ServiceNow is a popular tool for organisations to automate workflows suited to IT, HR, Security, Customer Service, and other lines of business. It is highly customisable and offers lots of options to integrate with other tools. Implementing ServiceNow can be a challenge but in my experience and from shared stories with my peers there are a few guidelines that should be followed to ensure a smooth process.

Begin with the end in mind

ServiceNow implementations can be overwhelming. The platform is packed with features and capabilities that offer lots to play with. In time you will no doubt explore these but during the initial implementation they can distract from the original goals. It is important to have a clear vision of what the end should be before you start. A clear vision will enable you to identify the success criteria that will serve as a guiding star during the implementation. Everyone involved in the implementation should have a clear understanding of what success looks like. This is invaluable from design to delivery and can help resolve many issues. This is the way customers can forge ahead with laser sighted focus to achieve their goals without getting lost in the process.

In addition, customers should identify quick wins that lead towards that end goal. Demonstrating value early in the project builds trust from stakeholders and demonstrates the ability to move quickly on the ServiceNow platform. Here it is important to focus on getting things ‘done’ rather than ‘perfect’. Remember that continual, iterative improvement of the platform should be part of your operational plan. For this reason, don’t be concerned if good ideas are raised during the design workshops that are not implemented because they did not align to the success criteria. These can be the first items to enter a product backlog to be screened and delivered post implementation.

Adopt out of the box

It is sometimes said that ServiceNow’s greatest strength is its customisability but its also its greatest weakness. A common pitfall for customers is to rebuild their legacy tool in ServiceNow. This happens when established norms and familiar ways of working are not challenged or so firmly entrenched it is impossible to consider alternatives. The outcome in doing this is that the issues with the old tool have just moved to the new tool. Customers should maintain an open mind and even an appetite for change. A degree of customisation is expected to fit ServiceNow to each organisation, but this needs to be navigated carefully. Introducing the issues from the old tool is only part of the problem. Customisation can impact upgrades, hinder adoption of new features and make integrations difficult. This is where a trusted partner with experience implementing ServiceNow for similar industries is important to guide customers on this path. It is our job to focus on the required business outcomes and then find the solution that best fits with consideration to both the organisational change and technology impact involved.

Customers can help themselves here by ensuring that the stakeholders attending the design workshops have thorough knowledge and understanding of the existing processes, often these are the process workers rather than the process owner. In addition, people with the authority to make process improvement decisions should also be present in these workshops.

Think Big

ServiceNow is often implemented for a specific business function, such as to replace a legacy ITSM tool or support a customer contact centre. Let’s call that the ‘anchor purpose’, the reason ServiceNow got in the door. For some organisations that is where it remains and is only thought of as serving that original purpose. They don’t realise that this single platform can support many other lines of business beyond what it was first implemented for. Customers who expand the coverage of ServiceNow across their organisation find they can mature their processes and gain insight into the performance of those processes. This enables teams to find efficiencies that would have otherwise eluded them or not have been possible in their previous toolset, which I will add, is too often simply a shared mailbox and spreadsheets.

While it is important to have the end state in mind during the implementation, continue to think big about the potential for the wider organisation to embark on a journey to transform and mature. This means laying a solid foundation and considering how decisions made now to customise and tailor the platform for that anchor purpose may create difficulty to add other lines of business in the future.

This ‘big’ plan is also helped by informing the wider organisation of what the implementation means for them, not just as a customer or end-user, but also how it has benefited the team now using the platform. This allows other areas of the business to consider how their line of work may realise similar benefits. For example, when announcing the launch of a new Employee portal, add to the announcement that the team have also removed one or more tedious manual tasks they were frequently doing which has allowed them to take on higher value work. These easter eggs will generate interest from decision makers and influencers alike, sparking ideas of their own adoption of the platform.

In Summary

Determine your vision of what success looks like and tackle quick wins along the way to reaching it. Be ready to embrace change to avoid overly customising the platform and focus on getting things done rather than perfect. Finally, the future is big and bright; a successful implementation should put you in a good position to educate other areas of the business and help pave the way for further transformation in the organisation.

Let us help you with your ServiceNow implementation and achieve success.