How Riot Games runs on ServiceNow
Riot Games has relied on ServiceNow for years, using it across IT, Human Resources (HR), and Workplace Experience. By the time Application Engineer II Valerie Ott joined the team in 2022, the environment was already highly sophisticated, a testament to years of deliberate platform investment.
Today, ServiceNow serves as the backbone of Riot’s internal operations, with ServiceNow HR Service Delivery (HRSD) standing out as a particularly transformative use case. Before HRSD, Riot’s HR teams were managing requests through emails and spreadsheets. Now, those workflows are structured, automated, and tracked on a single platform, freeing up HR staff to focus on higher-value work. “HR Service Delivery solves the problem of HR working from emails and spreadsheets,” says Valerie.
Building skills at every level
For Riot, training isn’t one-size-fits-all, and on-demand learning has been key to making it scalable. Valerie’s own journey with ServiceNow University spans over a decade, starting with her first Certified System Administrator (CSA) certification in 2015. Throughout her career, she has leaned on on-demand courses to learn at her own pace, fit training around live project work, and go deep on the platform areas most relevant to her role. That self-directed approach now shapes how Riot thinks about enablement across the entire organization.
Riot’s approach to training reflects the diversity of the people who interact with its ServiceNow environment. Rather than treating enablement as a single program, the team is building role-based learning paths. Training at Riot covers three distinct audiences:
- Developers and architects: Deep technical training including certifications like Certified Implementation Specialist (CIS) – IT Service Management and CIS – Data Foundations, accessed on-demand to fit around active development work and increasingly important as AI-powered features like agentic flows require strong architectural understanding.
- Fulfillers: Foundational on-demand training delivered through an internal hub Valerie built, featuring guides and videos for IT, HR, and Workplace Experience teams, with direct links to ServiceNow University courses so users can learn at their own pace.
- Delegated administrators: As Riot scales its delegated admin program within IT, completing relevant ServiceNow University training has become a prerequisite for that audience to enable elevated platform access.
Since launching the internal training hub, Riot has registered 40+ learners across IT, HR, and Workplace Experience. “Having training for the basics like ‘Welcome to ServiceNow’ available is so helpful for new users. The feedback from our fulfillers has been really positive.” says Valerie.
How on-demand learning helps build expert-certified skills
What makes Valerie’s story particularly compelling is the arc: from completing on-demand courses early in her career, to going deep enough on the platform that she recognized a gap in her own architectural knowledge and decided to do something about it.
That realization led her to enroll in the Architecture Excellence (ArchX) program, a rigorous path toward the Certified Technical Architect (CTA) designation, one of ServiceNow’s most advanced certifications. The decision wasn’t driven by an organizational mandate. It came from years of hands-on work, on-demand learning, and a growing understanding of what it takes to design and govern a mature ServiceNow environment.
For Valerie, the CTA isn’t just a credential. It’s the natural next step for someone who has been sharpening their skills through on-demand training for over a decade and now wants the architecture expertise to match the complexity of the platform she owns. “I intend to become a CTA, mostly for my own comfort with doing architecture work as Riot’s HRSD subject matter expert,” she says.
It’s a trajectory that ServiceNow University’s on-demand model makes possible by giving practitioners like Valerie the flexibility to build foundational knowledge over time, and the depth to pursue expert-level certification when they’re ready.
Doing more in-house with confidence
One of the most tangible outcomes of Riot’s training investment has been the team’s ability to build and deploy features themselves. Valerie’s team prioritizes in-house development, and on-demand training has been a key enabler, particularly as the team prepares to configure and manage AI-driven capabilities that require deep platform knowledge. With greater internal expertise, Riot has been able to take on more development work in-house, including deploying Lifecycle Events for HRSD and building integrations. “The training I’ve completed has helped me feel more confident in my ability to roll out new features on my own,” Valerie says.
On a personal level, in addition to being enrolled in the ArchX program, Valerie is also:
- Preparing for the Certified Implementation Specialist (CIS) - Third Party Risk Management exam
- Planning to expand ServiceNow University throughout Riot’s internal Fulfiller and Delegated Admin Training hubs
In their own words
For Riot, the value of training extends well beyond course completion. It is helping the organization build a broader base of ServiceNow capabilities, from foundational users to delegated administrators to the next generations of platform architects.
As Valerie explains, “It’s worth it for anyone who touches ServiceNow to have training that’s relevant to how they’ll be using the platform. It increases user confidence and satisfaction—and it keeps them from breaking things!”
Whether you're just getting started or pursuing an expert certification, on-demand training from ServiceNow University meets you where you are. Get started with ServiceNow University.