We primarily use the solution for ITSM and a little bit of ITOM. However, we don't use it for ITBM.
ITSM Process Owner at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Allows for role-based access, with integrated machine learning and AI
Pros and Cons
- "For the nuts and bolts running of an IT organization, I can't really say there's anything lacking feature-wise."
- "One thing I don't care for is the reporting and the way it functions."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
Role-based access is a 'positive'.
ServiceNow has a feature called Orchestration. In that, you can utilize the tool to communicate with applications and systems to issue commands and perform actions. That's a positive, it's something that does exist in the tool. We are in our infancy in utilizing that.
There's a relatively new feature called performance analytics. It's supposed to provide a lot more information. It's got machine learning and some AI built into it. We're our infancy with that.
For the nuts and bolts running of an IT organization, I can't really say there's anything lacking, feature-wise.
The solution is relatively easy to use.
What needs improvement?
One thing I don't care for is the reporting and the way it functions. Exporting a report, from a view, initiates a rerun of the query in the background - highly inefficient.
In terms of the implementation, there seems to be a dearth of basic table joins, on initial install, necessitating the creation of your own database views to get seemingly related data to act like related data. In other words, it's popular to have incidents linked to changes, and linked to problems, and linked to other types of records. And vice versa, you could have an incidents caused by a change. You could have an incident that has a problem record built off of it. However, there are several modules where, if you don't create table joins - for example, for demand records and demand tasks - between those two, then the only option is pull two reports (one for Demands, one for Demand Tasks), and manually merge them outside of the tool. It's highly inefficient. That is something that is a deficiency within the tool design overall.
The initial setup is a bit complex (could have been designed to be profile-driven, as an alternative).
While I recognize that it's a popular thing to do, due to poor design, update sets have to be moved manually, from platform to platform, easily introducing errors (sequence, origin, etc.) along the way. I've seen far better promote-to-production schemes with other tools.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using ServiceNow for more than 5 years.
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What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scales 'up' well.
Scales 'down' poorly.
The solution is not exactly scalable for a mom-and-pop shop (and SMBs). The costs would be too prohibitive for that.
Someone once said, a bird, no matter the size, has the same number of bones. If you're going to do incident change problem, asset config, things like that, for a mom-and-pop, technically, you have the same number of types of things you need to be concerned about. It's just the volume of how it's being applied. A mom-and-pop store might carry 50 items in its inventory. A large company is going to have thousands upon thousands. Therefore, ServiceNow would not be a good solution for a small organization with few assets.
If you don't have a full CMDB to begin with it really makes a lot of things awkward within the tool.
We have 4,000+
How are customer service and support?
ServiceNow Technical support needs improvement.
One example -
Order - (context - business rules) - ServiceNow allows you to have any number of rules with the same order number.
ServiceNow's official answer to 'how does the database code decide which rule to execute first, when multiple business rules are assigned the same order level?': we have no answer
(it goes without saying - use unique order levels)
How was the initial setup?
What other advice do I have?
We're just a customer and an end-user.
We started on-prem and then switched to cloud. We switched to the cloud about three years ago.
- fill out the CMDB before you start implementing the tool - make the time.
- plan out table joins as you implement new modules.
I'd rate the solution at an eight out of ten. I would just warn others that it's too easy to incorporate abysmally poor design.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
ServiceNow Architect & Tech Manager at a consultancy with 1,001-5,000 employees
Very easy deployment with excellent technical support
Pros and Cons
- "Very easy to implement and to respond to my clients' needs."
- "The high price is a huge barrier in Portugal."
What is our primary use case?
I implement ServiceNow for our customers. I'm a reseller and we are partners of ServiceNow. I'm the company business developer.
What is most valuable?
From my point of view, it's the best solution in the market. It's so easy to implement, the ratio of days to implement is the lowest in the market; I can respond to all the needs of my clients. Based on my experience with BMC and EasyVista, ServiceNow is the best solution.
What needs improvement?
The price is a huge barrier in the Portugese market when it comes to implementing ServiceNow.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution for 10 years.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support is the best because they respond quickly. They have good SLAs to respond to our tickets with the correct priorities, it's very well defined. Compared with other suppliers, it's fantastic.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is very easy. Based on my experience with BMC and EasyVista, ServiceNow is the easiest solution to implement.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Licensing costs are the highest in the market. It's difficult to sell in Portugal, but for the rest of Europe, it's easy to sell because we can easily justify the value that the customer will gain from the product.
What other advice do I have?
It's important to understand all the components of the solution. After that, with the base knowledge, it's easy to implement. It also helps to have some knowledge about processes based on the ITIL and ISO 20000. It's most important to become familiar with that to implement the solution.
I rate the solution nine out of 10.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. partner
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Practice Director, Global Infrastructure Services at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
A stable and scalable solution which is easy to use
Pros and Cons
- "The solution is stable, scalable and easy to use."
- "The solution should offer better security when it comes to storing data."
What is our primary use case?
We use the solution primarily for IT Operations Management, SLA and ordinary day-to-day operations. We also use it for business dashboards and different groups within the company.
What is most valuable?
I like the solution very much. The majority of customers use it. It is one of the best, the most apt solution the industry has to offer. It is stable, scalable and easy to use.
The total ITSM package offers availability, performance and scalability.
I think the tool has matured sufficiently over the past six years that I do not see room for improvement. It comes with in-built capabilities and it is up to us to use it as we see fit. I would say it meets nearly every use case of ours.
What needs improvement?
While we consider the solution to be fine, a weakness of it is that it is not on-premises.
Security and privacy issues should be addressed in respect of the IT operations data and data storage. They should not be on a shared infrastructure, but on the SaaS in isolated storage. The solution should offer better security when it comes to storing data.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using ServiceNow for quite some time, perhaps as long as six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
I have encountered no issues with the technical support or its response time. I have found its response time to be prompt.
How was the initial setup?
The entire installation process is easy and very straightforward, which consists primarily of the installation of the tool and its configuration. We are talking about SaaS, software as a service installation, meaning one which is ready for use. As such, there is no real installation work involved.
The installation period lasts from two to several weeks. A medium enterprise would have a two week installation period and a large one would have a month.
What about the implementation team?
Although I am not directly involved in the team staffing purposes relating to the installation, I would estimate that it would not involve more than five or six specialists.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The license involves a multi-year contract. While the option exists to pay for a monthly license, we are dealing with large enterprises and these typically involve multi-year licenses of ten or five years, at a minimum.
What other advice do I have?
As systems integrators, we deploy the solution both on-premises and on the cloud, although it is mostly cloud-based. While we handle both on-premises and SaaS deployment, I am only addressing the aspects involving the latter.
Globally, we manage in excess of 250 customers. We have a shared services model which serves more than one hundred customers.
I do not feel it would be beneficial to explore other options beyond ServiceNow.
I rate ServiceNow as an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Integrator
Vice President Delivery & Operations at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Stable with good automation and reporting
Pros and Cons
- "The solution has very good automation tools."
- "The pricing of the solution could be better. It's a bit high."
What is our primary use case?
Multi Tenant, Scalable, Flexible and Stable
How has it helped my organization?
It has improved out response time to the client
What is most valuable?
The reporting is very good.
The solution has very good automation tools.
The solution has been extremely stable so far.
What needs improvement?
The need to improve their technical support services.
Their dashboards are very, very basic. Maybe if they could develop some sort of very good fancy-looking, visible, graphical, visible kind of appearance.
The pricing of the solution could be better. It's a bit high.
When we are monitoring, for example, a device, an S-Switch, we can create insights. We can segregate the LAN, and create a VLAN. When we create those VLANs, we should be able to monitor those VLANs. The same with storage systems. The LANs, through the cable space level, should be able to be monitored.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been working with the solution for eight or nine years so far. It's been almost a decade. I've used it for a while now.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is excellent. There are no bugs or glitches and it doesn't crash or freeze. I find it to be reliable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution works very well for large enterprises. If you have a very, very big setup, it's an ideal option.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support could be better. We are not satisfied with the level of support they offer.
How would you rate customer service and technical support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I've also worked with SolarWinds and ManageEngine. I prefer ServiceNow, as there's a lot of automation tools available in that and it's been a stable product. It's been in the market for a long time. It's got a good market reach also.
How was the initial setup?
Very Complex, 13 companies, 9 Towers, 17,000 devices
What about the implementation team?
First time we implemented it through Vendor and we took a training from the OEM and now we have a team to deploy the solution
What was our ROI?
Not calculated, but I would say 2 years we recover the cost
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Their pricing is relatively high. They are expensive.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Yes,
SolarWinds and ManageEngine
What other advice do I have?
We are not a partner or reseller. I'm a consultant. Before that, I have implemented the products. I've migrated a lot of products, a lot of systems. That's how I have an association with monitoring tools and service test tools.
I differently would recommend the solution if a company is a huge enterprise. For example, if you are maybe looking at more than some 10,000 or 20,000 devices. There should be a minimum of 10,000 devices or 15,000 devices. I would recommend ServiceNow for those setups. For data centers and other things, definitely I would recommend ServiceNow. I would not recommend SolarWinds or ManageEngine for these types of setups. I don't see that much capacity in them.
I'd rate the solution at an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Strategic Partner
DLO Veritas Backup solution Project Manager at a comms service provider with 5,001-10,000 employees
Is user friendly and allows for customization of the service portal
Pros and Cons
- "I like that in ServiceNow creating workflows is simpler than that in HP Service Manager. Also, I really like the customization feature. It allows us to customize the service portal and permits us to do a lot of customization per business needs."
- "There is a need to learn scripting because as in the case of all the ITSM tools, scripting is needed for customization. If you're not very comfortable with scripting, then you may feel that you cannot do everything in ServiceNow without learning scripting."
What is most valuable?
I like that in ServiceNow creating workflows is simpler than that in HP Service Manager. Also, I really like the customization feature. It allows us to customize the service portal and permits us to do a lot of customization per business needs.
It covers all the modules regarding ITSM, IT asset management, and customer service as well. That is, all modules are covered in the same platform.
It is very user friendly, and I've enjoyed using the dashboard and user interface.
Technical support is great, and a lot of documentation is available on Google.
What needs improvement?
There is a need to learn scripting because as in the case of all the ITSM tools, scripting is needed for customization. If you're not very comfortable with scripting, then you may feel that you cannot do everything in ServiceNow without learning scripting.
The licensing costs are high for companies in Tunisia.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the open source version for almost two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I have found it to be a stable, reliable solution.
How are customer service and technical support?
I have discovered a lot of support and a lot of documentation on Google. So the information is always available.
Sometimes, I have opened a ticket to ask participants in the community, and I have always got an answer from support.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is not complex.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
In Tunisia, the companies find the licensing costs to be expensive.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution because it's a very well performing solution. As a result, I would rate ServiceNow at ten on a scale from one to ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Project Manager, Manager of ITSM Consulting Team at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
Great end-to-end business flow automation with helpful modules and good stability
Pros and Cons
- "There are lots of modules around IT service management such as IT business management and human resource management (HRC)."
- "They need to be providing vendors and implementation partners with materials and guidance on implementation."
What is most valuable?
One of the benefits of the platform itself is that it's not covering IT service management only. It, for example, has price service management functionality.
There are lots of modules around IT service management such as IT business management and human resource management (HRC). Bigger clients, enterprises, are often looking for end-to-end business flow automation. Part of those processes, in other cases, are standalone solutions. The ability to implement end-to-end flows, including business ones, is the most important aspect of the solution.
What needs improvement?
I sometimes try to compare ServiceNow with Micro Focus. When I worked with Micro Focus or HPE, I liked how they communicate with partners, how they provide materials. ServiceNow really does lots of things in this area, however, there is definitely some space for improvement there. For instance, some workshop materials, et cetera, are lacking. They need to be providing vendors and implementation partners with materials and guidance on implementation.
The solution is mostly on the cloud. On-premises implementations are more difficult.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using ServiceNow for the last five years. I remember my first implementation project was in 2017. Probably before that, I started using ServiceNow and did the training, et cetera.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is pretty good. On average, I don't see many clients complaining about the performance side of stability or availability on the platform.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We did some cases to improve server functionality with scaling. We created clusters. In terms of the scalability of ServiceNow itself, several instances of ServiceNow with synchronization, et cetera, as well as performance, I don't recall scaling so much. In most cases, it's not really required as one instance of ServiceNow is good enough for most clients. They also handle all this backup, monitoring, and et cetera, internally.
How are customer service and technical support?
I rarely deal with technical support, as, most often at least, I focus our innovation on implementation projects. Support is more active when it's implemented already and rolled out to production. Other personnel from my department handle that, for sure. From my understanding, in terms of the quality of the support, it's quite typical. Sometimes it could be better and faster. However, if we can imagine the flow of those tickets for the ServiceNow support side, I would imagine it's quite big. Therefore, I'd say that it's acceptable and understandable.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I also work with Atlassian's Jira Service Desk. I used to work with Service Manager five years ago.
For ServiceNow, I really like it's a single platform. Everything within the platform is integrated already. There are quite rich integration capabilities with other systems at the client-side. For Micro Focus, you can install it in the cloud or on-premises. ServiceNow doesn't really allow you to install anything on-premises.
On the Micro Focus side, some of their products were really great, such as Universal CMDB or UCMDB. At some point, it's still better than the current ServiceNow CMDB. Some single individual products from Micro Focus were really great for me. However, in some cases, when you come into a client and try to solve a complex task, you need to map the requirements to particular products. For Micro Focus, sometimes it was problematic as you required many products solving more or less the same purposes. At ServiceNow, each module is quite unique and serving its unique purpose. It's more like LEGOs.
With Micro Focus, I remember in some cases, their solutions were quite resource-consuming. It's pretty predictable since HPE at the time was both a software and hardware vendor. It was good for them to sell software plus hardware. Sometimes it was how to understand why particular software could consume so many resources. That's not a problem with ServiceNow at all as it's on the cloud mostly.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is pretty clear. If we try to compare the implementation of some traditional modules, like incident management, request fulfillment, it's an industry standard. It's very good. ServiceNow, from a functionality and partner support perspective, has lots of materials. However, when it comes to some newer modules, some ITBM applications, et cetera, sometimes when they just release the first version of the module, and it might be a bit different from a functionality perspective. There's a lack of documentation and support. That's quite typical. I feel like Hewlett-Packard pays a bit more attention to that.
What about the implementation team?
We're implementors. We implement the solution for our clients.
What was our ROI?
ServiceNow is still mostly used as an ITSM platform. And IT service management mostly feeds some kind of internal purposes. It's not a business-related platform. It's supposed to save money, not to help to earn money.
Some clients come in to get some help with the reimplementation of a platform. Others are looking for certain improvements to the existing platform. In some cases, it's a greenfield implementation. For greenfield implementations, especially when it comes to big enterprises, the question behind the scenes is we don't really understand how much we spend on IT. There are likely many unrelated budgets, which are not even visible. The first question is how much you really spend. And if they get an answer to this question, it's already a good achievement.
Over time, we baseline the spending and we implement new functionality and new processes, new modules. In some cases, it's quite expensive compared to the business itself. By that, I mean, the processes we implement. We may have 20 people doing some job and if you look at their salaries for a couple of years, it's a lot. We come in and implement and automate the process for them, and in those cases, it might be five years of salaried budget saved. However, that's years. You won't see the savings immediately. It will be something witnessed over time.
What other advice do I have?
We're a ServiceNow partner. We help to implement ServiceNow for our clients.
We're working on likely the latest version of the solution. ServiceNow provides upgrades two times a year. Previous versions get obsolete so that you can't actually use them.
I often see that people tend to simplify things and they expect any system, no matter if it's ServiceNow or any other system or platform from the area, that the implementation would solve the entire ATSM matter. However, in fact, with ATSM, it's about products, people, processes, and partners. All the efforts should be covered. No solution is a silver bullet.
I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten. it's a very good solution, however, there's always room for improvement.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Director, IT Networking at a think tank with 1-10 employees
he interface is not user-friendly and it costs a lot of money to manage, but it's reliable
Pros and Cons
- "I like that it's always up and running."
- "The interface is not user-friendly."
What is our primary use case?
I have used this solution to create forms for employees to fill out.
The main use is for incident management.
They are configuring the asset management in CMDB, and they are installing at this time.
How has it helped my organization?
It has the ability to consolidate different areas of the service desk into one solution.
What is most valuable?
I like that it's always up and running.
What needs improvement?
I am not a fan of ServiceNow.
The menus and the interface need improvement. It feels like a shopping cart and like I am shopping on the internet. The graphics of the menu could be better.
The interface is not user-friendly.
To me, ServiceNow is a money pit. It takes a lot of money to manage it.
For how long have I used the solution?
With this company, I have been using ServiceNow for one year, and another two years before that in other companies.
I am using the latest version.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
ServiceNow is a stable product.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It's a scalable solution. We have not had any issues with the scalability of this solution.
We have 5,000 users in our organization who use it.
This solution is used quite a bit and the company plans to increase its usage.
How are customer service and technical support?
I have not contacted technical support.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
This solution was already in place, but in a different organization, I used a solution called SysAid. I thought it was much easier to manage.
How was the initial setup?
This was already in place when I arrived, but they are installing the CMDB and we need the help of a partner.
It seems to be very complex.
We have one person who is dedicated to the maintenance of this solution. He is a Service Desk Supervisor.
What about the implementation team?
My experience with the integrator has been positive.
What other advice do I have?
My advice to others is to be prepared to spend money.
While this product works, I feel that the UI is terrible, it's horrendous.
I would rate ServiceNow a four out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Director of IT at a local government with 201-500 employees
Scalable, extremely efficient, and integrates well with other solutions
Pros and Cons
- "The workflow makes things extremely efficient and it improves effectiveness."
- "It became kind of complex to set it up without a general lack of knowledge of the particular feature-function capabilities. Features and capabilities could have been explained better to the end-users."
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use the solution for change management and program management. Let's say, for example, if someone across our state needs a license. My team will send the request to me and I would approve it. For other tasks, they might send me a ticket and I would either approve it or add additional comments, however, that's it.
How has it helped my organization?
The workflow and the general effectiveness of the processes have helped improve how our organization functions.
What is most valuable?
The workflow makes things extremely efficient and it improves effectiveness.
The product integrates well with other solutions.
The stability has been very good so far.
We have found that the product can scale.
Technical support has been helpful.
What needs improvement?
One of the areas that need improvement is when the product was implemented, they did not do a very good job of explaining all these features and functions, and capabilities of the tool. That could have been an implementation issue on our organization's side. This could have happened by not including end-users in order to get their input or to understand what this tool offers. It was kind of just pushed out. For example, while the tool could potentially do a hundred things, only 20 of the capabilities were explained. The other 80 we have to figure out on our own. It could have been explained and rolled out better, however, that could have been just an implementation issue on our side as well.
It became kind of complex to set it up without a general lack of knowledge of the particular feature-function capabilities. Features and capabilities could have been explained better to the end-users.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used the solution for about a year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is good. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The product definitely can be scaled. We're working now to integrate it with other workflow products, so it's definitely scalable.
How are customer service and technical support?
We've dealt with technical support in the past. We have a service desk. Since it's on-prem, it's been pretty good. Tech support has been helpful and we have no complaints.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We did previously use a different solution, however, with ServiceNow, we find that it offers better scalability, ease of use, features, and functions.
How was the initial setup?
My team did not implement ServiceNow, we do not maintain it and we do not service it. We just use the product.
I don't know what they had on the setup and the implementation part in terms of setting up servers and configuring servers and things like that. I don't know what that entails. We just know when we got it, we got a product. So what difficulties they might've had setting in up with, I don't know. I can't speak to that.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I don't handle any aspect of the payments or licensing process. I can't speak to it from personal experience.
What other advice do I have?
I'm just a customer and an end-user.
I go in and approve service tickets, however, I am not a hardcore user of that platform. My team sends me a request, I open it up and I review the ticket and I approve it, and then it moves on. I don't follow the workflow or anything like that.
Our team uses the most recent version of the solution.
I would advise potential new users to make sure that in that user community, end-users are involved in the implementation from beginning to end and make sure that the end-users fully understand the features and capabilities of the tool before it is implemented across an organization. Their involvement is key to a successful implementation and very important.
I'd rate the solution at an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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