ServiceNow IT Service Management (ITSM): Your All-in-One Toolkit for Modern IT Excellence

Have you ever asked yourself how some of the world’s leading companies handle their IT services so perfectly?

In today’s digital age, businesses lean significantly on technology. From hardware assets, and software licenses, to IT support requests, handling these services is a complex task.

According to research conducted by Unisys Corporation, about 49% of the surveyed employees say that IT issues cost them between 1 to 5 hours of productivity per week.

Those lost productivity hours mount quickly, leading to millions in lost revenue, and decreasing employee and customer satisfaction.

But what if you could break from these IT issues, and create a workforce where technology supports your employees? ServiceNow IT Service Management (ITSM) is a platform that allows businesses to have resilient IT services and create experiences that boost team productivity.

Here in this blog, we’ll help you find out what ServiceNow ITSM is, and how it can help you achieve modern IT excellence.

So, let’s get started.

What is ServiceNow ITSM?

ServiceNow was introduced initially as a platform that focuses on IT service management (ITSM).

It is a modern, cloud-based, silo-busting service management platform.

Simply put, it is your all-in-one toolkit for consolidating different IT services and tools a business needs into a single platform to help them achieve modern IT experiences.

It manages every aspect of IT within the organization from setting up fundamental equipment to detecting and addressing unplanned service disturbances or other perturbing incidents.

ServiceNow ITSM also utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning capabilities to automate routine tasks, predict issues, and offer proactive solutions.

In summary, ServiceNow ITSM is a digital solution that manages an organization’s IT resources for every end user. These IT resources could be anything from hardware to software applications to virtual servers. The end-users of these resources include customers, employees, or stakeholders.

ITSM ensures these IT resources are deployed, operated, and managed in the best possible way.

How does ServiceNow ITSM work?

ServiceNow ITSM works on a unified IT cloud platform that consolidates all your IT tools into one platform. It aligns with the ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) which ensures that the IT services of an organization are aligned with its needs.

Why does ITIL matter in defining how ServiceNow ITSM works? ITSM has several modules such as incident management, change management, problem management, etc. All these modules are designed following the ITIL standards.

These modules are similar to menu options that enable users to access specific functionality of ITSM. These modules are bundled together to help enterprises achieve specific business purposes i.e. seamless IT services.

Let’s take a closer look at the ServiceNow ITSM modules to learn how ITSM works;

1. Incident management

This module helps IT teams to identify and act upon the incidents that could disrupt normal IT operations. It has a centralized interface enabling users to create, track, and manage all the incidents.

Here is how incident management works in ITSM; –

• Incident logging: Employees can submit the incident details using email, web, phone, mobile application, or self-service portals.
• Incident assignment: Assigning incidents to the right agent using AI and machine learning.
• Prioritizing: Based on the impact of incidents priorities are assigned, ensuring high-impact incidents are resolved earlier.
• Single-pane agent view: The agents are provided with detailed information about the incident and AI recommendations help them resolve the issue faster. It offers additional features as well such as an incident response playbook, knowledge base management, and guided setup to fast-track incident resolution.

2. Problem management module

This ITSM module is designed to identify, manage, and resolve the root cause of IT services-related incidents to prevent them from occurring in the future.

Here is how the ITSM problem management module works;

• Problem identification: Identifying the root cause of the problem using preventive methods and underlying causes.
• Problem assignment: A problem is assigned to a group based on their knowledge base.
• Problem resolution: It works in a structured workflow for the diagnosis of the root cause and fixes it. This ensures no recurring incidents of a similar type that may impact organizations’ IT services.
• Remediation courses: Enable the IT teams to eliminate issues at sources, therefore no future recurrence.

3. Change management module

It ensures that all the changes that you want to make in your IT systems are carried out in a controlled and orderly manner. By identifying, and mitigating potential risks it ensures the seamless process of implementing changes to IT systems.

Here is how the ServiceNow ITSM change management module works;

• Change identification: The IT teams can submit the change requests. ITSM will mark the request as standard, normal, or emergency, depending on their business impact.
• Change approval: The change request is routed to the appropriate group or individual for the approval process.
• Change scheduling: Plan the change to avoid potential conflicts. It also provides visualization of all the planned changes, blackouts, and more.
• Change implementation: Centralized view of all the change requests, so the IT team can prioritize and resolve issues. AI recommendations and contextual knowledge sharing fast-track the change implementation.
• Change evaluation: Measures the effectiveness and outcome of each change with built-in analytics. With feedback and review mechanisms, continuous improvements can be made to ensure changes are aligned with the business goals.

4. Asset management module

It helps enterprises track, manage, and optimize the entire lifecycle of their IT assets including hardware, software, cloud, mobile devices, and more.

Here is how the ServiceNow ITSM asset management module works;

• Asset identification: The IT team can register the assets according to their categories like hardware or software. This could be done easily using barcode scanning, and RFID tagging.
• Asset categorization: Assets are classified according to their type, such as hardware, software, and cloud.
• Asset lifecycle management: Ensures assets are efficiently procured, deployed, maintained, and disposed of throughout their lifecycle.
• Compliance management: Monitors the adherence to licensing requirements by software applications.
• Cost tracking: Keep track of the cost for each asset including its purchase, maintenance, and associated expenses.
• Reporting: Prepares asset utilization, cost lifecycle, and other reports.

This is how ServiceNow ITSM works across different IT operations. There are also a few other ServiceNow ITSM modules that should be mentioned here, including the Configuration Management Database (CMDB), Service Catalog Module, Service Level Management Module, and Knowledge Management Module.

ServiceNow ITSM tool features & benefits

ServiceNow IT Service Management offers a suite of features that can be scaled up as your business expands.

Now Assist

It helps IT teams to use generative AI capabilities to maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of the IT services. Now Assist has the following capabilities;

• Chat summarization
• Incident summarization
• Resolution notes creation
• Incident reassignment

All these capabilities of Now Assist can be easily accessed through the user-friendly Now Assist Panel in the Service Operations Workplace for ITSM.

Configuration Management Database (CMDB)

It is a centralized database holding all the data related to your IT environment. CMDB helps you better understand your IT environments, leading to better decisions. Here are the capabilities of the ServiceNow Configuration Management Database (CMDB);

• Centralized storage of all the IT related data
• Search functionality to make it easier to find the relevant information
• Health and activity tracking of IT assets
• Collecting external data into the CMDB
• Relationship mapping

Knowledge Management

ITSM Knowledge Management facilitates the process of creating, sharing, utilizing, and managing enterprise knowledge. It offers the following benefits to IT teams;

• Creating and sharing knowledge
• Microsoft Word online integration to deliver a familiar writing experience to users
• Categorizing the knowledge for easy retrieval
• Knowledge base for self-service options for the people in the organization
• Feedback management
• AI searches for relevant information
• Translation management

Predictive intelligence

ServiceNow ITSM has a layer of AI that automates tasks, resolves issues faster, and enhances the overall working experience. Here are the benefits of predictive intelligence for ITSM;

• Uses machine learning to classify the tasks, incidents, and cases at scale
• Smart suggestions powered by natural language processing to solve issues faster
• Automatically routes and assigns the issues
• Proactively detects the incidents

Single workspace to predict, prevent, and resolve issues

Service Operations Workspace is a unified interface that enables the IT teams to predict, prevent, and resolve issues. With everything in one place, it becomes easier to resolve issues faster, minimizing the impact.

Here is how Single Operations Workspace empowers enterprises;

• Easy collaboration across different service operations and teams
• Configurable interface to stay informed about critical alerts and incidents that matter the most

Performance Analytics

ITSM empowers stakeholders, owners, employees, and other persons responsible for service delivery to make real-time decisions backed by the data. Visualizing data simplifies the process of anticipating trends, allocating resources, and aligning IT with business objectives.

Mobile accessibility

ITSM Mobile Agent application is available for both Android and iOS platforms. It allows IT professionals to manage their work from anywhere. This mobile application offers the following capabilities;

• IT professionals can view, update details, note incidents, and take action as needed
• Real-time status for tasks
• Push notifications
• Approve or reject the requests
• Offline access to the knowledge base
• Team performance monitoring

Easy compliance

ITSM framework makes it easy for organizations to align with regulatory compliance. Whether they’re about protecting data or meeting any industry-specific compliance requirements.

Omnichannel experience

ServiceNow IT Service Management tool enables the employees to get the help they need easily and quickly from any device, and channel.

Clearly defined roles and responsibilities

ITSM helps in precisely delineating the roles and responsibilities of individuals or departments. This ensures that each employee is accountable for their tasks.

ServiceNow ITSM pricing

ITSM has a custom quotes-based pricing system. The process involves business value assessment and providing tailored pricing for each business based on their requirements.

ServiceNow ITSM is available in three different editions;

• ITSM standards
• ITSM professional (ITSM Pro)
• ITSM enterprise

Each edition is designed to support businesses at different stages of growth and digital transformation.

ServiceNow ITSM standard edition has the following capabilities;

• Incident management
• Problem management
• Change management
• Release management
• Asset and cost management
• Request management
• Digital portfolio management
• Virtual agent lite
• Walk-up experience
• Service operations workspace
• All Now platform capabilities

ServiceNow IT Service Management pro edition has all the capabilities of standard edition plus the following;

• Virtual agent with natural language understanding (NLU)
• Performance analytics
• Dynamic translation
• Continual improvement
• Vendor manager workspace
• Cloud call center
• DevOps change & config

ITSM enterprise edition has included all the features of ITSM pro edition with additional offerings like;

• Workforce optimization
• Process optimization

You can get the custom quote for the pricing of ServiceNow ITSM by getting in touch with ServiceNow consulting firm.

Final take

ServiceNow ITSM is an ideal solution for companies of all sizes, and industries for achieving modern IT excellence. The success of the global giants of National Grid, Royal College of Art, Sentara, Asahi, Davies, etc is a testament to the transformative power of ITSM. These global giants have not only improved their operational efficiency but also significantly boosted their customer satisfaction rates.

Want to learn more about ServiceNow IT Service Management and how it can help your businesses? Let’s connect with us to embrace the future of IT service management.