The importance of business as usual for MSPs adopting ServiceNow

Imagine the scenario: as Chief Operating Officer, you have explained to the board of your Managed Service Provider (MSP) that you are implementing ServiceNow, and with it a whole new level of service automation. The purpose, you explain, is to make your operations far more robust and efficient, with the opportunity to scale and support growth, while controlling costs. And yet, in a buoyant market, sales and profits have begun to stagnate over the period of the implementation.

That’s one difficult conversation. While embarking on the digital transformation journey with the best of intentions, a failure to grasp the complexities involved can lead to delays, distractions, budget overruns and missing important financial targets. So, how can MSPs navigate a path that embraces innovation and automation while also taking care of day-to-day business?

MSPs: a special case

Let’s not underplay the challenges. MSPs are highly complex businesses that involve bringing together a whole raft of backend IT systems and technologies to deliver and support solutions that span across telephony, networking, connectivity, hosting, cloud applications, cybersecurity, IT support services and more. There is plenty to get your head around without the additional burden of introducing a new service management suite. Added to this, ServiceNow is a massively capable platform, and there is a steep learning curve to be conversant about what’s possible with the technology, let alone acquire the capability to implement, develop and run the system.

In fact, to run ServiceNow successfully at any scale or complexity you will need a ServiceNow Centre of Excellence (CoE). It then becomes a major effort to find and afford the disciplines in the necessary quantity required for a fully operational ServiceNow CoE.

1. Support - including Performance and Administration
2. Customer and IT Service Management configuration and best practices
3. Portal, Workspaces and UX development
4. ITOM, Integrations and CMDB design, population and best practices
5. Quality Assurance and Release
6. Customer Success - including Business Analysts and Solution Architects
7. Training
8. Project and Engagement Management
9. AI and Machine Learning
10. Plus other specialisms such as IRM, SPM, Custom Apps and more…

Only the largest enterprises can afford enough of the constituent disciplines of the CoE to be successful enough for the price tag. This applies to customers going it alone or with a professional services partner doing the implementation for them. Imagine the distraction of trying to find and recruit a team of ServiceNow specialists like this and the associated costs. Even ensuring your implementation partner has all of the required disciplines dedicated to your project can be a frustration, as you may only discover you don’t have access to a specialist skill the very moment you need it most.

With great power comes great responsibility 

ServiceNow is a powerful service management and integration platform for MSPs. You may have an idea of what you want it to achieve, but the path of getting to the desired business outcomes requires experience, skills and knowledge that cannot be acquired simply by adding a couple of developers to your team. Many have tried this and failed. ServiceNow can eradicate unnecessary duplicate processes, automate repetitive and error-prone manual tasks and provide better visibility with real-time data and insights. However, this is not a journey you should embark on alone.

You will need help from experts. First and foremost, as an MSP you are responsible for the growth and success of your business and the health of your customer’s ICT services. This is why it is paramount to get a trusted partner on board that understands ServiceNow, as well as the MSP sector. We suggest you start a relationship with such a partner right at the very beginning of your journey, ideally before you have purchased a single ServiceNow license.

Dangerous distractions

Finding the right ServiceNow partner is just the start but will help you at every subsequent part of the process. They can help determine the right license mix, as this is just as important as negotiating the right costs for each license type. Having a plan for the stages of implementation and each milestone thereafter is essential and your partner’s experience here will reap rewards. As an enterprise solution, ServiceNow is far too big a deal to be implemented on day one, as it touches almost every part of your business. But your focus must always remain on delivering value to customers. Working with the right partner, you will be able to plan your rollout in a way that doesn’t require excessive months of work before you start to see value.

Working all of this out for yourself when your organisation has never been through this experience before is very daunting. There is a lot to learn. The benefits of a solid relationship with a ServiceNow partner means you can continue to focus on growing your business, rather than recruiting and funding your own CoE, or wasting time trying to make the solution fit existing anarchic processes. Real guidance through every stage is required from experienced hands that have been there before and can ensure you won’t have to learn lessons by making expensive mistakes.

A new hope - lightsaber not included

POPX has developed an alternative model, think of it as your own virtual ServiceNow CoE, that provides all the necessary disciplines in the right quantities as they are required. This is done at a fixed price most medium-sized organisations can afford – we believe it will result in a significant improvement in your MSP’s operating model and its performance while reducing overheads and increasing EBITDA. This approach allows you to focus on growing your MSP business while implementing, enhancing and running ServiceNow effectively with everything you need in one package. For more information on how POPX can help your MSP transform its operations with ServiceNow, please get in touch.

The POPX MSP Platform is powered by ServiceNow