Best practices for routing ITSM service requests to demands in SPM

[F_Fairley]

Occasionally we get Service Requests that really should be entered as Demands as part of SPM.

What are the best practices for getting service requests out of the operational queue and into the demand queue?

Thanks

Francis

[Namita Mishra · Accepted solution]

Hello @F_Fairley ,

Thanks for raising this point in the community. I am sure other users may also have this point in their minds at some point in their SPM journey.

Moving service requests from the operational queue (usually associated with day-to-day entities raised by users like incidents, changes, and service requests) to the demand queue (associated with strategic planning, demand management, and project intake) requires careful consideration, especially to ensure alignment with business goals and governance processes.

I agree with the comment of @AndersBGS that it should align with internal company process. In my experience, here are the best practices for transitioning service requests into the Demand Management process:

Process and Governance: This is the first area based on which you need to identify the candidates for transitioning. For example:

           Establish thresholds to determine when a service request should be treated as demand (e.g., cost, effort, impact). Example criteria could be:

• Requests requiring significant funding or capital investment

• Requests needing cross-functional coordination

• Requests that result in new capabilities or services (vs. maintaining existing ones)

• Requests that impact multiple business capabilities \ business applications

Now Assist and Integration:

• ITSM and SPM Integration: To make this transition, the first and foremost is that ITSM and SPM are integrated. Due to one platform - one underlying database concept, this is already in place.
• AI Agents: Use AI agents to

  • Auto-identify qualifying service requests

  • Trigger notifications to the right team \ persona and auto-create a demand

  • Escalate complex operational tasks to strategic planning

Team Enablement: This is a critical pillar in successfully transitioning service requests into the demand management process. Without it, even the best-designed processes and tools can break down hence:

• Train service desk, support, and operational staff to recognize strategic vs. operational work.

• Provide guidelines, checklists, or decision trees to aid judgment.

• Make it intuitive and user friendly by enhancing the request forms to include fields for:
  • Business impact
  • Strategic goals alignment
  • Benefits and outcomes
  • Impact if not considered
  • Effort estimation

Hope this helps and if it does, please mark this as a correct answer to help me and others in the community.

Happy SPM Journey & Have a Great Sunday!

Thank You!

Namita Mishra

[Sanjay Kumar3]

Hi @F_Fairley ,
You can refer to the below post for best practices related to SPM -
https://www.servicenow.com/community/spm-articles/spm-best-practices-and-implementation-insights/ta-...

https://www.servicenow.com/community/spm-articles/spw-entities-feedback-product-ideas-strategic-prog...

If you find the solution helpful then please give a thumbs up and mark the solution accepted.

Thanks & Regards,
Sanjay Kumar

[F_Fairley]

When it is determined that a Service Request should be a Demand, what is the best practice for moving that Service Request to a Demand?

[AndersBGS]

Hi @F_Fairley ,

If a Service request should be a demand or not is based on your internal company process. In my opinion, a standard service request is a standardized item with a standardized workflow, where a demand is an undefined enhancement. According to move a service request to a demand is actually to start with an idea. Based on the idea you can either create a service request or a demand.

[Namita Mishra · Accepted solution]

Hello @F_Fairley ,

Thanks for raising this point in the community. I am sure other users may also have this point in their minds at some point in their SPM journey.

Moving service requests from the operational queue (usually associated with day-to-day entities raised by users like incidents, changes, and service requests) to the demand queue (associated with strategic planning, demand management, and project intake) requires careful consideration, especially to ensure alignment with business goals and governance processes.

I agree with the comment of @AndersBGS that it should align with internal company process. In my experience, here are the best practices for transitioning service requests into the Demand Management process:

Process and Governance: This is the first area based on which you need to identify the candidates for transitioning. For example:

           Establish thresholds to determine when a service request should be treated as demand (e.g., cost, effort, impact). Example criteria could be:

• Requests requiring significant funding or capital investment

• Requests needing cross-functional coordination

• Requests that result in new capabilities or services (vs. maintaining existing ones)

• Requests that impact multiple business capabilities \ business applications

Now Assist and Integration:

• ITSM and SPM Integration: To make this transition, the first and foremost is that ITSM and SPM are integrated. Due to one platform - one underlying database concept, this is already in place.
• AI Agents: Use AI agents to

  • Auto-identify qualifying service requests

  • Trigger notifications to the right team \ persona and auto-create a demand

  • Escalate complex operational tasks to strategic planning

Team Enablement: This is a critical pillar in successfully transitioning service requests into the demand management process. Without it, even the best-designed processes and tools can break down hence:

• Train service desk, support, and operational staff to recognize strategic vs. operational work.

• Provide guidelines, checklists, or decision trees to aid judgment.

• Make it intuitive and user friendly by enhancing the request forms to include fields for:
  • Business impact
  • Strategic goals alignment
  • Benefits and outcomes
  • Impact if not considered
  • Effort estimation

Hope this helps and if it does, please mark this as a correct answer to help me and others in the community.

Happy SPM Journey & Have a Great Sunday!

Thank You!

Namita Mishra