By engaging users early and often as well as providing a multitude of training opportunities, the adoption of your ServiceNow implementation will go off without a hitch! 

Here’s our ServiceNow implementation guide with the top 6 ways to finish an implementation strong where others trip up and win at training and adoption:

1. Communicate with End Users

This is one of the simplest ways to engage with your end users and promote the upcoming rollout.  To do this well, start with a simple plan including:

  1. The medium
  2. Dates
  3. And a target audience for each of your communications

These can be communicated easily through a broadcast on your ServiceNow portal, a Knowledge Article, emails, or a combination of mediums.  Every communication should concisely explain: What is happening ✔ When to expect changes and further communications What’s in it for them ✔ Preparation needed for the upcoming changes.  Finally, send the communications and updates frequently so those impacted will know exactly what’s going on. Communicate, communicate, communicate! 

2. Beta Testing and Pre-Training

With a little planning, beta testing is an easy way to get end users! Especially those that are perceived super users, engaged and have a head start on training for your implementation. The beta testing group should be made up of users that will be the most impacted or most influential for the implementation.  During the sessions, the users should be given some high-level test scripts and time to give feedback to each piece that has been developed as the project goes on.  While not all feedback will make it into the initial release, some items will give crucial insight into how end users will interact with the system and process changes. And other feedback items can help start the backlog for enhancements going forward.

3. Hands-On Training

When working on a ServiceNow implementation, most people think you’d only need to do hands-on training for large scale implementations. However, a few sessions of this training, regardless of the group size, can be invaluable in the adoption and overall perceived success of the implementation.  How long should these sessions be? Usually a few hour sessions over the course of 2-3 days is the sweet spot of material retention but also not impacting the end users regular work days too much.    What about larger implementations? For larger implementations, hosting a few train-the-trainer sessions will help with questions post go live as well as enabling the project team to host more training sessions. And you can find your future trainers from the Beta testing group who already have a familiarity with the tool.

4. Digital Training / E-Learning

Another option for training is leveraging E-learning and digital training methods. These should be used to help as refreshers or as a prerequisite for hands-on training.  There are multiple avenues for these types of training, like: 

  1. Click-through options using screenshots of the tool
  2. Videos over specific topics the users need to be trained on 
  3. General overviews of the updated process, etc.

Try the “Guided Tour” Functionality Another item that could be leveraged within the platform is the guided tour functionality within ServiceNow. By using guided tours, users can walk through the tool step-by-step with instructions on what to do next and what each field means.  

5. Careful Documentation 

When all the training is over and the implementation is wrapping up, make sure to add all of the training documents, videos, and communications to the Knowledge Base. This way your end users can reference back and help themselves before reaching out to the project team and trainers.  Also make sure to train users on where to find the Knowledge Base if it’s their first time working heavily with ServiceNow.

6. Picking the Right Partner

Sometimes planning out a project and training for it can be overwhelming. This is why picking the right ServiceNow partner is critical to the success of your implementation. Not only is Infocenter a skilled partner on the delivery and development side of the implementation, we can also help plan out and provide ServiceNow managed services for your training to enable the success and adoption of your ServiceNow implementation. At Infocenter, our experts are well-versed in organizational change.  We can enable your team to map out a successful organizational change management strategy and can include: Designing and enabling digital and hands-on training Planning your communication strategy And populating your Knowledge Base with all the materials needed for your implementation win

Speak with a ServiceNow Expert

When mapping out your next ServiceNow implementation project plan, it may seem more important to define a clear scope and timeline. However, not factoring training and communications with end users can be a critical mistake to the overall success of the implementation. Also, don’t forget to avoid these 5 ServiceNow implementation pitfalls. By keeping in mind the ServiceNow implementation guide with the 6 tips above and leveraging your ServiceNow partner, the adoption and success of your implementation is a sure thing. Speak with an Infocenter expert today so we can facilitate your next ServiceNow implementation and lead your organization to success through training and system adoption!   Speak with a ServiceNow Elite Partner