It is without question that the digital revolution is well underway. Leaders in digital technology are changing the way we live our daily lives by putting the power of technology at our fingertips. Today’s smart phones not only allow us to talk to each other from almost anywhere but are actually mini-computers that have more computing power than was on-board an Apollo lunar lander. With Microsoft announcing that it will stop supporting 2008 Windows Servers, and the pervasive use of the phrase "digital transformation", how can you take advantage of this trend to bring value to your customers, your partners, and to your company?
So, we ask you: “What are you doing to deliver on your company's digital transformation?”
If that question causes you concern or raises questions, keep reading. Our hope is to inspire you to plan your IT Modernization road map and take the steps to put you on the path toward digital transformation.
The Business Value of IT Modernization
Modernizing your IT department will open the doors for your IT team to drive digital transformation and automation while lowering operational costs, freeing up resources, and providing real-time operational visibility for continuous improvement. Our article about the Top 4 Things to Think About When Implementing Your ITSM Modernization Plan will give you more insight into getting started with this process.
Now, let’s discuss the main reasons “Why you should modernize?”
Save Money
A Forrester Total Economic Impact (TCI) study reports that automation saves organizations approximately $2.5M annually, and more specifically, the study shows that ServiceNow Customers saved on average $3M by implementing ServiceNow ITSM Automation features. Additionally, a report by Accenture states that ServiceNow customers who implemented ServiceNow Agent Intelligence’s machine learning capabilities realized approximately 8% in time savings or roughly 26,500 employee hours per year.
Save Time
In the commercial world, time is money, so we know that saving time means saving money. However, organizations that report using ServiceNow as their ITSM modernization platform report that when they reduced their task resolution time on average of 75%, the reduction didn’t translate directly to monetary savings for the company. It allowed the company to assign those professionals to more important tasks, which increased the value of their contributions the company. Implementing time-saving procedures has the potential to save money, but the real value lies in freeing up your employees from mundane work so they can focus on higher-value activities.
ServiceNow reports that Trans Alta’s use of ServiceNow allows them to resolve many IT issues before that negatively impact their users. Additionally, RBS Bank implemented ServiceNow with its embedded ITSM process standardization that reduced the time spent on incidents and changes by over 50%.
Increase Data Control
It is no secret that information is integral to success. ServiceNow’s platform and ITSM application solutions provide reliable end-to-end experience, consolidated and real-time data in easy-to-understand dashboards and reports, and an efficient yet straightforward digital infrastructure that allows teams to make better decisions. This digital transformation means that not only does all the data reside in the same place, but the applications involved in the process are streamlined and integrated.
Enable Mobility
Another valuable feature of modernizing your IT department is mobility. ITSM platforms, like ServiceNow in particular, allow users to access the software from multiple device types, including cell phones and tablets. Modern IT platforms even provide offline services that automatically update when a connection is re-established.
Increase Security
As we shared in our prior article, we explained how to Manage Security Operations (SecOps) with ServiceNow. We hope you might take a moment to read it. The gist of this is that with the amount of data that is generated from security operations, resolving security issues quickly can be daunting. We encourage you to consider modernizing your IT department with a modern IT platform like ServiceNow. ServiceNow provides Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) features to quickly identify and analyze security data to proactively to reduce your Mean Time To Understand (MTTU) and Mean Time To Resolve (MTTR) incidents. This will enable your organization to be more efficient at predicting, finding, understanding, resolving, and preventing future security threats.
Make People Happy
Of course, by focusing your time and resources on systems that work and continue to work for the long term, you will be able to produce measurable results that not only make your stakeholders happy, but others as well. You will also make your IT department happy because they feel supported and empowered – almost like an IT Superhero. Your employees will be happier, because they know that they are supported by a robust IT team that solves their problems quickly and efficiently, which makes it easier for them to do their job. Finally, you will also make your key stakeholders happy, because your employees are then productive enough to give your stakeholders the focus and time that they require, whether you serve citizens, customers, communities, etc. It is the kind of impact that is felt organization-wide and beyond.
The great benefit is that through the use of ServiceNow in enabling your organization’s digital transformation, productivity can be increased exponentially by enabling other organizations in your company. By expanding your IT Modernization plan to enable digital transformations to other teams (like business development, sales, or HR), they too can share in the benefits offered by digital transformation. Don’t worry! You don’t have to think take all this on at once. We can help you build a road map with incremental phases that build on each other.
The Next Steps
If you’re interested in modernizing your IT department with ServiceNow, the first step is to analyze what your IT department looks like today. Make a list of challenges that you might have with your current systems and processes. Then, review the gaps that exist between what your IT department can do right now versus what your vision for it to do in the future.
If you need a little inspiration, read our article about Top 4 Things to Think About When Implementing Your ITSM Modernization Plan. You can also use the free brainstorming template we’ve linked for you below to think about these topics for your entire organization because a modern IT department is cross-departmental.
