The evolution of ServiceNow

Welcome to Pulsar Consulting, where we help navigate the ServiceNow platform to deliver exceptional customer outcomes and experiences. I have always found Cosmology and Astronomy fascinating (Not to be confused with Astrology 😊). The way we are constantly finding discoveries that are challenging our understanding of the Universe and how we are always learning, realising our understanding is incomplete. There is a lot we don’t know, and that’s the best part: we have some way still to go and a whole lot to learn. I can fully appreciate that ServiceNow is not as complex as navigating the Cosmos! However, it is officially a giant in terms of SaaS platforms and a constant challenger and disruptor to traditional enterprise systems and workflow automation platforms where the ServiceNow platform is constantly winning.

Pulsar provides ServiceNow-focused transformation and consulting services to help organisations effectively plot and maintain a strategic trajectory with the platform. Our experts help businesses through Client-Side Advisory, Assurance, Organizational Change Management (OCM), Delivery, and Managed Services, focused on maximising ServiceNow's potential and transferring our knowledge and experience to your teams.

When I began my journey in the ServiceNow ecosystem, around the time of the Eureka/Fuji Release, three applications stood out: ITSM (IT Service Management), ITOM (IT Operations Management - Discovery), and at the time the emerging, fulfiller-based HR Service Delivery. Since then, the platform has expanded astronomically. From Strategic Portfolio Management to Customer Service Management, from HR to Legal, Risk, to Supply Chain, to Hardware & Software Asset Management and the list goes on. ServiceNow’s applications are consistently appearing in the top right of Magic Quadrants and as leaders in Forrester's waves.

The ServiceNow platform has not just grown, it has soared. With world-class data centers, a robust underlying architecture, and a cohesive data model strategy (Common Service Data Model - CSDM), it has become a force to reckon with. The platform's success is not just in its own growth, but also in its ability to re-platform best-of-breed solutions that businesses acquire, aligning with their strategic objectives. This ensures that the applications are native to the platform and easy to upgrade. With numerous acquisitions in the last couple of years, the platform has enhanced its capabilities in Resiliency, Virtual Agents, and now AI for workflow automation & AI Ops with the recent acquisitions of Element AI and Loom, not to mention the exciting partnership with Nvidia.

What began as a cloud service management platform for enterprises has transformed into a leading and crucial data aggregator, integration & experience layer that extends deep into the business. The evolution into various Lines of Business (LOBs) is delivering immense value at a rapid pace, the platform has also managed to specialise around vertical solutions like FSO (Financial Services Operations) and Telco Service Order management revolutionising their respective industries and seeing the platform being adopted as the main Customer, IT, Employee, and Operations go-to platform.

In my experience, when working with commercial, Enterprise, Major, and Public Sector businesses, I’ve noticed a common challenge: many organizations are not often set up for success in the first instance. Some struggle to articulate the outcomes they need, much less how to link these initiatives to what the business is trying to achieve holistically. Many are not aware of the benefits the platform can drive and how these benefits can be linked back to the Initiatives of their respective C-suites, others are bogged down in politics and layers of bureaucracy. The point is, for those responsible for successfully deploying the platform, the likes of your ServiceNow Platform/Product owners, Service Teams, Admins, End Users… it can feel like sitting in the cockpit of a space rocket for the first time, expected to launch successfully without guidance. However you intend to leverage the platform there is a lot to get through, I have prepared a couple of tips to help anyone/business embarking on or enhancing their ServiceNow Journey that we will be sharing over the next couple of weeks.

Stay Tuned…