From managing incidents, problems, changes, and knowledge to empowering IT agents’ productivity, ServiceNow ITSM is, by all means, a power booster for businesses looking to scale.
No wonder it sits atop for the 8th year running as the “Leader” in Gartner’s 2021 Magic Quadrant for IT Service Management Tools.
Certainly, a tool of such distinction can help you create a gamut of service management solutions for your enterprise. You can also manage recurring, complex, and customer-specific assets, processes, and incidents. Yet, having enormous capabilities does not necessarily translate to making the best of your ITSM investment.
For prolonged success, you need to have an implementation strategy that aligns with your cutting-edge vision and philosophy, reconciles the gaps between IT business units and strategic partners, and addresses the organizational culture and needs. If you are anything like most enterprises today, you are striving to achieve a technologically advanced, customer-centric, and expertly empowered work environment.
In that light, buying a ServiceNow license is just the beginning. The capabilities of ServiceNow’s resources and functions will not be thoroughly realized unless there is a proper robust ITSM strategy in place.
Along those lines, here are a few suggestions for you to consider:
Prepare an ITSM Strategy and Not a ServiceNow Strategy
A successful ITSM implementation is heavily dependent on the quality of the IT strategy you are able to come up with. Mounting a ServiceNow offering is no easy task. You need to establish your enterprise’s IT vision and get everyone on board to make the most of your ServiceNow investments.
That means you must primarily focus on ITSM’s granularities — from ITSM functionality to ITSM governance — instead of emphasizing vendor-associated proficiencies. In other words, your ServiceNow inclination would only yield per the expectations when you’d be ready to comprehend and architect the enterprise’s IT strategy.
This kind of strategy will help you understand the key enablers for empowering IT, streamlining processes and operations, and getting all stakeholders involved.
Don’t Over-Customize. Instead, Use out-of-the-box Features
While it is tempting to customize ServiceNow ITSM packages, you need to strike a balance between customizability and usability. Of course, customization lets you employ your enterprise’s specific vocabulary, design, and workflows. However, it isn’t wise to customize beyond your business needs. You can always implement customizations after discovering the key functionality gaps and understanding how ServiceNow ITSM works.
Consider this; the out-of-the-box integrations that ServiceNow ITSM facilitates for improved DevOps audibility and security are sufficient when it comes to the foundation of dynamic asset maintenance and service delivery. Having profound and overwhelming customization capabilities is not what you are aiming for — your goal should be to use the out-of-the-box features as best as you can.
Focus on Service-Specific Staff Development Training
A robust ITSM strategy goes beyond the technical and functional aspects of your ServiceNow implementation. You need to take into consideration the staff training component as well while planning a flawless implementation.
Relying on generic technical support training, incident resolution training, and basic help desk functions won’t lead to the desired results. Instead, tailor your ITSM staff’s training program to have a specific skill set alignment with the assets your enterprise is looking to manage and deliver.
Given the wide-ranging complexity of IT systems and processes today, your enterprise needs professional skill sets that will best enable your staff to learn various ITSM functions such as reconciliation, configuration management, and so forth.
Don’t Overlook Organizational Change
The quality of ServiceNow’s resources and functions largely depends on the way an enterprise’s IT units assume transfer of ownership. In the same vein, your ITSM’s success depends on whether or not the IT teams have grasped their new obligations and responsibilities.
You will need to educate your teams about the new way of working, from how inter-departmental communication should reduce fragmentation to the manner in which the enterprise’s commitment to ITSM delivery should be aligned with its customer-facing initiatives.
Don’t Hesitate to Revamp Legacy Processes
Making the most of the ServiceNow ITSM platform starts with the process definition and automation of legacy processes. As extensible as ServiceNow may be, the inefficiencies of established business processes and technologies can only be addressed by re-examining the very root of your enterprise’s IT operations.
For instance, a business process that has been in place for years and that is supported by a slew of legacy software applications may no longer be feasible in the post-pandemic digital economy. The best way to bridge the gap in your IT vision is to revamp and empower these systems to complement the ITSM implementation.
Doing a proper assessment of your ITSM assets and processes gives you a clearer picture of how you can mitigate the inefficiencies of the existing processes. In this manner, you start with a solid footing to integrate your legacy processes into the new digital culture instead of completely discarding them in the first place.
Associate with ServiceNow Partners
ServiceNow is a platform that is best leveraged through ServiceNow partners, who are experienced and familiar with the best practices of ServiceNow ITSM implementation.
With the help of ServiceNow partners,
- You don’t have to spend hours and days setting up ServiceNow functionalities, which is time-consuming and cost-inefficient.
- You can start exploring the value of ServiceNow’s resources and functions immediately.
- Your enterprise will benefit from the hands-on experience of the partner with expertise in ServiceNow development, deployment, monitoring, automation, and enterprise rollout.
- You’ll receive customized consulting and integration, which gives you a better chance of success.
- You will have access to a team of professionals who understand the intricacies of your enterprise’s IT operations and much more.
Do these sound like compelling reasons to outsource your ServiceNow ITSM implementation? Talk to a specialist today to learn how we can assist you in your IT service management journey.
