ServiceNow, Service Tomorrow, Service Forever
May 27, 2016

ServiceNow, Service Tomorrow, Service Forever

Michael Sypes | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with ServiceNow

ServiceNow is being used across our entire business organization. It is our primary mechanism for front line personnel to report problems to our IT service desk. The Information Technology Department uses ServiceNow to track and manage reported incidents, tasks, projects and their resolutions. We also use it as the centerpiece of our change management control. ServiceNow also provides us with a significant portion of our project management flow.
  • Easy tracking of individuals' input and time spent
  • Automated email updates on work items
  • Tight integration among components
  • Massive and at times confusing interface
  • Too many categories of items with seemingly arbitrary differences in functionality
  • Honing in on just what you need is difficult for a basic user
  • Centralized system for dealing with service issues
  • Makes change management easier
  • Project management tools aren't great for planning sessions
I was not involved in the selection of ServiceNow. I am just an end user for this software. The other tools I have used were more directed toward project management, rather than issue tracking. At times, ServiceNow stacks up well, making it easy to address tasks assigned to me, communicate and collaborate with stake holders, and track time spent.

On the other hand, I find the separate categories of items - incidents, tasks, projects, etc., to be overwhelming and unnecessary. As far as I'm concerned everything is "something I've got o do." I can automatically create change tasks for some, but not others, which makes little sense to me.
ServiceNow is an enterprise level solution for managing service incidents, tasks, and projects. It is best suited for large organizations with the manpower to educate administrators of such a massive system. There is no doubt a lot of configuration and specialized knowledge involved in using this tool well. Smaller teams will find it unwieldy as it presents a lot of information which may or may not be useful to individuals.

ServiceNow IT Service Management Feature Ratings

Organize and prioritize service tickets
8
Expert directory
Not Rated
Service restoration
Not Rated
Self-service tools
Not Rated
Subscription-based notifications
6
ITSM collaboration and documentation
6
ITSM reports and dashboards
Not Rated
Configuration mangement
Not Rated
Asset management dashboard
Not Rated
Policy and contract enforcement
Not Rated
Change requests repository
10
Change calendar
9
Service-level management
Not Rated

Using ServiceNow

500 - At least 500 people across our organization use ServiceNow to report incidents to our information technology service desk. End users represent front line managers, corporate office workers of all stripes, service desk personnel and other members of the IT department, including programmers, database administrators, and network administrators. Our management personnel also use ServiceNow to track progress on issue resolutions.
2 - We have a handful of people that I am aware of to support and administer ServiceNow. At least two people in my department have the training and know how to keep the system properly configured and up and running on a daily basis. It is vital that an organization have such people and keep them informed and educated, as the system is very complex.
  • Incident reporting
  • Issue tracking
  • Change management
  • I don't know which features we use are out-of-the-box and which are custom solutions
Our organization seems to be committed to using this powerful software tool. I am not involved in any of the decision making process for this. The primary users and administrators are very happy with ServiceNow's utility.

Using ServiceNow

Some things are easy, while other things are hard
ProsCons
Well integrated
Do not like to use
Unnecessarily complex
Requires technical support
Cumbersome
Lots to learn
  • Tracking time spent on items
  • Communicating with stake holders
  • Maintaining a to-do list
  • Linking changes to items
  • Recognizing arbitrary differences in types of items - incidents vs tasks
  • Ugly flat-style interface that's all the range now, but makes it difficult to recognize buttons from decorations

ServiceNow Reliability

ServiceNow works as an enterprise solution.
We have never had any issues with ServiceNow's availability that I am aware of in the two years I have been using it.
For a massive system, page loads are reasonably quick, including searches.