Striving for fair, timely, and efficient case resolution

The Superior Court of California is California's trial court of general jurisdiction. The court handles a broad variety of cases, including criminal, civil, family, and other proceedings. The court operates in all 58 California counties, with the goal of providing equitable and accessible justice for Californians.

Information technology plays a critical role in the smooth and efficient functioning of the Superior Court of California. That's why the court has invested in ServiceNow IT Service Management to power its front-line service desk and level II support teams. This includes providing internal application and desktop support for internal users, as well as providing external support services such as helping participants register for remote hearings.

Driving consistency and increasing support quality with ServiceNow

According to KimMel Briscoe, Service Delivery and Support Manager at the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, "We originally had another service desk tool that was very difficult to use, and creating the workflows we needed was next to impossible. Our processes also varied widely from group to group, so there was no consistency.

"ServiceNow has changed all that. The first thing that struck me when I saw ServiceNow was how easy it was to configure. That means we've been able to adapt it to support our own unique processes with minimal effort. Now, we have standardized, efficient processes across the board, and that's paying big dividends. We've got 6,000 users who depend on our support teams, and we're seeing major improvements in the quality of service we provide them, including decreased first call resolution times."

Hitting the ground running with ServiceNow training

ServiceNow training has played a big role in that success. According to KimMel, "ServiceNow training showed us how to get the most out of the system. One of the first things I did was to become a Certified System Admin, and it really opened my eyes to the possibilities. We were also able to use the concepts we got from the training to develop custom training for our support teams, so when we went live, we were able to hit the ground running."

The court is also committed to ongoing ServiceNow training for its support teams. For instance, all new support staff are required to take mandatory ServiceNow training. KimMel explains, "Our service desk is a gateway to other IT roles, such as desktop support. Over the last few years, we've had about 15 people promoted into these roles. That means we have a constant influx of new people at the service desk. By having them take ServiceNow training upfront, we ensure they come up to speed quickly, understand how to use the platform, and are familiar with our processes."

The knowledge and insights needed to deliver better business outcomes

However, the benefits of ServiceNow training extend much further. One example is working with an implementation partner. KimMel says, "Even if you're not doing your own implementation, getting implementation training puts you ahead of the game. Once you get an in-depth understanding of the system through training, you're able to have better conversations with your implementation partner since you understand the concepts and can speak a common language. That puts you in control—you can now use your business knowledge to shape the implementation so that it's the best fit for your business.

"In my case, I became a Certified ITSM Implementation Specialist. This meant I could ensure the partner was doing things the way we wanted. More recently, we've started to implement ITOM Visibility, and the first thing we did was to use ServiceNow training to jump into topics such as the CMDB. Once again, that's really paying off—it's smoothing the transition and helping us to effectively adopt these ServiceNow capabilities."

Successfully unlocking the full potential of the ServiceNow platform

ServiceNow training also helps KimMel and her team to drive ServiceNow capabilities forward. In some cases, this is about getting the knowledge to successfully use ServiceNow features. KimMel points to a simple example—integrating ServiceNow with Microsoft SCCM. She says, "We were running into a brick wall trying to get this to work. Then we found a short course that showed us how to do it, and everything fell into place."

In other cases, it's about the broader strategic roadmap. According to KimMel, "ServiceNow training gives us the knowledge and confidence we need to engage with stakeholders, get them on board, and drive our roadmap forward. It also gives us the insights we need to focus on creating stakeholder value, not just worrying about fields in forms. And ongoing training also helps us to understand new ServiceNow features so we can evaluate them and feed them into our roadmap."

The bottom line

In conclusion, KimMel says, "ServiceNow is a great platform and it's easy to use. But, if you don't know what you're doing, you'll end up getting it wrong. ServiceNow training puts you on the right track from day one, and it also gives you the broader knowledge you need to get the most out of ServiceNow in the long term."