How ServiceNow Uses Performance Analytics to Drive Business Outcomes

We make the world of work, work better for people, delivery digital workflows that create great experiences and unlock productivity. Because everyone at ServiceNow depends on IT platforms to help them to do their jobs, IT needs to take the lead in driving improvements in operations. Let me share an example of how we’re using ServiceNow® Performance Analytics to improve our IT service delivery.

In our personal lives, fitness trackers and other measurement devices and apps display real-time metrics that show us where we are and how we’re performing against our goals. Performance Analytics brings the same capability to our workplace by enabling us to set, track and analyze progress against objectives that match the function they support. It connects our people with better data in less time, helping us to focus on the things that really matter and make better decisions to affect outcomes.

Initially, like in many IT organizations, measuring IT key performance indicators (KPIs) at ServiceNow was virtually all manual. We’d compile data into spreadsheets and send it to the service owner, who would scrub and analyze the data and paste it into PowerPoint for review. In management review meetings, if the data were challenged or unclear, we’d leave with as many questions as decisions. We knew there had to be a better way.

At first, we simply used the native reporting capabilities of our IT Service Management (ITSM) solution. But now Performance Analytics enables us to go much further by providing actionable data and a real-time view of our KPIs. For example, when a new ticket comes in, an IT manager can use the service management platform to see who is available to resolve the issue and estimate likely days to completion. Since Performance Analytics is embedded within our IT Cloud Service, we can also generate dashboards and reports on the fly, revealing patterns and correlations in our service metrics, and giving us the additional context to make better decisions with confidence. Leading indicators also allow us to get a handle on a issue before it becomes a problem and improve areas that were once blind spots.

The following metrics demonstrate the value that Performance Analytics has brought to our IT service delivery processes:

• 54% reduction in average resolution time
• 80% reduction in incident SLA breaches
• 3,800 hours saved per year through real-time reports and dashboards
• $225,000 saved annually by automating data collection and reporting

With Performance Analytics, we’ve seen solid improvement in three top-priority areas for IT:

• Business velocity – By providing real-time visibility into key IT metrics, Performance Analytics lets us to identify hot spots sooner and resolve issues more quickly. That means improved system availability and fewer disruptions and delays for users, and that helps drive the business forward.
• Actionable insights – The intelligence provided by Performance Analytics’ reports and dashboards (see screen shot) saves us thousands of hours of manual effort each year and has made review meetings much more productive. Rather than burning cycles compiling data and formatting reports, we spend our energy reviewing metrics, making decisions, and driving improvements in our business.
• Customer experience – Performance Analytics enables everyone involved in a service to work in unison to drive it forward. In combination with ITSM, senior leaders now have the visibility they need to know whether the service is performing as it should. Incident process owners can monitor KPIs to know whether targets are being met and get the proactive data to drive targets before they become breached. Finally, everyone working on the process is focused on the right things and can input the correct data needed by the incident process owner.