ServiceNow Now Platform Reviews

I am actually a development expert within the ServiceNow platform. So I implemented ServiceNow for some of our customers as well as within our company. I help them to implement some applications customers and configure what they need from the suite of management applications available within ServiceNow.  

The most important thing we use this solution for is IT service management where users implement processes like incident management, problem management, or chain management. Incident management and problem management at its simplest can be a system whereby any user in an organization can report a defect. Say I am a user and my email is not working and I want to raise a ticket to get the problem solved. I use ServiceNow for raising that ticket. Another example is that if I want to implement new software, I need may need to raise a change request, so I do that in ServiceNow. 

We are always on the latest version. There is a new version every six months, so there are two releases every year. That means every time there is a new release I have to upgrade, update my knowledge about the changes by becoming familiar with the changes, and then we have to upgrade the program for the customers as well.  

The workflow feature really has a lot of value because you can create workflows in a simple, intuitive way. With a few clicks, you can actually develop quite a complex workflow using tool and product life cycles and so on. So, the workflow feature, in my opinion, is the strongest feature in the ServiceNow platform.  

There are several areas of the product that could use improvement. From a vendor point of view, I had an opportunity to work with them on their licensing model. It still needs some improvement in the way the licensing model works because it is a little bit complex and difficult to understand. They change it from time-to-time and sometimes they do not communicate those changes effectively to their partners. Put simply, the licensing model is something that can be simplified and made more visible to both the partners and the customers or end-users. Currently, the product is comparatively quite expensive and lowering the cost would likely produce a better response from customers.  

I know that the company is at work on many new things right now. But one thing I would expect to see in the next few releases is vertical-specific solutions. For example, say solutions for banking or healthcare-specific solutions. I believe they are going to come up with at least a draft version of this type of solution for some industries over the next few releases.  

We have been using this solution since about 2016. So it is almost four years now.  

I have complete confidence in the stability of the platform. It is very stable.  

ServiceNow is very easy to scale — that is if the customer has the money to spend. It is quite easy to take on new licenses. It is very scalable.  

Our customers can be any size business but in my personal experience, I work with medium to large customers. The solution is something that is used on a daily basis.  

We have been in touch with their technical support and it is quite responsive and they are very good about providing solutions. We have a dedicated technical support desk that is quite approachable. For now, everything is quite good.  

Before ServiceNow, I used other solutions, but mostly they were custom-built applications. For example, I used to code and develop an application from scratch. ServiceNow is the first product I have used software that is a dedicated service desk product.  

I would say that from my point of view that configuring ServiceNow is pretty simple. But there are also a lot of things to consider. If you want to build a complex system, the configuration process can be complex as well. If you understand the software, you get a standard set of functionalities, but you can configure that for your own needs. For example, I had a situation where I knew a particular customer had some different requirements than what was provided out-of-the-box for the standard version. In this case, I was able to configure ServiceNow to match their needs. I can write complex scripts or I can do programming to build new processes within ServiceNow. But the implementation is different for every customer.  

How long the implementation takes becomes a very open-ended question because they have so much existing functionality already in the product that may need to be configured and the need for customization depends on the user's requirements. There are so many factors involved that I can not really define an absolute amount of time required for standard implementation. It depends on the use case. The basic installation of the application itself can be done in ten minutes and the solution can be made to be up and running within three months. However, if you want to have a complex, custom-built chain management process, it can take years.  

I am from a software development company and I work as a consultant as well as an architect for projects. Our operating model is that we work directly with the customer and we do the consultancy, we get into workshops with customers and discover their requirements and then our development team starts working on those requirements. So we have two levels. One is as a consultant who helps to finalize the requirements and the other is as developers who satisfy the requirements that have been defined.  

As far as how many people it takes for the deployment of the platform, that can not be determined as a set number either as it requires knowing the scope of the project and perhaps other factors like the expected timeline.  

We use a public cloud, but as our customer, you get a private instance. So you can think of it as an environment you can have in the cloud that is indicated for a particular customer.  As a customer, you do not get visibility as to whether it is in a public or private cloud. From a customer point of view, you do not know that or it is invisible to you. But in the backend, it now maintains their data and the platform using both AWS and Azure in the background and they use the cloud for that.  

The licensing price for ServiceNow is somewhat high. The pricing depends on the number of users. For a similar type of application, the price of licensing for ServiceNow is on the high side. Actually it is 20% to 30% more than the nearest competitor.  

There are technically not any additional costs besides the licensing fees from a customer point of view for the product. But, if they want to implement an application in ServiceNow, they may also have to pay for a developer's team to implement the solution. Once development is complete, they probably have to spend some amount for supporting and maintaining the application and customization, so that will also be included as an additional cost for the company using the solution even if it is not a direct cost for the product.  

We have evaluated other products but within my company, I only work with the ServiceNow project and I have been doing this for the last four years. Sometimes part of our customer engagement requires that we do comparative studies. For example, we had a request from a client to do a feature comparison with the Pega platform. I got some detailed information from Pega's product development and other resources to compare with ServiceNow and did the comparison in that way. But in terms of development or implementation experience, I do not have any direct experience with Pega.  

The foremost thing I would like to recommend to people considering ServiceNow is not to try to reconfigure or customize the out-of-the-box process too much. Stick to the out-of-the-box processes that are provided as much as possible and use minimal customizations. We used to say to our customers to use maximum configuration but minimum customization.  

On a scale from one to ten where one is the worst and ten is the best, I would rate the ServiceNow product overall as at least an eight.  

For now, most of the clients come up with the requirement for catalogs. Based on those catalogs, we do some integration if needed. If not, then we'll give them the catalog with the tables. 

Other than that, we do discovery for the clients. If they want the asset to be located on the ServiceNow instance, we handle that as well. 

There are modules and processes available in ServiceNow, like HRSD, GRC, and other modules, which we implement for clients.

If we build a solution from the ground up, it incurs high costs, and the lack of a proper process can also lead to inefficiencies. ServiceNow provides a robust solution that saves time and allows quick implementation without delays, ultimately reducing costs in the long term.

The primary feature we find valuable is data management. ServiceNow is mainly a ticketing tool that offers additional features like workflows. Another valuable feature is its automation capabilities. 

We have integrated OpenAI's ChatGPT, Gemini, and other APIs for development and client resolutions in virtual chatbots. ServiceNow also provides RPA, which is useful but currently expensive.

The RPA feature in ServiceNow is quite good, but it is very expensive. If AI were better integrated into ServiceNow, it would lower the RPA costs and make the platform more accessible. 

Additionally, some core functionalities developed by ServiceNow can be challenging to change. Cloning with separate instances can be difficult, especially when dealing with multiple domains. Communication between developers and clients needs to be improved to avoid discrepancies.

I've been working with the ServiceNow Platform for about one year and around six to seven months.

I would rate the stability of ServiceNow at eight and a half out of ten. It is quite stable.

I would rate the scalability of the ServiceNow platform at seven and a half out of ten.

I would rate the customer support at seven and a half out of ten. They usually reply to the first ticket within 24 hours and set up calls to understand and resolve the issue. However, sometimes they don't have solutions for specific configurations, making it tedious to go back and forth.

Before ServiceNow, I worked with Jira and conducted some normal development on various websites. Jira is focused more on ITSM, whereas ServiceNow covers a broader range of modules.

The initial setup is relatively easy for the most part. Most out-of-the-box configurations are simple to tailor to specific requirements, but certain out-of-the-box configurations that need changes can be challenging. These challenges are generally special cases and don't occur very often.

If ServiceNow is used from the ground up, it provides a proper solution without wasting time. This decreases costs in the long term.

Pricing for ServiceNow depends on the model. Some models, like GRC and HRSD, are user-specific and can be quite expensive. Others are less costly but are based on the number of tickets or users.

Before working with ServiceNow, I also worked with Jira and conducted some normal development on various websites and other tools.

Clear up all the requirements with the developers you are going to hire. Sometimes there can be a communication gap between the developer and the client, leading to solutions that don't meet the actual requirements.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

It's a very comprehensive platform. So, really, you can do anything with it that requires integration with other systems, as well as build bespoke applications on the platform itself. 

It's not just limited to service management; you can actually build your own applications.

When you activate the ServiceNow platform, the core ITIL processes—incident management, problem management, change management, and others—are enabled. This means your internal processes are aligned with ITIL v4 best practices from day one.

So, while ServiceNow's service management functionality is primarily internal, you're ultimately providing a service whether it's to internal or external users. 

By having those processes in place, the traceability, and features like virtual assistants that we're all used to – where we can just go in and start having a chat, and then the ability for it to pass the conversation to the actual agent, and then you can start chatting with the agent.... that all streamlines support.

The agent can also have internal discussions with other senior technical resources if they need to, all while they're looking at this issue.

Then, there's the dedicated Customer Service Management (CSM) application, which is primarily for external support in B2B or B2C scenarios. This module is all focused on end customers, how they can interact with the organization, and how the organization can provide the service. Because of the auditing and all those other reasons, the quality of service that you're providing to your customer is both monitored and maintained, and everything is audited in the system. 

So that's how you improve your service by looking at your processes, looking at any stage where there might be a blockage or something taking a long time, and fixing those issues. That's what these platforms are designed to do.

It integrates very well with most systems. I have yet to come across a system that it cannot integrate with.

It's very intuitive and easy to use. The flexibility and user-friendliness of ServiceNow are key reasons it's such a popular cloud solution.

There's always room for improvement, but I think the biggest challenge with ServiceNow is the licensing model. It's not very clear and changes frequently. And it is an expensive product. So, those are the things that are lacking. The platform itself is technically excellent, but licensing and cost can be barriers.

I have been working with this product for ten years. 

It's a cloud solution; scalability isn't a problem. So, it scales well aside from the licensing considerations.

The customer service and support are very good. 

Positive

I have worked previously with BMC Remedy for about 10 to 15 years, deploying both on-premise and cloud solutions.

ServiceNow was designed from the ground up as a cloud solution. BMC Remedy began as on-premise software and then adapted to offer a cloud solution. Because of that, ServiceNow often has a slight edge in terms of cloud-native features. 

BMC is catching up, and there's little difference in what the two platforms can do overall.

The initial setup is very straightforward. Obviously, you need to know what you're doing.
There are a lot of courses and training required to deploy a ServiceNow platform effectively. ServiceNow administrators can do a lot, but there might also be niche products, like HR for example, that require specialized understanding.

If you're going with out-of-the-box settings and just configuring your system, then you can actually deploy it as early as three months. So, the deployment time varies.

It saves money or brings profit for large enterprise organizations. For small or even medium-sized companies, the cost might be difficult to justify.

In my opinion, it is expensive. However, they do offer favorable licensing for charities, for example. 

For standard commercial use, it is one of the more expensive options.

A very rough minimum might be in the range of $50,000+ per year, but that depends on many factors.

Overall, I would rate the solution a ten out of ten. It's one of the best.

I would recommend using it. 

We use the solution for workflows. We'll build custom workflows and key and ticket queues. It's used to cover data center needs - everything from 800-number incoming calls to full outage and incident reporting. It handles a lot of aspects, including shipping and receiving as well as property management workflows. It's being used as a client-facing workflow system. 

Any kind of customer setup can be done on ServiceNow.

It can do anything so long as you throw enough money at it. 

It can integrate anywhere, and you can make any kind of workflow or SLA management.

Compared to Jira, ServiceNow is too heavy. It's not user-friendly. The solution isn't ideal for non-technical people. 

It's not quick or cheap. 

While it is very customizable, it's hard to get there.

Technical support could be more helpful. 

The technical support is not super helpful. You need to do a lot of work yourself. 

Neutral

I'm beginning to consider Jira as an alternative. It's lighter and easier to use. Also, Jira does a lot more updates centrally to their system than ServiceNow does. However, I haven't yet vetted it as an ITSM.

The solution isn't very user-friendly and is a very heavy lift for when you are starting and setting up custom setups. 

In terms of maintenance, our IT department is only so big. It does require maintenance in terms of customization, and that can be a lot. 

The solution is expensive. 

We're customers and end-users. 

It doesn't offer an on-premises option. It's all SaaS.

I'd advise potential users to look at it carefully and take time, depending on your runway. If you are an enterprise that has a full year of runway and the resources for ServiceNow and needs customizations, it may be fine. If a company isn't at the enterprise level, it might prefer a more streamlined ITSM option. 

I'd rate the solution seven out of ten. It really can do anything in terms of workflow and ticketing. It's just hard. It really depends on how many resources you can throw at it in terms of time and money.

We use this solution for taking calls, logging calls, and assigning calls.

We have just moved over to ServiceNow Out-of-the-Box, which is the general platform.

This solution is deployed in a hybrid-cloud environment.

In the past, we only had a solution that we could use locally. This solution has helped us to go global with our IT service management support. We were able to scale it much quicker and support the organization globally.

We have seen a big improvement in the experience that we want to create for our end users. The catalog used to be separated from the IT service, but now we have both of them running from the same platform. This means that we can quickly deploy solutions based on the request from our users.

The integration makes it easier for the end-users, as they can track the status of their incidents and their requests, and they can put in a new request. This one platform, where the end-users can manage all of their demands and see all of their devices, including their cell phone contracts, makes our lives easy. The end-users used to have multiple reference numbers and now there is one that a request or incident is linked to. They get updates, similar to the Amazon platform, where you can see the status of your order and you know how far away they are.

The most valuable feature of this solution is cataloging the requests, which allows us to speed up the process and improve the user experience.

The knowledge management feature is now continuously learning from incidents.

In the next release of this solution, we would like to see mobile capability.

We would like to see AI used to automate some of the functionality in this solution.

We are impressed with the stability of this platform. We are part of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Even with multiple languages, it was easy to adopt and to provide users in their respective countries with language enabled according to their needs.

This is a very scalable solution.

Technical support for this solution is excellent. We have had the technologists visit us. They were part of the implementation. Overall, the support we are receiving from this vendor is excellent.

When we implemented and set up this solution for the first time, we did some customization. Now that we have adopted the Out-of-the-Box version, it means less customization. We are taking an "As-Is" solution so that we can use more capabilities for customizing it.

We made use of a service integrator to assist us with the implementation and deployment. We didn't deploy with our own team. These people were qualified and know the product very well, so our experience was very good. The platform providers were also supporting the service integrators.

We did evaluate other options before choosing this solution, but we found this to be an excellent product. We call it the SAP of IT Management.

We chose this product mainly because of the capabilities that it offered, and how they matched what we needed.

The biggest lesson that we learned through implementing this solution is that it is important not to customize. Rather, take the product offering best practices and adopt it with its own processes. This makes scaling much easier. Whereas if you customize it and if you build your own version, it becomes difficult to scale, support, and do the official upgrades. This is why we have taken the Out-of-the-Box version and have adopted the processes that come with it. It is working and we don't have to change it too much.

This is a very good solution, but there is always room for improvement.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

The incident management has been the most useful feature for us.

I want ServiceNow to be more customizable, especially the incident management module. The fields cannot be added right now. If you want the users to input different kinds of fields which are specific to a certain product, it is difficult to do.

I have been using this solution for three years. 

This is a stable solution. 

This is a scalable solution. 

The technical support of ServiceNow is really good. I'm very happy with it.

Positive

The initial setup is straightforward. 

The pricing of this solution is done annually and it is very expensive.

This is a great workflow tool that offers great support. The reporting capabilities need to be improved, otherwise we need to pay for performance analytics. 

I would rate it a seven out of ten. 

ServiceNow is our ticket management and remediation system. We use it for other things as needed. We have about 400-500 people on the project management side. 

ServiceNow can document and produce a historical working tool that deals with projects themselves. The user interface is another strong suit. 

It is still difficult to build a set of services in ServiceNow. It can be done, but it is one of the more difficult things to do. If we're talking about scalability, we're talking about the ability to actually build that set of services a little easier.

I've been using ServiceNow since I joined the company in March of last year.

I rate ServiceNow 10 out of 10 for stability. You only need to go through updates once or twice to realize ServiceNow is a highly stable platform and continues to be one.

I rate ServiceNow nine out of 10 for scalability. 

I rate ServiceNow nine out of 10 for ease of setup. We didn't have any issues. 

I rate ServiceNow Now Platform 10 out of 10. I've seen various CMDBs like it, and ServiceNow is everything we're looking for. 

We have customers that we are assisting with this solution, and we are also using it internally.

We are providing and using ServiceNow as a KSA hosted solution on our cloud (DETASAD SAHABA), not the SaaS model and that therefore we are offering it for our clients as a world-class product fully compliant with Saudi security regulations with all data remaining is Saudi Arabia. ServiceNow is an integral part of our service solutions and all our clients benefit from it.

We have two modules. We have the ITSM and the WFM. The WFM is not activated yet, and I am working on implementing this.

Currently, we are only using the incident ticket request functionality. We are implementing the request for equipment, change management, and other request forms.

It helped and organized the support for our customers, in which the customer is always updated about the status of his inquiry, also our support teams are always updated of their colleagues intervention. 

And from a management point of view, with the reporting and Dashboards the management is always updated about the open cases and the service delivery health status, and definitly quantify the work accomplished by the support teams.  

Incident Management and workflow are the most valuable features for us for the time (at least for us currently). 

Also Learning materials, such as online courses, are readily available. This solution is not difficult, and I have learned it from taking e-courses. I am actively giving the courses to my full team, because I want them to learn about it as well.

when it comes for the interface of ServiceNow is ok, and it is easy to use.

The licensing for this solution, with respect to the user, needs to be improved.

We use this solution on a daily basis.

I have fifty-two active licenses for this solution, and there are eighteen more that we are not yet using. 

I have not personally dealt with technical support very much. The feedback that I have from the team is that the technical support is very helpful, and they are supporting us in a good way.

We did not use another solution prior to this one.

As it is Cloud Hosted solution, the initial setup is as easy as setting up an application on a mobile phone.

ServiceNow and one of their local partners in KSA assisted us with the initial setup and customization of this solution. They were handling all of the maintenance and implementation before my arrival.

Not many people are required for maintenance. In fact, I'm building my team right now. I have two administrators, where one is a backup for the other. I'm preparing two developers for the process implementation, development, and configuration. These people are not dedicated to this solution.

All of the development work will be done in-house. We will be integrating it with SAP, Salesforce, and other platforms, and I need my developers to be involved.

We have definitely seen ROI. The most important thing for a director or manager is to be able to quantify the work of his team and to start building the knowledge base. This, by itself, is a return on investment. 

After that, on the knowledge base and on the tickets, we can apply artificial intelligence and some machine learning algorithms. Ultimately, it will be like an automatic helpdesk. We just need to build some history first.

DETASAD service offering combined with our AI/ML platform will support predictive maintenance and shortly will be used to optimize our 1000 field and engineering force better to increase service levels to our customers further.

Definitely, every company will evaluate many service platforms before choosing the one that best fits the requirement.

I am currently taking courses on this product to learn more about the platform, as well as the functionality that we have not been using.

My advice to anybody who is researching this solution is to have a better look at the overall capability of the platform. Many people, including us, understand ServiceNow to be a ticketing system. They do not see the other functionalities that are very big, and very important.

This is a great platform but it must be used correctly, and not only for ticketing. This solution was not well utilized in the company. Rather, it was treated as an application like Excel. When I arrived, I started forcing people to use tickets, and now I'm going to implement the workflows, processes, and everything else under ServiceNow.

I would rate this solution a ten out of ten.