ServiceNow Knowledge15 Conference Recap
The ServiceNow Knowledge15 Conference, which took place April 18-24 in Las Vegas, was packed with 9,000 people this year, 50% more than attended Knowledge14. There were 200 breakout sessions and 85% of the content was delivered by ServiceNow customers. The theme of this year’s conference was “Everything as a Service,” meaning it’s not just IT that benefits from automated workflows, consolidation of tools and actionable reporting on the work being done. It’s HR, Facilities, Purchasing, Finance, Marketing, Legal and so on. In fact, 25% of this year’s Knowledge content was non-IT focused. Over 11 million people are using ServiceNow for ITSM and Service Management in other areas of the enterprise.
Here’s a look at some of what was covered during the conference:
Service Management Template
Statistics show that the average employee spends 15 hours per week on non-productive, non-value added administrative tasks. Added up, that’s millions of wasted hours and dollars. ServiceNow’s goal is to eliminate as much of that waste as possible by implementing structured workflow in all lines of business throughout an organization. The CIO of AAA Allied, Rob Pickering, was interviewed by ServiceNow about his relentless hunt for processes being managed in email. His mantra is “Email is the sign of a broken process.” Wherever he finds email being used as the basis for a process, he brings in ServiceNow.
ServiceNow has added a Service Management Template to enable companies to lift processes out of email and put them into an automated workflow. With a few clicks, the template automatically creates a service in minutes. The template builds a full blown app with its own menu, a dedicated service catalog and a dedicated knowledgebase.
Furthermore, in the next release of ServiceNow, called Geneva, the need to use Jelly coding will be eliminated and the need to use Java coding will be drastically reduced. This means average employees will be able to create apps, workflows and services on their own to automate their processes. They will realize efficiencies where previously they had to depend on email and phone calls which provided absolutely no visibility into the process or the work. This is the crux of “the art of the possible.”
Service 360
Also in Geneva, ServiceNow will introduce “Service 360” to provide companies with the ability to analyze all of their business services by: cost, compliance, efficiency and security risk. There will be a dedicated app just for Security teams to manage incidents which will better safeguard the enterprise.
That’s not all. A new Financial Management for IT app will answer the question “How much am I really spending on IT?” This app brings in the General Ledger (GL) data from your financial system of record, cleanses it and generates reports on it. Just drag and drop the imported GL accounts, build the cost models and allocate costs based on usage. This way, companies can detect cost outliers and track expenses to budget proactively.
ServiceWatch
ServiceNow’s ServiceWatch application was highlighted during the conference. This service maps entire business processes in real time. Mapping becomes automated and is always up to date. For a web-based service, just enter the URL in the definition tab and ServiceWatch does the rest. The resulting map is stored in the ServiceNow CMDB. Everyone has single common view of the business service and its dependencies. These dynamic service maps coupled with Event Management will only generate Incidents based on events and alerts that need to be addressed because the CI’s understand the relationships they have to the business. The time to determine root cause is drastically reduced and, by using Orchestration, IT departments can automate a fix. At the end of the day, this means greater service availability.
Cloud Management
Cloud Management makes it easy for IT to carve up a virtual infrastructure, either in your private cloud or the public cloud. As a developer, you can go to your company’s Service Catalog and see a set of cloud offerings (Amazon, VMware, Azure). The developer sees a set of prebuilt templates and services that can be requested. He/she clicks on the one that is most suitable for the development project, gets more information and cost data and checks out. Behind the scenes, ServiceNow Orchestration goes out to Amazon, configures and stands up the service so that it is ready to go for the developer in minutes. Dev teams do this all the time, usually directly with Amazon or other providers, but there is no visibility for the IT department into the cost, usage or configuration. ServiceNow Cloud Management provides this visibility and control so IT departments can manage cost and compliance.
Developer Program
For the professional developers out there, ServiceNow launched their ServiceNow Developer Program. All it takes is the click of a button and you can start to learn about the platform. The only requirement to join is an email address.
There is a learning path, access to the Community, documentation and you get a free instance. As long as you keep using it, it is yours.
Go to: http://Developer.ServiceNow.com.
Encryption Proxy
ServiceNow is also introducing in Geneva an Encryption Proxy that will live inside your data center along with its encryption keys. This evolution came about in response to security concerns. It encrypts data inside your data center before it goes to ServiceNow so even if ServiceNow personnel wanted to read the data, they couldn’t as they don’t have access to the key.
ServiceNow Store
Half of the applications built on ServiceNow are built by customers in response to something they’ve been asking ServiceNow about.
In order to increase customer’s access to already-existing apps, ServiceNow launched the ServiceNow Store. This allows customers to save time and effort by finding something in the store and buying it instead of having to build it themselves.
As of the first day of Knowledge15 there were 81 apps in the store. Visit the store at: http://Store.ServiceNow.com.
ServiceNow Express
Finally, ServiceNow launched ServiceNow Express in mid-2014. Express targets enterprises of 100-1000 and delivers rapid time to value and an out-of-the-box experience. Express provides enterprise-like functionality with consumerized-like usability and immediate gratification. It is simple to configure and administer.
To learn more about the latest offerings from ServiceNow – and how they can transform your enterprise – visit www.ArrayaSolutions.com and reach out to an Arraya Account Executive. Also, be sure to follow us on Twitter, @ArrayaSolutions, for all of the latest company and industry updates.
