ServiceNow gets a lot of inspiration from consumer focused sites and products, like Facebook, Amazon, and Twitter, but it doesn't stop there. It goes above and beyond this to meet the needs of IT professionals (and beyond). And quite frankly, we are spoiled by how easy it is to get the information we need from the system.
Let me explain. Over the past several weeks, my **** and I decided it was time to break down and become a two-car family after getting by with a single car for well over 12 years. In my free time, I began to research vehicles out there and turned to my trusty source: the Internet. Between dealer websites and sites that take information from multiple car sellers, I found that I kept wishing for ServiceNow's reporting tools so that I wouldn't have to perform multiple searches to get the information on just the models of vehicles in which I was interested. I could search a broad category, or I could search for a specific make and model, but I couldn't search for several makes and models at once. Take a look at one example:
Even the Advanced Search didn't do much to help me: 
It still only allowed me to search by a specific Make and Model without having the flexibility to search for multiple Makes and Models at once. I longed for the ability to create an advanced filter that would show me just the cars with the criteria for which I was searching or to at least Filter Out items I didn't want to see from the larger list. How cool of an engine could ServiceNow make when it comes to car hunting? With all the information and details that exist in a dealerships, I bet it would be pretty easy to hunt down.
I know, I know... just think of what it was like *before the Internet!* I would have had to scour through multiple listings in the classifies or visit lots of car dealerships. Am I really whining about this? Not really. But I was just car searching. Would I have appreciated the convenience and the time saved? Absolutely. Did it cost me lots of money or anguish? Nah.
In our professional world, though, the people using ServiceNow need to be able to get the information they need quickly to be able to resolve issues to reduce costly down time. If it takes a support technician an extra our to find the information she needs because she has to run six or seven different queries to find the information she needs because the system isn't flexible enough, then that could be very costly for the customer. I've worked in support and know how dreadfully painful searching for the information you need can be in other tools. In fact, you often just give up and ask others or research the solution more on your own. Yes, great learning experience, but at what cost? We really are lucky to be working with a tool that provides us with the means to get the right information at the right time. I'm happy to be spoiled when it comes to this.
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