[Music] foreign thanks everyone for attending this breakout session on digital transformation and the value of our servicenow impact it's going to go over our panelists here real quick we've got Brian balance he's uh oversees our platform intelligence um we've got uh prashanti kuchkula who's our platform owner for Veterans Affairs she's been with the organization of 17 years of I.T experience in a very large and vast organization we got Brent Smith he's with servicenow he oversees our federal IMPACT program on the delivery mechanics and I'm your moderator I'm David hegarty I work for Brent I oversee our federal health care and finance delivery organization part of what we're going to just kind of cover just as an organization is real quick what are some of the top three challenges that you see as platform owners with digital transformation and value [Music] all right so there are a couple of things that I would want to State first and we are in year six of servicenow implementation and our Focus today at VA is more on user experience operational excellence and even uh uh vision-driven outcomes so there are a lot of things um demands that are coming our way and we are discovering a lot of you know millions of Records we are discovering and all that right through this effort so I'll stay the top three challenges the first one being the platform performance that has been a key uh challenge that we have been facing and um and the second one is like with a growing demands and customizations and automations we are having governance issues so that is another challenge that we are working on and almost there and the third one is about Roi return on investment we have invested a lot on servicenow licenses and support services but it is about um you know coming up with the value what's out there and what are we gaining from it so those are the three challenges that we're facing appreciate it so so we're in a different position at inscom where we're in the end of the year one so we haven't actually Gone live yet we're still in the build process uh so for me the top three have been governance uh the first one and it's not just how do you make a decision at the leadership but it's it's what's that structure to make sure that the leadership's getting the ability to make an informed decision uh so what's the feedback how do you bring it in how do you process those requirements and do it in a different manner than you're currently doing the the second uh challenge for us is where you start and where do you go next so it's that plan yeah how do you build out a plan to where each movement you take sets the conditions for the next movement and then the last one is the communication strategy to make sure that you're not only communicating to the leadership for them to make those decisions and identify what they need but also the workforce what are they expecting out of this and how do you effectively communicate that so you don't have a a dead program before you get started so those are probably the top three for us yeah I would I would just add that I think we both mentioned governance right and that's something we see across the federal space right the lack of a sustainable governance model and I think that's what impact really leans in early model so I'm glad to see that it's working out for you guys mostly it really is just to kind of follow up on that one thing that the impact team did is they they were able to give me insight into other government organizations that have been a bad success so I can't just take a governance plan from another organization and stamp stamp our name on it it's taking the pieces and parts to make that uh governing structure fit the organization because if you don't have that framework right like you know it takes more uh we have to decide on what goes into servicenow and what does not fit into service now that's the music thing and uh really these governance boards will help us through it because we have a wide variety of Demands coming our way so here you go having worked with both of you through this we talked about hey governance isn't just [Music] definitely for performance-wise we have had a you know good engagement with impact Squad about Health Scan assessments which tells us the health of our instance like upgradability like performance security usability and manageability which are mainly the performance indicators for instance so they have shown us how to see it and uh And archiving strategies which are much key to our reducing our database it was at we just reduced about like 11 million records so it's a like you know it's a very key result out there and a couple of them like that and governance is we really had working sessions with the impact Squad about strategic governance which is executed to infinity and Technical governance boards like architecture review boards and even uh portfolio governance boards like demand review board so we did go through all these working sessions so we are working on it right now a lot of the help from Impact Squad in setting up that framework okay and foreign I already mentioned the uh the inside and other people's governance structures and processes and same thing in multiple meetings to just go over to make sure that it's fitting right the second piece was really uh you know being literally so 20 something years in DOD but literally only I'm on my second year in N Scott so when I took this over I was brand new and I couldn't I could I could point out a single person so even though I think I have great intuition so the the impact team did face-to-face interviews with different levels reviews of managers and they interviewed Workforce Personnel so that helped frame the the plan I was able to lay out right up front here the things that I think we needed to accomplished they were able to turn that into okay here's what you really need to get accomplished so that was a big piece and then back into that communication strategy being able to effectively communicate what our plan is at the right level pays huge dividends if you can if you can get buy-ins not only the workforce but the leadership at the same time you're you're really going to make some progress and I think that's what has served us well so far across the federal space we see organizations using not only what they've talked about but accelerators advisory sessions with our technical experts business experts how are you seeing that across the even larger Federal space yeah I think it's true across the entire space and and Brian mentioned the interviews right so we call that a success Readiness assessment where we are interviewing different stakeholders within the the organizations to really get an understanding from your voice where you are across a number of different areas right do you have a documented strategy do you have governance right what's the road map look like what's the plan so that we can help and really lean in based on to your point Brian what other successful organizations on the platforms right so I think that's a critical part and it's one of the very first things we do as an impact scholar is come in and really try to get that Baseline of where you are as a customer so that we know where to really lean in right nine times out of ten in this space it's safe the governance is usually lacking right so we want to really spend the time and do those sessions and have those workshops stand up that governance model because that really sets the foundation for everything you're going to do [Music] we helped us through the return on investment the business value assessment going through like each product line that we have out there how what kind of business apis or technical kpis do we measure and this really helps the entire organization to see what spent and what the value that the organization got that's another thing that's a normal key thing we want right hey kpis in our federal space and not just our all Roi business hours [Music] best in practice that we're taking from the Global Services not just commercials [Music] um [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] thank you so first of all I do have myself and my impact Squad and my speed dial so any issue with licensing or so I do go to my dentist right there so here you go and any issue I go over on the governance or so I usually go to John Dean uh I know David's there David also now on speed dial and uh we do a lot of these and um so on an everyday basis we do have a weekly meetings and multiple meetings over right like you know technical uh uh teams are involved any customization technical issues we have working sessions with them there are different parts to it management technical strategy and all these different meetings with the impact Squad so we I think that is the major uh communication point and we do meet multiple times a week and trying to know what our top priorities are even on the operational side so we work together I thought I know you and I we meet at a minimum on a monthly basis just for a one-on-one together I know Brent does one-on-ones at times with yourself and others across the organization um Brian how about you how the teams helped you in your organization so I I have done everything I can to have them completely integrated into the team uh if they understand what we're doing now and what we need to be doing in the future then then they they provide value added back in their recommendations so I have a bi-weekly meeting with the team uh and it's typically on teams or you know some other virtual piece but I always want to make sure they understand what we're doing now and we we look at what our end state is so I don't know when the end State happens but I know what the end State for the command needs to be based on those discussions with the leadership and and other management teams so we always go back and we look at it and and so I split it up that way what are we doing now and then how do we get to that end State uh and if you understand your end State the plan is going to change a billion times and it doesn't matter it's good that it's changing uh if you try to stick with a plan completely then you're probably going to be off track by the time you get to the end so it's always looking at that end state so as an example uh the the team took a look at some questions my commander asked and they were able to completely lay out hey here's a technical road map with four different options depending on which direction you want to go and I was able to have them do all that work with some very basic guidance and then I I presented and I make sure it's part of the team so that gives my commanders the ability to have some decision space they don't have to make a decision but they at least know that here here's the menu that they can choose from and based on what they choose is the direction we go uh and that that is just huge if you're not having to try to do it all yourself and there's no way somebody like me because I'm not the brightest grizzly in the woods here uh being able to get somebody smart to understand here are the capabilities of servicenow right now and what they're going to be in the near future I think you touched on something you called it the end State we call it the the North Star right understanding really from the outset what that North Star is for your organization what's that end goal that you're really that overarching outcome that you're going for right and then everything we do from that point of understanding what that North Star is is in some way directing us there right whether it's the governance that we talked about whether it's you know technical meetings everything that we do is is somehow pointed at helping you get to that North Star at the end of the day in running through that customer impact plan right so those are the things we review on minimum quarterly it's always moving it's always adjusting we know these things are living breathing documents it's not something to set in stone these are deliverables that you all own and have full command and say over I need to Pivot I need to change I need to adjust that's right and as we've gone through the programs I know with both of you it's like time out we gotta change here's what needs to happen and you know working through with the impact teams with even the larger scale organization at servicenow you have those resources to help you out so we've done those advisory sessions and both of you have leveraged them pretty heavily in terms like can I talk to someone who's an expert in Discovery or service mapping or something really difficult we're trying to do within an organization having that reach back you both have commented how important that is you just share a little bit about having that ability to just reach back into the organization and get something in a timely manner back you want to go first yeah so so my focus uh for this first year has really been about itsm uh the leadership was starting to look at it and say well that's that's really important but I got this human capital problem uh so so it was one of those quick turns on okay let me get somebody smart on human capital uh so they and and I would tell you anytime that I've sent an uh a star cluster up asking for support I normally get a response within about three to four hours uh so it's not a long term to find out okay there's somebody willing to to entertain my crazy questions uh and they were able to get me in touch with the right folks to to get involved in that process not only from a hey here's my problem but hey here's a couple communities you need to start engaging with so it goes beyond just the customer service being a customer it's more of a building that Rolodex so I don't have to just take no offense government here uh no offense I don't have to take the vendors solution or recommendation right up front I can go listen to other people and find out oh okay I think they've got this uh and that helps build that plan again uh and and so it's it's been absolutely critical to to get timely responses and something that you can actually use where it's not just going to your leadership saying yeah the vendor told me this uh you know it's it's going back out to folks like you to find out how you've done it the state is impact Squad was started last year at VA but then we started with customer success package and then we had a tiger team supporting us and then we here we go we are at with everything combined together impact Sport and our major Focus has been right now on governance like what kind of governance do we need right now at VA for managing uh servicenow functionality and platform stability and uh we've been working on platform performance like our uh instant strategy integration strategies which impacts performance and we have uh how do I say this like um foreign accelerations ATF acceleration so we have a lot of these things that we are working with servicenow asking like how does ATF work like we tried two years ago it did not work for our use case but how about right now what improved upon it and how do we make sure we upgrade every year right now versus like you know uh twice a year or every upgrade we already like you know every time we Skip One upgrade in between and how do we go with every upgrade so so we are working on upgrade accelerators and a lot of a lot of these jump starts all these jump starts yeah jumpstart your ATF jump start your you know upgrade strategy jump start your governance we see this across the entire space that we have a whole catalog of these accelerators that organizations you're taking advantage of yeah and I would just add and Brian you touched on it the resources right so customers that have impact have this core team we call it a squad right success architect platform architect customer success managers support account manager and it doesn't stop there and I've had so many customers a couple in the room here that have said to me Brent I can't believe the reach that you have back into that organization to bring the really smart people to the table depending on where we are right what that topic is that we want to dive deep into so it's really that variable resource model right you have that core team that's with you every day but you also have the benefit of of us being able to reach in throughout the entire servicenow organization to bring in consultants and business this process consultants and technical consultants process of product success resources to really deliver that value to you understanding where you're going what you're trying to accomplish and again with that North Star always in the back of our mind of hey let's help them get there this is all an advisory service too so right we've got Partners in place at both organizations that we're working with servicenows working with the partner ecosystem through all of these deliverables so make sure you're successful because ultimately that's what we're all in this room trying to make sure we're successful at the end of the day for the taxpayers and citizens throughout this I guess thinking about that do you want to take some questions from the audience absolutely any questions out in the audience at all for our panelists uh-huh enhancing your development obviously there are a lot of contractors and a lot of experiences and use cases on how servicenow has been implemented for low code no code apps another applications throughout government um so if I'm thinking about this right how are we empowering the ftes and others within the VA space for that local correct right I mean obviously you have some contractors performing today and uh it seems like the requirement for all of the use cases and applications for servicenow can't be met currently because there's so much you can do with it in such a large Enterprise so I'll take that so that's what I mentioned right the demand backlog that we have is huge and um and that is why our governance was much required on is it really required to be on servicenow platform or some other platform and are we doing a process re-engineering there all that is required at the same time like you know you don't want to be lift and shift with all the customization into it so we try to make sure right now like I know we did a lot of customization too in between so we want to get away from that we want to focus on if it aligns with any of the out-of-the-box modules and uh what does it involve customization and what is it going to solve what is the value from it and we are also working on our citizen development program if it is local no code it will help the ftes or the business customers to actually automate their workflows if it is simpler versions but most of the things that we're getting today are complicated and uh I feel it's more about the business process re-engineering versus lift and shift like you know instead of Shifting it we should focus on that business process free engineering and low code then it works then we should be able to address a lot of uh demand out there and then we've got you and I were talking about this this morning where does the impact team fit in where the resources we need you know members from my team are in the room or who's already pointed out to you here's who you're going to work through on some of these pieces so just having that ability to reach back and I know we've talked citizen development for a while right I'm sure the guard rails are secure making sure we're prepared and ready that's a very key piece to that because as everyone knows like service now is like a shared database like you know if you want to work in a global space you need to be very careful about the platform stability so that's one thing that we need to look into to see in this code can it be like you know all these guardrails that David was also mentioning about great yes yeah thank you for that that was really helpful much of what you guys shared as uh challenges you had and the ones you had to solve right those typically I'm also government um we've we experienced that regardless whether it's servicenow or any other modernization effort right is there anything in particular with service now that you didn't experience with other modernizations that were a hey we need to deal with this and for example for us we are the moment we're trying to get itsm up and running it's been delayed a couple of times one of the biggest challenges we've had is our existing data that is out there right we can't just shut it off we've got a ported and we've got a set of profiles right so that was unique to something like servicenow but anything you guys experience that's unique to service now Ryan I'm going to turn to you since you're living this right now yeah so the I think the biggest challenge in my team is going to look at me and and give me the eyeball here uh it it literally is that foundational data having the foundational data right it doesn't necessarily matter what you did in the past if you don't get it right going into the future uh you might as well just replace the software with something else and and call it a success um so so I think that the the team has done an extraordinary job on again understanding that end state drives the foundational data that you must have to to be successful to the level that you want to be so we've had some fits and starts we've found that it was mostly uh issues inherent to the organization itself uh and we're a global organization so one help desk over in Europe doesn't look like the help desk sitting in Endo paycom and I think the last count I had is we have 62 help desks uh so that has been a huge challenge but smart folks not only on the government side but uh you know on the the impact and the integration side have helped form okay this is what we need uh and now it's just a matter of going through the muscle movements to get it does that answer your question [Laughter] oh yeah we'll have a line formed right here yeah thank you um I just wanted to and this is this can this question can be for the entire panel um we understand that again impact there's there's a value proposition there and so as a as a agency as an organization you know if I'm a customer and I'm thinking I got this product and I want to do great things with it now comes impact well as a customer I'm like well I don't necessarily need the entire piece of impact maybe I don't want you touching certain parts of my business and how I operate and so I think I think a lot of customers may look at it as a sales job right they're trying to sell me more things what can you do to ease that you know that initial feeling from the customer that it's the sales job but no it's more of hey I'm trying to help you you know your transition this product o m all those kind of things what is the value proposition Andre from I've had the pleasure of working with Andre in the agency for a number of years and and we're often faced with that right um I I think it's important and once people realize and understand that one we're not sales people right I don't get paid on how many licenses you have I don't get paid on what products you have I get paid on the success of your organization and getting to those outcomes and you renewing with impact because you've gotten the value of what that Squad brings each and every day um I I think once uh we get to that understanding that we're there truly for your success that's that's all we think about you know I've said north star a number of times right once we understand that North Star and we help you get there um then it becomes really a trusted advisor situation versus a I'm here to sell you something right because again we don't get paid on how many licenses you have what products you have it's truly and my boss is here and she will tell you right if Brent and his team don't deliver outcomes to our customers one we're not going to have customers and two we're not going to have customers that renew with us I'd love to throw a a data point out to everyone as I sit here today and impact as you said PK has been a product of ours for a year as I sit here today running the federal impact business our renewal rate is 100 percent every customer that has purchase impact has renewed impact because we do exactly what we're up here talking about deliver that value and help all of our customers get to that North Star that they're going for I appreciate the question today I'm going to be a cheeky in throwing one more step for you as well our customers that have been on impact for six months or more haven't NPS and that promote a score of 18 points higher than those without so it just goes to show the level of satisfaction our customers are seeing and achieving by by working with impact and the impact squads back to the panel that's right that's right I think to add to it real quick uh a year ago I came to this and my main focus was to come to this discussion because I was trying to figure out okay what does impact do for me and I kind of had the same sense of like okay well this is this is a prime opportunity for self-advertisement uh but then it it they proved what they were at no time have they ever said oh Brian since you're doing that you really need to add these things to it uh they do not do that uh they have focused on what I what I'm telling them my roadmap is and providing the input into it but at no point is there a sales pitch where they say you really need to do this uh they give you options and then it's really for the government to determine that must have been a fantastic presentation last year that you sat in on laughs hi uh Troy I am from the Inspire value practice with servicenow and so Roi is a big deal for us I'm curious what made measuring that so difficult uh understanding impacts helping but I'm curious what what the challenges were in in understanding what your Roi was I'll take that so first of all it is everyone uh like involved in working through the product lines right like everyone should focus when we are implementing something what is the value that we are gaining from it is it technical is it like you know are we decommissioning something are we gaining any uh time reduction through it or is it reducing something or is it automating something some something might not be able to be measured but then every demand or every uh request that comes our way should be uh looked into that manner we did not do that at the start but we are doing it right now to know uh we do have the major ones right like uh we know what is it saving is it saving doctor's time is it saving nurses time or is it saving help desk agents time so that they can focus on the critical ones so you measure the value over there but our biggest challenge over there is like identifying it how to measure it for every demand out there if we cannot identify a value then why is it a priority so it's that kind of things that we need to look into and uh we have Roi identified for a couple of our Hive uh projects but not for everything so if somebody asks what is our complete Roi we might not have it today but we are working through that with impact Squad like what are the right questions to ask what are the things to follow up after we release that into production like you know what's the how do you calculate that and how do you measure it who's responsible and how can we see that on our dashboard like you know to show this is at any point anyone wants to see what's the ROI we should be able to see that that's our new use case for David actually the federal government's more outcome driven it's not so much Roi so what outcomes do I need to focus in on that's right that's truly going to give me value how do we need to get collaborative and think bigger picture it's not just an out of the box hey you have to use this because you use servicenow we get in understand your organization we go through write those goals outcomes business decisions all have to be mapped and then we lean into the value before we even start the other business it's all has to be combined we've got about two minutes here so I want to each ask each of you a question what's the biggest takeaway that you've had from the impact Squad in terms of lessons learned that you want to share with your peers let me go first or you got it go ahead okay so so and I was prepared for that one you know there's a couple things that that really you know popped out for me the first one is leveraging the folks around you uh so again if there's no way I know everybody in this room but I know that I can call my team and say hey here's my problem and they're going to get me in contact with whoever that is or that group um the second thing is being able to do exactly what you just said right outcomes kind of different than Roi but you can translate outcome into Roi uh so as long as you know what you're expected to get out of it that team helps you say okay well these are the things that are going to help measure that uh and we were able to successfully uh set those conditions um the plan uh again intuition is great uh all I had to do was lay out the key muscle movements uh for a period of time uh and then that team comes in and says okay to meet that muscle movement here are the things that you need and hear the things that you need to do in what order um and then the two more on the art side versus scientific is uh number one don't drink your own Kool-Aid if you think that you've got the plan and you don't need to talk to anybody else good luck you really need to to go out and find some people that were successful and it doesn't hurt to go out and find some people that weren't so successful uh because that's probably going to give you an indicator of what you ought to be doing uh and I I think that's it because I know we're out of times two more points to it about uh availability of training which is very key and availability of Technical and business knowledge people like whenever we need to know about new module or like you know this is what we want to do like you know they come up with showing a demo of the out of the box product what it can do what are the outcomes that you can see and it's and also uh on your existing modules that you have uh you can always raise your technical questions or how to go back to the out of the box if you're customized so you get a lot of help from Impact Squad in uh you know picking out your vision so so with that we thank everyone for attending appreciate you all on the panelists [Applause]