Among enterprise-level software for business automation available in the market, ServiceNow offers an unforeseen integration of a connected set of apps that enhance various aspects of workflows and operations. As an IT Service Management (ITSM) automation tool, ServiceNow easily takes the cake. In this post, we’ll explore the ‘whys’.
At any given point in time, tech and business heads are making efforts to enhance efficiencies within their organizations. They are also looking for ways to streamline workflows within various operations. This leads them to lean on enterprise ITSM software, which helps them take business automation to the next level.
The 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for IT Service Management or (ITSM) puts ServiceNow ITSM as a top vendor. Forbes Magazine has also reported that ServiceNow now claims half of the ITSM market, and has eclipsed legacy ITSM companies like BMC Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Cherwell Software, and CA Technologies. Adding to this the data is the fact that over 4,400 enterprise customers worldwide use ServiceNow.
So, what makes ServiceNow an innovative ITSM platform? Taking a look at the solutions brought forth by it will give you a better perspective:
- Agent Workspace Service – ServiceNow offers a purpose-built command center, using which service desk agents can resolve multiple issues seamlessly. Additionally, they get the complete context of the issue history, user information, SLA, so on and so forth, along with AI-assisted recommendations – all of which aid faster resolution and better productivity. For instance, the ServiceNow virtual agent lets you resolve a number of repetitive service tasks as well as requests via self-service responses using an automated, conversational chatbot
- Incident Management and Problem Management – ServiceNow offers automated tools such as BSM Visualization and CMDB baseline history that are based on algorithms and business rules. This, in turn, helps avoid duplicates by prompting the existing problems or known errors from the database. Overall, with ServiceNow, you can restore the services rapidly in case of an unforeseen interruption or a major incident by getting to the root cause and quickly resolving the critical service disruptions. As a result, you can minimize the issue recurrence.
- Change Management – With change management in ServiceNow, you can minimize risks and costs associated with unplanned changes. You can also automate standard changes using DevOps capabilities and go for more complex changes. The benefit here is complete governance around changes. While it is not the only change management for IT services, ServiceNow ITSM software offers the following features that makes it popular:
- Backlog analysis dashboard
- Automated risk assessment and calculation
- CAB meeting management
- Service maps to visualize change impacts
- Concurrent change management with a timeline or calendar
- Configuration Management Database (CMDB) – This solution helps the IT department view all assets, related services, as well as how they are functioning. You can think of it as a single source of truth to cut across silos. Moreover, you can view the relationship between the CIs and the services, which can help manage the impact of changes on your services in a proactive way. You can also use it to monitor and enhance the quality of the CMDB data using the CMDB health dashboard. This leads to better service availability, increased productivity, better management of the IT assets, and overall transparency.
- Asset Management – Want to avoid purchasing unnecessary assets or spending on software licensing or support costs? Asset management from ServiceNow helps you do that and more. For instance, you can track the complete contractual, financial, and inventory details of the hardware, devices as well as virtual assets from your purchase through disposal. Additionally, you can reduce risks by knowing when every system is configured, what it costs, who can access it, and what’s installed on it.
ServiceNow also includes a built-in product and asset management option, which can help you manage multiple products and services, handle the asset lifecycle, track the purchased products, asset location, ownership among others. Other software such as Zendesk offer the same, only after integrating third-party apps. - Request Management and Knowledge Management – This solution gives users a modern, omnichannel way to interact with the customers 24/7, with IT, and with other shared services. Moreover, it can enable self-help, collaboration, request items, or services. You can also use it to share, manage, and use the knowledge from across the organization, making it readily available for either shared or private use by employees and IT. This helps streamline the IT service delivery, automate workflows, and reduce the costs.
- Mobile Agent – Enable IT service agents to take their work ahead on any mobile device that they want. Using this solution, they can update their records, collaborate with the teams, and even reassign tasks using some quick and easy swipes and gestures. Talk about user-friendliness and you get it all in this solution!
Since the ServiceNow platform works from the cloud, you can have a single system of record when you want to integrate a new app or a tool. Talking about ServiceNow vs Remedy, the latter may be more comprehensive, but when it comes to the delivery options, it is a bit rigid and has partners that help customers host on-premise applications. The customers will also require additional services, hardware, and software resources, as it is not cloud-based. - Walk-up Experience – Opt for a seamless method, which can help you capture and manage your face-to-face IT support requests. Users can also manage their time with online check-in, real-time queue estimates, and automated notifications. All these help users manage their time as well as improve the service experience and customer satisfaction by offering efficient face-to-face support.
- Service Level Management – With this solution from ServiceNow, you can set your business’s expectations and achieve better visibility into your IT’s performance. You can also manage your SLAs along with the visual SLA timeline and keep track of individual SLA progress and events. This will lead to better CSAT, as your service delivery will become consistent and timely.
- Reports and Dashboards – ServiceNow also offers real-time information on demand. It allows you select from predefined or customized reports and create eye-catching dashboards in no time. What we vouch for is that the ITSM solution offers multiple, separate visual development environments for both no-code and low-code development. It has automated testing frameworks as well as security testing dashboards, which keep advancing when it comes to mobile, user experience, and chatbots.
- Benchmarks – Benchmarks help you compare service management performance to those of your peers in the industry by using anonymized customer data. This is because benchmarks that are brought forth are among the largest in the industry and also, the latest. Post this analysis, you can optimize your performance further.
ServiceNow benchmarks application is known for securely collecting data on the instances. Moreover, it also aggregates the same data into monthly global benchmark reports.
Also, read how a leading US-based Global law firm improved IT service delivery through ServiceNow workflow automation.
Calling It a Day
Markets and Markets estimates that the global cloud-based ITSM market will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 14.8% through 2021. And, it only makes sense to adopt this rapidly growing software platform that effectively automates workflows with relatively minimum configuration. That’s a big plus point for enterprises.
Need more insights on ITSM solutions like ServiceNow?
Nous Infosystems is a ServiceNow Premier Partner specialized in ServiceNow Consultation, Implementation & Managed Services. Reach out to us and we’ll address your queries related to ServiceNow service automation and more.
