ServiceNow's First TweetChat: What Got Said and What It Means

[MichaelDortch]

On July 30, ServiceNow had its first formal TweetChat, which is exactly what it sounds like — a moderated, open, multi-participant chat held via tweets on Twitter. The primary topic: IT transformation. The key driver: an interesting survey of ServiceNow customers conducted at our Knowledge13 conference by KPMG, a global provider of business services and ServiceNow partner.

My esteemed colleague Stephen Mann (@stephenmann) has already written a great post about what we learned about TweetChats by doing this one. He's also written an equally great post summarizing and commenting upon some of the key findings of the KPMG survey.

I thought a brief collection of highlights from the TweetChat and some additional observations might complement Stephen's good works and offer a bit more detail, especially to those who missed the actual event. (By the way, you can — and should — read the full set of KPMG's survey findings and commentary on their implications here.)

One theme that recurred throughout the TweetChat is the continuing gap between where IT is headed and should be, and where IT is (largely stuck) today. IT teams should already be acting and treated like what they are: enablers of most if not all of the operations that make doing business possible. Instead, many are still unable to answer basic questions like "what does IT do for the business?" and "how much does doing whatever those things are cost?"

As Stephen sagaciously asked during the TweetChat, "How many businesses would survive without knowing their customers, products, costs, margins, etc.? Does IT know these?" And a bit later, he wrote, "We should stop talking about what we spend on IT and talk of what we INVEST in IT." Another participant, Rami ElGawly (@relgawly), describes himself on Twitter as "An IT guy who tweets about anything." He observed that it's "[a]lways been tough to justify IT costs for success; but easy to blame IT for failures."

Another interesting theme of the TweetChat: that IT's problems and challenges are at least partly of IT's own making. One question asked about the primary challenges IT faces in support and enablement of custom applications. Ken Gonzalez (@ken_gonzalez), who now works for gamification and simulation experts and ServiceNow partners G2G3, responded by writing, "Getting over the thinking that [IT service management] is somehow 'unique.' The need [for effective service management and custom application support] is more universal than most are willing to admit." Ken added that such challenges would likely persist as long as IT and businesspeople perceived such challenges as "IT-centric," rather than relevant and applicable to entire enterprises.

Rami ElGawly opined that "IT wasn't always looked upon as an integral part of the business, but more of a facilitator." Mark Carroll (@vmMark), a ServiceNow Solution Consultant, added that "IT has been the geeky clique for too long. The Pandora's Box no one wanted to open."

In other words, IT specifically and organizations generally need less "inside-out" thinking and acting, and more "outside-in" focus. Stephen Mann agreed, adding, "Let's look at what we achieve through what we do, not just what we do." [Italics added by me for emphasis.] And, I hasten to add, what we achieve can only be meaningfully measured by the reactions of those "outside" of "what we do." You know, like customers and users.

There was more equally interesting discussion, but perhaps some of the most hopeful comments offer the best opportunity to wrap up this TweetChat "highlight reel." Paul van den Heuvel (@pvdheuvel76) observed that "[N]ot all IT (biz) investments will give us direct measurable, but will be part of a 'bigger plan' and thus part of a (biz) strategy and a[n] investment portfolio."

Sounds a lot like an essential step in IT's transformation and evolutionary progress toward success with service relationship management. Something everyone wants that's incredibly challenging, incredibly rewarding, eminently achievable, and absolutely necessary.

Not that I have any strong feelings about this, of course. What about you? Let me know, please — and do join our future TweetChats!