By Michael Nulty
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29 Jun, 2021
ServiceNow is a robust platform that automates, streamlines, and improves the service management processes of your organization, in turn allowing you to deliver superior customer satisfaction. The platform achieves these objectives by automating a bulk of the administrative processes involved in service management such as ticket creations, escalations, performance predictions, detection of potential faults before they occur, and so on. A fruitful implementation of this platform-as-a-service (PaaS) can improve the productivity, work processes, and employee/customer satisfaction across all departments in your organization. However, an improperly designed cloud migration or implementation process can result in the benefits of the migration not being realized. Indeed, cloud migration failure rate is a staggering 44 percent . In some sectors, it is even higher. Does that mean the cloud is not yet ready to replace the in-house digital infrastructure? Far from it. A survey by Sungard Availability Services reveals some shocking details with regards to cloud migration failures. According to the survey, the 3 main reasons why cloud computing implementations fail are as follows: Lack of understanding of cloud security, best practices, and compliance (56%) Absence of clear business objectives for cloud migration (55%) Insufficient planning by the businesses (42%) These three gaping holes leave an enterprise with a cloud infrastructure that is not optimized for the enterprise’s business objectives. Naturally, its adoption either faces stiff intra-organizational resistance or it simply fails to deliver any tangible benefits to the organization. Therefore, it is important for businesses to take note of some vital factors before they dive headfirst into ServiceNow implementation. Here’s a quick look into them. A Strong Business Case The internet, tech conventions, and the social media are abuzz with the virtues of cloud computing services like ServiceNow. While there is no doubt that ServiceNow platform has tremendous potential to add value to the enterprises, that very potential can often overwhelm organizations. Most businesses do not need all the functionalities, features, and benefits offered by ServiceNow. Their ServiceNow implementation should be tailored to achieve their specific business goals. That is only possible when there is a clear understanding about how ServiceNow can add value to an organization. CXOs should define a clear set of business objectives for their organizations and discuss how the ServiceNow implementation will help them achieve those business goals in, say, 1, 2, or 5 years from now. The Extensive Integrations ServiceNow is loaded with a plethora of features, optimizations, AI agents, and other capabilities. But, what makes it an immensely customizable and compelling cloud solution for service management is its intense commitment to Technology Partner Program. Under this program, third-party developers offer certified applications that can be effortlessly and seamlessly integrated into any ServiceNow implementation. These integrations add a whole another range of capabilities to the platform. Some of these integrations include Cisco CloudCenter integration, Splunk App integration, Trello App integration, TeamViewer App integration, xMatters Intelligent Communication, and many more. Businesses should not only consider the capabilities of ServiceNow, but also its entire ecosystem of integrations to understand how they can together add value to their organization. Resource Availability ServiceNow implementation is quite a complex process that requires dedicated resources, extensive knowledge of the platform, and a deep understanding of the organization’s specific business needs. However, it is fairly common, especially among the small and medium businesses, to allocate a small team of 2 or 3 resources to implement, configure, test, and develop the platform. Often, these IT resources have other mission-critical roles in their department. They promptly relegate the ServiceNow implementation to the status of an afterthought in their lists of daily to-dos. To obtain any meaningful benefits from ServiceNow, businesses should either assign a dedicated upgrade/migration team that can fully focus on the implementation and integration, or choose a reliable managed service provider like Atello Solutions to perform the implementation for them. Assigning the implementation to a reliable MSP team ensures that it gets the attention and expertise it deserves. Lack of Expertise It is not just the number of resources that matter, but also the quality of those resources. ServiceNow’s popularity is growing rapidly. Naturally, capable ServiceNow talent is in high demand, and they know that they are in high demand. So, hiring new ServiceNow talent requires a significant investment from a company and the HR team will be working overtime to find the right talent. Assigning in-house team to implementation does not always work, because they may not have the request knowledge. Again, additional investment into their training is warranted. All of these challenges can again be managed by employing a reliable managed services provider. An MSP team brings the twin advantages of dedicated resources and functional expertise, which the in-house resources that are spread thinly across a multitude of projects cannot offer. A competent MSP team like Atello Solutions offers 24×7 availability of managed services, for speedy, expert, and hassle-free implantation and integration of your instance of ServiceNow. Closing Thoughts In the end, ServiceNow implementation is exactly like adopting any new technology. Your organization may have the resources that are familiar with the technology. But, unless they have spent years, specifically implementing ServiceNow, they are not equipped with the knowledge required to ensure the success of its implementation. Even then, they need the guidance of the senior management, specifically the IT head, to define in writing the business goals that your ServiceNow instance should help you achieve. Proceed with the implementation only when you have figured out all of these. That way, your ServiceNow migration will be set up for success.