Presenter: Fran Fernandez, Senior Product Manager ServiceNow
Session title: Align Business Needs and Investment with Financial Management
In Fran's presentation today (Align Business Needs and Investment with Financial Management) he leads with a classic CIO challenge; how do I cut costs, and maintain quality, while simultaneously increasing investment in key areas, so that I don't get fired? Getting fired may seem like an extreme outcome to the problem, but according to Larry Bonfante at CIO Insights:
At the lowest point, the average tenure of a CIO was approximately three years. Today, at what is arguably the high point, CIO tenure is still under five years. (Full Article)
Data wins
Having managed large IT operational budgets for Fortune 500 companies, I'm happy to say I never had to worry about getting fired over financial management, but I did worry my daughter might be destined to grow up without a mother. To get to the level of detail required to manage IT effectively and serve the business — suffice it to say, it was all consuming. But I realized something early on (somewhere in the middle of a nightmarish budget season), and that was, "He who has the data, Wins!"
Simply stated, the ability to give the CFO and the Business complete transparency into IT spend and the ability to address the specific cost of IT and business services was a game changer. In time when IT budgets were getting reduced year over year, we saw consistent budget increases. Because the data was there, the business trusted IT to invest on their behalf. Everybody wins!
Power & Simplicity
With this experience in mind, the first time a saw Financial Management demoed at a SNUG, I nearly wept openly. I recognized immediately that what used to take me weeks to accomplish could now be done instantly. The interface is elegant and intuitive. I was particularly impressed with ServiceNow's restraint in the design. This could have been a complicated-beast-of-an-application, but instead Financial Management delivers both power and simplicity.
So, let's break it down: Key features in Financial Management:
- Visual Workbench - Drag and drop UI, model visualization, data cleansing, ease of use
- CIO Dashboard - Keep track of spend, budget performance, service health, projects go live
- Overview Reports - Interactive reports lets you slice your reports easily and ad-hoc
- Trending Reports - Visualize what is driving your costs and changing over time
- Budget vs Actual - Visually compare actual costs with budget and spend targets
- Allocation Metrics - Allocate costs using your data in ServiceNow without having to script
- Fiscal Periods - Support of an organizations fiscal periods in ServiceNow for 1st time
- Data Mart - Ability to keep reporting data consistent over time
- Ecosystem - Growing partners ecosystem starting with Explore Analytics & Numerify
I'd like to give particular kudos to the amazing data visualization. I've become jaded over the years after being bombarded with pretty executive dashboards that are useless for making business decisions. Gladly, Financial Management reporting offers beauty with substance!
Let's get the party started
If financial Management were having a ServiceNow Platform party, these are the friends I would invite: CMDB, Business Service Catalogue, Vendor Management, Project Management, and Contract Management.
Product Management Shout Out
Big thanks to Fran Fernandez, Senior Product Manager, for helping me get the word out today on Financial Management.
Want to know more?
Financial management is the process of planning, analyzing, directing, and controlling costs. The goal is to have an accurate account of what an organization is spending in order to maximize resources and control spending. The Financial Management application provides modules for depreciation, fixed assets, expense lines, and cost centers.
