foreign podcast is brought to you by all this International supplying your expert Ai and digital transformation staffing needs across the U.S and Europe today you are listening to our servicenow Series where we interview the best and brightest of the industry to share their story advice and views on the exciting world of servicenow and digital transformation [Music] hi everyone it's Mark Kelly Chief custom officer and co-founder of all this I hope you do really well wherever you are in the world today I have the absolute pleasure for our servicenow podcast series within Federal to be speaking to Ivy Ryerson Ivy is a principal strategist and inspired value of federal I mean thank you very much for joining us on the show today hi good morning Mark and good morning everyone thanks for having me this morning I if we jump in uh to your background firstly because I think that's very very helpful and then we can talk a little about your day-to-day role and what did that actually encompasses and then later if we can talk a little bit more about the type of companies and government bodies that you're working with and then we can have some additional questions after that sure that sounds great I come from about a decade of work in digital transformation right out of grad school I came into the I.T management consulting World kind of by accident I didn't go to school for that I have a marketing background but I landed in a in a systems integrator Small Small Business Systems integrator in the federal government and started working in federal civilian government agencies around digital transformation and kind of studying how we build operating models and strategies for implementation and Adoption of new tools and Technologies to help Drive efficiencies and improve uh citizens access to services in the U.S federal government and also improve the Way employees deliver those Services servicenow I I came from uh from a Consulting large consulting firm right to servicenow who was a big partner of the consulting firm I've been here a little over a year and still working in in the federal government space brilliant thank you for that overview so we dive into a little bit about your current role and the type of your federal government bodies that you're helping to support tell us a little bit about Dan and also the importance of digital transformation across those different bodies Because unless you're living under a rock people can see the real need for this right yes uh so so I I serve um and and work alongside of the high impact service providers so that would be U.S federal agencies that are delivering services to some of our most vulnerable pop uh parts of the population so if you think of agencies like the Social Security Administration or Health and Human Services uh those are two big ones and those are massive organizations that deliver very critical services to uh you know to the public and uh and that's kind of kind of been my focus my role here at servicenow uh on the Inspire value team is to help organizations build the business case to justify the investment in new capabilities to drive the efficiencies and and the greater experiences that they desire um so that's you know that we call that a business value assessment it's really the business this case that that articulates the the return on investment and the desired outcomes and the lines with the Strategic direction of the organization the other side of that coin is you know so that so that helps organizations figure out okay if I'm going to invest in these new capabilities what uh I want to make sure that I can report to my leadership and and use taxpayer dollars wisely in these Investments let's make sure we're tracking uh to the return on investment so the other side of that is the work that comes post implementation really being there with the uh with the agencies with the folks who are managing the platform and driving organizational change management making sure that they're recognizing value there so by understanding the the bigger Mission and we're going to talk a little bit later about kind of walking in their shoes and some of the people who are actually doing the role day to day you're looking at that strategic value for the business but also understanding that it needs to justify its ends and kind of making sure that it's accountable rather than just introducing a technology because we've all seen the challenges of Technology adoptions if there isn't necessarily a bigger picture to to what you're looking right to achieve and then working with the the organization to ensure that it's successful we get the outcome that you want and as you mentioned it's tax dollars it's taxpayers dollars so people want to see the accountability and real value for money right yes so so um you know that's a good point yes it is taxpayer dollars and we need to make sure that uh that we're not just organizations aren't just buying the latest flashiest thing like does this technology that the organization is investing in um align with the Strategic direction does it meet the the goals uh of the organization um have we clearly defined the challenges that we're trying to address with these new capabilities and um you know and and once the answer is yes and we decide okay we're going to invest in these capabilities uh it's a team sport you know it's not it's not one uh group of implementers or system integrators that are going to go in and and configure things the way they need to be yes certainly that's very important but um it's really a it's really a people problem or a people challenge if you will uh you know you've got to get folks comfortable sometimes moving off of Legacy systems onto the new technology you have to make sure that there's adoption of that technology and then it's actually improving the experience of the way services are delivered you know whatever the challenges were in the first place and so these are these are huge decisions and and very complex um rollouts if you will then you know that's what the servicenow team is there to do to it's it's not just oh here are some licenses to some some Enterprise software it is it is a massive undertaking and a journey really with our customers to make sure that what they've invested in is actually solving for the problems that they had in the first place yeah and solving for the progress that they have in the first place but also solving for you know your anticipating future problems or challenges or things that we don't necessarily see now that actually you might you you might you might want to utilize certain products or modules but actually as the business progress and becomes more advanced you'll probably want to start to use additional services or offer additional Services too tell us a little bit about you know and I call it you know design thinking or you're leading with empathy about how you've been able to actually kind of walk the shoes with some of the people that you have served yeah so I've I've been really fortunate to um have been immersed alongside of the employees who are actually oftentimes struggling with the tools and the processes that are in front of them in order to do their day-to-day jobs um one example is I I spent some time quite a bit of time running focus groups and um and doing shadowing at a at a large Federal benefits agency at their call center these are massive call centers that are are taking um hundreds of calls from folks who uh sometimes it's patients sometimes it's benefit recipients you know folks who who need answers to questions and they need them quickly and oftentimes uh it's it's critical that they you know that they've got their problem solved and so um for for a few weeks I I spent actually sitting alongside of a call center agent with just you know I had the headset on and I could hear you know hear the call or call in and and what I noticed was the call center agent um had you know multiple screens and multiple Tools in front of them but they were moving in and out of in a very clunky way uh in and out of these these different tools that weren't connected to each other and the caller will call them the customer uh who is you know has a question had to actually restate this might have been their fourth or fifth time calling about the same issue but they had to restate why they were calling because there was no single system of record of you know the history of of what that caller had had called for in the past and then the call center agent is you know trying to move through disparate systems uh at one point they would actually reach in their drawer and like pull out these pieces of paper that they had uh printed off answers from Google to common questions that people would ask that they needed to have answers to that they couldn't find on the systems that were in front of them and so to me as a strategist in transformation you know that there was tremendous opportunity to first and foremost simplify what the employee had in front of them in terms of the tools they they had to do the job to answer the question to resolve uh as quickly as possible and and maybe on you know first call resolve the problem that that the customer called with in the first place so you can imagine because you're you're under pressure I could I can see both sides of the fence here so let's say you're the agent you're under pressure to try to answer the query as effective as you possibly can but you've got all these different open systems you can imagine they're probably going quite slow then you have to summarize quickly by gathering all the contact commentary and and actually seeing what the thread is and then being able to speak to that person where you don't know if that information has been updated correctly you don't you don't know which is the newest version and that person wants an answer and they could be driving their car the reception could be bought they might have a young child in the backgrounds yeah yeah so this is how real life works or their batteries running low so they need to make sure that this call yes or more critically and this did two two times one was one person who called in was homeless and so their opportunity at that moment to call in and request information about benefits that they need is critical they're borrowing a phone they don't have access to I mean it is a dire situation yes being in a car is is challenging and all of those things but at the end of the day um you know there are people that that one phone call really matters another woman was actually calling from a rehabilitation center and she had just a few minutes to make call but she's got to spend time going through her case again because that information isn't available to the agent who's trying to provide uh help and resolution to the problem yeah Community give that context that call it becomes very very important to that person also very important to that agent because they want to do a really good job of serving and to help and that's why they're actually in that job so being able to help that really helps you clarify the problem you're looking to try to solve what good looks like and maybe you can kind of share how that kind of transformation added added value right yeah without diving you know too deep into the the technical end of it which that's not believe it or not not my area anyway uh even though I'm in technology I'm not a hardcore technologist but um you know what we were able to do was go in and it it's not a matter of rip and replace the you know the all of the Legacy systems or the ecosystem of tools that's there oftentimes what you want to do is go in and and be able to seamlessly integrate with some of the tools that are already working they just aren't providing a single system of record um or or one common platform for the agent to just be in front of their computer and access information very quickly and then the next agent the next time that customer calls and has the same uh experience the same availability to that record to the information and so um what we were able to do was go in and yes Sunset some of the Legacy systems which really weren't providing value or pertap said very high uh total cost of ownership and you know operations and maintenance and security issues and upkeep um but we're able to go in and provide one single system one Platform One system of record and then the tools that we're working uh we you know integrate with them and create greater efficiencies there and now what you have is you know the the current state of the employ the previous current state of the employee where we they had you know disjointed information and and limited access and and quite frankly just frustration and understanding the the nature of the caller and what they needed and not being able to help them I mean these people who as you pointed out who who work in in these positions it is a labor of love they want to help they understand that it's critical that they provide the information as quickly and as accurately as possible so with that transformation Nation with being able to provide you know one common platform where the employee could seamlessly go now fast forward you know six eight months down the road we go back and we uh we do that call shadowing again and it's a very different experience and and and they're you know not only is you can see it in the employee's face and you can hear it in their voice you can see the way they're seamlessly uh solving the challenges or answering the questions um but quite frankly there are metrics associated with that I mean we're looking really carefully at um you know first call resolution and an employee experience so some more quantitative in nature and some more qualitative but uh and and you know is the customer the the benefits recipient the patient is their experience improved and so that to me is why I do this that you know that's really important and and we can do it we you know we have the technology not just we but you know the the system is there and um the changes can be made and it can provide uh immediate impact and um and that's you know that's fun it's a it's a great example of so many people's lives positively effective here the Domino's experience of getting that Tech rise because the Deep frustration when things just don't work right uh where you know you do your Wi-Fi is down a little bit or your your system's running slower right whatever it might be these little frustrations that really can escalate from people from being productive and people it's you know people want to be productive they want to allow them to do do that next best action and this is a wonderful example um of an action and being able to go back and and see it play out a message I can bet it's probably quite a proud humbling kind of moment yes definitely and you know the servicenow platform is uh is unique in that way not to just focus on on that but since I'm with servicenow you know that that one common platform uh that's my experience as well right because I work here and I I'm on one common platform all day long and for me it's about uh efficiency and being able to move uh through my day in in a very productive uh and enjoyable way I want to enjoy the the tools that are in front of me it's the same for uh you know our customers for the federal government employees they want to come and and have a you know a pleasurable experience and feel like they're empowered with with the tools that actually allow them to do their job in the best way possible yeah wonderful thank you very much for your time you've been listening to the oldest servicenow podcast series within Federal and I've had the pleasure of speaking to Ivy Ryerson Ivy is principal strategist at inspired value Federal Ivy thank you very much for your time today thank you Mark thank you Aldis appreciate it appreciate it to your listeners and uh have a good day [Music] thanks for listening to this episode of the oldest podcast if you enjoyed today's episode don't forget to subscribe rate and review we are available on Apple podcast Spotify and any Android podcast of choice you can also head over to our website www.aldis.com to listen to more podcasts view our open roles and stay up to date with industry news thanks for listening and stay tuned for more great episodes coming very soon foreign [Music]