Improving platform governance: TIAA’s ServiceNow transformation

Meeting stakeholders’ needs while managing complex technical debt is no easy feat. That’s why ServiceNow customer No. 5, TIAA, a leading provider of secure retirements and outcome-focused investment solutions, embarked on a journey to remove years of added customizations to transform the Now Platform for the future.

With organizational changes over time, TIAA’s instance of the Now Platform had been customized to the point that it couldn’t use feature upgrades or innovative technologies. Making changes and managing the platform became excessively time-consuming and costly—and made it difficult to meet the organization’s mission to help more Americans retire with financial dignity.

Limited platform governance exposed TIAA to potential risk in the financial services industry, where reputation and stability are critical to meeting regulatory requirements.

To address these challenges and unlock the full potential of the ServiceNow products, TIAA made the bold decision to streamline and automate platform enhancements across its ServiceNow footprint. This involved creating a whole new set of ServiceNow instances and reinstalling and configuring all licensed modules while removing years of customization.

The organization wanted to:

• Fuel the company to be more efficient and productive
• Benefit from software releases and product upgrades
• Accelerate productivity with AI, automation, and industry-standard technology
• Meet regulatory requirements while delighting customers with an engaging experience

“We were essentially an on-premises, highly customized platform in a software as a service world,” explains Tony Lombardino, managing director and head of collaboration technology at TIAA. “We needed to get to software as a service, and that was the whole point of our re-baseline.”

Managing change and complexity

First, Lombardino, who’s been with the organization for 12 years, had to get stakeholder buy-in on his vision. This involved helping others see what replatforming would mean for the business, for users, and for customer experience. He needed stakeholders to understand that investing in industry-standard technology would be a win in the eyes of financial regulators, as well as what changes might look like.

Gaining buy-in set the stage for a complex and highly technical transition, which is still in progress. Every detail counts. “The complexities of unwinding something that already exists versus installing something brand new cannot be underscored,” Lombardino says.

Early in the process, Lombardino made it a priority to gain executive sponsorship on the ServiceNow side, which he considers a game changer. “When I need help, I know who to call. And when I call, I get an answer,” he says.

TIAA and ServiceNow meet every week to report on progress and challenges—and to celebrate wins.

Improving data and platform governance

One of the biggest wins for Lombardino is the ServiceNow Common Services Data Model.

“For us, it’s less about the individual services like IT Operations Management and IT Asset Management and more about getting the framework right so the data can be properly consumed and managed,” he says. “When people see the foundation is proper, and it starts to make sense, they can ask, ‘How do I manage the risk? What about change management?’”

With the Common Services Data Model in place, TIAA recognized the importance of mitigating risk by establishing and maintaining a governance model that would scale across the organization. This is where Lombardino and his team started to lean on ServiceNow Impact, a value acceleration solution designed to help customers realize value fast.

"Establishing a governance model for a software platform that’s widely accessible is critical," Lombardino says. "Having a plan, playbook, and support from ServiceNow for the process is like going from 0 to 60 miles per hour."

Part of this efficiency relies on smart platform governance. Moving to an out-of-the-box ServiceNow instance has helped reset how TIAA approaches decision-making, an important shift for helping to ensure TIAA can sustain the platform in the long term.

As the transition continues to develop, expectations are changing across users. “We’re now getting a level of understanding of back to baseline—standing up an organization that can truly be efficient,” Lombardino says.

Imparting lessons learned

Migrating to the latest release of the Now Platform is an important decision and a major investment for any organization. “Having expert services at our side to call out where we need to make decisions and challenge us when we’re there—or our team challenging ServiceNow—has gone a long way,” Lombardino says.

For other leaders considering embarking on a replatforming project like TIAA’s, Lombardino shares some lessons learned:

• Complexity can’t always be planned and plotted. “Leave room for the inevitable. Complexity has to be done along the way,” he says.
• Expect difficult conversations. Teams need to build trust so that they can work through challenges together.
• Have patience with all teams involved. TIAA and ServiceNow have different approaches to working, but as Lombardino explains, TIAA benefits from “expanded brainpower on both sides.”

The keys to TIAA’s successful partnership with ServiceNow are executive sponsorship and iterative planning. While the complexity of a platform transition is high and the road ahead is long, Lombardino feels supported by ServiceNow.

“TIAA is very appreciative of ServiceNow’s commitment and partnership in helping us get to where we need to go in our broader technology transformation,” he says.

Find out more about how ServiceNow Impact can help accelerate your time to value.