ServiceNow Change Management: The Complete Guide

ServiceNow Change Management is a critical component in modern enterprises. It ensures that changes to IT services and infrastructure are systematically managed.

This guide aims to provide comprehensive insights into ServiceNow Change Management, covering its importance, processes, benefits, and real-world applications.

ServiceNow is essential for leading organizations, powered by ITSM tools, customer support, cybersecurity, and more. Organizations use the ServiceNow platform to manage change and can be considered one of the best applications for change management. According to recent data, the global ITSM market is expected to be worth USD 22.1 billion by 2028, growing at a CAGR of 15.9%, indicating a significant adoption of platforms like ServiceNow in change management.

If you’re wondering how ServiceNow is leveraged for change, here’s how it works.

Sydney works on the database team, and she wants to make changes within the existing database for an application. In this case, she and her team have to create the change request to initiate the change process, which undergoes assessment, planning, implementation, and validation. An ITSM application like ServiceNow management can manage this whole process.

ServiceNow business stakeholders play a crucial role in ensuring that all changes align with organizational objectives and are implemented smoothly. Additionally, ServiceNow’s digital adoption is essential for maximizing the platform’s benefits and ensuring all users are proficient with its tools and processes.

Now, let’s get a deeper understanding of what change management is in ServiceNow, the types of changes, and the process of change management.

ServiceNow is an important software for any organization as it is powered with ITSM tools, customer support, cybersecurity, and more. The ServiceNow platform is majorly used by organizations to manage change and can be considered as one of the best applications for change management.

What is Change Management in IT?

IT Change Management is the IT service Management (ITSM) process that helps organizations to follow standard procedures and practices for effectively managing requests to drastically minimize the risk and disruptions a change can have on IT and business operations.

What is Change Management in ServiceNow?

ServiceNow is a robust cloud-based platform designed for IT Service Management (ITSM). It enables organizations to streamline operations through automated workflows. Adopting best practices in ServiceNow implementation helps organizations avoid ITSM pitfalls and achieve optimal performance. With its comprehensive suite of tools, ServiceNow supports various business functions, making it a key asset for modern IT departments.

Change Management in ServiceNow involves a systematic approach to controlling the life cycle of all changes, facilitating beneficial changes with minimal disruption to IT services.

ServiceNow has a change management tool to manage the change process effectively. The application has different features to help you govern and track the process throughout the change lifecycle.

Organizations can leverage ServiceNow’s change management workflow to achieve a smooth and efficient change management lifecycle.

ServiceNow Change Management Process

ServiceNow helps you to systematically initiate the change and helps your organization keep tabs on the following:

All these factors can be mapped using the ServiceNow platform. 

Generally, the process mentioned above is the workflow of ITSM change management. Now let’s see how the workflow works: 

Step 1 – Create Change Request: 

A request for change is created by an individual or a group of people for the steps to be implemented for a particular application. 

Step 2 – Review Change:

The created change is then reviewed extensively by a person of authority who will govern the change process and will decide whether the change is necessary or not. 

Step 3 – Change Evaluation:

Once the created change is reviewed, it is important to assess the impact, benefits, and risks to avoid unnecessary disruption within the IT setup. The evaluation is done by all the stakeholders who will be impacted by the change. 

Step 4 – Change Approvals:

At this stage, the change needs approval from the leadership and stakeholders across the organization, who will impact the change. It also helps all the stakeholders to be on the same page before the change process goes to the implementation stage. 

Step 5 – Implementation:

Once the approval is in place, the implementation partner and the service partner make the necessary changes. 

Step 6 – Validation:

Now, the implemented change is verified by a group of people to check whether it is working as intended and whether any component of the whole change ecosystem is broken. IT teams are diverse, and each department has different roles. So, the way they run checks for their dependencies will be different, as will the validation process. 

All the 6 steps summarize the ITSM change management workflows. Multiple people are involved throughout the process. Change Advisory Boards (CAB) will have a say in a crucial change process that could impact the overall business. 

ServiceNow management plays a crucial role in these steps by providing tools that streamline the process and ensure all aspects are covered. IT change management within ServiceNow ensures that changes are effectively managed and controlled, minimizing disruption. Adopting change management ITIL practices within ServiceNow helps maintain consistency and compliance throughout the change lifecycle.

Solutions to change management challenges

4 Types of Changes within ServiceNow

Not all change initiatives are equal, so there are, in general, 4 types of change requests within the ServiceNow platform:

Standard: Pre-authorized and low-risk change that follows specified procedures of work. It can be frequently implemented, and no CAB approval is required. It can be executed using defined templates.

ServiceNow management ensures that standard changes are handled efficiently with minimal disruption.

Normal: This type of change follows the complete change lifecycle. It needs two-level approvals and must be planned well ahead of time. It usually has a major impact on the business process and overall IT workflows. Normal change requires complete evaluation before the execution phase. The implementation process can only be executed during maintenance and usually needs regular assessment. The involvement of ServiceNow business stakeholders is crucial in normal changes to align with organizational goals.

Emergency: This type of change needs to be executed immediately. It is implemented to resolve high-priority issues. In this type of change, execution is given precedence over authorization. So, the change record is created after the implementation. Effective ServiceNow adoption ensures emergency changes are handled swiftly and efficiently.

Expedited: Changes that are high priority and require implementation ahead of the required lead time but are not emergencies. Expedited changes may be required due to customer requirements, a missed CAB deadline, or a vendor requirement. The authorization required varies depending on risk.

Using a Digital Adoption Platform like Apty can help manage expedited changes by providing contextual guidance and ensuring compliance with ServiceNow management protocols. Additionally, understanding the ServiceNow implementation cost is important for effectively planning and budgeting these changes.

ServiceNow Change Management best practices

The potential of ServiceNow supersedes its complexity. Organizations must plan and use ServiceNow implementation best practices to achieve business outcomes from the initiative. 

Here are the 3 critical ServiceNow best practices:

A. Create Service Strategy

ServiceNow is just a tool; when used properly, it can help you reap maximum benefits, but you must have a service strategy.

Most organizations follow set rules or processes to address the needs of their internal or external users. Businesses need to review the current state of the service process, identify the gaps, and analyze whether the existing business process aligns with the organization’s organization’s needs. Create new service processes and workflows before deploying the ServiceNow application.

B. Align people and processes

Smooth implementation is crucial to success, but the sustainability of your ServiceNow initiative relies on how people are aligned with the new processes.

Start by defining goals and verifying whether the leadership is in line with the set goals or not. Then communicate this to the stakeholders and ensure that they understand the impact of ServiceNow implementation on their daily work. Addressing ServiceNow challenges and ServiceNow barriers during this phase is crucial.

Finally, open the feedback channel to address your employees’ grievances.

C. Ensure User Adoption

It is a well-known fact that user adoption starts during the implementation process when you analyze the test group. This helps you understand their requirements and alter the processes to match their needs.

Alternatively, you can also identify the gap in user understanding and create training content that can cater to their needs. Organizations often think that creating training programs will drive adoption. This is correct to some extent, but it is not entirely true.

An organization needs to understand the current state of its employees’ capabilities and the processes that will be deployed. It should also consider the complexity of the application.

Then, they should create a digital adoption strategy that trains the employees and ensures that they complete their tasks within ServiceNow in an intended manner. Using a digital adoption platform like Apty will significantly enhance the adoption process by providing real-time, contextual in-app guidance.

Implementing these ServiceNow best practices can help organizations avoid common ServiceNow pitfalls and maximize the benefits of their ServiceNow adoption efforts.

Relevant Read: 6 key Features of ServiceNow Change Management

Ensure Seamless ServiceNow Change Management Training with Apty

Over 70% of change management initiatives fail, and ServiceNow change management is no exception, often proving even more complex. Organizations must develop simple processes and empower their workforce with state-of-the-art training programs to counter this.

However, a world-class training program alone isn’t sufficient. Organizations also need robust process implementation and digital adoption strategies. This can be achieved through a Digital Adoption Platform for ServiceNow.

A Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) helps organizations understand the usage patterns of their existing service applications. This insight allows for the design of new processes tailored to ServiceNow.

Once ServiceNow is deployed, the DAP can provide further insights into user interactions. Identifying user struggles enables the creation of effective training content. Organizations can use DAP to create walkthroughs, videos, PDFs, PPTs, and knowledge base pages. The training content created with DAP is usually contextual, helping businesses track the state of ServiceNow adoption.

Apty’s innovative approach to digital adoption goes beyond typical training or onboarding methods. It offers a comprehensive suite of features, including contextual in-app guidance, user analytics, automation, and self-service capabilities, making adopting and leveraging ServiceNow easier. By reducing incident resolution time and increasing service availability, Apty minimizes service disruptions, enhancing user productivity and customer satisfaction.

Investing in Apty’s robust digital adoption platform for ServiceNow ensures you maximize the ROI on your ServiceNow investment.

Other Important Aspects of ServiceNow

Automated risk assessment is possible with the change management application of ServiceNow. After uploading the requirements and criteria of the change, the tool can perform a risk assessment for you which you can easily see within the change application. 

Moreover, the Analytics feature of the application is robust helping you to see the complete picture of your change efforts and guiding you to take major decisions based on the progress.

Final Thoughts: ServiceNow Change Management

The ServiceNow application is powered by multiple capabilities, and it is one of the complete ITSM applications you can ask for.

Since it is a complicated application it would be ideal to use efficient training tools to make most of your ServiceNow investments. Get in touch with us to know how the Digital Adoption Platform can help you to train the employees on ServiceNow.