ServiceNow Now Platform Reviews

It's a very comprehensive platform. So, really, you can do anything with it that requires integration with other systems, as well as build bespoke applications on the platform itself. 

It's not just limited to service management; you can actually build your own applications.

When you activate the ServiceNow platform, the core ITIL processes—incident management, problem management, change management, and others—are enabled. This means your internal processes are aligned with ITIL v4 best practices from day one.

So, while ServiceNow's service management functionality is primarily internal, you're ultimately providing a service whether it's to internal or external users. 

By having those processes in place, the traceability, and features like virtual assistants that we're all used to – where we can just go in and start having a chat, and then the ability for it to pass the conversation to the actual agent, and then you can start chatting with the agent.... that all streamlines support.

The agent can also have internal discussions with other senior technical resources if they need to, all while they're looking at this issue.

Then, there's the dedicated Customer Service Management (CSM) application, which is primarily for external support in B2B or B2C scenarios. This module is all focused on end customers, how they can interact with the organization, and how the organization can provide the service. Because of the auditing and all those other reasons, the quality of service that you're providing to your customer is both monitored and maintained, and everything is audited in the system. 

So that's how you improve your service by looking at your processes, looking at any stage where there might be a blockage or something taking a long time, and fixing those issues. That's what these platforms are designed to do.

It integrates very well with most systems. I have yet to come across a system that it cannot integrate with.

It's very intuitive and easy to use. The flexibility and user-friendliness of ServiceNow are key reasons it's such a popular cloud solution.

There's always room for improvement, but I think the biggest challenge with ServiceNow is the licensing model. It's not very clear and changes frequently. And it is an expensive product. So, those are the things that are lacking. The platform itself is technically excellent, but licensing and cost can be barriers.

I have been working with this product for ten years. 

It's a cloud solution; scalability isn't a problem. So, it scales well aside from the licensing considerations.

The customer service and support are very good. 

Positive

I have worked previously with BMC Remedy for about 10 to 15 years, deploying both on-premise and cloud solutions.

ServiceNow was designed from the ground up as a cloud solution. BMC Remedy began as on-premise software and then adapted to offer a cloud solution. Because of that, ServiceNow often has a slight edge in terms of cloud-native features. 

BMC is catching up, and there's little difference in what the two platforms can do overall.

The initial setup is very straightforward. Obviously, you need to know what you're doing.
There are a lot of courses and training required to deploy a ServiceNow platform effectively. ServiceNow administrators can do a lot, but there might also be niche products, like HR for example, that require specialized understanding.

If you're going with out-of-the-box settings and just configuring your system, then you can actually deploy it as early as three months. So, the deployment time varies.

It saves money or brings profit for large enterprise organizations. For small or even medium-sized companies, the cost might be difficult to justify.

In my opinion, it is expensive. However, they do offer favorable licensing for charities, for example. 

For standard commercial use, it is one of the more expensive options.

A very rough minimum might be in the range of $50,000+ per year, but that depends on many factors.

Overall, I would rate the solution a ten out of ten. It's one of the best.

I would recommend using it. 

We use the solution for workflows. We'll build custom workflows and key and ticket queues. It's used to cover data center needs - everything from 800-number incoming calls to full outage and incident reporting. It handles a lot of aspects, including shipping and receiving as well as property management workflows. It's being used as a client-facing workflow system. 

Any kind of customer setup can be done on ServiceNow.

It can do anything so long as you throw enough money at it. 

It can integrate anywhere, and you can make any kind of workflow or SLA management.

Compared to Jira, ServiceNow is too heavy. It's not user-friendly. The solution isn't ideal for non-technical people. 

It's not quick or cheap. 

While it is very customizable, it's hard to get there.

Technical support could be more helpful. 

The technical support is not super helpful. You need to do a lot of work yourself. 

Neutral

I'm beginning to consider Jira as an alternative. It's lighter and easier to use. Also, Jira does a lot more updates centrally to their system than ServiceNow does. However, I haven't yet vetted it as an ITSM.

The solution isn't very user-friendly and is a very heavy lift for when you are starting and setting up custom setups. 

In terms of maintenance, our IT department is only so big. It does require maintenance in terms of customization, and that can be a lot. 

The solution is expensive. 

We're customers and end-users. 

It doesn't offer an on-premises option. It's all SaaS.

I'd advise potential users to look at it carefully and take time, depending on your runway. If you are an enterprise that has a full year of runway and the resources for ServiceNow and needs customizations, it may be fine. If a company isn't at the enterprise level, it might prefer a more streamlined ITSM option. 

I'd rate the solution seven out of ten. It really can do anything in terms of workflow and ticketing. It's just hard. It really depends on how many resources you can throw at it in terms of time and money.

ServiceNow is our ticket management and remediation system. We use it for other things as needed. We have about 400-500 people on the project management side. 

ServiceNow can document and produce a historical working tool that deals with projects themselves. The user interface is another strong suit. 

It is still difficult to build a set of services in ServiceNow. It can be done, but it is one of the more difficult things to do. If we're talking about scalability, we're talking about the ability to actually build that set of services a little easier.

I've been using ServiceNow since I joined the company in March of last year.

I rate ServiceNow 10 out of 10 for stability. You only need to go through updates once or twice to realize ServiceNow is a highly stable platform and continues to be one.

I rate ServiceNow nine out of 10 for scalability. 

I rate ServiceNow nine out of 10 for ease of setup. We didn't have any issues. 

I rate ServiceNow Now Platform 10 out of 10. I've seen various CMDBs like it, and ServiceNow is everything we're looking for. 

As a solution architect and developer working on service management and HR, many of my projects cover the development of modules for

• operations management,
  
• project management,
  
• finance management,
  
• resource management, 
• governance,
  
• risk and compliance,
  

and more, typically within the sphere of business management in general.

For me and my team, ServiceNow Now Platform has many capabilities that we  leverage to bring solutions to the problem statements in these areas, mainly according to agile methodology.

If we are required, for example, to extend an application to external or internal users of your company, we would use ServiceNow to help with this process. Specifically, in this case, we would use HRSD (HR Service Delivery) which interlinks all of your own employees, external users, and others. The CSM part of ServiceNow aids in linking all your business services that are being used by service providers and everyone else, and it enables you to derive your own organizational service management structure exactly as you want it.

ServiceNow also provides a powerful system that gives you ample information on what has broken and where, and offers plenty of solutions for fixing those things, particularly when it comes to orchestration, which really extends your capability for automation. You could say that it brings a sort of intelligence into your organization with its various features and functionalities. 

Having implemented ServiceNow Now Platform for many global clients with millions of users over the years, I have seen it in use across vendors, former resources, internal resources, external resources, and amongst these in many different ways and through many different applications.

Our standard deployment environment nowadays is via the cloud, and we don't keep anything on-premise. However, I have previously implemented ServiceNow Now Platform on-premises during the initial stages of working with ServiceNow in the banking sector where we deployed it on-premise, but they eventually never released it. This work mainly involved the ITSM and operations part of ServiceNow Now Platform.

We also utilize ServiceNow to help take care of cloud and asset management, such as when dealing with the licensing for Azure, Amazon Web Services, and so on. Then there's the work I've done with ServiceNow Security Operations, which involved using various SecOps modules for security incidents, etc., and which required integrations with tools such as Tanium, Splunk, and Azure Security Management. Here we used ServiceNow to generate the events, security incident alerts, and more, and currently we still have remediation tasks being completed in ServiceNow, where the risk assessment features and other solutions are in place to orchestrate everything.

The customer service management aspect of ServiceNow Now Platform lets you create your own custom organizational service management structure just the way you want it, while providing a troubleshooting system that helps you figure out what's broken and how to fix it with multiple possible solutions. ServiceNow's orchestration mechanisms also help to extend an organization's automation capabilities in such a way as to bring a real sort of intelligence to the table.

At this point, over and above what ServiceNow actually is, the key is that it's really nothing but a web service. Whether it's a form or anything, the best part is that you can easily leverage anything of ServiceNow for any application anywhere just by calling the REST endpoints and handling the request messages.

Let's say you want to onboard new users or customers, import new company details, or add any different type of data — with ServiceNow Now Platform, this becomes easy. As a concrete example, suppose you have some users on Active Directory, some on LDAP, and some on your own cloud, you can integrate all of these users and uniquely manage them with ease thanks to how mature ServiceNow is in terms of scalability and flexibility. 

Concerning the new features that they're releasing, it does feel as if something is missing in terms of customization options.

Something else I have noticed is that ServiceNow don't give you much support when it comes to implementing functionality that you have developed yourself.

That said, I think ServiceNow has become a major contender in this market and many other solutions are simply following in ServiceNow's wake. There are a lot of improvements happening all the time, and the way in which it has grown over a decade of development really tells its own story. Nowadays, it's a constantly-evolving centralized application that provides ample solutions for both businesses and developers.

One example of an area in which I have seen their improvements is in AI, which, after the past few years, is finally becoming mature and enabling better automation and intelligence at the end-users' side. 

I have been using ServiceNow Now Platform for about four or five years.

The stability is quite advanced and much improved these days. Previously, I saw that there were a few glitches or immature functionality being introduced, but right now it's being standardized according to the industry, particularly in areas such as AI automation. I believe they have improved a lot since they started.

ServiceNow Now Platform is really quite a scalable solution, whether you're talking about leveraging ServiceNow for other applications or onboarding new users, customers, companies, data, etc. You can do these things very easily, even when you're working with multiple disparate technologies such as AD, LDAP, or your own access control system in the cloud, and all of this is handled in a mature, reliable manner.

Having been in a team where many of us have experience with ServiceNow for 10+ years, I have seen how it has grown and evolved into the scalable platform that it is now. Through all the implementations I've done for different global clients, I've seen millions of users using it successfully.

There are sometimes instances where you need the support for whatever reason. In general, I would give them a four out of five rating.

Positive

The initial setup is easy. Let's suppose you already know what you have to keep where, after that it's such a simple process that any average Joe who knows how to initiate his own service management can easily update the information and get working on it. It's not a big deal, and the installation gives you everything you need to get started with a guided setup such that anyone can quickly jump in and initiate ServiceNow. The way it is developed means that it's quite effortless for users to onboard themselves quickly and easily, simply by adding the required information.

As for the actual deployment, it's a matter of how you plan it. There are many implementations that start out according to the greenfield process. By greenfield, I mean arranging your environment from scratch and then introducing your company details, group details, UTI, and so on. Once that is achieved, you can easily add any other applications you want. And, of course, the internal modules such as discovery can be brought into your organizational scheme with even further ease.

ServiceNow is not open source, so there is a license you must pay. As for how much it costs, what I have observed is that it often depends on your subscriptions. Suppose that you go with some subscriptions such as IDSM or any type of package like it, then the license cost will be impacted accordingly. Similarly, the cost is also adjusted based on your headcount of how many users will be using it.

Compared to other contenders who give you the cheapest in the market, you will find a huge difference when it comes to ServiceNow and its subscriptions. However, I would definitely say it is worth the money.

My advice to others who are looking to get started with ServiceNow Now Platform is to reach out to your implementation partners, because they will have the experience and solutions required to help you get where you want to be with this product. ServiceNow is a vast application, but thankfully there are a variety of different solutions that can be easily adopted and managed according to your particular organizational structure.

I would rate ServiceNow Now Platform a ten out of ten.

The solution is fast enough for our workflow automations and has integration capability. It aligns with many use cases in our organization and for others we have planned. 

The product also has the agility required for fast-paced deployment and has many out-of-the-box features.

The UI and mobile UI need to be improved. Some new features are being brought in with the San Diego upgrade and we will be upgrading to that version and hope to see some improvements there. 

We have been using this solution for about a year. 

The stability of the solution is good enough. 

The scalability is good, we rolled out the solution for all of our warehouses and have plans for further implementation in our manufacturing. 

The support depends on the availability of local partners. We don't work directly with the ServiceNow team, but the partner we use provides good support. There is a good support base in India. We have worked with two partners, the first didn't provide the best support which is why we switched to the second.

We previously used Microsoft Power Apps and SharePoint. When it comes to complex workflows, cross-functional projects and extended integration features, ServiceNow does a much better job. For simple functions and workflows, Power Apps and SharePoint are sufficient but for complex, cross-functional work we prefer an LCNC platform like ServiceNow.   

The initial setup is relatively simple, integration is fine but the UI holds the solution back somewhat. 

With five being the best, I wouldn't rate this solution any more than a three out of five for setup.

I would rate this solution seven out of ten.
If you are in India, the partner selection will be very important as there aren't many certified partners here. 

Incident management, change request management, HR-related features, product management, and asset management are all valuable features.

We do analytics on top of these features as well.

The Robotic Process Automation features are not mature enough. ServiceNow could work toward that because we can leverage RP only from this platform.

Predictive intelligence could be fine-tuned as well.

All of the features are already there in ServiceNow, but they need to be mature enough to be utilized by bigger organizations.

We partnered with ServiceNow almost 15 to 20 years ago.

It's quite stable, which is actually the reason why we use it heavily.

It's quite scalable.

ServiceNow's technical support has been quite helpful. They assign account managers, and we are able to escalate issues as well.

The initial setup is straightforward. Because we are using the cloud version, we don't have to install it on the end user's machine; we just provide the URL and access to it.

We have a technology and operations team with 25 to 30 people for the global maintenance of the solution.

Some parts of the implementation process are done in-house. For others, we partner with consultants.

Most of the features are included in the licensing cost. However, if we need extra plugins that are not available at the ServiceNow Hub or store, then we have to pay extra for those.

ServiceNow Now Platform is quite useful, scalable, and flexible. The user interface is very good.

I would recommend it to other organizations and rate it at eight on a scale from one to ten.

We utilize the Now Platform for ITSM-related modules such as incident management, problem management, CMDB, and HAM. These modules are typically deployed at the majority of our customer locations. Customers generally view the Now Platform from an IT infrastructure management perspective. A few of our telecom customers have also extended their platform use. Telecom companies use the CSM module to manage customer-related incidents and queries.

The base features are good. ServiceNow is introducing AI and AIOps capabilities. The CMDB is robust, with a strong data model and well-structured data.

It is flexible and has a robust SaaS model. However, the licensing model may need reconsideration. Due to its SaaS nature, many customers are interested in adopting it, but the cost is relatively high. Tier-one providers might be able to afford it, but tier-two and tier-three customers may find it very high. Therefore, the pricing should be more flexible, with different pricing for different geographies and types of customers.

It would be great if the ServiceNow Now Platform supported satellite technologies in its telecom models and integrated with tools like OpenAI, LLaMA, or any Google AI platforms such as Vertex AI or Bard.

The ITSM modules are highly effective. However, when it comes to telecom modules, we often face challenges in obtaining suitable software solutions.

I have been using ServiceNow Now Platform as a reseller for five years.

I rate the solution’s stability a seven or eight out of ten.

The solution scales very well.

I rate the solution’s scalability an eight out of ten.

Since spinning up an instance on the ServiceNow Now Platform is very easy, we can quickly get it up and running.

The license model is not flexible for small clients. It is generally more suitable for large enterprises and, to some extent, for mid-sized organizations. However, it may be less affordable for smaller or tier-three companies.

The workflow engine is highly flexible and can be utilized in various ways. However, ServiceNow still needs to mature when it comes to industry-specific solutions. For example, we look at different products in the telecom industry, specifically telco-grade products. ServiceNow has recently ventured into this area, but the modules available are fewer than those of similar products in the industry.

ServiceNow has its own robust set of proprietary APIs, but the telecom industry has advocated for adopting TM Forum Open APIs. Currently, only a few of these Open APIs are supported. However, the specifications and the product need to mature. It's an ongoing process.

While we use the SaaS model, some customers choose the on-premises model due to regulatory constraints requiring their data to remain within their country. However, opting for an on-premises model may not provide all the benefits of SaaS, as it often involves significant hardware and infrastructure requirements. It ensures security by keeping data within the country, and it provides robust functionalities within its SaaS modules.

Generally, ServiceNow is often compared with Remedy. While Remedy started with a strong foundation, its more rigid models and limited scalability across different domains may have given ServiceNow an advantage in adaptability and growth.

Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

The solution utilizes SOPs to automate their business management processes, which are automated through various features of the ServiceNow platform, such as playbooks and other tools. They come from various domains. Based on their business requirements, they approach us with implementation requests, and that's where we assist.

There are several business cases in which we have implemented automation utilizing the out-of-the-box capabilities of the ServiceNow platform.

Cost savings are the main improvement area. It saves 30% time if you need to work with two different systems simultaneously and lack integration. Otherwise, you would have to maintain the data on both ends manually. Integration can help save this kind of time.

Since our platform is always evolving, the integration capabilities help customers expand their requirements based on increased scalability. As a service provider company, we assist our customers in continually enhancing their needs, as they have ever-evolving requirements. This necessitates us to adapt platform features to meet their demands continually.

We have a support division for our end customers, which provides support services on the platform. It has a technical support team available. In case of any issues, we can raise tickets through a customizable dashboard, and they respond by troubleshooting and resolving the problems.

Positive

ServiceNow's Now Platform utilizes different deployable environments like development, staging, and production. Specific standard processes facilitate these deployments, resulting in a highly standardized workflow.

The product is expensive.

We have previously integrated ServiceNow's Now Platform with various third-party applications, such as Salesforce and some of our customers' legacy applications. This enables centralized control over operations, consolidating disparate systems into a unified interface rather than requiring users to navigate different platforms simultaneously.

We have some sort of AI initiative, but a separate division within our company handles AI data analytics and related tasks. It boasts out-of-the-box AI capabilities, such as automating searches based on AI. Additionally, some chatbots automatically identify customers' needs based on their questions. So, the platform already has these features in place.

It's a continuously evolving platform, and new features are added with each release. This upgrade does not cause issues.

ServiceNow is one example of the platforms we've used to manage engineers throughout entire projects.

As a ServiceNow partner company, we recommend our end customers utilize this tool.

Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.