Argonne creates a frictionless service experience

Leading discovery, powering innovation
Argonne National Laboratory brings together talented scientists and engineers to answer the biggest questions facing humanity. Born out of the Manhattan Project, Argonne’s goal is to make an impact from the atomic to the human on a global scale. The laboratory works with universities, industry, and other national laboratories to drive scientific discovery and innovation, ranging from energy research and novel materials through to gaining a deeper understanding of our planet, our climate, and the cosmos.

Success through digital transformation
As a multidisciplinary research center, Argonne sees digital transformation as key to its ongoing success. According to Cathy Kirch, ServiceNow Senior Business Analyst at Argonne, “We want to accelerate our entire organization by providing a frictionless environment for our people. That means creating a consistent, intuitive employee experience and giving our researchers and staff instant access to the services they need.”

ServiceNow is powering transformation
Argonne is leveraging ServiceNow to transform into a service-oriented organization. By using out-of-the-box ServiceNow capabilities, such as IT Service Management, and augmenting these with custom apps built with ServiceNow® Creator Workflows products (App Engine), Argonne is creating a comprehensive, streamlined service delivery environment. Cathy says, “ServiceNow is Argonne’s end-to-end service delivery platform. We’re creating dozens of custom apps— everything from coordinating our emergency response teams through to booking electrical vehicle charging stations.”

All the services in one place
Argonne’s service-oriented transformation strategy is making a positive difference. Cathy explains, “As we move more services to ServiceNow, we’re creating a one-stop shop — everything our people need in one place. Even if they’ve never used a service before, they know exactly what to expect, even if it’s a custom app. For example, we’re using standard ServiceNow scheduling components for our custom apps, so scheduling always works the same way.”

Demand continues to grow
While Argonne has made major strides, it’s only just started to tap into the full potential. Cathy says, “We’ve huge demand for new custom ServiceNow apps. In fact, there are 165 apps in the queue. And with so many people offsite now during the pandemic, ServiceNow is the glue that keeps us working together. We’re even building an app to schedule COVID-19 vaccinations — that’s a real-world example of how we’re making a difference that matters.”

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