A Journey To Profitable Digital Transformation: How Servicenow Changed Its Own Processes in 7 Steps
A Journey To Profitable Digital Transformation: How Servicenow Changed Its Own Processes in 7 Steps
A Journey To Profitable Digital Transformation: How Servicenow Changed Its Own Processes in 7 Steps
profitable digital
transformation
How ServiceNow changed its
own processes in 7 steps.
START
Why this guide?
And why now?
A quick search for “digital transformation” on All that said, it’s safe to assume that you do not
Google yields more than 350,000,000 results. need a lesson in what “digital transformation”
The first mention of it was in the early 1990s. is as a concept. What remains unrealized,
The term has run hot and cold numerous times however, is consensus over repeatable ways to
and some are even promoting the abbreviation actually achieve the promises talked about for
of “DT.” so many years.
2
Source: https://www.netapp.com/us/info/what-is-digital-transformationdx.aspx
“We’ve had great results, The ServiceNow journey as a
but we’re not superheroes.
When you focus on the
catalyst for your own strategy.
service experience, along
This guide is designed to offer a practical look • For HR: We've achieved a 60% decrease in
with the technology, at how ServiceNow accomplished its own the time to onboard employees and $14M in
processes, and people you digital transformation over the past several productivity savings.
need to make it happen, years. It’s not meant to offer a rigid set of
mandatory checkboxes, but rather “food for • In our customer success department: we've
everything else falls into thought” as you consider how to formulate your realized an 11-point increase in our Net
place. Anyone can do this.” own unique strategy. Promote Score (NPS) and $13.4M in
productivity savings.
How is ServiceNow’s digital transformation
Mirza Baig, Director IT going? Here are the numbers. • Within IT: We’ve realized significant savings,
allowing us to shift 13% of IT Ops budget from
at ServiceNow Drink the champagne, eat your own dogfood… run to innovate.
whatever phrase you prefer, we’re doing it. The
results have been significant. Those are just some of the numbers achieved
since undertaking our digital transformation.
We’ll reveal the rest at the end of this guide.
3
At the end of the day,
it’s still about the money.
If the results shared from our own efforts It’s a business-critical and an inspiring enough
haven’t been intriguing enough to continue positive change to warrant taking on the
reading, we’ll point out a finding from significant and complex challenges ahead
recent research: organizations that focus such as dealing with deeply entrenched
on digitization are 30% more profitable and legacy applications; altering multitudes of
productive because they maximize the value deep-rooted, slow, manual processes; and
from their entire workforce.* overcoming the growing specter of
security threats.
*Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of ServiceNow, April 2018 4
How to use this guide.
Every organization is different. Each situation, nuanced. All have different goals to achieve. We
realize there’s no single Do It Yourself list that can be applied to everyone, but the following pages
may give you insights and ideas on how to plan and execute your own transformation efforts. To
make this as scannable as possible, this ebook is divided into several sections:
5
Part 1
The two sides of
ServiceNow's transformation.
From the very first internal meeting of those Simply put, increased productivity plus great
tasked with ServiceNow’s digital transformation, experiences translate into happy employees.
there was cross-department agreement on Happy employees plus increased productivity
two goals: unlocking productivity and delivering mean happy customers. And happy employees
great experiences. These were defined as such: plus happy customers lead to greater profits.
Goal 1 - Unlocking productivity: Research bears this out. Happy and engaged
This means finding ways to automate and employees, on average, have 17% higher
digitize workflows across every department, productivity, 10% higher customer satisfaction
on every type of device, and across all metrics, and generate 21% higher profitability.*
relevant stakeholders and personas served.
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Part 2
What we considered
before beginning.
Speaking with our customers and exploring
our own needs, we recognized that digital
transformation done right can be as
much a psychological or cultural shift as a
technological one. This is radically different
from such shifts in the past (the switch from
typewriters to PCs in the 1980s, for example)
where things were essentially forced on
employees, partners, and vendors in a take-
it-or-leave-it manner. Our corporate culture
and market obsession to “Make work, work
better” required creating cooperation and
a shared sense of a singular purpose for all
internal stakeholders. Beyond the technology
and process retooling, significant change
management would come into play.
7
C-Level Sponsor
Digital Transformation Core Team Drive enterprise-wide Digital
(Digital Transformation Leader, Program Manager, and Business Analyst) Transformation Program
How we set the stage nitty-gritty of establishing our starting point. of four mission-critical, well-defined titles:
Over the course of several weeks, we created Executive Sponsor, Business Process Analyst,
for our success. a comprehensive inventory of current legacy Service Owner, and Program Manager.
Getting executive support systems and assessed their health and viability. This was repeated in applicable business
We’ve all been there. Amazing plans with no We knew we’d keep some and retire others units throughout the transformation. Each
support from leadership often die on the vine. because they were no longer meeting our stakeholder was accountable for achieving
Buy-in from our C-Suite was, and still is, critical. needs. Rationalizing applications can take milestones, generating progress reports,
Period. This approach allows for the right time, but this step is necessary to build a strong discussing challenges, and any other tasks pre-
mixture of carrot and stick to prioritize work and less complex foundation for scaling. determined on a quarterly basis. This ensured
across multiple teams. that each team was continuously identifying
Assembling the transformation team opportunities to measure and improve progress
Benchmarking inventory How big? How small? How much power? against agreed-upon targets.
C-Suite enthusiasm. Check. Next came the For ServiceNow, the core team consisted
8
Some additional reflections.
Quick wins are always smart.
We talked to our customers about their We also identified solid performance metrics.
own journeys and shared our process and Everyone involved understood what was
approach. We received positive feedback, being improved and how it would impact the
which confirmed that we were on the right bottom line. This allowed us to go beyond
track. One piece of advice was to not to try to simply saying, “We automated billing.” Instead,
do everything at once because it invites failure. we put real numbers against increases in
Too much change too fast is too challenging productivity and savings in employee hours
to absorb. So we took a “quick wins” approach. and expenditures.
These “quick wins” were identified as:
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Part 3
The Maturity Model –
Where we placed ourselves.
Digital transformation isn't a switch that's That information was further classified by four
flipped. It is a never-ending process that starts phases: basic, optimized, productive, and
at different points for every organization. To transformed. This created the framework for a
set achievable KPIs, we needed to understand single view of our starting points and progress
just how mature our own processes were. points to ensure every stakeholder was on the
Working with our CIO, we identified three key same page throughout.
imperatives:
10
Basic Productive Optimized Transformed
Velocity
Intelligence
Experience
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Part 4
The seven major steps
taken to get it all done.
Here’s where ServiceNow’s transformation truly took place. The seven steps listed
below were both independent initiatives and interdependent on one another.
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Step 1. Step #1 at ServiceNow Service
Analytics
Process
Global Headcount Reporting
comprehensive and cover every affected A. We collected existing Compliance Compliance Reporting
Compliance Education and Training
department. services offered to Compliance HR Policies and Procedures
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Step 2.
Assess each process Once we cataloged our processes, it
was time to assess each one based on
against your digital digital imperatives: velocity, intelligence,
and experience.
imperative
ServiceNow’s preliminary digital transformation imperatives:
Velocity Imperative
Process Maturity Digital Platforms Level of Effort Systems Involved
Identify the level that Is a digital platform used to perform this How much human effort List the systems and
best represents the process (we, of course, used ServiceNow, is needed to perform this applications involved in
maturity of this process. others may list Workday or SAP)? process? performing this process.
Intelligence Imperative
Reporting Automated Recommendations Automated Decisions
Does this process use platform reporting Does this process leverage system- Does this process leverage system-
capabilities (CRM, Tableau, Workday, etc.)? generated recommendations or insights? executed decisions or actions?
Experience Imperative
Self-Service Mobility Personalization Experience Rating
Does the customer initiate Does the customer engage Are personas defined and Does this process seek customer
this process via self-service? this process on a mobile configured in a system and used to feedback or satisfaction rating
application (not browser)? deliver personalized experiences? after it is performed?
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What we did with A process was consumed. How were Step #2 at ServiceNow
employees getting things done? Customers?
those imperatives. Other end-users? Some questions we asked We wanted our employees and
After assessing the level of maturity of were: How much still depended on phone calls users to be able to access and
our processes, we listed which were being to the service desk? What could be accessed
via laptops and mobile devices? By whom, and
manage processes whenever
managed by a digital platform or system of
record, the level of effort, and all the systems what are their requirements? the need arose. That means
interrelated with the processes.
This all took time in the beginning, as our
as rich a mobile experience as
Then we determined what reports were being service owners carefully considered and they enjoy on their desktop.
used for each process and double-checked recorded the processes their teams performed. The ServiceNow platform fully
that we had good data governance practices. supports mobile use.
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Step 3.
Generate a
heat map
A heat map is an incredibly useful visual Note that the various colors used are not
representation of the digital maturity of representative of “wrong” or “right,” but of
various systems and processes. It shows the the maturity of the overall process identified
relative priority of what should be digitized as important. For example, something red
and in what sequence. Using scores and might be a process that is run once a year
data from the assessment phase, the for 100 employees, which may be lower in
ServiceNow heat map revealed patterns priority when compared to a process run
within a given department. This was used quarterly for 10,000 employees. It’s obvious
to create a single digital score that was which one you should tackle first. Wherever
objectively used for apple-to-apple you choose to focus, look at impact and
comparisons during our transformation. reducing complexity in your organization.
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43 Q4 2018 50 Q1 2019 59 Q2 68 Q3 77 Q4 80
ML Driven Support
Agent Workspace
A digital roadmap ensures everyone is on the same page and knows what’s ahead
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Step 5. Step #5 at ServiceNow
Define metrics to As you can see, our IT dashboard
contains tactical metrics (e.g.
measure progress request closure time, employee
satisfaction) directly influenced
This step is where our teams had to truly unite. agreed upon, we tapped industry-standard
Rather than simply implement a top-down benchmarks such as APQC, Pink Elephant, by our frontline staff, as well as
operational metrics approach, our stakeholders Gartner, or the KPI Library to measure cost metrics (e.g. spend as a
worked together to define metrics around what team progress. percentage of revenue) that are
the business cared about and what various
teams agreed upon up front. This eliminated a We cannot stress how important it was to focus important at the executive level for
one-size-fits-all approach when comparisons on incremental progress, rather than trying to financial and strategic purposes.
were inevitably made with other like-sized accomplish everything in a single quarter. We
Metrics Baseline FY18 FY19 Targets
enterprises and competitors. measured (and still do) against categories
important to each organization including a few Cost
1. IT Ops cost as % of Revenue 3%1 2.5% 2%
The metrics considered included cost, velocity, small key metrics. And not all transformation 2. IT Ops Opex as a % of total IT Opex 40% 36% 33%
whatever else was deemed both relevant 1. Incident Resolution Time 6 days2 2 days < 2 days
Productivity
1. Run vs.
vs Innovate
Grow4 4 60:40 70:30 60:40
Agreed-upon metrics and how to measure 2. Employee-to-IT Support Ratio 150:1 200:1 > 300:1
them are a key to success 3. # of IT Operations FTE’s per Billion of Revenue 55 48 40
Experience
1. Employee Satisfaction on IT Services > 85% 77%3 > 85%
Step 6. Step #6 at ServiceNow
Implement We structure our internal, C-level
quarterly check-ins with this
quarterly check-ins high-level agenda:
This was a complicated project with many • Wins from the last quarter
moving pieces. To keep everything moving (both big and small)
at the smartest speed, we held quarterly
check-ins with all applicable stakeholders. • Before-and-after digital scores
Collaboration was key and set the tone of each and heat maps
check-in. Our executives provided complete
support and encouraged honesty and a • Plans for the next one-two
promise of no penalty for missed goals. This quarters
was the only way to enable the wisest and
most supportable course-corrections. • Risks, challenges, and
help needed
• Business outcomes
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Step 7. Step #7 at ServiceNow
Identify next priority, • Review digital assessment for
opportunities
digitize, and repeat
• Align against organizational
After following the first six steps, it was and company priorities, as
time to take inventory of what we’d
accomplished. Project leaders paused the priorities can change
motion to give proper time to set up an
annual project roadmap. • Select the initiatives you want
to tackle and assess the
business value
• Enter demands into Project
Portfolio Management (PPM)
• Execute
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As promised, the results…and an invitation for
you to undertake your own transformation.
13%
shift of IT from run to innovation
1%
reduction in cost as
$5.7M
In security operations
through productivity increases a % of revenue productivity savings
60%
faster to onboard employees
$1M+
saved between finance
$14M
in productivity savings
and audit efficiencies
11 PTS
increase in support-call NPS
95%
changes automated
$13.4M
in productivity gains
per month
Now it’s your turn.
But you don’t have to go it alone. ServiceNow has helped thousands of organizations successfully
transform the way they operate so that they can thrive in today’s digital age.
Visit www.servicenow.com to discover how you can digitize your IT, employee, and customer
workflows using the power of the Now Platform®, or spend some time exploring how other
companies have worked with ServiceNow to achieve their transformation goals.
About ServiceNow
ServiceNow is making the world of work, work better for people. Our cloud-based platform and
solutions deliver digital workflows that create great experiences and unlock productivity to
approximately 5,400 enterprise customers worldwide, including almost 75% of the Fortune 500
Visit us at ServiceNow.com.
www.servicenow.com
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