Investing in ServiceNow should deliver long-term results that are identifiable and understandable. But this platform requires a lot of upfront planning to ensure its services align with actual business needs. Without a plan in place to scale the platform as the company grows, it can be difficult to demonstrate its value. If your company is struggling to manage its ServiceNow platform while seeking investor or committee support, it may be time to take a closer look at your IT governance.
Governance plays a crucial role in the success of IT services, and it can be difficult to achieve positive business outcomes without it. This framework allows organizations to structure IT to support its goals and strategies. Establishing ServiceNow platform governance should involve setting strategic enterprise goals and plans for future IT improvements. Along with this planning, companies need to be able to measure success. Tracking performance, for example, helps identify areas needing improvement. This guide offers some best practices in establishing, maintaining, and optimizing a platform governance model that shows the continued value of ServiceNow.
Establish Governance Framework Early
To ensure IT service success, establish a governance framework as early as possible. Not only will this help sharpen your focus on specific IT goals, but it also leads to a faster return on investment with the ServiceNow platform. Additionally, this practice could save you quite a bit of time and money through performance metrics. Without a plan in place, it could take a while to realize services are no longer contributing to enterprise growth. For this reason, companies should also focus on how they govern their IT strategy and service portfolio. The sooner you establish governance, the faster you can begin aligning the platform and its service offerings to your enterprise goals.
Align Your Service Roadmap with IT Goals
As you establish this governance model, focus on both the technology and your business strategy. Too often companies follow a service roadmap without attaching it to enterprise-wide strategic goals. Spending too much time focused exclusively on the ServiceNow platform may create a divide between its development and its ability to deliver measurable progress toward strategic goals. There are several ways to go about aligning these goals as described in-depth in UserVoice’s community article on goal alignment. These tips include:
- Understand your strategic roadmap
- Identify the metrics important to your company
- Determine the role of product management in achieving goals
- Refer back to the roadmap often
Your governance model should focus on both the platform itself – how it will scale as your company grows – and your overall IT goals.
Understand what ServiceNow Offers Across the Enterprise
ServiceNow offers products and services for areas across the enterprise. No longer limited to IT service management, companies can use ServiceNow to transform their customer service departments, HR service delivery, and asset management. But ServiceNow is more than any individual product or application: it aims to transform entire organizations through its cloud-based, enterprise-wide service management.
Why is this important when talking about governance best practices? Viewing ServiceNow as a holistic platform encompassing all IT can improve service outcomes in every area. Ultimately, a strong governance framework ensures an organization’s services align with their goals. So looking at ServiceNow as a platform that includes all services can lead to optimized offerings and enhanced performance for the entire organization.
What to Expect from a Successful Governance Model
Successful governance can vastly improve a company’s resource management and service alignment. So what else can you expect from this successful governance model?
- Increased transparency in costs and services
- Better measurements of performance
- Identifiable areas for improvement
Additionally, it will be easier for decision makers to create plans for new product or application releases. In fact, by identifying areas in need of improvement, companies can strategically control costs by investing in new products or services while phasing out obsolete ones based on performance.
Continuously Improve Services and Processes
As modern organizations grow, so do their IT service needs. Expect to continuously improve or change service offerings based on new technology, processes, and evolving industries. The digital world is fast-paced, with applications rapidly changing and services quickly becoming obsolete. For example, ServiceNow just released its newest version, Kingston, which brought new, innovative solutions and improvements to the platform. Each version release brings new products and offerings that could completely change existing workflows and IT management.
Staying ahead of competition means continually improving service delivery. Track performance and have a plan in place to make recommendations for improvement. This preparedness can prevent employees from backsliding into older and less effective workflows and reduce change fatigue from major application overhauls.
Invest in Experts to Measure Successes
Investing in a partner with platform and governance expertise can deliver even faster results. ServiceNow certified technology partners offer more than assistance in building and following service roadmaps. With advanced knowledge of ServiceNow’s offerings, your company can rely on these partners’ expertise to align IT strategies and services, measure successes, and ultimately improve business outcomes. Further your investment in the ServiceNow platform by working with a tech partner to ensure you are getting the most out of your services, are optimizing products and applications and finding measurable success with the platform.
Demonstrate ServiceNow’s Value through Improved Governance
Establishing strong governance improves service delivery and performance across your enterprise. This improvement comes from continually improving services based on real metrics, upgrading or removing obsolete products, and investing wisely in services that fit your company’s needs and goals. By creating platform governance that focuses on aligning services with enterprise goals, companies can better demonstrate the value of their ServiceNow investment. Finding partner support can help you realize this return on investment even faster by relying on their advanced expertise. It will be easier to upgrade instances, adopt new applications or products, and establish new workflows to business areas once you have control over the platform.