Getting Ready for Implementation

[dale_brown]

So, we're all back from our annual Knowledge event and I thought I'd put this blog together based on the panel discussion I moderated at the conference, the discussion was called 'Getting Ready for Implementation'. To my surprise when I polled the audience that around 85% of the people there (120 approx. in total) were new to ServiceNow or just prospecting at the event! the panel was made of senior managers and IT directors who've just been through a deployment of ServiceNow and wanted to share their experience of their deployment and hopefully help others along the way.


So the 3 main topics areas for 'Getting ready for Implementation' discussion were broken down into people, process and technology buckets...

1. People Questions

Q) So, what would be one of the key 'people' decisions you should make when embarking on a new ITSM project?
A) Make sure your key implementation team members and possible super users are part of the selection process. Identify your key team members and involve them early in the selection process. This builds involvement and project momentum. Make sure you keep these people involved throughout the project.
A) Try and have process owners in at the start and all the way through to the end, again this keeps everyone focused at the task at hand

Q) In terms of planning the deployment, what key activities has help you in your deployment?
A) Starting some of the implementation planning steps during the selection phase can both assist in the selection of the new system and avoid surprises during the implementation phase.

Q) Any views on team structures at this early planning stage, what you should and shouldn't do?
A) Make sure you surround yourself with the right people on board with the right competencies and skills to support your plan
A) Be sure to set your structure of management, appropriate lines of authority, and clear lines of communication with your employees.
A) Plan regular strategy / update meetings with key stakeholders, this is one of the easiest ways to set out a structure

Q) So you're in the early planning stages, does anybody have any thoughts on the culture aspect?
A) Create an environment that connects your employees to the organization's mission and that makes them feel comfortable. You can reinforce the importance of focusing on strategy and vision by rewarding success. There should be some creative positive and negative consequences for achieving or not achieving the strategy so people make it a priority.

Q) Staying on the topic of resources, how do you factor in costs or decide on costs?
A) You'll need sufficient funds and enough time to support the implementation. True costs can include a realistic time commitment from your staff to achieve a goal, a clear identification of expenses associated, or unexpected cost overruns. Be prepared as well that employees will need enough time to implement what may be additional activities that they aren't currently performing
A) Although think about reassigning the key resources like system admins to be 100% dedicated to the deployment. the worst thing that can happen is when they have run off and do their day job and leave the project hanging

Q) Do you want to share anything you did around training?
A) Once I had the admins assigned I got them on the first available admin course, that way they were ready for the workshops and knew what the consultants were talking about and demo'ing

2. Process Questions
Q) So we're all ITIL literate to some level in the room, I'd like to hear your thoughts on the process side, what do you need to do to prepare processes
A) It depends on how mature you feel your Organisation is, are you going to get external help from a 3rd party consultancy firm to define process, are you going to drive the organisation as close to out of the box from the application or try for a mixture of both
A) If you're not using external consultancy then it's a good point to review your process and put some effort into improve the quality, fix any issues before they're implemented in a tool.

Q) Should you use the tool requirements workshop to redefine and improve the process?
A) No, you should come to the workshops with a process ready for implementation, don't waste time in these session pontificating about how and where the process should be tweaked. Do that before the vendor comes to save on time and money

Q) What if you have a known poor process and want to start a fresh?
A) Either recruit an experienced consultancy company to help you, or speak to the vendor to see if they supply any best practice process that you could leverage. if you go down this route then maybe they'll be less configuration / customisation required, cutting down time and money and hopefully getting some best practice from years of deployments.

3. Out of the 3 areas, Technology questions are the easiest
Q) how do you Define data standards for the new system. Chances are your legacy system contains a mix of multiple part numbering systems, work center names, multiple methods for naming customers and suppliers and inventory location schemes. In the new system, these standards will be the same no matter which software is chosen.

Q) When it coms to integrations, have you any thoughts —
A) Integrations is always a difficult area, even know what technologies are out there is hard enough, then you've got to find the 'go to person' who knows that system inside and out. These points need to be investigated even before the project starts.

Q) we talked about integration points, what about data itself?
A) If there is one area where there are always surprises (not necessarily good ones) during implementation, it is during data conversion. Do a dry run of a data extraction into a format such as Excel. Better to find out early if there are going to be issues with this critical process.

Q) What about data cleanup — do you really want to bring over data from the legacy system that hasn't been accessed in years?
A) Customer and Suppliers that have been inactive for years or finished goods that haven't been sold in years? The organization should establish standards for what data is relevant and what is not. Remember, the legacy system will still have all the legacy data should the company want to access it or you dump it into a SQL database somewhere

Q) ServiceNow is very flexible, what you say to the room about this
A) It's one of it's main strengths, but also it's biggest weakness. Dont fill voids in process with technology. the old saying, just because you can, doesnt mean you should! Have a strong team behind you that can push back on requirements. saying NO is an option!


These were the main questions asked of the panel from my memory and i've tried to paraphrase as best as I could. We didnt get into too much detail and didn't cover off the ServiceNow 'StartNow' implementation methodology. if you do wish to discuss this further then please contact me for more information.


Thanks,
Dale