ServiceNow Devvies showcases innovative apps built on the Now Platform

In my nearly 12 years at ServiceNow, I never cease to be amazed by the inventive spirit of our customers and partners. We innovate in response to their needs, but I get excited when they take things into their own hands and build transformative apps on the Now Platform.

For the first time in 10 years, we get to highlight those incredible apps with The Devvies App of the Year contest. This is where our customers and partners sit in the driver’s seat, using the Now Platform to create innovative apps that improve the quality of their organizations, transform user experiences, and even save lives.

To be considered for an award, apps could be built by professional or citizen developers, solo or as a team. The apps had to be complete and in use by an organization. This year we received 109 app entries from 182 contest participants. Of those, 80% were created by professional developers and 20% by citizen developers. Apps were judged on five criteria:

• Business impact: time or money saved, customer/employee testimonials

• Scale: number of end users

• Richness: ServiceNow capabilities, features, and tools used

• Innovation: how the app uses ServiceNow to drive outcomes

• Citizen development: how much involvement a citizen developer had on the app (for the citizen development category only)
  
  

Citizen Development App of the Year

Let’s meet the finalists for the Citizen Development App of the Year:

• General Mills transformed an email-based process into a workflow-based process. Its app generates a form that captures key request details, triggers an email for major events, and has a range of menu options for each request type. The result: 9 million minutes (150,000 hours) saved in one year.

• HCI Tech built an app that automates and streamlines IT support across IT Service Management processes. It leads to fast handling of customer escalations through user requests, agent-initiated actions, and background scripts, sending customer satisfaction scores skyrocketing from 37% to 94%.

• Thriving Solutions used Flow Designer and App Engine Studio to develop a low-code app that manages student after-school care transportation. The app empowers services and businesses to start their own after-school transportation services—adding value throughout the entire community.

• Universitat de Girona designed an app to streamline school improvement plans. It enables real-time sharing, tracking, and reporting with a centralized document repository. Automating manual processes saves time for 480 end users.

The Citizen Development App of the Year Award goes to Universitat de Girona. The app fulfills a critical need for the university, with a comprehensive range of features. Documents are stored, versions are controlled, policies and procedures are followed, and observations are tracked.

“This is a great example of a someone having the passion to digitize their work and continue to build and improve over a period of five years,” a judge notes. “This could easily be in the pro-developer app category.”

App of the Year 

Here are the finalists for the App of the Year:

• The Automize app allows customers to gather feedback directly from the Service Portal. It features user-friendly notifications and dashboards and a widget with three simple buttons. More than 1.5 million end users have used the app to provide feedback.

• Hitachi Vantara’s app centralizes leave management systems for easy reporting, tracking, approvals, and maintenance of leave of absence balances. More than 91,000 requests from 5,000 end users have been sent through the Now Mobile app in just 17 months, resulting in savings of $6,000 per month.

• Ignyte Group created an app that streamlines rail operations for one of the largest public transit control centers in North America. Digitized forms, centralized information, and real-time metrics have improved productivity and allowed for fast, accurate decision-making. The result: 98% certification of successful shift changes.

• Nine developed an app to simplify the typically tedious process of incident management. It brings the right stakeholders together at the right time in one Slack channel. Nearly 600 incidents have been coordinated via the app with approximately 14,000 staff members.

• Servos built an app that allows users to report missing people and request critical help in emergencies such as hurricanes and other natural disasters. More than 12,000 people have used Servos to help save lives and provide emergency response teams with exact location information.

• Skybox Communications’ app streamlines workflows by automating processes for contact center agents and creates personalized customer interactions. It increased productivity for more than 3,500 end users.

• University of Toronto Mississauga’s app has changed the nature of remote service for students and staff at the university. Students receive a response to their questions in one to three days versus the prior timeline of 14 days minimum. Fast responses and limited follow-up have resulted in nearly $775,000 in savings in one year.

The App of the Year Award goes to University of Toronto Mississauga, whose app offers students six levels of remote service and streamlines the workflows of more than 60 staff members.

“As a manager, ticket requests, customizable dashboards, and reports have changed the game,” says a manager of student recruitment communications at the university. “At a glance, I can help with other tickets, and we’re measuring performance like never before.”

“It’s great to see how a ‘self-serving’ model has been implemented that saves staff—people on the phone to take down requests or read emails sent by students,” says a contest judge. “I also like the reports and dashboard created for analysis.”

Congratulations to the winners and finalists! The impact is inspiring. I look forward to seeing what our customers and partners come up with next.

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