The University of Vienna has rolled out digital services to more than 125 internal teams – from classic IT requests to approval workflows. With Jira Service Management (JSM) and Seibert Solutions, the university has built a centralized platform for all departments.
Background of the Client
The University of Vienna is a large educational institution serving over 125 internal teams across various departments, including IT, teaching, and administration. The university began its journey with Jira Service Management in 2016, with initial adoption by its internal Atlassian team, followed by the Central IT Services team.
The Challenge
The university faced several challenges in managing its internal services:
- Processes for requests, approvals, and service delivery were largely manual, paper-based, or reliant on email, leading to inefficiencies.
- There was no centralized, scalable platform to manage the diverse service requests originating from numerous university departments.
- Existing tools proved insufficient for modeling complex workflows, which limited the university’s digitalization efforts.
The Solution
The University of Vienna addressed these challenges through a phased implementation of Jira Service Management, supported by Seibert Solutions.
Jira Service Management was initially introduced within the university’s Atlassian team in 2016. It was subsequently adopted by the Central IT Services team. Jira Service Management then expanded across more than 125 departments (IT, teaching, administration), allowing each to establish its own service project.
JSM became the primary platform for managing a wide array of internal service requests, replacing fragmented processes across the university.
The platform’s expansion was driven by the real needs of departments, fostering organic adoption rather than a top-down mandate.
Seibert Solutions provided end-to-end consulting and implementation, covering technical, strategic, and operational aspects. Support included developing custom workflows, integrations, and automations. Seibert Solutions assisted with project management and workload distribution. Training was delivered via the Seibert Academy and custom sessions.
Sophie Riegler, Portfolio & Process Management in Admin IT at the University of Vienna, said, “For more complex or unfamiliar topics – like integrations, for example – we’re happy to bring one of our consultants along to the very first meeting with colleagues, so we have the best possible expertise on board from the start.”
Key University Use Cases
- Digital graduation process: Students submit requests online; departments process them digitally, eliminating paper and queues.
- Five-step approval workflows: Streamlined processes for travel requests, grants, and IT orders, replacing chaotic email threads.
- Fleet management: Booking, administration, permissions, documentation, and notifications for vehicles managed within JSM.
- Organized booking & external requests: User-friendly forms and structured workflows for equipment booking, permission management, and contact handling.
- Automated Confluence space creation: JSM forms trigger automatic creation of Confluence spaces, saving time and effort.
The Results
The implementation of Jira Service Management has yielded significant, measurable impact for the University of Vienna:
Increased Platform Adoption and Scale
- Over 125 active JSM projects are currently operational and continue to grow.
- 150+ agents are planned for an upcoming large-scale initiative.
- JSM is evolving into the university’s central platform for more departments, with a new project for managing external users (up to 200 agents) currently in development.
Workflow Optimization and Automation
Processes are easily automated and scaled flexibly through smart configurations and relevant add-ons. There is strong buy-in from both administrative and academic staff due to the clear structure and ease of use of the new workflows.
Sophie Riegler, Portfolio & Process Manager in Admin IT at the University of Vienna, said, “Since rolling out Jira Service Management, over 125 project teams have realized the value of this product. We’re now modeling workflows that simply weren’t possible in other tools.”