10 Pillars of ServiceNow Success for CIOs – Pillar 6: Building a Solid Support System to Promote Widespread Adoption

Welcome to Part VI of Crossfuze’s 10 Pillars of ServiceNow Success for CIOs blog series!

Here’s a story many of us can relate to: Chad is an established CIO who works just as hard as anyone else in the C-suite, but he hasn’t quite garnered the reputation he deserves. Within the ranks of the
C-suite—and, indeed, within the entire organization—he’s perceived as being responsible for a handful of stalled and ineffective ITSM implementation projects over the years. Although he’s worked as hard as he can to overcome this perception, Chad simply has not been able to overcome the drumbeat of critics
who’ve never fully embraced and championed what he’s trying to do. In the process, they’ve undermined the effectiveness of his project implementations and created a general negative perception of his abilities.

CIOs like Chad work incredibly hard every day to fight against these misperceptions, and yet they continue to fight an uphill battle. When it comes to a project as important as ServiceNow implementation, you cannot afford to let the naysayers and doubters systematically chip away at your implementation plan. You want to work proactively and smartly to get these folks on board and ultimately build an enterprise-wide support system that promotes widespread adoption. ServiceNow implementation is not a “set it and forget it” technology solution; it requires hard work, constant self-assessments, and sustained commitments.

The importance of building a strong support system for your ServiceNow implementation cannot be overstated. Indeed, you could have the best core implementation team in the world and still end up with mediocre results. For example, Gartner found that 40% of all problems found during an ITSM implementation are identified by the system’s end users, not by the core implementation team. Here are the six most important things to know to build a stellar support system that promotes widespread user adoption:

1. Verify all features and capabilities work as intended: Test-driving and double-checking your work is easier said than done. In the midst of enormous pressure and deadlines, it’s easy to inadvertently let your quality-control standards waiver. This is a big mistake, because when your end users become frustrated by even one subpar element, it can taint their perception of the entire ServiceNow implementation.
2. Seek to add value at every opportunity: ServiceNow implementation isn’t a static, by-the-book process; you want to be assessing all sorts of variables and factors as they pop up, in real time. By constantly reevaluating, and by viewing implementation as a dynamic process, you are positioning yourself to identify opportunities that add value to the implementation–and help to create those all important wins along your ServiceNow journey. This proactive approach leads to better outcomes and better engagement by your end users.
3. Grow and evolve in lockstep with your user base: As your end users gradually sign onto the ServiceNow platform, you don’t want to provide a static experience for them. Instead, you want to be constantly rolling out new features and capabilities—ideally ones that they’ve specifically asked for and/or suggested. With this approach, you’ll keep them excited about the implementation—and ultimately coming back for more.
4. Provide ongoing training opportunities: Your end users are unlikely to be self-motivated to learn a new system and a new set of workflows on their own; you’ve got to help them along with engaging training opportunities that not only gradually widen their knowledge base, but also help them to understand and appreciate how ServiceNow will streamline and simplify their own daily responsibilities. Training programs should be outlined and structured as part of your roadmap.
5. Provide adequate resources for troubleshooting: If you’re not troubleshooting and resolving every problem as it’s identified, you’re abdicating one of your key responsibilities. Your end users expect that when they encounter a problem, it will be the one and only time they encounter it—because they’re counting on your designated ServiceNow support team to fix it quickly. When end users perceive that troubleshooting is being taken seriously by the support team, they’re much less likely to become doubters and naysayers of the project.
6. Proactively evaluate the project’s ROI: To ensure your ServiceNow implementation is staying on track, you don’t want to keep your head buried in the sand and hope for the best. You want to know your implementation is the best, and the best way to know is to routinely measure and calculate ROI. You want to develop benchmarks based on your baseline and KPIs that tell you—at any stage of your implementation journey—if you’re still on track to achieving your ServiceNow vision.

As you’re building your support model for ServiceNow implementation, it’s important to remember that you neither need to—nor should want to—go it alone. Crossfuze has helped hundreds of organizations to navigate the tricky world of getting buy-in and support from the end-user community. In fact, we have codified some of our key support structures in a service we call iPOWER, which helps organizations alleviate ITSM service backlogs. iPOWER can provide your organization with the reliable support, troubleshooting expertise, ROI measurement and reporting, and ongoing project development support necessary to deliver an exceptional ServiceNow implementation experience to your end users—each and every time.

Even if you decide to go it alone and build your own support team, remember that a smooth implementation only gets you to the starting line. If you’d like to ensure your implementation is a raving success with users and produces the ROI and quick wins that your vision set out to deliver, you want to take your time assembling a stellar support team and process. Don’t underestimate the importance of this piece to the success of your implementation vision.

Thank you for reading. If you found this post informative, please consider sharing it with others. Also, if you’re interested in finding out more about building a solid support team and process to promote widespread adoption and ensure long-term implementation success, send us an email at letstalk@crossfuze.com.

Enjoyed this Pillar? Request your FREE copy of the 10 Pillars of ServiceNow Success book to read them all!

Related Content:

Pillar 5: Communicating vision to drive organizational change

Pillar 7: Using analytics to drive strong ROI

Additional References:

Tech Target: Resurrecting a failed ITSM implementation

IT Service Management – Global Best Practices, Volume 1

CIO: Customer engagement the top driver of competitive advantage

Tech Target: Information systems management isn’t the problem; CIO learns he is

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