Throughout the past five years implementing ServiceNow, I have found a critical and foundational issue that hinders an organization from extracting maximum value from platform platforms.
Most organizations have figured out that you need to pay a sizable bill to implement ServiceNow and its applications. In my experience, it is like the substantial bill you get when you need to buy a big flatscreen or car - you bitterly accept that you need to press the 'confirm' button on the terminal, and then you forget it ever happened.
Semi-blindly following industry trends
Organizations are willing to pay for ServiceNow, as they have read the signs of the times as their next-door neighbor. As a relevant business in this century, you need to compete through an impeccable IT and Service infrastructure. And ServiceNow provides this, as it enables its owning organization to have anything from IT Service Management, IT Operations Management, Strategic Portfolio Management, Customer Service Management, Facility Service Management, and much more on one single platform centered on a shared service definition. That is almost invaluable in this dawning era of business IT, where it is no longer feasible to retain a siloed business application landscape spread across different islands; companies need to come together as a coherent unit. And ServiceNow allows you to do this - on data, technical, and process levels. And as such, it is a popular item for large enterprises to put into their basket. Though, there is one thing I have experienced that they tend to forget: the investment goes far beyond the one-time implementation and license fees related to the acquisition.
Do you want to float or cruise?
Implementation and license fees allow you access to the massive container ship that is ServiceNow. It will enable you to onboard it - go ahead, as many passengers as you like. They can also use all of the facilities on the deck - you paid for it!
There is just one small caveat: the ship is barely sailing without a proper crew. Most organizations get a minimum of 1-2 admins, then outsource some support to ensure the engines keep running. But they are missing the rest of the crew.
So, all your cruise passengers are on a ship that can navigate the seas, but the sip doesn't get better over time. Its crew solely focuses on re-fueling the ship, ensuring that all small fires and engine mishaps are managed. There is no time to set a better course or establish if the current course is correct. And the same goes for all of the facilities of the ship: if no one is attending to the individual processes and features of the ship to optimize and govern it continuously, then a) the passengers will have a bad experience, b) the passengers will not care about the rules of the ship, and c) the ship will reach its destination much slower (if ever).
All Aboard my Incident Management Example
Let's take incident management as an example of a capability of our metaphorical ship. It is not enough to have support levels to escalate incidents throughout; support personnel will put out fires, but they rarely improve.
There needs to be a specialized resource overseeing the incident management process to ensure that all incident trends, playbooks, and ITSM interfaces (problem, change, request) are catered to. Incident Management must not be its island - then little is achieved from unifying the software landscape and service model through ServiceNow.
We must remember that Incident Management is meant to ensure the delivery of services of the business, and as such, it is only one cog-wheel in the ITSM engine. And, done right, it becomes an integrated part of service delivery across not only ITSM but SPM, ITOM, FSM, etc., due to the shared Service Model. It is all related - it just takes a bit of wisdom to realize this, and a bit of an investment to capitalize on it.
Ensure Smooth Sailing: Calculate FTEs
It can be challenging to put your finger on the correct number of FTEs and roles needed to ensure smooth sailing for your ServiceNow journey, and taking the considerable cost associated with ServiceNow it is understandable that some organizations would prefer to keep the crew to a minimum. Therefore, ServiceNow has provided you with a fantastic tool to calculate the FTEs your organization is estimated to need.
The ServiceNow Platform Team Estimator:
Based on your responses ServiceNow will provide you with a detailed estimate on needed FTEs catered explicitly to your context (free of charge, and doesn't take long if you know your organization)
Now, you can engage business sponsors and management in an informed manner, and engage in the resource discussions up front - instead of crawling back for more money at a later point.
Below are some screenshots from the report (a much deeper level of detail is available when using the FTE calculator)
I hope you have smooth sailing!
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