ServiceNow is no longer merely a system of record for tickets; it’s a strategic platform for cross‑enterprise service delivery. Executives who still position it as “ITSM software” miss the broader opportunity: standardizing journeys, automating workflows, and instrumenting end‑to‑end outcomes across functions—IT, HR, Finance, Procurement, and Customer Operations. The shift begins with redefining success metrics. Move beyond SLA compliance to business outcome measures: cost-to-serve, cycle time, employee experience (EX), and customer satisfaction (CSAT/NPS). Architecturally, center your roadmap on products (services) rather than projects. Treat each service (e.g., onboarding, incident response, vendor management) as a product with a backlog, funding, ownership, and measurable value. Use Service Portfolio Management to expose demand, prioritize change, and align capacity to value streams. Introduce policy-as-workflow to harden controls within processes (e.g., segregation of duties, approval conditioning). Pair platform governance with an operating model that integrates business architecture, process design, data stewardship, and change management. Finally, expand the platform’s remit by building composable digital capabilities—request intake, knowledge, case management, orchestration—then apply them repeatedly across domains. Reframing ServiceNow as an enterprise operating platform turns fragmented improvement into compounding transformation.
