ServiceNow has evolved from an ITSM/ITOM-centric workflow tool to become a great enterprise workflow orchestration platform that many businesses use to streamline their digital workflow experiences. ServiceNow allows you to connect various facets of your operations and its systems of record — whether it’s employees, customers, or partners — to streamline processes and optimize productivity. With off-the-shelf and low-code no-code (LCNC) solutions in its portfolio, ServiceNow has emerged as the preferred choice for many companies as it empowers teams to modernize workflows and digital experience without the need for extraneous technical knowledge and skills.
Taking a holistic experience approach with ServiceNow
In their own words, ServiceNow allows you to create “cross-enterprise digital workflows that connect people, functions, and systems to accelerate innovation, increase agility, and enhance productivity across business verticals” which sounds fantastic — and it is. The key is to address the required total digital experience.
It takes more than simply choosing a software solution to address digital workflow needs. It requires a comprehensive understanding of a business’s unique processes to establish an ideal digital experience target and a means of achieving it through experience engineering and leveraging the ServiceNow portfolio to drive better business flows depending on your business goals. ServiceNow’s technology enables organizations to design business processes that are flexible, scalable, and resilient. This can be achieved by using a unified data model to run workflows in the cloud across different domains and functions by considering the key challenges and adopting the right solutions.
Consider the adage “a tool in the hands of a fool is still just a tool with diminishing returns.” In the context of digital experience and workflow optimization, simply using a tool (e.g., ServiceNow) without a well-reasoned strategy behind how to implement and utilize it would not be wise, because it wouldn’t be used to its full potential.
Now, you are one step closer to building end-to-end digital workflows with industry-leading workflow orchestration suite of products that ServiceNow offers. But if you don’t factor in the way ServiceNow will integrate with your business operations, you run the risk of simply adding another digital process to your employees’ workloads. Rather than providing an effective method of streamlining workflows as intended, it may hinder or complicate things further. The goal should be to
1. Create customizable workflow solutions to achieve desired business results such as:
- Increased customer loyalty through superior customer experience (CX)
- Unified employee experience (EX)
- Compelling Product Experience (PX) through Automated ServiceOps, Software Transformation, and SecOps solutions
2. Build persona-based targeted workflows for:
- IT operations such as IT service management, portfolio and asset management, security operations, governance, and operational technology management
- Employee processes such as HR, workplace, safe workplace suite, and legal service deliveries
- Customer programs such as customer service management, field service management, order management, and connected operations (IoT)
- Creator programs for building low-code workflow apps
3. Leverage “Now Platform” to create cross-enterprise processes with a unified data model and architecture
Digital workflow optimization tools like ServiceNow are incredibly versatile and can offer many great benefits to businesses. For them to be successful, they need to be accompanied by a digital experience blueprint that considers a design thinking approach to how business operation structures can change for the better. The next five years will see us use new platforms to simplify and standardize processes, which will directly translate into greater employee experience (EX) and customer experience (CX).
Experience engineering your solutions with ServiceNow
To truly optimize a digital solution like ServiceNow — or indeed any other process automation system — it takes a refined method of workflow optimization that considers the overarching digital experience you intend to achieve. This requires an “experience engineering” approach that integrates many factors. Before leaping into automating digital workflows, it’s vital to first consider the business operations, including the people, processes, and data that are likely to be affected. At its core, the digital experience impacts the people who engage with your company — whether that’s customers, employees, or partners. Aiming to develop people-centered experiences and addressing the needs of data and information for decision-making is vital to successful digital workflow improvement.
To achieve those experiences, a combination of UX, data object customization, and integration should be implemented cohesively. The most pertinent consideration is how the solutions available are used. Any new technology that is applied to processes within an organization must be able to integrate and enhance operations to become AIOps and experience-centric. As more and more organizations move toward product-oriented teams, IT operations are increasingly aligned with an entire product life cycle rather than a project’s start and end date.
To scale digital workflows, it is important to focus on the experiences you want to deliver rather than a narrow and tech-led systems integration approach. Expert partners can also help you identify the best use cases and opportunities in product operations. Working with a service provider that has experience in applying ServiceNow’s SPM, BPM, CSM and GRC modules can give your organization a quick start on implementing best practices.
At iOPEX, we are experts in experience engineering and specialize in leveraging ServiceNow to the fullest. Through careful tracking, analysis, and user journey mapping, our specialists identify the Best Digital Workflow Solutions for your unique needs based on data-driven findings, so they can be implemented in the most effective ways possible.
Digital workflow automation tools like ServiceNow have excellent application potential, but whether those applications are right for your business is another question. When looking at transforming your digital workflows through experience engineering, it’s important to remember that the question isn’t “what should I automate?” You should ask “what problems do I need to solve?”
To find out more about how iOPEX can help you enhance your digital operations through experience engineering, get in touch today and one of our expert consultants will be happy to discuss your digital experience needs.
The below whitepaper covers the framework for implementing total digital experience that ServiceNow practitioners can adopt.
Experience Engineering Blueprint for a Total Digital Experience
