Attack the Costly “Complexity of Things” with Elegant Enterprise Services

4 minute read

Famous leaders on the world stage have struggled to articulate a vision to gain the kind of mass support that changes history. Without a clear and consistently communicated vision, momentum for the cause begins to fizzle and eventually fades. The hope for change is gone, leaving room for unrest and uncertainty yet again—the cycle continues.

Competition and growing financial expectations drive constant change in the business world. One area of change that is upon us—and driven by economic performance—is the reimagination of how enterprise services are delivered. ServiceNow is leading the charge, and Crossfuze simplifies how organizations can get to their destination. Although the ServiceNow transition may seem overwhelming at the onset, organizations have received never-expected levels of profitability.

To accomplish change at this level, one thing is for sure: you’ll need to remove the legacy obstacles that prevent your ability to transform.

“The Complexity of Things Must Die”—Know the Revolution You Lead

We all enjoy a good discussion about the Internet of Things (IoT). However, in the world of IoT, countless aging systems exist within seemingly modern organizations. These systems are riddled with inefficiency and are clumsy and frustrating. This isn’t the IoT—it’s the Complexity of Things (CoT). These ball-and-chain workflow applications rarely talk to each other. Overcomplicated, they live in a silo. Data quality is questionable, and they’re sometimes buggy, all while eating away at profits. Companies will stick a bandage on them and keep moving. Little do they know, there is a growing operational and financial risk around the corner.

The CoT can turn into a culture of denial where leaders believe the myth that moving to an elegant platform is more expensive than slapping a quick fix on a tired system. In psychological tests, humans fear the loss of something more than an aspiration. The trouble is, the CoT is causing significant loss; the company just hasn’t used business case rationale to understand the problem.

Flip the Conversation to Feed the Fire

How do you get everyone fired up about the elegance of ServiceNow? Try flipping the situation: Imagine you’re on the other side of the table and need convincing. What would you need to make you see the ServiceNow transformation as a top-four priority in your company? As a business leader, you need to see how ServiceNow is critical to meeting and exceeding your ESM objectives. Productivity? Growth? Efficiencies? These are all familiar words, so you need a deeper dive to fan the flames of change.

The 5 D’s That Change Hearts and Minds

1. Define the Win: Why take 12 steps and 4 days using the CoT when you can do it with 3 steps and 5 minutes using ServiceNow? Add those up for all users in the enterprise. Speed, accuracy, and integration ensue. Human nature says, “Make it faster, make it easier, and hide the complexity.” Everyone wins with the ServiceNow platform, and Crossfuze has hundreds of stories of organizations improving almost overnight. Stress comes down; profits go up.

2. Depend on the Business Case: The business case often moves a company’s leadership awareness from denial to shock. Think about what you learned in Define the Win. How much money is each employee’s time worth? What higher value work could they have been improving in the organization? ServiceNow’s ROI is well documented by Forrester. No more guesswork. No more leaps of faith. Building a first-class business case tailored to your environment should be on top of your to-do list. When you have a business case, you’re ready to speak the language of finance to anyone in your business. In addition, with a business case, your technology solution aligns tightly with business objectives.

3. Differentiate the Magic: You must keep educating clients on what the future looks like and how only ServiceNow can get you there. People are busier and more distracted than ever before. Shiny objects are in abundance. Constantly and consistently educating them about how ServiceNow will help make their jobs easier and offer more ways to contribute to the overall success of the company will add to your secret sauce of success. It may seem unfamiliar to you, but branding ServiceNow internally is now part of your job description as a leader. If people in the company don’t believe the ServiceNow story, they will not follow you. Tell the story, bring proof, and repeat it wherever you go. If you want a revolution that results in meaningful and sustainable change, “the people” need a story, a clear purpose to rally around.

4. Drive Momentum: You don’t need perfection. Rather, you need the momentum narrative. In our chaotic business world, positive energy breaks through clouds of competing priorities. You must show momentum at every opportunity. You are pushing the story along; when hitting milestones, let people know that the story is progressing. Invite them to be part of the story, and help them become storytellers. For instance, ask, “How has ServiceNow made your job better?” Have a vision; be agile with changing business needs, and tell individual stories that secure changing habits to personal gain.

5. Deliver the News: Whether the news is good or bad, share the story. Any vision worth doing will have challenges. If your organization is too immature to appreciate transparency and cannot sustain a vision, your revolution will be slow. Projects will fail when delivering bad news late, resulting in the inability to adjust direction or resources—let alone getting the commitment from others to do so. Instead, put everything on the table wherever you can and as succinctly as possible. Set expectations that it’s going to be challenging and that’s why it needs to be excellent in its delivery, setbacks included. Any major platform implementation will not go flawlessly, but the way you handle the news and keep the ServiceNow transformation on track will be how people remember you. Keep this in mind: what makes it challenging is precisely why it will have such a high ROI.

The Sooner You Change, the Sooner You Profit

You won’t have to lead your revolution alone. In 2017, ServiceNow recognized Crossfuze as the highest rated CSAT partner. We help midsize companies and F500 companies every day. We can be at your side over a multi-year period to give you a clear vision, the best ServiceNow business case in the world, and rare architectural expertise that shows how your entire business improves.

Author: John Ryan | Crossfuze, CMO

Connect with John on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jwryan1/

If you have read this far, you must know it’s time for the Complexity of Things in your company to be displaced by ServiceNow. The sooner we begin, the faster we convert your enterprise to the speed, accuracy, and profits of a more valuable company—and elevate the value of your leadership within.

For a deeper discussion on this topic, send us an email at letstalk@crossfuze.com.

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10 Pillars of ServiceNow Success for CIOs – Pillar 5: Communicating vision to drive organizational change