ServiceNow Performance Analytics - Best Practice/guidelines – In General

[Girish Tahalra1]

Who Am I?
I bring a strong ITSM business process and data analytics experience and, I define product strategies, goals, KPI’s and best practice and measurement for my stakeholders that directly aligned to organization goal

Why Am I writing this article?
• The only intent is to share my knowledge with others so that they can also be benefited
• This article has 22 points which I primarily written for ‘someone’ who has taken the lead of driving analytics solutions and in this case, I would precisely focus on ServiceNow Performance analytics as a solution offerings
• The whole content I have written best of my knowledge I have gained over a period of time while working with customers specifically on Performance analytics

Best Practice/guidelines – In General

1) Communication is the key when presenting data. Be simple. Be direct. Be helpful. Be relevant but most importantly, create a story to show the value / easy to understand. Don't just through the numbers but a meaningful story alongside

2) Spend less time producing charts and more time analysing what they mean!

3) Building an analytics culture using next-generation analytics and putting the ecosystem together takes time. It’s important not to try to boil the ocean. However, it’s also important not to ignore the work and simply hope success will magically happen. Companies that are measuring value with analytics are taking risks, experimenting, and finding success. They’re evangelizing and communicating. It may take time, but they’re certainly getting there

4) The more you know platform - better you design solutions for your business stakeholders - Develop a learning mindset - Be an active user on YouTube PA office hours OR watch previous office hours recorded sessions / community / read PA , Reporting doc site / Keep yourself up to date with release notes

5) Don't be an order taker - understand end to end business process / connect the dots/ understand the entry and exit points of requirement

6) Integrate/introduce PA slowly into practice - You are changing how people work. It should be done slowly and in a way your users are comfortable with. Try to give them what they are used to seeing (similar charts etc). Try to provide a new data point that people did not know they needed. Open for feedback always

7) Work with multiple service owner/ IT Managers across the organization to understand business requirements, anticipate future reporting needs and design scenarios in line with overall strategy of the organization

😎 Don’t forget to leverage ‘KPI Composer’ – this allows you to document the business goal/objectives and map the associated key measurements which directly supports to achieve the business outcome. KPI Composer is freely available on ServiceNow App Store and I highly recommend that if you are new or experienced customer leveraging Performance analytics – Please consider!

9) Do not try to solve a bigger problem - start from solving a small problem statement, start with proof of concept. Don't try solving everything at one place

10) Don't be seated on your luxury / sophisticated desk - go and meet with people in org. Try and understand what they do and understand the business process

11) Anything you do in the world of reporting - It has to connect with business to solve the issue or improve the business process

12) It is all about developing seamless customer experience - Keep showing values of the products and help business across

13) Keep your expectation clear with SN development team to make sure they consult with you FIRST if anything comes related to Reporting/PA. Encourage team to redirect such cases and notify to reporting process owner to look into. I have seen instances where reporting requirements have been fulfilled and reporting process owner is/are not at all aware of those. You should be knowing each entry and exit points of data being shared by platform

14) Analytics plays a major change in the way organizations approach performance management. You have to be able to measure "leading indicators" which will influence performance verses focusing on "lagging indicators" which are easy to measure and report

15) Understand the dashboard purpose - before creating a dashboard, make sure you understand your audience and what kind of dashboard will be valuable to them.

16) Your indicator, dashboards, and breakdowns don't need to be perfectly configured before you begin using PA. Developing and using an analytics solution is an ongoing and iterative process that you will improve over time

17) Make sure you always try and enable process managers - give them full visibility on KPI's so that they do not feel that they are always DEPENDENT on PA reporting person!

18) Always partner with DevOps and have a good partnership who can assist you from platform admin standpoint. Working on PA application doesn't mean you have the platform admin access in your organization

19) Listen customers carefully. What they say about the SN reporting features / take feedback and work on their feedback if required

20) what is your go-forward plan that you allow people to use existing data sets / dashboards instead of creating new one? This can include to use report source / explore analytics hub for each of the indicators

21) Hold "Transfer of Information" TOI sessions - Demonstrate the product features with your internal business example – Text Analytics / Spotlight / PA widgets on Service Portal. System admin can assist to activate plugins accordingly

22) Always explore new features of Performance Analytics release / take some time out to read and build some proof of concept

Thank you for reading this article. This is all about learning while working and sharing with others.