ServiceNow: 5 Key Steps to Success!

To fully take advantage of the investment with ServiceNow, here are 5 key steps for implementation and on-going success:

ServiceNow is more than just a software application.  It is a ‘platform’ that lets you implement various applications that all work off the same foundation of shared data.  This platform was built to simplify management and workflow between groups, as well as the data flow between applications. 

Align with ServiceNow Strategy

Learn (and lean into) the ServiceNow framework and strategy.  When migrating from another application,  vision and leadership for the new implementation must take charge.  All too easy to allow routine and past experience with other tools to take charge which tends to direct focus on how to ‘modify’ ServiceNow to work like prior tools.

Take time to educate management and technical leads on the ServiceNow platform and various modules, architecture and design objectives.  Put leads in charge that understand the new vision rather than those that are most expert with the prior tools.

Executive Dashboards

Executive Dashboards provide management with a current status of the environment.  With the tools provided by ServiceNow, and others in the marketplace, very effective dashboards can be implemented.  Design up-front what views or dashboards need to exist in order to manage your environment.  This will play into how data is captured, how it flows and how often certain things are updated.  

When it comes to operational or security related dashboards, you want to know the current state at all times and real-time updates are very important for these aspects. While other aspects of reporting may not require Real-Time dashboarding.  Decisions that should be made up front.  

These dashboards also provide management with visibility of key controls, measurements or metrics without having to wait on someone generating reports.  

Management should be very engaged with the design of dashboards.  

Progress on improvements can also be seen by progress (or lack thereof) by monitoring improvements from the dashboards.

Configuration and Not Customization

With the implementation of a ServiceNow module, industry best practices provide the opportunities for efficiency,  effectiveness and security.  Each module has a variety of ways to configure it in order to appropriately personalize for any given company.  

As ServiceNow does their updates and regular upgrades, there is potential for minimal issues when boundaries are maintained with ‘configuring’ the core elements of the module you are using.  However, a common pitfall is to begin ‘customizing’ rather than configuring.  When this happens, when ServiceNow releases an update or upgrade, problems ensue.  Custom work will need to be taken off to the side, then do the upgrade and then make whatever adjustments required to have your customization work with the new version.  This may take the efficient update/upgrade process from hours/days to inefficient weeks/months.  

The better approach is to minimize any customization, and when assumed customization is required, don’t overlap with the scope of the modules installed.  Create the ‘uniqueness’ required outside of the core components of the module(s) running.  Keep ServiceNow informed on why you need customization and if it’s something that many can benefit from, they may incorporate that into a future update.

Configuration Management Database (CMDB)

Plan to make use of this database as the central repository of all the ‘configuration’ information for your environment.  Auto-discovery tools make this very feasible as it will provide you a starting point of everything it sees in the environment. This can provide a very effective way to monitor the status of the various components (systems, OSs, DBs, etc) in the environment. A few key benefits include staying compliant with licensing requirements as well as supporting operational processes.  

Also, at a time when security is critical, it is very important to know and understand current versions and patch levels of everything.  Having a central repository will simplify the management of these areas.

Another aspect is being able to have a solid change management process that ties directly to your CMDB.  All changes to the production environment should be properly monitored.  Whether you do this manually or through automation (Continuous Deployment tools), maintaining change records provides you with valuable information when troubleshooting problems.

Another byproduct of a solid CMDB is Service Management and Service Mapping.  A service is basically a defined value provided by IT and contains a grouping of all the components (applications, systems, DBs, web servers, network components, etc) that are required to provide that specific Service.  With automation you can ‘discover’ all the equipment on your network and then organize into various ‘services’ or service maps.  In recent years, vast improvements in the automation around Service Mapping makes this possible  to maintain without excessive manually procedures.  These maps can aid in troubleshooting outages or visually determining potential impacts of changes that are planned.

A final note on CMDB is that appropriate resources should be allocated to ensure discipline around quality of data exists.  Depending upon where you are in this journey, a lot of time may be required to review components initially identified with auto-discovery.

Trust but Verify

It is recommended that you periodically have ServiceNow (or a certified partner) ‘audit’ your implementation.  You may find that your upgrades are taking too long.  One sign of possible customization is when it takes months to implement the latest upgrade.  ServiceNow upgrades will not impact your configurations when done properly, so that extra time is usually to accommodate for extra testing for customization related work. 

It is not surprising to find much more customization in new installs as team members work to make ServiceNow function as prior tools.

Summary

Protecting the investment with ServiceNow improves with alignment with their strategy and their routine updates and upgrades.  Ensure implementation is well positioned to take advantage in the most effective and efficient manner.  Engage with ServiceNow and have technical staff involved with key user groups to stay abreast of industry advancements.

Very few companies need to allocate their resources to replicate what exists with ServiceNow.  When looking at the cost, it may appear cheaper to build something or use a variety of separate tools.  That cost to build and maintain or use a variety of tools is usually much higher than assumed.  And then the ability to maintain over time is usually dependent on some key resources which may prove problematic. Generally, IT resources are better spent with work related to a company’s core business.

Gary Bronson is not employed by ServiceNow nor does he receive any financial benefits from this review-just sharing practical experience from leading major implementations during the past decade. Some of these concepts can also be applied to other SaaS solutions.