BD advances to RiseUp with ServiceNow

How training took Becton Dickinson to new heights

How do you successfully grow a shared services delivery platform serving the needs of 200,000 internal and external users at a major corporation? Just ask Trisha Johnson, Associate Director, Strategy, Solutions and Delivery at Becton Dickinson (BD), a global medical technology company that’s advancing the world of health by improving medical discovery, diagnostics, and care delivery.

Over the last decade, Trisha and her team have spearheaded a massive program to digitally transform shared services at BD, using ServiceNow to power hundreds of services—ranging from finance, procurement, and human resources to sales, a supplier portal, and consumer care.

It all starts with talented and skilled people

BD was using ServiceNow for IT Service Management (ITSM) and Project Portfolio Management (PPM) when the company’s Global Business Services (GBS) team decided to embark on an ambitious digital transformation. As the release manager and superuser on BD’s original ITSM implementation, Trisha was asked to lead a platform team of six people working on a new ServiceNow instance dedicated to shared services.

According to Trisha, “I’d fallen in love with ServiceNow, so this was a wonderful opportunity. I had a really talented team, but only three of them had previous experience as ServiceNow users. I knew we had to build skills quickly, which is why the first thing we did was have everyone complete the ServiceNow Certified System Administrator (CSA) course. We were also actively engaged with the ServiceNow community, which was incredibly helpful. We could learn from other customers’ experiences and ask questions. ServiceNow training and the community helped us lay a foundation for success and hit the ground running.”

Global go-live in just 11 weeks

Trisha and her team went live with the initial implementation of BD’s shared services platform in less than three months. She says, “I was incredibly proud of our team. Other solutions seem to take about eight months for initial implementation, so going live in 11 weeks was a fantastic achievement. And we were able to deliver immediate, measurable value. For instance, capital planning approvals went from 12 weeks to two days—even a few hours if it was urgent. That created a great deal of excitement across the company, which was critical since it allowed us to engage the business to build momentum in new areas.”

Establishing a platform-first strategy to drive excellence

As part of their initial rollout, Trisha and her team also adopted a platform-first strategy fueled by best practices and strong technical governance. She explains, “This wasn’t a one-off project. It was the first step on the road to achieving a broad vision. We knew we needed to do things the right way so we could continue to grow the platform. ServiceNow gave us a wealth of materials to help us do this: methodologies, best practices, playbooks, checklists, and more. Using these, and adding our own business context and insights, allowed us to achieve more value faster and futureproof our work. In fact, many of the original solutions we implemented are still in place and have scaled well because of this approach. We still do this today—we can put together a product kit for each new initiative in just a few days by taking and adapting ServiceNow material.

10 years on, BD continues to RiseUp with ServiceNow

Today, ServiceNow successfully supports an astounding range of shared services at BD. Areas in production include ITSM, HR Service Delivery, Security Operations, Customer Service Management, Business Continuity Management, IT Operations Management, Procurement, Legal, Finance, Strategic Portfolio Management, and a supplier portal, as well as many custom applications for other business units. BD’s ServiceNow GBS instance handles 400,000 shared service requests and 200,000 HR requests annually, serving 80,000 internal users and 120,000 external users. And more is on the horizon—including IT Asset Management, DevOps, Integrated Risk Management, and Operational Technology Service Management.

ServiceNow training and the community continue to play a pivotal role in this ongoing success

According to Trisha, “We’ve made Now Learning a core part of our team’s annual goals. There’s so much available, including in-depth training for specialist roles, which is critical for us as we introduce new capabilities on our ServiceNow instance. For example, our disaster recovery teams came to us during the pandemic. Using Now Learning, our team got BCM micro-certifications and built a proof of concept in just four days. And Now Learning isn’t just for technical teams. It’s invaluable for business analysts, our business stakeholders, and many others. It’s also crucial for partner governance—we’re easily able to assess the skills of implementation partner resources based on their certifications and participation in the ServiceNow community, and keeping our own team up to date with the latest certifications and training gives us the knowledge and insights we need to manage partners effectively.”

Fueling both business and individual success

BD’s story is about more than enabling business success. As BD has risen up with ServiceNow, every individual involved has had the opportunity to grow their achievements and careers. Trisha is a perfect example of this. She enthuses, “I’m living the ServiceNow dream. Twelve years ago, I was an executive assistant with no college degree who couldn’t code. Now, I’m a director at a company I love. I’m a member of ServiceNow Advisory Councils and Boards, and I’ve spoken at ServiceNow Knowledge conferences eight times, including as a guest keynote speaker. I’m also a member of a Partner Advisory Board. Along the way, I’ve made countless friends in the ServiceNow ecosystem.”

Trisha isn’t alone. People on her team have also accomplished extraordinary things. Three have served as ServiceNow Product Advisory Councils and Success Boards members, two have been Knowledge and webinar speakers, one is a world-class expert in Performance Analytics, and one has even started their own ServiceNow partner company.

That’s what happens when you RiseUp with ServiceNow