Service Request for the enterprise - Part 1

[Gaurav Bajaj]

This blog is intended for ServiceNow professionals and Customers who have chosen ServiceNow as their enterprise service management platform across the organization. The enterprise with various departments, function and their departmental heads requesting their services to be onboarded into ServiceNow.

Service requests are at the heart of any organization’s service delivery strategy. While IT departments are usually the first ones to adopt ServiceNow’s IT Service Management (ITSM) capabilities, organizations also are looking forward to expanding their service catalog to other divisions like HR, Facilities, Finance, Communications, Travel & Visa, Legal, and beyond.

When planning how to implement service requests across multiple departments, there are three major approaches you can consider in ServiceNow:

1. Build all service requests using ITSM Service Catalog
2. Use ITSM for IT services and App Engine for non-IT services
3. Leverage out-of-the-box (OOB) domain-specific apps (like HRSD, LSD, SPO, etc.) and ITSM, and App engine for specific use cases which are not available OOTB.

Let’s dive into when to choose each option, typical scenarios, and their benefits.

Approach 1: Build All Service Requests Using ITSM Service Catalog

In this approach, all service requests (IT, HR, Facilities, Visa, etc.) are created using the ITSM Service Catalog.

• You use standard request item (RITM) and catalog task workflows.
• Each department’s services are grouped in separate categories and assigned to the right fulfillment teams.
• Non-IT services still behave like ITSM requests.

Use Cases & Scenarios

• Small to medium-sized organizations that only have procured ITSM licenses.
• Companies that primarily focus on IT services but have a few non-IT ans simple workflow requests.
• Early-phase ServiceNow adoption where the goal is quick rollout with minimal cost.

• When HR, Facilities, or Visa services are simple and don’t require complex compliance workflows or sensitive data handling.

• When your legacy system is planned for sunset with a hard deadline.

Benefits

• Lower cost - License and implementation cost could be lower as compared to other approaches.
• Faster implementation – Quick launch of Services across various departments as a starting point.

Limitations

• HR, Visa, or Facilities often have unique requirements (privacy, SLAs, approvals) that ITSM doesn’t natively support.
• Sensitive data (like personal info for HR) might not meet security/compliance needs.
• Complex use cases might require heavy customization over time.
• Access restrictions will require complex security matrix and implementation overhead.
• A certain degree of technical debt is introduced in the platform which will require rework in later phases of ServiceNow adoption.

While this approach is not ideal and perfect, however you may come across this one quite often when all your departments and business stakeholders want their services up and running once and gradually increase their maturity level and bring automation and workflows as part of their processes.

Other approaches are in the next blog.

[Simon Hendery]

Hi @Gaurav Bajaj 

Options 1 and 2 seem to be so suboptimal and outside of best practice that I'm not sure why you would even put them forward as possible solutions?

I find your posts particularly odd coming from someone who works for a ServiceNow Global Elite Partner. 

My guess is this is GenAI content that's gone off the rails?

[Gaurav Bajaj]

Thanks for the feedback Simon, I already mentioned in the blog that first two approaches are not ideal in nature as its introduce a degree of technical debt in platform however its also a reality check that customers like to get value and they plan to go forward with implementing non-IT services as a starting point using core platform and not purchasing additional licenses for HRSD etc.

They can do so with using ITSM, App engine as a starting point but I never meant to recommend to  stand up a HRSD application using app engine.

You then can document these tech debts, plan for a roadmap to set the right foundation in next upsells.

Again, views are personal and based on personal experience, nothing to do with employer.