State your demands!

Suzanne Smith · ‎04-29-2015

I'll be honest, one of the best things about working at ServiceNow is being surrounded every day by so many smart people, and that includes coworkers, partners, and customers. The ideas and innovations that bounce around are amazing. The challenge in any creative and dynamic organization is how to capture, associate, analyze, and manage all the great ideas. Hallway conversations with enthusiastically nodding heads and meetings that result in marvelously filled whiteboards need to turn into trackable action or the ideas just "poof" disappear. Here's a good idea for managing your good ideas - try the ServiceNow Demand Management application. Once you have set up the Demand Management app you can track and manage your ideas easily and efficiently.

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="text-align: left;"&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Submitting an idea:&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The demand process starts when users &lt;a title="ki.servicenow.com/index.php?title=Ideation#gsc.tab=0" href="http://wiki.servicenow.com/index.php?title=Ideation#gsc.tab=0"&gt;submit ideas through the Service Catalog&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ol&gt;&lt;li&gt;Navigate to&lt;strong&gt; Self-Service &amp;gt; Ideas &amp;gt; Create New&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Enter a &lt;strong&gt;Title&lt;/strong&gt; for the idea. For example, Automate HR Onboarding or Build Volleyball Court in Parking Lot.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;In &lt;strong&gt;Description&lt;/strong&gt;, explain your idea.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5em;"&gt;Click &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5em;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Submit&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5em;"&gt;.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;li-image id="412787" migrate="true"&gt;&lt;/li-image&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Evaluating ideas&lt;span style="line-height: 1.5em;"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;After users submit ideas, a demand manager views and evaluates the ideas. Demand managers can accept, defer, or delete the idea from the &lt;strong&gt;Ideas&lt;/strong&gt; list.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ol&gt;&lt;li&gt;Navigate to &lt;strong&gt;Self-Service &amp;gt; Ideas &amp;gt; All&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;In the &lt;strong&gt;Idea&lt;/strong&gt; column, click an idea number.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Do any of the following:&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update&lt;/strong&gt;: saves changes.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Accept:&lt;/strong&gt; creates a demand record and changes the idea state to &lt;strong&gt;Accepted&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Defer:&lt;/strong&gt; changes the idea state to &lt;strong&gt;Skipped&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Delete:&lt;/strong&gt; removes the idea from the &lt;strong&gt;Idea&lt;/strong&gt; list.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Managing demands using the Demand Management app:&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;After an idea is submitted, accepted, and turns into a demand, the demand manager has a lot of flexibility when &lt;a title="ki.servicenow.com/index.php?title=Using_Demand_Management#gsc.tab=0" href="http://wiki.servicenow.com/index.php?title=Using_Demand_Management#gsc.tab=0"&gt;managing the demand&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Add stakeholders&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;One important factor when managing a demand is determining &lt;a title="ki.servicenow.com/index.php?title=Using_Demand_Management#Adding_Stakeholders" href="http://wiki.servicenow.com/index.php?title=Using_Demand_Management#Adding_Stakeholders"&gt;stakeholders&lt;/a&gt;. Who needs to be involved in making the idea a reality and whose daily work life is affected when the idea is implemented? If the demand manager associates the demand with a portfolio, the list of portfolio stakeholders is automatically added to the demand. The stakeholder list can also be edited manually by going to the &lt;strong&gt;Stakeholders&lt;/strong&gt; related list on the &lt;strong&gt;Demand&lt;/strong&gt; form and click &lt;strong&gt;New&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;li-image id="412788" migrate="true"&gt;&lt;/li-image&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5em;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Add assessments&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;If stakeholders are identified, demand managers can screen the demand so surveys are sent to stakeholders and they can complete &lt;a title="ki.servicenow.com/index.php?title=Assessments#gsc.tab=0" href="http://wiki.servicenow.com/index.php?title=Assessments#gsc.tab=0"&gt;assessments&lt;/a&gt;. This is a great way to obtain more information from the right people&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Add requirements&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="ki.servicenow.com/index.php?title=Using_Demand_Management#Adding_Requirements" href="http://wiki.servicenow.com/index.php?title=Using_Demand_Management#Adding_Requirements"&gt;Requirements&lt;/a&gt; are not mandatory, but can be added to a demand at any time. Often, stakeholders provide requirements when they fill out assessments. Owners can be assigned to requirements and, for especially complex requirements, a demand manager can create and associate tasks.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Visualizing demands:&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;When demands are routinely being added and tracked, demand managers have some great tools to see the demands that are in motion. For example, the &lt;a title="ki.servicenow.com/index.php?title=Using_Demand_Management#Using_the_Roadmap" href="http://wiki.servicenow.com/index.php?title=Using_Demand_Management#Using_the_Roadmap"&gt;Demand Roadmap&lt;/a&gt; is an interactive, visual tool that displays all demands in the backlog. You can switch between different views, create filters, and sort demands.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;li-image id="412789" migrate="true"&gt;&lt;/li-image&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Demand Management is a powerful application that is part of the &lt;a title="ki.servicenow.com/index.php?title=Project_Portfolio_Suite#gsc.tab=0" href="http://wiki.servicenow.com/index.php?title=Project_Portfolio_Suite#gsc.tab=0"&gt;Project Portfolio Suite&lt;/a&gt;. Use this application to solicit feedback, collect ideas no matter how fantastic or silly, and manage the ones with potential.&lt;/p&gt;