People, platforms, and the future of work: ServiceNow as a strategic enabler

Adrian Chiffi: Is ServiceNow just a platform or a mindset for transforming how work gets done? With so many workflows converging on ServiceNow how do organisations make sure they're not just digitising but genuinely improving experiences? And are we now at a point where not modernising your service operations is the bigger risk?

Hello everybody, I'm Ade Chiffi and I lead Global Technology Operations for CGI in the UK, and in today's episode we're focusing in on all things ServiceNow and I'm really delighted to be joined by three brilliant leaders who are really at the heart of helping clients really unlock the value from ServiceNow. We've got Tony Kavanagh who leads up our advisory practise and CGI and from ServiceNow, we're joined by Dale Cheeseman, who leads AI solutions for EMEA and also Simon Morris who heads up solution consulting across all platforms.

So, hello folks. Delighted you're on and thanks for joining us today

Tony Kavanagh: Thanks for the invite.

Dale Cheeseman: Yeah, really happy to be here.

Simon Morris: Thanks, Adrian. Great to be here today.

Adrian: Great stuff. Great stuff. Thank you guys.And if it's OK, Simon, I'm going to come to you straight off the bat here and, you know, ServiceNow it's become so much more than an ITSM platform, we all know that, and it's a platform for digitising entire organisation, so, connecting IT, HR, operations, that whole customers experience and more.

But the potential can only be realised if you approach it strategically, I think it is fair to say. So, Simon, when you're working with clients, you know, where do you really start, what separates the businesses that really extract the value from ServiceNow as opposed to those who just scratch the surface. What's your take on that?

Simon: Well, Adrian, I think, when you look at ServiceNow, it's all about business transformation. It's about using emerging technology - AI to realise business transformation and we have to realise that we need an end state. We need to know where the business is going, and what it's trying to achieve.

It's a journey, so it needs to be realistic about the starting state and of course it is a journey, so we've got to make regular progress and take our people with us. So where do we start?

I think we have to start with the people. I think we have to understand how to change people because actually when we talk to our clients, their opportunities and their problems are rarely just tech opportunities or problems; they are people, opportunities and problems, and we talk a lot around every business and every industry is becoming a technology business. Well, actually we have to remember every business in every industry is essentially a people business and that's where we have to start, I think.

Adrian: Spot on. Yeah. I couldn't agree more.

So, people very much at the heart of that strategic thinking and start in there and then working out. So, no,  [I] totally agree, Simon.

Tony, I'm going to bring you in at this point. You know you were part of a team last year, well, you led the team, rolling out, you know to 175 managed services clients for CGI. You know what one of the things that, you know, I've seen at CGI, is that true transformation isn't just about implementation, it's about really operationalizing the platform and then creating repeatable and importantly, scalable outcomes. You know, what did you learn last year on that big roll-out and, you know, for you, what made it work?

Tony: Yeah, it's really interesting question and you know one that I've pondered and thought about a lot since the well since the inception of the programme, and subsequently. I think, you know, key to what made it work was engaging teams early. You know, we had a lot of teams in, in different locations in different areas of the business all looking at, you know, what ServiceNow could bring to their day-to-day work.

You know, many years and using the same platform previously, you know, excited about the opportunity that was coming, but for us, you know, engaging those teams early, working out what was important to them, you know, making sure that we understood, you know, what were the genuine must haves? What must it do, because, actually we needed to have some flexibility, understanding that different clients, different teams, had different requirements within their processes.

For example, one particular client may want three approval steps for requesting some new software, whereas another may only want one; and rather than building out every single item across the platform for every permutation, you know, looking for a way to actually build a solution that allowed it to be data-driven and allowed that flexibility without, you know, continued maintenance and going too far with what we've built and as part of that you know, it's around, building that configurable solution, not necessarily customising as well.

And I think the final point on what made it work was, you know, asking teams to adapt their process, you know, not trying to take an inefficient or ineffective or a process built with a specific tool previously and moving that into the new shiny platform that we were we were building.

And what we've learned, I guess, really was that actually we could have gone a bit further with that - you know, maybe we could have pushed harder for more transformation. Understanding that, you know, whilst there were operational processes in teams focused on using the particular process or workflow that was in already, maybe there were opportunities to reflect on that before building it again, you know pushing to for better ways, more efficient ways. And, I guess, what that brings forward is the thought process of from a learning perspective.

Back to what Simon said really about it being a journey, you know, build something; we built something that was really there to be grown. It wasn't just about trying to do everything on day one, building something that was future proof, building something that allowed us to then adapt to those workflows, those processes, add more functionality to them, but also building with automation in mind and you know, obviously AI as well because as these technologies evolve and become more prevalent you know we we've got to make sure that - we needed to make sure that that was, you know, at the heart of our build process and that's exactly what we did.

And what that also does allow us to do is think outside those typical processes because whilst the scope of that programme and that project was limited to the managed service business, albeit at a large scale, maybe there’s some supplementary processes that would benefit from workflow from automation from AI. So, how we manage the operation, not just the delivery that the operation is doing and, you know, I think a learning point is build those into the roadmap as well.

Adrian: [I] like that, you know, you're focusing in there, Tony, on the roadmap and so you touched on there around building out the future, thinking about the future when you're building out, you know, particularly automation.

That's a nice point to bring Simon back in, if that's OK.

You know it it's clear whether you're a client or a provider, there's this huge potential. And what we're all seeing that but, but that's when we're getting it right. You know the platform’s growing fast, business priorities continue to change and evolve dependent on market dynamics. But you know talking about the future, Simon, what are you seeing as the future of work; where do you see us going? You know you're right at the forefront of that, you know you've got multiple ends across it, what's your take?

Simon: So, we’re obviously in a exciting time at the moment when it comes to AI, I think equal parts excitement about the potential and some concern about the impacts on people and how do we really understand what AI is doing in our business? How do we regulate it and there's an equal parts of concern, but generally people are very optimistic that when it comes to creating new experiences or new forms of value for your colleagues or your customers and your partners, AI is going to play a fundamental role in in all of this.

You know, work is changing. I think our vision at ServiceNow is that people come to work to do their best work to live their best lives, to fulfil their potential and then really to deliver the mission of the organisation, we belong to a company, We want that company to be successful. But too often at work, we're engaged in low value, repetitive tasks, things that don't bring us joy and don't create value very often.

And it's absolutely the case, we believe that AI can automate a lot of the work that goes on in businesses. It can elevate people. So we can spend more time forming relationships, solving complex problems.

And, essentially, creating new forms of value for the people that they serve. I think it's an incredibly exciting time.

And, Dale, we are seeing kind of three clear trends, aren't we, when it comes to the future of work. Dale, where do we take this next?

Dale: I think from my perspective, obviously with ServiceNow, our fundamental; what makes us different, is all about, you know, the AI agents or the intelligence that's on the platform and is ever growing across the platform. But also important now in this new world is bringing the data side the workflow data fabric side into hand with each other. But then more importantly, as well, what we've always been renowned for; is using those workflows and in those three sort of areas with AI agents work for data fabric and our workflows, our, you know our leading workflows, it's a lead for success.

And, I think, for me from an agentic and an AI perspective where a lot of organisations embraced, you know, things like the machine learning type AI, as we're seeing things grow and move, we obviously we're going into the conversational piece of AI where I want to ask it a question and I want to get a formulated answer. But this year, for us, in particular with the agentic world, we're seeing a sort of shift here, a paradigm shift of, you know, as opposed to waiting for something to happen. Why don't we have things that are monitoring things and actually can figure things out and fix things; and take it to that autonomous world that we all want to get to.

And I think for me, just what I've seen with a lot of organisations who are embracing this, I sort of have a mindset philosophy with organisations of, you know, learn to build the foundations in that crawl type scenario. Then you're moving into your implementation of learning to walk with this and understanding it. Where I sort of come in in with what we do, what we do well and what we do great is; I call it the run stage, sort of scaling with AI, introducing the technologies of how we can improve and then ultimately my final step is fly, and again, for me, with agentic the world’s your oyster. I think for me a lot of customers have got to embrace this and really understand that AI isn't there to replace the human, it's to actually enhance the human and help them and allow them to focus on more complex tasks.

And I think, one thing I'd love to get across to this audience is AI is making us now think fundamentally differently about how work is done in businesses. So ServiceNow, we're 21 years old, this year, we're old enough to legally drink in the US is what we say to each other and I think that being 21, we're old enough to know better, but we're still growing fast.

And I wonder, over 21 years in business, how many workflows have we helped the world write and execute; workflows that move work from a service consumer - someone in the business or a customer; a colleague, through to someone that can fix that problem. We must have created tens, hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of workflows for all of our customers.

Adrian: No, doubt

Simon: Every one of those workflows is deterministic, which means a human decided how work would flow. Who does it go to? What stages does it traverse? What approvals are needed? And we are at a moment now where writing a deterministic work flow in a couple of years’ time is going to feel really antiquated, like getting out the pen and paper for your general ledger. It's going to feel very old school to have to deterministically work out; how does work flow through the business.

Agentic AI is taking us to a world where we can probabilistically workout; what is the best path for this work to reach a valuable outcome. And it's so interesting because we had control. We've looked for tools to kind of mechanise work. We've tried to automate work that happens between people and now we're going to have to give over control to the AI agents who will probabilistically work out what's the best way to deliver this outcome for the business. There's huge questions here about trust and confidence and governance, and so many questions. But it is a huge shift in the way we're going to think about how works gets done in all of these businesses that we serve.

Adrian: I couldn't agree more, Simon and Dale as well. It's huge insight you you've shared there and you know it is an exciting future that we're looking at but one that we need to step the journey and really bring people along with that.

[I was ] particularly interested as well you mentioned there Dale, I quite liked it, actually, the crawl, run, fly analogy, you know, helping organisations to be doing that and stepping through that process together. Yeah and fantastic.

So, guys, you know, huge thank you for your insights here.

I'm going to attempt to summarise some key takeaways and, you know, please come in on this as you see fit. You know, what I've heard is if you want to unlock real value from ServiceNow, there needs to be an absolute focus on - and Simon you called it there - you know, focus on people up front; understanding that purpose not just the technology.

You know, we all know the platform's really powerful, but it only works when aligned with really clear goals.

Thinking beyond IT, you know, ServiceNow can bring consistency and intelligence to almost any workflow. So really look to use that breadth.

I picked up there, you know, you were talking about innovation. So really looked to operationalise innovation and success comes when new capabilities are embedded and really sustained, not just launched. You know, Tony, you touched on that, how do we go to the next level now.

And, if I may, the last point you know you all touched on here, you know, the view there on the future of work being very much aligned to data AI and workflows, that's a really powerful combination. So, you know, that needs to be both human centred, I've picked up, but also really purpose driven. So you know that gives us the opportunity to truly transform how our organisations operate, but it's all super exciting and, you know, we're nicely aligned and, you know, this insight that we're hearing here is something that we're really focused on and looking to drive forward on.

So, Simon, Tony, Dale, does that resonate?

Dale: Does with me, and I think one comment I'd like to make is when you sort of said there, I'd like to summarise the conversation - I've got to get it in there - is for me, you could probably use NowAssist skills kit and it could have probably summarised a lot better.

Adrian: I have no doubt, I have no doubt, you're spot on, Dale.

Simon: Well, I mean that makes a lot of sense to me. Thanks for that summary. I think I would add to that summary that; this is an amazing time to be in the industry we're in; working with business, working with technology, things are moving so quickly and the potential is huge. I would just implore everyone to keep people in the centre of your thinking when it comes to these new technology trends, but great conversation today.

Adrian: Fantastic. Thank you all. 

It really, really has been a brilliant conversation. I'm delighted you've joined us; I've been trying to get you on for a for a little while. Really glad you've come on.

If you're listening, I want to explore these things further, please don't hesitate, reach out. And as always, you can find this and all other Talking Transformation podcasts wherever you access them.

Thank you so much for tuning in and have a great rest of the day.

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