ServiceNow cloud-based ticketing solution for a large US Enterprise Customer
Business Challenges
The client’s IT staff had to create tickets manually for all incoming service requests and rely on a customized table to track the requests. Additionally, they had to manually add the requests and updates to the Configuration Management Database (CMDB) thus turning it into a repository of data inputs.
The absence of a formal workflow following the opening of a new ticket failed to dynamically route requests to the right IT individuals. For instance, a call from a C-level executive could not be routed to the right IT person. Also, there was no formal way to notify IT staff on approaching deadlines to address service requests. The practice of manually updating CMDB made all the data inputs disjointed, thereby failing to create dependent relationship rules.- The cumulative impact of this was the failure to track requests and asset repair histories. Though the client was able to store data about incidents and how they were resolved, they struggled to link those details to the actual systems involved. This made the entire process of resolving requests too time consuming, error-prone, and repetitive. All these made it difficult for the client to control and measure the effectiveness of their IT infrastructure and efficiency of their IT staff.
The Solutions
Based on the business challenges, it was obvious that the client needed a comprehensive ticketing management tool to handle incident, request, problem, and change management.
Our experts were of the opinion that a Cloud-based ticketing solution could be the best answer because it would provide automatic updates to the client’s IT team and introduce process transparency for end-to-end tracking. After weighing all the options our experts concluded that the unique delivery model of ServiceNow Ticketing System made it the best fit solution for resolving the client’s everyday internal IT issues.
We formed a team of ServiceNow Administrators for implementing a ServiceNow ticketing solution. Their knowledge of ServiceNow systems analysis techniques, procedures, and ability to determine functional specifications helped devise a solution that obviated the need to rely on the IT team to submit a ticket wait for the updates.
The solution enabled employees to report issues through multiple channels namely chat, email, service desk or ServiceNow ticketing portal. Issues raised through the channels were addressed and prioritized according to urgency and business impact and forwarded to the support agent most skilled to address the issue. A request could be closed only after providing relevant information such as type of fix,time of update,instructions screenshot etc. We programmed the ticketing system to send alerts to the IT staff on approaching deadlines.
Furthermore, the progress made on the raised tickets could be tracked real-time, and updates were provided by the handling support agent.
Our solution included the creation of a logical data model to establish a relationship between the service asset and configuration management process. This helped to identify sources of information, map relationship between assets and break down silos with a single view of all tables.
Our solution facilitated the client’s IT management team in the following:
Store and manage master data about users like cost center, location, contacts, job designation etc. in a single table.
Onboard new users with ease, grant them access, with a query form pertaining to access.
Consider the request of the user, their region, and cost center to determine the approval level they should be granted for accessing the system.
Handle requests sent in by users through the app and determine the time needed to fulfil the task or request.
Business Impact
With the help of the ServiceNow ticketing tool the client was able to:
Define and enforce formal workflows to the process of raising requests through tickets
Reduce time taken for ticket resolution by 50%
Map and understand complex CI relationships across tables
Notify IT staff about nearing deadlines
Import and standardize external data into CMDB