Powerful yet Clunky
October 24, 2019

Powerful yet Clunky

Gardiner Jones | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with ServiceNow

ServiceNow is used at my business organization across the entire organization for CI (Configuration Item) inventory, service desk ticketing, infrastructure design and build requests and specifications, firewall rule change requests, and is tied to AutoCloud for the automated deployment of Cloud based virtual machines (VMware). In short, everything related to IT in my company uses ServiceNow.
  • When I have a number of requests to make, for example a request to add a dozen or so user accounts to more than one group account in Active Directory , I can put all the needed information into the initial form, add it to my "shopping cart" and all of that information remains on the screen for the next item for which I only need to edit a few items (like the AD group name in this example), and keep adding them to the shopping cart until I have them all. When I "Check Out" each of those items is generated as a separate task under the one request. It simplifies and expedites the creation and tracking of these kinds of requests.
  • I can easily and quickly see what tickets are currently assigned to me in order to prioritize them and remain aware of my workload.
  • Numerous fields for CIs can be used when trying to find the entry for a particular item. For example, IP Address, server name, raw text, classification, and so on.
  • To help with making sense out of related tasks, when a task is assigned to me and I need to open another task for a different team to work in order to complete my task, I can open a sub-task from my ticket so that the relationship between the two can be pulled up later into reports. For example, I may have a task to build a new vm, and need to open tasks for networking, security accounts, software installation and so on. By opening sub-tasks from my assignment, the time spent by all parties concerned is tied together for more meaningful cost accounting.
  • Finding requests that I opened and have since been completed by the assigned group/individual is very difficult to accomplish unless I've written down the request numbers somewhere.
  • Requests that I opened and are subsequently closed, often continue to appear in the list of "My Open Requests" giving the appearance that they were not completed when in fact they were.
  • It may exist, but if it does I haven't found it yet, which makes it less than intuitive, but I would like to see the ability to recall a request in ServiceNow.
  • I believe our firewall rule change request for is a custom form, but it has a serious drawback. If I submit such a request and need to make a correction to it before it is approved, there isn't anyway for me to do so. The request has to first be rejected with the creation of a sub-task in order to edit it before it is resubmitted for approval.
  • I am not privy to ROI data for my company's use of ServiceNow
Originally designed for software bug tracking, JIRA is much easier to use than ServiceNow. It lacks the CMDB power of ServiceNow, but can be adapted for not only ticketing, but change management as well. I worked with both SerivceNow at my previous employer who tossed it in favor of JIRA. We lost the CMDB data, but quickly adapted across the entire IT organization using it for both ticketing and change management.
Custom process flows when needed for AutoCloud server builds take quite a lot of time, as in days and sometimes weeks. Other than that, however, I do not have first-hand knowledge of support for ServiceNow

Do you think ServiceNow IT Service Management delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with ServiceNow IT Service Management's feature set?

Yes

Did ServiceNow IT Service Management live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of ServiceNow IT Service Management go as expected?

I wasn't involved with the implementation phase

Would you buy ServiceNow IT Service Management again?

Yes

In very large enterprises. ServiceNow can handle a multitude of operations to help with overall IT management. The downside is two-fold: it can get quite clunky at times, and is expensive. While much of it is not intuitive and can be difficult to figure out and use, it has quite a wide range of reporting capabilities. If set up properly with solid process flows, it can be a tremendous tool for IT consumers, technicians and management.

ServiceNow IT Service Management Feature Ratings

Organize and prioritize service tickets
7
Expert directory
5
Service restoration
6
Self-service tools
6
Subscription-based notifications
5
ITSM collaboration and documentation
Not Rated
ITSM reports and dashboards
6
Configuration mangement
6
Asset management dashboard
6
Policy and contract enforcement
5
Change requests repository
7
Service-level management
7