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What is ServiceNow and what does it do?

Posted on by brygida.blachno

Innovative business solution 


ServiceNow is a cloud-based platform for managing processes, services and enterprise infrastructure (Enterprise Cloud). It offers innovative solutions in these matters. It was designed to digitize and automate manual workflows and to make people work faster, smarter, easier and better. Thanks to ServiceNow, organizations can deliver services in a more efficient and integrated way.

The ServiceNow platform combines many functionalities, including incident management, problem management, change management, configuration management, as well as performance forecasting, reporting and analysis. Created nearly 20 years ago, it has been undoubtedly one of the largest global players and a leading service management tool for companies. Because of continuous improvement and the expansion of functionality, intuitiveness and ease of use, as well as comprehensive solutions and personalized HR services tailored for everyone, ServiceNow makes the world work better.

ServiceNow mission, vision & values

ServiceNow changes the way people work. What used to be done manually is now being done digitally. “There is no better experience than giving someone a piece of technology that lets them do something they never thought they could do”, said Frederic Luddy, founder of ServiceNow. ServiceNow focuses on processes, activities, and sentences – in short, everything that makes up day‑to‑day work life. ServiceNow provides a service model that defines, structures and automates all the processes. Everything becomes a service – you can create, deliver and manage service requests.

Thanks to ServiceNow, work becomes easier and faster, and thus more enjoyable, which increases also employee satisfaction, productivity and engagement. SeviceNow’s motto is „We make the world of work, work better for everyone”.

“ServiceNow improves not only the work of individuals or teams but also helps the modern enterprise operate in a faster and more scalable way than ever before. ServiceNow opens up new possibilities” – says Marcin Tyburski, CEO at SPOC. “It changes the way of working by simplifying, rebuilding and automating business processes. ServiceNow is the key driver of business change”.

ServiceNow is based on solutions with roots in IT. However, it proves that they work well also outside this industry. ServiceNow can support many domains of modern enterprises – including finance service operations, HR and customer service management. It can be successfully implemented in companies of all sizes and operating in various sections and industries.

ServiceNow history

The beginnings of ServiceNow

To tell the story of ServiceNow’s origins, we need to go back to 2003 and one man. After his employer’s bankruptcy and the loss of his fortune, Indiana-born computer scientist and entrepreneur Frederic Luddy put everything on the line. Just before his 50th birthday, he founded Glidesoft – IT Service Management company based on good ITIL practices. For nearly 2 years, Luddy was the only employee. In 2006, Glidesoft changed its name to ServiceNow.

ServiceNow today

After ServiceNew’s first year of operation, the total revenue amounted to $13 million. The company quickly reached world-class corporations such as Intel and AstraZeneca. In 2012, ServiceNow went public. The initial share price was $18; today, after 11 years, it is about $460. In 2018, ServiceNow was ranked number one on the list of the world’s most innovative companies by Forbes magazine. In 2022, it had a revenue of $7.2 billion. Today, ServiceNow employs around 20,500 people (as of April 2022). ServiceNow was also listed among FORTUNE 2023 World’s Most Admired Companies for the third year in a row.

Currently, ServiceNow is used by over 7,700 companies worldwide, being a customer favourite – the subscription renewal rate is 98%. 85% of the companies from the list Fortune 500, the top companies in America, use ServiceNow.

ServiceNow hosts the annual Knowledge Conference – „a gathering to create great experiences for employees, customers and partners”. In 2022, the meeting took place simultaneously on 3 different continents, in 4 cities – New York, Hague, Las Vegas and Sidney. Huge crowds of people also participated online.

When I started ServiceNow in 2004, my vision was to build a cloud-based platform that would enable regular people to route work effectively through the enterprise

Fred Luddy, Chairman of the Board at ServiceNow

ServiceNow tools

ServiceNow Platform is a scalable cloud that offers a range of applications, workflows and processes. Sharing common architecture and data, the platform incorporates a variety of ready-made suites catering service requests for specific business areas.

The ServiceNow platform consists of a number of modules, functions and tools, such as workflow, SLA, notifications and forms. Using them, it is possible to build any applications. Sharing a common core, which is the configuration management database (CMDB), they support most business functions – they help with business process management, projects, risk management, IT service management, human resource management and many other areas.

„ServiceNow is not a single tool – it is a platform and various applications can run on it. They are grouped into modules that respond to specific challenges and needs of the organization – such as managing IT processes, Human Resources, Customer Service or IT infrastructure” – Marcin Tyburski, CEO at SPOC.

The platform incorporates a variety of key features of ready-made suites catering for specific business areas:

  • IT Service Management,
  • IT Operations Management,
  • Strategic Portfolio Management (former IT Business Management),
  • HR Service Delivery,
  • Customer Service Management,
  • Security Operations,
  • Governance Risk and Compliance (GRC),
  • Integrated Risk Management,
  • Field Service Management,
  • IT Asset Management.

ServiceNow flexible journey 

Customers can start their ServiceNow journey from many points. Regardless of where they first start, they have the ability to follow a flexible roadmap to achieve continued success in an organization.

ServiceNow is a solution tailored to users’ specific needs. It gives you the opportunity to use ready-made business applications or choose the platform itself, where developers can create dedicated business applications themselves from scratch. Customers can start with one module and then choose other modules as needed. All applications can also be continuously developed as your business grows, by using ServiceNow or third-party solutions. The entire platform itself can be customized to suit your needs. ServiceNow extends and grows together with the organization.

ServiceNow releases

Throughout the years, the core and essence of the technology have remained the same, but the functionality and solutions that ServiceNow offers have expanded and improved. Twice a year, ServiceNow releases a new version of the Platform. Each is named after a famous city; the names, and therefore the releases, are arranged in alphabetical order. These are Aspen, Berlin, Calgary, Dublin, Eureka, Fuji, Geneva, Helsinki, Istanbul, Jakarta, Kingston, London, Madrid, New York, Orlando, Paris, Quebeck, Rome, San Diego, Tokyo, and Utah. ServiceNow’s next release, Vancouver, is planned for the third quarter of 2023. The Washington release is scheduled for the beginning of 2024.

All customers using ServiceNow can upgrade their instances to the latest version. Each version brings significant changes and new additions that change the world of work – they can increase employee engagement, productivity and satisfaction, improve the way the employees work, reduce costs, and increase security.

ServiceNow invests millions of dollars in research and development. Thanks to this, it not only solves the problems of previous versions, but also creates new functions, responding to the needs of the modern world – such as new consumer or business problems, technology trends,  or changing work environments (e.g. the growing number of people working remotely or in a hybrid work model).

Maximum availability and data security

Thanks to 16 data centres, ServiceNow achieves excellent availability scores of over 99.7%. The centres are located on 5 continents: Europe, Asia, Australia, and North and South America. Data centres are built in pairs – explains Marcin Tyburski, CEO at SPOC. For example, in Europe, one pair is Amsterdam and Frankfurt and the other is London and Dublin. Each customer is assigned to two centres; the instance is always backed up in another data centre. This solution ensures maximum data availability.

The ServiceNow cloud architecture is built in a single-tenant model, double disaster recovery and replication to separate data centres. The platform security is ensured by a dedicated team of specialists and an organization compliant with such certificates as ISO27001, SSAE 16 SOC1 Type 2, and SSAE 16 SOC2 Type 2.

IT Service Management – the flagship project of ServiceNow

For many years, ServiceNow has been one of the leading IT service management tools. The platform is valued for innovation and providing comprehensive solutions that meet the demands and can be adapted to the most complex environments. It offers a set of tools that help you develop, deliver and manage IT services, resulting in a better and smarter work environment.

In last year’s (2022) Gartner Magic Quadrat, ServiceNow was named the leader for ITSM platforms for the 9th time in a row! It was awarded for continuous product improvements, high adaptability, high market position and a strong community of users.

ITSM has been the staple of the ServiceNow Platform from the very beginning. Most companies introduce ServiceNow first in the field of ITSM, and after a successful implementation they decide to try also different modules – says Marcin Tyburski, CEO at SPOC.

Digital Maturity ServiceNow

Time to value a key focus of ServiceNow

When innovation works, the world works. As alluded to a couple of times already, the ServiceNow Platform was designed to make work faster and easier, and as a result, reach new business outcomes and ensure maximum profit for companies.

ServiceNow allows easy integration, digitization and process automation. It ensures security, simple communication and management, and helps you to cut costs and save time. ServiceNow also increases work efficiency and customer satisfaction, optimizes cooperation and improves business performance. The Platform is an excellent tool to increase the overall process efficiency. It makes everyday activities easier for those who work for you and with you. Cloud data availability means that employees can access it at any time.

The approach of No Code / Low Code, which allows a full range of people to deliver solutions on the platform, means businesses are able to roll out applications and solutions quickly to align to changing needs. The longer-term strategic growth plans can be managed with more complex solutions prepared with the assistance of professional ServiceNow partners – such as SPOC.

Bringing all these items together helps us understand the economic impact of ServiceNow use. It was being studied by the neutral advisory agency Forrester Research. Their report „The Total Economic Impact of ServiceNow IT Applications” showed that ServiceNow implementation improved IT & employee productivity by $8.9 million per year (2019). It also reduced the impact of high-priority incidents and shorted the time of their resolving by $3 million. Reducing development and maintenance costs saved another $6 million. ROI from the implementation of ServiceNow was 229%.

Begin your journey with ServiceNow and start transforming your organization.

Streamlined legal operations: unlock efficiency with a dedicated legal app 

Posted on by brygida.blachno

The fast-paced digital landscape presents unique challenges for the legal practice, with a surge in case volumes, complex regulations, and the need for quick turnarounds. To meet these demands, you need to embrace cutting-edge technology. Dedicated apps built on the ServiceNow platform offer a promising avenue to enhance productivity, simplify workflows, and foster collaboration among legal professionals.

Corporate legal teams’ adoption of legal tech has gained momentum due to the exhaustion experienced in-house. According to Gartner, many organizations are cautious about increasing the headcount in their legal departments despite the growing workloads these teams face. This has led to a surge in interest regarding legal tech adoption. Gartner’s findings revealed that 68% of corporate legal attorneys struggled to manage their workloads in 2020, and the pressures have only intensified with the rise in business activity since then. 

As law firms recognize the need to alleviate the burden on their teams, adopting legal tech solutions becomes increasingly crucial. Building a great app for IoS and Android devices can empower legal teams to navigate the complexities of the digital era while improving efficiency and effectiveness in delivering legal services.

Meeting legal needs in a digital work environment with mobile apps

Legal professionals face many challenges arising from the increasing pace of technological advancements. The traditional methods and processes that once sufficed are no longer adequate to meet the demands of this interconnected era. Legal practitioners require dynamic solutions that adapt to their evolving needs and effectively support their daily tasks. Some of these challenges include the time-consuming nature of administrative tasks, which often distract lawyers from their core legal work. Additionally, the presence of multiple layers of communication and manual handovers can lead to information being lost or delayed, resulting in miscommunication and the potential for errors.

As legal professionals strive to navigate the complexities of a digital work environment and effectively manage client data, it’s imperative to embrace the transformative potential of legal apps. These innovative tools empower legal practitioners to streamline their legal practice, granting easy access to all your documents and enabling seamless completion of tasks on a mobile device. Embracing technology is no longer just a trend but an essential requirement to thrive in today’s fast-paced digital landscape. By harnessing the power of the best apps, which are tailored to the specific needs, legal professionals can overcome challenges, optimize their workflow, and deliver exceptional results for their clients.

Tarek Sayed, Business Development Manager -SPOC

How to transform legal workflow with a legal app?

At SPOC, we collaborated closely with our clients within the legal industry to develop dedicated apps, harnessing the robust capabilities of ServiceNow. These apps brought a transformative shift in their operations, eliminating the need for cumbersome paper-based processes. We thought that the best apps should be configured to support the secretarial teams in managing the lifecycle of tasks, reporting, feedback, and capabilities. And that is what we did! We addressed the specific challenges faced by the legal team and revolutionized their workflow:

  1. Streamlined request assignment: One of the primary pain points for the legal team was the decentralized inbox and service portal. The app provided a centralized mailbox, simplifying and automating the assignment of requests to the appropriate team members. It reduced the likelihood of misfiled tasks, duplication of effort, and missed assignments.
  2. Real-time task tracking: The app gave lawyers instant access to their tasks and cases, allowing them to track progress and monitor the amount of time invested in each one. This enhanced visibility, improved accountability, and facilitated efficient time management, ensuring that deadlines were met and resources were allocated effectively.
  3. Seamless communication: Integration with ServiceNow enabled seamless communication between lawyers and secretaries. By eliminating the need for manual handovers and multiple inboxes, the app provided a unified platform for collaboration, allowing swift and accurate transfer of tasks. Consequently, it reduced response times and minimized the impact on Outlook’s performance.

In addition, the app offered several other business benefits for the company. It provided a single portal with customized interactive forms, simplifying the submission process and capturing all necessary information and instructions. Mobile access allowed legal professionals to stay connected and productive while on the move. The app also automated manual processes within the team’s workflows, increasing efficiency and reducing the risk of human error. Management reporting capabilities provided valuable insights into utilization and resource planning, aiding decision-making and optimizing resource allocation.

Revolutionized operations for law firms

Dedicated apps built on ServiceNow can significantly benefit legal teams, including workload allocation, resource visibility, and enhanced efficiency. These apps automate task assignments, streamline processes, and provide real-time information access. By embracing these solutions, law firms gain a competitive edge, improve collaboration, and achieve significant business value in the digital era, being able to solve many problems via mobile phone.

We witnessed the transformative power of legal apps and Service Now in action when our clients, two leading law firms, implemented a tailored app to address their unique challenges. By leveraging this solution, they experienced remarkable improvements in operations and efficiency. With the app accessible on their mobile devices, they were able to effortlessly create documents, complete tasks, manage cases, record time, and add notes, all within a unified platform.

This comprehensive solution provided them with seamless access to vital information, enabling them to resolve cases in a fast manner, organize workflows, and enhance productivity. It’s worth checking out the ability of legal apps built on Service Now as the first step toward optimizing processes and mitigating common issues faced by law firms. By embracing these solutions, legal professionals can create, collaborate, and efficiently manage their work, unlocking a new level of efficiency and productivity.

If you and your legal company recognize the potential of such a solution, we invite you to contact us. As experts and an Elite Partner of ServiceNow, we have the expertise and experience to assist you in implementing and leveraging these dedicated apps to transform your legal operations. Contact us today at sales@spoc.eu to schedule a demo and explore how we can empower your team and drive greater organizational efficiency.

Cybersecurity in the financial sector: embracing automation and integration as Excel takes a backseat

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The ever-evolving EU regulations present ongoing challenges for financial institutions. Relying solely on traditional methods like countless Excel spreadsheets falls short of ensuring robust cybersecurity measures. The time has come to embrace solutions that offer automation, seamless integration, and utmost protection.

The financial sector faces multiple security challenges and needs to meet stringent regulatory compliance requirements. Introducing the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) imposes new obligations and demands on financial institutions.

To tackle these obstacles, institutions require innovative IT solutions that integrate various security aspects seamlessly and enable centralized management. Leading the way in this field, ServiceNow offers comprehensive solutions that address these needs, ensuring high security for financial institutions.

Simplifying cybersecurity implementation through outsourcing

In cybersecurity, it is crucial to consider the requirements set by the European Union. Financial institutions are responsible for implementing any EU regulations and guidelines changes. When new security requirements emerge as part of regulations, organizations must focus on understanding and implementing these changes to ensure compliance with the law.

There are two primary options for adapting to regulatory requirements. The first option is an internal process where financial institutions analyze the new requirements and determine how to adjust their procedures, systems, and infrastructure accordingly.

However, given the increasing complexity of cybersecurity issues, the financial sector increasingly turns to external partners with specialized knowledge and experience.

These external providers are well-equipped to identify and understand crucial aspects that internal processes may overlook or lose. By collaborating with experienced vendors, organizations can concentrate on their core activities while ensuring that their systems and data are adequately protected and compliant with regulations.

How to navigate the DORA challenges?

The Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) is a comprehensive strategy developed by the European Union to fortify the financial sector’s operational resilience against digital threats. Published in 2020, it aims to ensure security, stability, and data protection within digital financial services.

In light of these challenges, financial institutions must adapt their systems and procedures to meet the new DORA requirements and enhance the security of customer data. Many institutions grapple with this issue, relying on fragmented and non-integrated internal security systems. This is where ServiceNow emerges as a solution, enabling the consolidation of these elements into a unified platform.

ServiceNow integrates security processes into a single platform, eliminating the need for multiple systems and dismantling silos. Financial sector entities can leverage powerful tools like workflows, facilitating the effortless implementation of changes, monitoring compliance with the DORA Directive, and enabling swift response to incidents.

High level of security = data integration

Ensuring robust security is paramount for financial institutions entrusted with vast volumes of sensitive data. ServiceNow offers comprehensive solutions that effectively monitor and safeguard their systems. By integrating diverse security components into a unified platform, financial institutions can seamlessly manage incidents, identify vulnerabilities, ensure compliance with security policies, and streamline security management processes.

Information consistency plays a pivotal role in this context. Traditional approaches often rely on multiple systems and tools, resulting in fragmented information that hampers efficient analysis and response to threats. ServiceNow resolves these challenges by providing a singular source of truth.

With ServiceNow, all security incidents, whether reported by users or detected automatically, are diligently monitored and tracked within a centralized hub. It facilitates prompt identification, analysis, and response to incidents, with the capability to assign them to appropriate specialists for further action. By consolidating incident data and information within a single system, management becomes more streamlined, and complete transparency is achieved throughout the threat response process.

A key attribute of ServiceNow is its incident prioritization capability. Leveraging sophisticated algorithms and predefined rules, the system can automatically assess the severity of threats and assign priority to each incident report. This empowers organizations to focus on incidents with the highest potential impact and immediate risk, ensuring swift and effective response measures are implemented.

Streamlining security operations with automated threat detection

Financial institutions that use ServiceNow solutions can perform regular system scans to identify vulnerabilities and issues in their IT infrastructure. This enables them to assess risks more effectively and take necessary actions to enhance security. Automation eliminates manual data processing, leading to faster identification and remediation of vulnerabilities. In practice, it means fewer errors, as with spreadsheets and incomplete files.

Source: ServiceNow https://www.servicenow.com/products/security-operations/what-is-secops.html

The financial sector often faces challenges due to isolated information silos and errors resulting from manual processes. Leveraging secure and proven technological solutions like ServiceNow is highly recommended to overcome these challenges. Through ServiceNow’s platform and SecOps solution, institutions can integrate their security processes, reducing the risk of errors. Automation and centralized data within ServiceNow facilitate efficient incident management and response, enabling better handling of security challenges and improving service quality.

Tomasz Prokopowicz, Senior Project Manager, coordinating the Information Security Management System, SPOC

ServiceNow’s Security Operations (SecOps) solution empowers organizations to manage security incidents effectively. By consolidating incident reports in one place and automatically assigning them to the right specialists, organizations can respond to threats promptly and eliminate them swiftly. No more delays in information sharing! Specialized individuals or teams are immediately informed and engaged in resolving the issue.

Moreover, ServiceNow provides transparent progress monitoring for incident resolution, enabling organizations to track and report on their security activities in a better way. This supports compliance monitoring with legal requirements such as the GDPR and security standards like PCI DSS. Institutions can customize reports according to their needs and receive real-time compliance insights.

A single point of Truth for Cybersecurity

ServiceNow provides comprehensive solutions for the financial sector, integrating various security aspects into a single platform. This simplifies security management, helping institutions meet regulatory requirements, protect their clients, and respond effectively to threats.

By using ServiceNow, financial institutions can streamline their cybersecurity efforts, saving time on manual tasks. Automation and centralized data enable specialists to focus on tackling potential threats instead of searching for them. It boosts efficiency, effectiveness, and overall security outcomes.

Piotr Górnikiewicz, Business Development Manager, SPOC

ServiceNow empowers financial institutions to concentrate on vital aspects of their operations. The platform assists in identifying, monitoring, and responding to threats, safeguarding company assets, customer data, and reputation. Thanks to that, the organization can build customer trust and solidify its market position.

If your financial institution seeks expertise in implementing ServiceNow solutions, reach out to us. As a ServiceNow Elite Partner, we possess the knowledge and over a decade of experience to tailor solutions to your specific needs.

Maximizing Project Visibility and Business Value: A Deep Dive into ServiceNow’s PPM Solution

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According to research, approximately 70% of companies experience project management failures. These failures can manifest in various forms, including budget overruns, missed deadlines, scope creep, and unsatisfactory project outcomes. Effective project management practices and robust tools like ServiceNow’s PPM solution play a crucial role in mitigating these risks and increasing the likelihood of project success. 

We have seen first-hand with our clients how ServiceNow’s PPM solution empowers them to manage their project portfolios effectively, enabling them to make informed decisions, streamline workflows, and drive exceptional outcomes. From daily project management tasks to budgeting and holistic oversight, ServiceNow’s PPM offers valuable insights and actionable data that help you overcome the challenges of managing multiple projects. 

From Streamlined Project Management to High-Level Oversight

At the heart of ServiceNow’s PPM lies its ability to streamline daily project management tasks. Through a simple and intuitive interface, the PPM system standardizes and tracks project activities effectively. The demand management module allows the review of project drafts, ensuring alignment with strategic goals. Within the project workspace, project status, baseline, percentage of completion, issues, risks, and tasks can be easily monitored. Gantt charts enable visualizing project progress, enhancing project management efficiency. 

Beyond daily project management, ServiceNow’s PPM proves invaluable in budgeting and identifying projects that may require attention. The system provides financial reports that offer insights into project profitability. Crucial information such as milestones, goals, project statuses, and risk outlooks are readily available, enabling proactive risk management and opportunity identification. You not only have the tools to manage risks but also to identify and capitalize on opportunities. 

Project Management ServiceNow
Source: ServiceNow

Empowering PMOs through the right project management tool 

PMOs require a bigger picture of the project landscape to align projects with strategic objectives and optimize resource allocation effectively. Navigating the project landscape solely through spreadsheets can be cumbersome, time-consuming, and prone to errors, hindering the PMO’s ability to gain holistic insights and make informed decisions.  

For Project Management Offices (PMOs), ServiceNow’s PPM presents a comprehensive overview in one centralized location. This holistic view facilitates informed decision-making, quick response to project changes, better control, and enhanced budgeting capabilities. Additionally, it enables the realization of company objectives and key performance indicators (KPIs). The user-friendly interface allows easy zooming in and out, empowering PMOs to gain deep insights into project details while maintaining a high-level overview. This is especially important in organizations that face complex project management portfolios, such as, for example, pharmaceutical companies.  

PPM tool will bring an efficient digital environment with common processes for project management approach within the full spectrum of complex Pharma projects and harmonise communication of metrics, reports and dashboards throughout our organisation.   

SPOC brought during the entire implementation a good willingness to learn and understand from our experience in every challenge trying to fulfil our requirements in managing complex projects in the Biotech industry, even though we had to postpone key topics for future releases.  

Director Head of PMO & Strategic Planning at pharmaceutical company
PPM ServiceNow

Strategic Portfolio Management: Exploring the Comprehensive Offerings Beyond PPM 

It is important to remember that PPM serves as a feature within the broader system of Strategic Portfolio Management (SPM) in ServiceNow. SPM provides a seamless framework for organizations to work fluently and effectively scale their projects by promptly identifying and addressing risks and delays. While PPM is a critical component, there are other captivating offerings that could appeal to you if you work as a PM or PMO. These include all: 

  1. Innovation Management: This feature allows employees to submit their innovative ideas, which can be voted on and commented upon by others. It also covers a basic draft of the idea for a potential project. Ideas are evaluated during company meetings to determine which ones are feasible and merit further development. 
  2. Demand Management: Before a demand can be converted into a project, this phase involves gathering comprehensive information about the potential project, including work phases, names, categories, and required resources. Once qualified and approved, the demand can be transformed into an official project. 
  3. Agile Development: While SPM predominantly supports Waterfall methodology, this feature allows users to work in an Agile environment, providing flexibility for those who prefer Agile practices. 
  4. Performance Analytics: Similarly, to other parts of ServiceNow, Performance Analytics offers enhanced reporting capabilities, delivering in-depth insights beyond traditional dashboards. This enables you to access next-level reports and make data-driven decisions. 
  5. Resource Management: This solution allows us to effectively allocate and optimize resources across projects. It provides insights into resource availability, skills, and workload, facilitating informed decisions on resource allocation. This feature maximizes resource utilization, reduces bottlenecks, and ensures that the right resources are assigned to the right projects at the right time. 
PPM ServiceNow
Source: ServiceNow

Strategic Portfolio Management: Exploring the Comprehensive Offerings Beyond PPM 

It is important to remember that PPM serves as a feature within the broader system of Strategic Portfolio Management (SPM) in ServiceNow. SPM provides a seamless framework for organizations to work fluently and effectively scale their projects by promptly identifying and addressing risks and delays. While PPM is a critical component, there are other captivating offerings that could appeal to you if you work as a PM or PMO. These include all: 

  1. Innovation Management: This feature allows employees to submit their innovative ideas, which can be voted on and commented upon by others. It also covers a basic draft of the idea for a potential project. Ideas are evaluated during company meetings to determine which ones are feasible and merit further development. 
  2. Demand Management: Before a demand can be converted into a project, this phase involves gathering comprehensive information about the potential project, including work phases, names, categories, and required resources. Once qualified and approved, the demand can be transformed into an official project. 
  3. Agile Development: While SPM predominantly supports Waterfall methodology, this feature allows users to work in an Agile environment, providing flexibility for those who prefer Agile practices. 
  4. Performance Analytics: Similarly, to other parts of ServiceNow, Performance Analytics offers enhanced reporting capabilities, delivering in-depth insights beyond traditional dashboards. This enables you to access next-level reports and make data-driven decisions. 
  5. Resource Management: This solution allows us to effectively allocate and optimize resources across projects. It provides insights into resource availability, skills, and workload, facilitating informed decisions on resource allocation. This feature maximizes resource utilization, reduces bottlenecks, and ensures that the right resources are assigned to the right projects at the right time. 

The Full Potential of ServiceNow’s PPM Across the Organization 

You need to remember that ServiceNow’s PPM is not confined to the IT department but caters to the entire organization. Implementing ServiceNow’s PPM solution gives you a clear dashboard overview, reliable project, and program information, and significant improvements in the development processes. 

ServiceNow’s PPM solution offers your organization a transformative approach to managing projects effectively. From daily project management tasks to budgeting and holistic oversight, the PPM system provides valuable insights and actionable data. Whether you’re a project manager seeking better control or a PMO aiming for strategic decision-making, ServiceNow’s PPM empowers you to maximize project visibility and achieve exceptional business value. If you want to know more about Project Portfolio Management, reach out to us at sales@spoc.eu.

SecOps: Strengthening Cybersecurity in Financial Institutions and Banks

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In today’s digital age, financial firms face unprecedented cybersecurity threats that can compromise sensitive data and lead to significant financial losses. The increasing frequency and sophistication of cyber-attacks highlight the urgent need for robust cybersecurity measures in the financial sector. That’s where Security Operations (SecOps) come into play. 

SecOps is a comprehensive approach to cybersecurity that integrates security practices with operations to detect, respond to, and mitigate cyber risks effectively. It consists of the convergence and collaboration of IT security and IT operations to break down silos within the broader IT organization. The primary goal is to achieve security objectives without compromising the overall performance of IT systems.

The rising cyber risk in financial institutions

Financial services have always been prime targets for cybercriminals due to the wealth of information they possess. The financial industry has seen a surge in cyber attacks, with 71% of all data breaches being financially motivated. These attacks range from sophisticated hacking attempts to social engineering tactics to trick employees into revealing login credentials. The consequences of successful cyber attacks in the banking industry are dire, with the cost reaching a staggering $18.3 million annually per company!

Source: ServiceNow „Enterprise Strategy Group: Security Hygiene Report”

One of the most prevalent threats is the deployment of malicious code, which can lead to data breaches and unauthorized access to financial data. Cybercriminals utilize advanced techniques to infiltrate banking networks, bypass security measures, and exfiltrate valuable information. Mobile devices, often used by bank employees and customers for financial transactions, have become a prime target for cyber attackers.

Ransomware attacks pose another significant threat to the banking sector. These attacks involve the use of malicious software to encrypt sensitive data and hold it hostage until a ransom is paid. Phishing attacks also remain a significant concern for banks. Cybercriminals employ deceptive tactics, such as masquerading as legitimate entities or creating convincing fake websites, to trick individuals into revealing their login credentials or other sensitive information. Phishing targets both bank employees and customers, aiming to gain unauthorized access to financial systems or personal banking accounts.

Unfortunately, the banking industry is not immune to cloud-based attacks. As financial institutions increasingly adopt cloud infrastructure for their operations, they become potential targets for cyber attackers seeking to exploit vulnerabilities within cloud environments. Breaches in cloud-based systems can result in the exposure of sensitive data and compromise the integrity of banking operations.

Robust cyber security needed

The consequences of these cyber security breaches can be severe. They can lead to financial losses, reputational damage, legal repercussions, and a loss of customer trust. With the financial industry’s interconnected nature, a single vulnerable link in the security chain can have far-reaching implications.

To combat the ever-evolving cyber threats, financial institutions must adopt a proactive cybersecurity strategy. Implementing ServiceNow SecOps practices enables banks to effectively identify vulnerabilities, detect cyber threats, and respond swiftly to security incidents. By streamlining security operations, SecOps ensures that priorities are better managed and consolidated, communication and information are integrated, and tools and technology are joined together. This holistic approach reduces the strain on resources and enhances cyber resilience.

Source: ServiceNow „Enterprise Strategy Group: Security Hygiene Report”

The banking sector frequently faces challenges stemming from isolated information silos and the risks associated with manual processes. This highlights the importance of leveraging trusted and secure technological solutions like ServiceNow. By adopting the ServiceNow platform and its SecOps solution, banks can seamlessly integrate their security processes, reducing the potential for errors and mitigating cyber security risks. The automation and data centralization capabilities of ServiceNow enable efficient incident management and response, ensuring compliance and effectively addressing security challenges. This, in turn, enhances the overall quality of services provided by banks.

Tomasz Prokopowicz, Senior Project Manager and coordinator of the Information Security Management System at SPOC

Benefits of SecOps in the financial sector

1. Enhanced Efficiency: With SecOps, you can automate key security procedures and orchestrate effective responses, saving time and reducing the reliance on manual work. By automating repetitive tasks, security teams can focus on analyzing and mitigating emerging threats, leading to increased operational efficiency.

2. Strengthened Cloud Security: The adoption of cloud infrastructure has brought numerous benefits but has also introduced new security challenges. SecOps provides a framework to minimize cloud security issues by addressing vulnerabilities, ensuring secure configurations, and implementing robust security controls. This results in fewer security breaches, fewer vulnerabilities, and a safer security environment overall.

3. Improved Application Resilience: Application disruptions can have severe consequences. SecOps helps mitigate these risks by reducing configuration errors and ensuring that changes in application code align with deployment rules. By implementing secure coding practices and continuous monitoring, you can maintain the integrity of the software systems.

4. Effective Risk Management: SecOps enables you to identify and address known vulnerabilities proactively. Your organizations can enforce compliance with appropriate standards and regulations by implementing auditing procedures. This helps protect sensitive information and reduces legal costs associated with non-compliance.

ServiceNow SecOps – a solution that looks ahead

ServiceNow provides an all-in-one platform for managing and consolidating security vulnerabilities and incidents. It offers a comprehensive suite of tools and technologies to streamline security operations, facilitate effective communication and information sharing, and automate key security procedures. With ServiceNow SecOps, financial institutions can leverage machine learning capabilities to detect and respond to cyber threats in real time, enhancing their cyber resilience.

Source: ServiceNow https://www.servicenow.com/products/security-operations/what-is-secops.html

Utilizing ServiceNow to optimize cybersecurity in banks significantly reduces time spent on manual work and improves risk management. Through automation and data centralization, employees can focus on responding to potential threats and resolving issues rather than wasting time searching for them. This contributes to increased efficiency and effectiveness, as well as achieving better security outcomes.

Piotr Górnikiewicz, Business Development Manager at SPOC

As the financial industry becomes increasingly interconnected, the cybersecurity landscape continues to evolve, making it essential for banks to stay ahead of emerging threats. By implementing SecOps practices, you can protect sensitive data, mitigate cyber risks, and maintain the trust of your customers. Investing in cybersecurity solutions like SecOps is crucial to safeguarding the integrity of financial systems and preserving their reputation. If you want to know, contact us.

Revolutionize Your ServiceNow Customer Service with These 5 Game-Changing Features

Posted on by brygida.blachno

Are you looking for a game-changing solution to revolutionize your customer service experience? Look no further than ServiceNow, known for its exceptional IT service management solutions. Its CSM has a laser focus on delivering a world-class customer experience. Curious? Explore five of the most impactful features of ServiceNow Customer Service Management and how they can take your customer service to the next level and drive customer loyalty. Get ready to see why ServiceNow and customer experience are a match made in heaven.

Why is customer support crucial?

In today’s cut-throat business world, delivering exceptional customer support is no longer just a nice-to-have; it’s a must-have. Customers demand speed, personalization, and efficiency in connected digital workflows. Companies that fail to make customer service flow a breeze risk losing customers to their competitors. To meet these expectations, businesses must invest in tools and technologies that streamline their customer service operations and enhance their agents’ productivity.

One such tool is ServiceNow Customer Service Management (CSM), an advanced cloud-based platform that automates and optimizes customer service processes. Next-generation now support comes loaded with many features that can help boost agents’ effectiveness and reduce their time on administrative tasks. This, in turn, allows them to focus on providing high-quality service to meet customer expectations just by using a single platform. Interested? Take a closer look at five game-changing features of Customer Service Management that can transform your customer service operations. 

ServiceNow CSM empowers organizations to optimize digital IT workflows, streamline customer support, and respond quickly to customer requests. With its Generation Now support portal and portfolio management capabilities, CSM enables seamless service support across the enterprise, enhancing employee experiences and engaging customers effectively.

Jakub Gond, ServiceNow Developer

Feature 1: Configurable Workspace

ServiceNow CSM’s Configurable Workspace is a valuable feature for businesses looking to streamline their customer service operations and enhance productivity. With this feature, companies can create a customized workspace for their agents, providing them with a single interface for managing customer interactions. It helps reduce the time agents spend switching between different applications, services and tools, allowing them to focus on resolving customer issues quickly and accurately.

Let’s say a company’s customer service team receives a high volume of customer inquiries across various channels, such as phone, email, and chat. By utilizing the Configurable Workspace feature, the company can integrate all customer interactions and data from different channels into a single interface. This custom workspace can be tailored to the specific needs and workflows of the company’s agents, allowing them to easily access customer data, case histories, and other relevant information. As a result, agents provide faster and more accurate solutions to customer issues, enhancing the overall quality of service.

Customer Service Management Configurable Workspace
Source: SPOC

With Customer Service Management Configurable Workspace, you get optimized agents’ efficiency and enhance customer service quality. By creating a customized workspace that integrates all customer interactions and data, your company’s self-service side can reduce response time, improve issue resolution rates, and ultimately provide its customers with an exceptional service experience.

Feature 2: Automated Routing and Assignment

Automated routing enables businesses to automatically assign customer inquiries and cases to the most appropriate agent or team based on predefined criteria like skill set, workload, and availability. By automating this process, your company can reduce the time agents spend manually assigning cases, ensuring that inquiries are given to the most suitable agent or team. According to Forrester, ServiceNow CSM has increased routing efficacy thanks to this feature, leading to 18% more case deflection and 20% greater efficiency. 

Reducing the time it takes to resolve customer issues is crucial for customer experience and the business’s bottom line, as time is money. For instance, when a customer submits an inquiry about a recently purchased product through the company’s website, the inquiry is automatically routed to the customer service team based on predefined criteria such as the product category and the type of inquiry. The system then checks the workload and availability of the agents and assigns the inquiry to the most appropriate agent based on their skill set and availability. If the agent is unavailable, the inquiry is rerouted to the next available agent with the required skill set. Once the inquiry is assigned to the agent, they receive a notification on their dashboard, which prioritizes their workload based on the urgency of the inquiry. This enables the agent to quickly respond to the inquiry and resolve the customer’s issue as fast as possible, enhancing the overall customer experience.

Customer Service Management Automated Routing
Source: ServiceNow

Through this process, you can ensure that customer inquiries are handled efficiently and effectively with the appropriate agents. It improves the overall customer experience and reduces the time agents manually assign cases, freeing up their time to focus on resolving customer issues and delivering exceptional service. 

Feature 3: Knowledge Management  

ServiceNow CSM’s Knowledge Management feature offers significant business advantages by providing a centralized knowledge base that agents can use to resolve customer issues quickly and efficiently. It helps your business reduce the time agents spend searching for information, allowing them to focus on providing high-quality service to customers.

Imagine a customer contacting the company’s customer service team with an issue related to a recently purchased product. The agent who receives the inquiry searches for the relevant information in the company’s knowledge base and quickly finds an article that addresses the issue and provides a step-by-step guide to resolving it. By using this information, the agent can quickly and accurately resolve the customer’s issue, resulting in a positive experience for the customer.

Customer Service Management Knowledge Management
Source: SPOC

As the knowledge base continues to grow, it becomes an increasingly valuable resource for agents to use when resolving customer issues. Agents can easily search for information based on keywords, tags, or categories, making it easy to find the information they need in no time. By streamlining the process of finding relevant information, businesses can help their agents provide a more efficient and effective customer service experience, leading to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Feature 4:  Automation and Insights

The rise of automation in customer service is undeniable, with industry experts predicting that 40% of all customer interactions will be automated by the end of this year. ServiceNow CSM is keeping up with this trend by offering automation and insights capabilities to businesses. 

By automating routine tasks and workflows, the platform reduces the time agents spend on administrative tasks, freeing them to focus on more complex issues that require their expertise. This not only improves the productivity of agents but also ensures that they are able to provide faster and more accurate resolutions to customer issues, resulting in a better customer experience. 

Customer Service Management Automation and Insights
Source: SPOC

ServiceNow CSM’s insights capabilities give your business real-time visibility into customer service operations. It enables you to identify areas for improvement and take proactive steps to address potential issues before they become major problems. By continuously improving your operations, your company can not only improve customer service but also gain a competitive advantage in your industry.

Feature 5: Proactive Service

Being proactive is always better than being reactive, and ServiceNow CSM understands this. The platform’s proactive service features help your company to identify and address potential issues before they escalate, improving the customer experience and reducing the workload on agents. 

Example? ServiceNow CSM can monitor customer interactions and send alerts to agents when a customer is experiencing an issue, such as a slow response time or a failed transaction. This proactive approach allows your agents to reach out to the customer and offer assistance before the problem worsens. By resolving issues proactively, you can reduce the number of cases that agents need to handle, freeing up their time to focus on more complex issues and providing exceptional customer service. Ultimately, this approach enhances customer satisfaction and loyalty while saving time and resources.

CSM - proactive customer service
Source: SPOC

ServiceNow Customer Service Management: The Key to Gaining a Competitive Advantage

Exceptional customer service is a must to stay ahead of competitors. ServiceNow CSM offers a variety of features like the Configurable Workspace, automated routing and assignment, knowledge management, automation and insights, and proactive service that enable your business to provide high-quality service to customers efficiently and effectively. By implementing ServiceNow CSM, you can streamline customer service operations, reduce administrative tasks for agents, and improve their ability to resolve customer issues quickly and accurately. This results in exceptional customer service that drives customer loyalty and boosts retention rates, giving your company a competitive edge in the market. 

Do you want to transform your customer service with ServiceNow CSM and see the difference it can make for your business? Contact us for more information at sales@spoc.eu.

How to choose a ServiceNow partner? 10 tips to help you find the best partner for your organization

Posted on by brygida.blachno

Few questions before you start

The decision was made – you are about to begin an extraordinary journey in the digital world of ServiceNow. Perhaps you are already the Platform user, want to add new capabilities and modules or upgrade your instance to the latest version. Maybe it’s your first time with ServiceNow. No matter if you’re planning a new ServiceNow implementation or developing an existing service or instance, you need a trusted ServiceNow partner to be your project guide. There are many ServiceNow partners, but finding the right one for your organization can be – but does not have to – quite a challenge. How to choose a trustworthy and committed ServiceNow partner? What criteria should you pay attention to?

Best practices – 10 things you should think about while looking for the best implementation partner

Define your expectations

There is no one way to choose a ServiceNow partner, but here are a few best practices, that will make your decision easier. To find the right ServiceNow partner, you need to answer a few questions about your organization. Why do you want to implement ServiceNow? What are your business needs? What do you want from your ServiceNow implementation partner? How do you imagine your business cooperation? What is important to you? Defining your expectations is the key to successful and long-term business cooperation. Having done it, choosing a partner will be much easier.

Verify the experience

One thing you should definitely pay attention to, is how experienced your ServiceNow partner is. What clients are working with the company, what implementations have been performed so far? The experience is a key factor that increases the chance of successful delivery, the customer satisfaction, customer success and project cooperation. Many years of practice are a guarantee of the ServiceNow company’s value, stability and expert position. A partner company who has done a lot of projects, but does not rest on its laurels, certainly has the potential to deliver value and be a good business partner.

Find a partner who shares the same values

There must be chemistry between you and your ServiceNow partner team. Your successful journey to success will not be simply about following your partners’ orders, but also about mutual respect and cooperation. It is a good start if you share the same views on work culture practices and values, and when you have a common denominator. Sharing the same values is not only the key to customer satisfaction. It is the crucial factor that makes a true partnership possible.

Find ServiceNow partners that work with the best

It is worth checking whether there are large, global companies in your partner’s portfolio of customers and business implementations. The market position, brand value and recognition of clients and customers your partner cooperates with, is a proof of its success and trustworthiness. If the partner works with the best customers, provide customer success and all sides are satisfied with this cooperation, there is a good chance that your business collaboration will also be fruitful.

Ask for industry references

In addition to strong market position and rich portfolio of clients, it is worth checking whether a partner has any references or expertise in your industry. If your client or organization deals with, for example, insurance, your partner should have already been responsible for consulting, implementation or servicing a client in this field. You can be sure that, as a result of previous consulting experience and expertise, your partner knows your business, its specifics, trends, challenges, problems and solutions. This knowledge facilitates further cooperation.

Check ServiceNow certifications

Detailed information on all certified partners can be found on the ServiceNow website. There, in the Partner Finder tab, you can read a description of the company, the scope of implementation it specializes in, areas of activity and a list of certificates.

Firstly, you should check whether a partner is certified in the services and modules you are interested in implementing. The certificate is a proof of your partner’s knowledge, expertise, specialization and capabilities and that these two factors are still developing. A good sign is that the potential partner has expert certificates, such as Certified Technical Architect and Certified Master Architect. In this case, you can count not only on extensive technical knowledge of ServiceNow, but also on real business support and expertise in translating your needs into the system architecture.

Ask your partner for a plan

The ServiceNow implementation is a part of a larger business & digital transformation. A good enterprise ServiceNow partner is not just a performer, but a real partner — your advisor, guide, and companion through this process. Your ServiceNow partner should support you and have a long-term plan for this cooperation.

It is really important to have business transparency. A reliable, trustworthy enterprise ServiceNow partner is ready to get resources and implement changes within the specified timeframe to your business needs and keep your organization running. However, you should be aware that implementing ServiceNow is a process. A good ServiceNow partner not only enables you to get resources and start implementations quickly, but also has a plan for the Platform development. Thanks to this strategy, you can fully use ServiceNow’s potential value for your own business needs.

Get information about additional services

If your ServiceNow partner provides additional Change Management services, it is a perfect solution. Advising on customer service management solutions during the implementation process and preparing your organization for the upcoming changes are additional values. Employees are used to a certain model of customer service management operation in the company. For example – holidays, purchases, incidents, requests, etc. have been reported in 10 different portals so far. Suddenly, employees can do it all in one place. This requires not only a change of approach and habits, but also a systemic change. A good implementation partner will support this. Training and proper communication of the upcoming changes are necessary. It’s good if your ServiceNow partner takes care of this issue.

Verify the number of specialists working for your ServiceNow implementation partner

The employees are the strength of your business. The strength of ServiceNow partners are the qualified specialists who deal with the Platform implementation, operations and development processes. Thanks to their knowledge, skills and experience, you are in good hands.

Information about the number of certified ServiceNow specialists in the company is also available on the ServiceNow website in the Partner Finder tab. In our many years of practice, it happened many times that large global companies asked us for help. Although they had a lot of work in the field of service and platform implementation, there was no one to do it. Our specialists with the appropriate certified qualifications, expertise, knowledge and experience were happy to help.

SPOC – your ServiceNow Elite Partner

SPOC is a ServiceNow partner you can trust. Since 2010, we have been cooperating with the largest companies and organizations in the world. We implement and own solutions, develop the Platform, conduct training, deliver, and provide customers and partners with the necessary support. We started as a team of a few people; today we are an Elite Partner, one of ServiceNow partners that works with the best. Furthermore, we are growing and developing together with ServiceNow. It will be a pleasure to become your business partner and work together on the success of your organization.

Feel free to contact us!

Navigating Digital Transformation: A Roadmap for Your ServiceNow Journey

Posted on by brygida.blachno

Do you know what’s better than climbing a mountain? Reaching the top of a digital transformation peak! And if you’re using ServiceNow, you can do it faster and cheaper than with any other alternative, according to Forrester Research. ServiceNow facilitates the rapid construction of cloud solutions, automating a large number of intricate compliance workflows in just half the time and at a third of the cost of the competitors. But here’s the catch – the stats don’t reveal the real secret to success…

Source: ServiceNow

How a ServiceNow Roadmap can help you climb the digital mountain?

When embarking on a journey, it’s crucial to have a plan in place to ensure that you reach your destination. This is especially true when it comes to digital transformation and the implementation of a ServiceNow platform. Building a roadmap for your ServiceNow journey is like planning a trip to climb a mountain. You are a traveller, and just like with a mountain climb, you need to know everything about what’s going on to plan ahead.

What does it involve? You should consider the weather conditions, the itinerary, the team members, and the ultimate goal. Similarly, when building a roadmap for your platform, you need to take into account all the necessary details. What are the stops on the way? What are strategic goals, the needs, and what is required to reach your goal?

Source: ServiceNow

Many companies may not be fully prepared to leverage ServiceNow’s features and capabilities. With a roadmap, your organization can gain a clear understanding of its readiness for this transition, assess the availability of necessary resources, and track its progress in the process. This is how you can avoid wandering aimlessly without a clear destination. I believe that every company should prioritize this essential step for moving forward.

Sylwester Jassa, Presales Manager & Solution Consultant

It’s important to remember that just like climbing a mountain, you may not always be able to see your end destination clearly. For example, the ROI for your ServiceNow may be obscured by clouds. This is why having a strategic overview and a roadmap is so crucial. It helps you navigate the journey and ensures you don’t get lost along the way.

Source: ServiceNow

ServiceNow digital transformation

So, what exactly is a Roadmap? It is a strategic plan that outlines the steps required to achieve your business goals. As a visual representation of your organization’s journey toward a desired outcome, it helps you identify the key milestones, resources, and timelines required to reach that goal. 

A well-prepared roadmap should consist of a clear vision, business justification, and a plan for execution. This way, you can get a valuable tool to help other stakeholders in the company see the usefulness and point of the ServiceNow implementation. 

We have mapped 8 steps to follow when building a ServiceNow roadmap:

Assess your current state

Conduct a Digital Maturity Assessment to evaluate your organization and business strategy’s current state and identify the gaps and challenges to understand where you stand in terms of digital maturity and what steps you need to take to move forward.

>> Read more about DMA here <<

Identify the roadmap components

Based on the assessment results, identify the components, such as process improvements, technology updates, product ideas, resource requirements, and organizational changes.

Prioritize the components

To effectively prioritize the components of your roadmap, consider their importance, urgency, and impact on achieving your goals. This approach ensures you allocate the necessary resources and effort to focus on the most critical components of the overall strategy.

Define the roadmap phases

Divide the components into phases based on their dependencies and timeline. Each phase of the development roadmap should have clear objectives, timelines, and success metrics.

Identify the stakeholders

Identify who will be involved in the roadmap, development process, and implementation, including the executive sponsor, project manager, functional leads, technical leads, and end-users.

Build the roadmap

Document the objectives, components, phases, timelines, success metrics, and stakeholders. Use a visual format, such as a Gantt chart, roadmap view or timeline, to make it easier to understand and communicate.

Communicate

Tell about the project roadmap to all stakeholders and spread it across the organization to buy-in and support from all parties involved.

Update and monitor the roadmap

Regularly review strategy roadmap and revise the roadmap based on feedback, shifting priorities, and emerging challenges. Keep a close eye on the progress of the roadmap and measure success metrics to ensure that you remain on course towards achieving your objectives.

Source: ServiceNow

With the above steps, you can create a customized ServiceNow roadmap that aligns with your organization’s unique objectives and requirements. This roadmap will pave a distinct way for the entire company to reach success, providing clarity and direction toward the intended destination.

Preparing for the digital future with the right product strategy

Simply purchasing the most expensive ITSM system on the market isn’t enough to ensure success. It takes careful, strategic planning, and preparation to be truly ready for the climb ahead. A roadmap allows you to assess your organization’s readiness for change, determine whether you have the necessary resources, and identify where you currently stand in the process.

With a well-designed roadmap, you can navigate the terrain of digital transformation, integrate new systems, automate workflows, and achieve a positive return on investment. 

Building a roadmap is like embarking on a thrilling adventure where you discover new terrains and new peaks. With a clear plan in hand, you will feel ready for the future and be able to tackle any challenge that comes your way. Remember, a roadmap is not a magic solution but rather a reliable way to achieve success and reach your ultimate goals.

Sylwester Jassa, Presales Manager & Solution Consultant

So, building a roadmap after DMA for your ServiceNow is crucial to achieving your organization’s goals. It provides a clear direction and shared understanding of the platform, enhances transparency and communication between stakeholders, facilitates better and well-informed decision-making, and helps you stay focused. With a roadmap, you will be able to achieve your digital transformation goals, maximize your ServiceNow investment, enhance your overall organizational performance and stay competitive. 

A high-level strategy roadmap is essential to unlocking the full potential of your ServiceNow investment. A well-crafted roadmap outlines future initiatives, aligns with your business strategy, and defines a clear strategic vision. The road mapping process provides the big picture, ensuring that each step towards achieving the project’s goals is purposeful and intentional.

Adam Bernas, Chief Product Officer, CMA
Source: ServiceNow

Can you imagine climbing Mount Everest without the help of experienced Sherpas? We certainly can’t! That’s why we’re here to help you build a roadmap for your platform and enjoy the journey toward your ultimate goal. Our team can help you with product vision, measure your strengths and intentions and find the perfect climbing trail for you, and complete it with the right stops and support. Contact us today. Let us guide you to success with your ServiceNow and create a roadmap with us.

ServiceNow Digital Maturity Assessment – what’s next? Get ready to build a Roadmap!

Posted on by brygida.blachno

So you have completed your Digital Maturity Assessment for your ServiceNow platform. That is great! However, did you know that 7 in 10 clients (based on our observations) stop at this stage? Perhaps it’s because they don’t know what to do next or don’t have the necessary resources to take action. To fully benefit from your DMA and achieve better ROI, the next crucial step in your digital transformation journey is building a Roadmap. But why is it necessary, and what exactly does it entail? Let’s dive into it.

Source: SPOC

Digital Maturity Assessment as a starting point for a ServiceNow platform ROI

You’ve evaluated your company’s proficiency in utilizing digital technologies to support its business objectives. Now you understand how your company is currently using the ServiceNow platform. Thanks to DMA, you identified opportunities for improvement that will enable you to leverage your solutions to drive business value in a better way. 

Source: Gartner „CFO Perspective on the 2022 CEO Survey”

Building a ServiceNow roadmap is about more than just implementing technology – it’s about creating a strategic plan that aligns ITSM processes with business objectives. By weaving together the threads of systems, departments, processes and strategies, a ServiceNow roadmap becomes the roadmap for success.

Sylwester Jassa, Presales Manager & Solution Consultant
Source: ServiceNow\

The creation of a Roadmap ensures that your organization focuses on the key areas that require improvement, specifically in ITSM systems, and enables a strategic approach to technology implementation. By aligning business objectives with digital capabilities, the Roadmap becomes an essential tool for achieving success in digital transformation. It provides a clear vision of the steps needed to close gaps and seize opportunities, allowing for streamlined and efficient implementation of technology solutions. In essence, the Roadmap is the crucial link between the DMA’s insights and the realization of your organization’s digital goals.

Source: ServiceNow

Roadmapping in ServiceNow enables businesses to design and plan productive digital IT workflows that align with their overall objectives. With the latest Now Platform release and support for next-generation technologies, ServiceNow provides professional planning and design capabilities to help businesses stay ahead of the curve.

Adam Bernas, Chief Product Officer, CMA

What is a Roadmap, and what is not?

Simply put, a Roadmap is a strategic plan that outlines the path to achieving your goals within ITSM implementation. In the context of your ServiceNow platform strategy, a Roadmap will help you prioritize your initiatives, identify dependencies, and allocate resources effectively. It will also provide a clear and concise view of your organization’s digital transformation journey and help you communicate it to stakeholders.

Source: SPOC

Roadmaps are surely not solution-oriented. It is not giving you answers on how to do it, but rather what are your general goals, destinations, and phases to achieve that ultimate goal which would be a successful ServiceNow implementation and high ROI. 

Without a Roadmap, your company risks stagnating and falling behind in the ever-evolving digital landscape. You may continue facing the same inefficiencies, limitations, and challenges the DMA highlighted. By not taking action and building a Roadmap, you miss out on the opportunities for growth, optimization, and innovation that the ServiceNow platform provides to businesses.

How to build ServiceNow Roadmaps?

Building Roadmaps involves several key steps. First, you need to define your vision and objectives. What are your long-term goals, and how will your ServiceNow platform help you achieve them? Next, you’ll need to assess your current state and identify gaps. What areas of your platform are functioning well, and what needs improvement? Based on this assessment, you can prioritize your initiatives and develop roadmaps with a timeline for implementation.

Remember that it is not a stiff set of rules but a living document that should be updated regularly to reflect changes in your organization’s priorities and capabilities. By continually assessing your progress and adjusting your Roadmap as needed, you’ll be able to stay on track and ensure that your digital transformation journey is a success. 

During the Roadmap building stage, your company will identify the high-level initiatives necessary to achieve its digital transformation goals. These initiatives may include process improvements, technology enhancements, and organizational changes. The Roadmap outlines each initiative’s timeline, resources, capabilities, and dependencies, allowing your organization to prioritize the efforts and allocate resources effectively.

Highway to Hell or Roadmap to ROI?

We have seen far too many companies that invested significant money in implementing the most expensive ITSM system on the market, treating it as the goal itself. It opened a „highway to hell” for these companies as they did not analyze, prepare or implement the platform in a systemic and well-thought-out way.

Adam Bernas, Chief Product Officer, CMA

The truth is that by following a Roadmap, companies can systematically address their digital transformation goals and track their progress. They can identify and mitigate risks, adjust their priorities as needed, and ensure alignment with their customers and overall business objectives.

Source: SPOC

As we previously discussed the importance of DMA here, we believe that taking the step afterwards is as crucial to the successful implementation. Your company needs to build a Roadmap to implement your DMA findings and achieve digital transformation goals.

Without a Roadmap, you risk losing out on the opportunities and benefits the ServiceNow platform can provide your business. As we constantly help our clients build such Roadmaps, do not hesitate to contact our specialists at SPOC.

Transforming your  business with digital maturity: From chaos to success

Posted on by brygida.blachno

What are we talking about?

As a business leader, you’re likely too familiar with the challenges that come with digitalization. Investing in digital technologies is crucial to staying competitive in today’s fast-paced business environment. To make sure that your organization is making the most of the digital investment, you need to look into your organization’s digital maturity.

When managing the ITSM landscape, it’s easy to get caught up in day-to-day operations and lose sight of the bigger picture. But as a leader, it’s essential to take a step back and evaluate your organization’s overall digital maturity. While you may have some strong areas in your ITSM, there may also be parts where you need certain implementations or solutions. The key to identifying these areas is conducting a comprehensive and integrated assessment of digital capabilities.

Overcoming digital technology challenges in the digitalization process

Digital maturity measures an organization’s proficiency and sophistication in utilizing digital technologies to support its business objectives. Assessment of digital maturity provides a clear understanding of your organization’s current digital state and identifies improvement opportunities. With this knowledge, you can make informed decisions about where to invest and how to achieve the most significant business impact.

Digital Maturity ServiceNow

But why is it so important to have a good understanding of your organization’s digital maturity? For one, it’s vital for making progress. Without a clear understanding of where your organization stands in terms of digital maturity, it’s difficult to set goals and measure progress. To identify areas for business improvement and stay competitive in the digital future, companies must assess their digital maturity and implement a broad range of new technologies in their digital strategy. An assessment provides a benchmark for tracking that progress and measuring the success of digitalization initiatives. There are several primary challenges that you may face when trying to implement digitalization across your company. Some of these include: 

  • Silos within the organization: It is hard to break down silos within the organization, which can impede the flow of information and hinder the implementation of digitalization initiatives. 
  • Costs: You may struggle with the costs associated with digitalization, such as new technology, training, and hiring specialized personnel. 
  • Problems with information sharing: You can see a lack of standardization and data silos, which can make it challenging to implement digitalization initiatives. 
  • Lack of equal level of digitalization across the organization: You may need help ensuring that all parts of the organization are at the same level of digitalization. 
  • Focusing on resolving current problems rather than on long-term goals: You may need help with resolving current issues rather than on long-term goals. 
  • Chaos: You can face challenges in navigating chaos within the organization, making it difficult to push forward. 
  • Difficulties with planning a budget when there are differences in digitalization: You may need help with planning a budget when there are differences in digitalization across the organization, which can make it difficult to allocate resources. 
  • Low or no engagement from the employees: You may struggle to get engagement from employees, which is another obstacle in implementing digitalization initiatives.
Resource: ServiceNow

Digital transformation and digital maturity assessment

The first step is to understand your organization’s digital maturity and how to achieve it. You can use the insights from such an assessment to make informed decisions and drive real change within your organization. The ability to navigate chaos is admirable, but it’s not necessary. You can take control and lead the organization towards true digital transformation with the right approach and evaluation.

Being part of a company can make it more difficult to ensure that a digital maturity assessment is objective. This is because employees may have a vested interest in the outcome and may be less likely to identify and address areas of weakness or inefficiency. Additionally, employees may be less likely to speak out or raise concerns if they feel that doing so could negatively impact their job or their relationships with their colleagues or superiors.

An external digital maturity assessment can provide valuable benefits such as objectivity, expertise, experience, and fresh perspective. It can help your organization to make sure that the assessment is unbiased and that the results are reliable and actionable.


Adam Bernas, Chief Product Officer with the highest ServiceNow certificate (Master Architect), is experienced in guiding organizations through complex digital transformations. 

One way to mitigate these risks is to hire an external consultant or company to conduct the digital maturity assessment. A third-party assessor is less likely to be influenced by internal politics or biases and can provide an objective perspective on the organization’s digital maturity. Additionally, it can bring expertise and experience from other companies and industries, providing valuable insights and best practices to your organization.

How to address the digitalization challenges

To really make sure that you have the right picture of what is needed to be done, you still need a digital maturity assessment, and that is where you should start. After mapping your organization’s challenges, you can take the following actions:

  1. Break down silos: Encourage cross-functional collaboration by setting up cross-functional teams, promoting open communication, and breaking down physical and organizational barriers.
  2. Control costs: Develop a detailed digitalization initiatives budget and closely monitor expenses. Prioritise projects based on their potential business value, and be prepared to adjust plans and cut costs if necessary.
  3. Achieve digital maturity across the organization: Develop a digital maturity model that can be used to benchmark different parts of the organization. This helps identify areas that need improvement and prioritize resources accordingly.
  4. Long-term vision: Develop a long-term vision for digitalization and align digital initiatives with overall business objectives to ensure that all parts of the organization are on the same page and working towards the same goals.
  5. Navigate chaos: Implement a project management framework to help keep digital initiatives on track and manage priorities.
  6. Plan budgets: Develop a flexible budgeting process that allows for adjustments as digitalization initiatives evolve. This will help to ensure that resources are allocated to the most critical projects.
  7. Engage employees: Involve them in digitalization by providing training, promoting open communication, and recognizing and rewarding their contributions.
  8. Communicate progress and success: Communicate the progress and success of digital initiatives to employees, stakeholders and the board to keep them informed and engaged.

Addressing the digitalization challenges may require a combination of different approaches and continuous adaptation. Also, it’s essential to remember that digitalization is an ongoing process, and it’s vital to evaluate and adapt the plan as the digital landscape and the organization’s needs are changing. 

Light-keeper or business influencer? Become digital transformation!

In today’s fast-paced business environment, the decision-makers must choose whether to be an orchestrator of chaos and a light-keeper or a business influencer. By investing in a digital maturity assessment, you have the power to become a business influencer, make informed decisions and drive real change within your organization. 

Resource: SPOC

When all parts of a company are digitalized at the same level, it enables the organization to work more efficiently, collaborate more effectively, be more agile, make better decisions, improve governance and compliance and be more scalable. All of which are key factors for organizations to achieve their business goals and stay competitive in today’s digital landscape. By taking a holistic approach to digitalization, you can ensure that all aspects of the organization are aligned with the overall business objectives and that digital transformation is driven by your organization’s needs. 

READ MORE ABOUT Holistic approach here: Digitalization done right – how to enable a holistic approach for your organization.

Remember, you are not alone, you can always get help in evaluating your situation – we’re here to help. Contact us or join us during our webinar about digital maturity. We will discuss how you can measure your organization’s digital maturity and why it is important. The webinar will be held by:

Leaders should regularly check their company’s digital maturity to ensure that they have a holistic view of their organization’s digital capabilities. Through digital assessment, they can identify areas of strength and weakness and ensure that all parts of the company are on the same page regarding digitalization. Thanks to such a deep understanding, aligning digital initiatives with overall business objectives and achieving true digital transformation is easier.’

Adam Bernas – Chief Product Officer with the highest ServiceNow certificate (Master Architect), experienced in guiding organizations through complex digital transformations. 

Digital maturity assessment provides a bird’s-eye view of the company, enabling stakeholders to identify areas of adequate digitization and those with great potential for development. It allows decision-makers to prioritize future investments based on clear evidence and expert recommendations for processes with the biggest business impact

Jan Chelkowski – Technical Consultant at SPOC, experienced in carrying out maturity assessments in different markets.
SPOC S.A.
ul. Szyperska 14
61-754 Poznań, Poland
sales@spoc.eu +48 510 747 931

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