best available service agent and faster support (see chart on next page). Platform improvements specifically for the Army are often identified from feedback on AESMP operations and user experiences. Because AESMP is deployed as an enterprise tool, improvement ideas and feedback from stakeholders are essential to ensuring the Army derives the maximum value from its investments in the service across the enterprise and positive impact on the operational environment. Additionally, stakeholder feedback helps determine where Army resources need to be focused to ensure future configuration and customization improvements result in added value to the Army’s IT enterprise.

AESMP provides users with a single point of entry for Army IT service requests and incidents. AESMP is permissions-based, granting general users the ability to request IT services and report issues through an online portal while IT service personnel can route and log activities within the system. The AESMP provides unprecedented network insight and the ability to track, report, and measure service performance across the Army’s IT environment.

AESMP supports Army convergence, digital transformation, and unified network operations. AESMP is the future, and the future is now.