How ServiceNow Uses ITBM to Accelerate Project Delivery by 20%

ServiceNow is on a journey to digitally transform every corner of our business—using the Now Platform ^® to improve velocity and visibility, and deliver outstanding experiences to our customers, partners and employees. IT is a key enabler in that journey. The more effectively we can execute agile tasks and projects for our internal clients in alignment with business demand and strategic priorities, the greater value we can deliver. That’s where the ServiceNow Project Portfolio Management (PPM) capability from the IT Business Management (ITBM) product comes in. Let’s explore a Now on Now story about our use of that solution.

IT project management can be a cumbersome process when done with manual integrations and unstructured workflows using email, spreadsheets, and other legacy project management tools. This results in drawn-out decision making, stale data, and an inefficient use of time for everyone involved. In the past, some areas of ServiceNow IT were still managing projects manually, so we decided to use ITBM for all IT projects. Lilly Souksamlane, senior manager of ITBM Project Portfolio Management, led the transition, and now every aspect of our global IT project portfolio including idea, demand, portfolio, project and resource planning is driven from ITBM.

With full use of ITBM Project Portfolio Management, we’ve realized the following key benefits:

• 20% acceleration in time-to-value from project approval to capability delivery
• 60% reduction in average time to screen and approve projects
• 4,342 hours saved per year through real-time reporting and dashboards
• $354,900 saved each year in project management costs

Project Portfolio Management delivers on all three strategic IT priorities:

• Increased velocity – By automating manual processes and consolidating management and reporting, ITBM lets us fast-track our high-priority projects. We now have complete visibility of business demands and can allocate IT resources immediately to high-value investments. Automated updates, notifications and self-service status reports save thousands of hours each month and improve project velocity. ITBM has also greatly improved collaboration, agility and responsiveness.
• Better visibility and insight – ITBM is our single source of real-time data for our Global IT Project Portfolio. With automated, self-service dashboards and reports, critical information is just a few clicks away and available 24/7. As an example, our Portfolio Workbench dashboard (see screen shot) gives us a portfolio-level view of project status, resource capacity and financials, which helps us make better resource allocation, scheduling and investment decisions. As noted above, a common set of reports and dashboards that are shared among managers and project leads give a comprehensive view of forecasts and dollar allocations. Managers and project leads can make immediate allocation decisions and real-time adjustments to ensure project delivery commitments are met.

• Improved employee experience – ITBM has made a big improvement in our productivity. Business and IT now have a single solution for decisions and actions. Senior leaders no longer need to wait for status updates—they’re available in real-time. Portfolio managers now spend virtually zero time tracking down and rationalizing data and preparing for review meetings and can instead focus on completing their projects. Team leaders use timecard dashboards to see at a glance where time is being spent, enabling them to better manage workloads and team priorities. All users now have a consistent experience and mobility support offers convenient access to all projects, plus the ability to make updates via mobile devices, anytime and anywhere.
• ServiceNow IT Business Management is a strategic asset for any IT organization seeking to improve visibility into all their demand, resources and project portfolio to more effectively prioritize, manage and deliver projects that generate greater value and support better business outcomes.
• To learn more about project portfolio management using ServiceNow and our complete IT Business Management product visit servicenow.com/itbm.
• I look forward to sharing more stories from our Now on Now journey.
• Chris