the Aldis podcast is brought to you by Aldis International supplying your expert Ai and digital transformation staffing needs across the US and Europe today you are listening to our service now Series where we interview the best and brightest of the industry to share their story advice and views on the exciting world of service now and digital transformation [Music] hi everybody it's Mark Kelly here I hope you're doing really really well wherever you are today I'm the chief customer officer and co-founder of all this and a part of our all this service now series we have got Jonathan albal Jonathan is the federal CTO at service now Jonathan thank you very much for joining us thanks for having me it's a pleasure to be here John I think it' be a really nice place just to start of your background because it's a very relevant background for the position that you're actually working in now sure um well um I've been at service now for about almost four years at this point and I came to service now following a career in the federal government I worked as a Chief Information officer at different government agencies for uh over a span of about 11 years uh mostly at the US Department of Agriculture and eventually I became the CIO for the Department of Agriculture and had the uh real honor to work for the Secretary of Agriculture and get to understand the complexity of uh of our agriculture nutrition programs in the United States got to see how technology really supports the mission objectives and you know create great outcomes for for uh the people the Department of Agriculture serves and you know following my career at USDA I found myself at at service now and have the opportunity to apply all of my experience as a Chief Information officer and as a senior executive in the federal government in support of our Federal customers which is a fantastic background you know if you think about design thinking or walking people's shoes right it's it's what a what a great foundation for the role that you you you currently do so if we look at how service now is been utilized in in in the federal sector particularly with digital transformation could you maybe share with our listeners uh some examples sure you know the um the experience that I had as a CIO which I don't think is necessarily unique is that in uh the Federal government we have very large complicated organizations and over time lots of Technology was purchased in different um buying unit so you'd have a lot of different technology Tools in uh all working towards meeting a mission but over time these Technologies uh operated very independently and you could grow up these these silos that made it hard to share data could make it difficult to maintain a modern it architecture it would be um you know it can be less secure than we want because we have uh so many different kinds of Technologies to manage and secure so that that's sort of the nature of uh these large government agencies and you know many cios in the federal government see service now is a way to simplify that complexity um service now often times serves as a connective tissue across different Technologies inside and organ organization and using the service now platform we can leverage the data from those systems of record or those Legacy systems and use the technology built into the service now platform things like workflow or AI um the robotic process automation capability we've rolled out in the recent past and use those Technologies with the with the that core data for an agency to drive outcomes and create great experiences so that's a that's you know the overarching way I think service now gets uh thought of and and used in the federal government very specifically you know we have lots of use cases in government agency supporting great experiences in the it area for uh federal employees making it simple to get the help that you need uh based on our it service management or using our it operations management to create the opportunity to streamline op it operations uh find the hardware and software in our environments and manage those very effectively we have a lot of agencies using uh the employee workflows we've built to create great employee experiences for human resource Service delivery um onboarding and offboarding are important use cases in the in the federal government and then you know we've we've taken the customer workflows product that's been very successful and we've built in a federal government or I should say not just federal government applies federal state and local government version called public sector Digital Services which makes it easy for people to interact with their government when you interact with your government and you have a good experience that builds trust and if we can build uh trust through lots of uh small um opportunities when I contact an agency because I need help or I'm trying to learn about a program we create an environment where people you know believe the government can get things done and that creates a great foundation for the government to do big things it's very difficult for the government to to um roll out new programs or do big projects when we don't have a strong uh connection with the people that we're serving and they don't believe we can get the work done yeah and I think we're all aligned because we've all got to get in the game we want government to succeed right where we want government to be able to provide better services and to be able to successfully introduce those different programs so you mentioned kind of unboarding and offboarding can you share a case study where service now has been effectively used for digital transformation sure within within Federal agency yeah so um you know uh the President Biden uh uh wrote an executive order around customer experience and you know the goal of which is to make it easy for people to interact with their government and when they do it should be uh pleasurable it should be simplified it should be easy to use and in his executive order he specifically references a um a program at within the US Department of the Interior at the fish and wildlife service for permitting so traditionally if you needed a a permit to do some op operations on federal lands that were managed by the fish and wildlife service you had to mail in a check and a paper form and it was a very lengthy arduous process and the uh fish and wildlife service is called out in that executive order and the e-permit system which we did already begin uh work on with uh with fishing Wildlife is specifically referenced as a tool that needs to be enhanced and um provided to Citizens as a an example of how government can be streamlined and operations can be brought online and so working with service now they've U brought many of those permits that used to be paper based online and those permits can now be filled out you know by someone who that needs them at home from their computer you can pay electronically and you can have this process you know operate the way people expect processes like that to operate no more paper form sign it send it in with a with a paper check so we we've transformed that process and we're continuing to work with that agency to bring more and more permits online and they've built uh this is running now on the public sector Digital Services application that I referenced before so it's a really great example of the way you know we're doing the work that uh the the Biden Administration is directing agencies to do we're doing it different agencies we're doing it in a way that's making government simpler and customer interaction simpler and you know you talk about trust and there different moments of truth it's a fantastic example of just saving people time you know making people feel just things a lot more efficient and a really nice workflow to work across and again that just increases people's self-esteem in terms of just engaging and also the services that that government are actually proposing talk us through some talk us through some of the challenges and the opportunities that have been encountered when implementing service now in in the federal sector well you know so often um and I experienced this as a as a CIO technology leader uh we'll have a a challenge in a program or a system and we think well if we just buy that new technology that'll solve everything you know and that's a fallacy it's never just a technology you really have to understand the way the work and the data flow through the agency and if you don't have that foundational understanding buying service now isn't going to solve that you need to understand your current current state so you can imagine what that future state is you know that future state uses service now to transform your workflows that's great but you have to know where you're starting and I I sometimes think that we start these projects and we need to do that upfront work to really understand the current state so if we can do that and then you know have the courage to think about well what could be the future what's the art of the possible you're in a much better position to transform if you know where where you're starting so that that's always a a very important step that we have to remember it's not just the software but it's the software with the understanding of what we can accomplish based on where we are today and what the technology can provide and then I think the other piece that you know comes in that's also very important is to really understand how we tell the story of the value we created together service now and our our government customer so what what have we changed are we getting permits out faster are we making it simpler uh to interact are we um reducing errors or improper payments we have to know the Baseline so we can measure um the uh the new system and the output and the and the value created but you can't do that without the Baseline so sometimes we don't know the Baseline sometimes we don't know the current process I I think that it's so important that we understand these things so we can get um help agencies get as much as possible from their investment service now but when you look at how how service now integrates with existing systems Technologies in the federal sector how does it facilitate these Integrations in the context of of digital transformation because you know integration is probably you know behind people and processes probably the most biggest challenge that that cies have to deal with I think that's a great question because you know sometimes service now is viewed as a IT service management tool or a tool for a CIO but as I I referenced earlier service now is this is is a platform and that platform is really uh excellent at connecting those individual sources of data the the Legacy systems the systems of record and it's so often that the data locked in those systems um needs to be part of a comprehensive end to-end digital workflow that digital transformation requires the data from all over uh an agency to be really successful service now as a platform can connect those underlying systems and then use the Technologies in the platform that are built in Ai and uh RPA and all these things to to drive an outcome and do it on a modern with a modern interface or on a mobile device and we're cutting down on the um the the need for a customer service agent or a program analyst or someone to go to many different systems to get data and pull it together manually Pull It in spreadsheets so they could do an analysis or you know or dig it out through email you know come to service now and if you we deploy it the way I'm describing you can have all that data in one place so you can understand the current state of the process you're performing and uh to the extent that we can automate it let's automate it using the Technologies on the platform we talk at service now we talk a lot about the idea of hyper automation which just putting all these Technologies together and you know driving to an outcome by automating as many steps as possible and when we do that we can really uh really digitally transform and take time away from the administrative or Munday or you know not real value added steps and get people focused on you know the the job that they were hired to do and get them focused on the the really consequential decision- making you know that only they can make um but they spend a lot of time Gathering data or information from lots of systems so let's streamline that process using the service now platform as that integration point and once we have that data integrated and we can use workflow we can we can gain a lot of time but we can also accomplish some really great things how does the use of service now help in ensuring data security and privacy critical factors in the federal sector yeah another great question you know so service now is a is a board in the cloud company we've always been a a cloudbased um capability and over time we've invested heavily in creating a cloud for the US federal government and that cloud meets um all of today's current security requirements the um the government Community Cloud as we call it operates at a um a Fed ramp level high and a Department of Defense impact level four which are you know very U strict standards now we've we've taken that a step further and in a part recent partnership with Microsoft we've launched a uh a version of service now that operates in Microsoft Azure at a DOD impact level uh number five so that's even greater security for our customers in in the um in the department of the defense so we're continuing to focus on security and we've made you know considerable Investments over the past 10 years to get to this point and uh I fully expect that we'll continue to do so so when we're operating at these levels you know agencies have the ability to store uh data in the cloud to use service now for critical processes and um depending on the level of security they have you know additional options they can consider which is so important particularly in in in the field and we've had guests from Microsoft telling telling that story as well which is you know great uh to cies coming together and offering additional uh benefits when we look at service now affecting the workforce within thetive sector has it necessary new skills or or or training because I'm guessing there's probably been a morale boost knowing that these additional services are going to be made available and you know I say allowing for people to be additionally proud for working in the sector yeah so you know we've we've had a very um public uh campaign launched recently called rise up and rise up is has a stated goal of of training an 1 million additional um people in service now so that's going to come from a variety of areas um and we need those people because we have um we have a lot of growth on the horizon for the service now platform across federal government and across the world and you can't grow without people so who know your product and can implement it successfully if if if you have the right team you know you're going to get there a lot faster so we recognize that and we're hiring um I'm sorry we're training people at a at a rapid rate so they can be very effective in implementing service now and that applies to people who work in the federal government and in our partners and elsewhere so we um you know I think we're creating a lot of opportunity for it professionals inside and outside of federal agencies certainly in the federal it Community to have a great career with service now and together help us really achieve some big things for for federal government and when we look at kind of into the future and looking ahead how do you see the role of service now evolving in the federal sector digital digital transformation Journey so you know we we've been talking about digital transformation and this idea of transformation for many many years it's I think we're you know at the point now where all agencies have acquired a lot of digital Technologies they've spent a lot of money on it modernization and now it's time to help uh help them get real value out of these Investments and that is a place where I see service now playing a tremendous role you know if we have these disperate technologies that we we've bought we bought a lot of Technologies during coid to support remote work and other kinds of capabilities you know service now can play a role in connecting those data streamlining the workflows that have resulted from uh the change that we've all undergone and you know be that uh critical uh Lynch pin that connective tissue across an agency to bring people and data and systems together I think another place where service now is going to play a huge role in the federal government is with um code application development and creating opportunities for people who are not it professionals but really are program professionals and know their data and know their business processes let's give them service now as a low code tool to innovate on the service now platform and create workflows and applications that they need to do their job and largely do it on their own without having the CIO office need to be uh an intermediary and we can do that if we set service now up the right way and we create the right uh guardrails and governance around low code application development and as over time as more generative AI capabilities come in the platform and and are available for um for agencies to use we we H uh recently had our knowledge conference in uh Las Vegas a few months ago and we had an amazing demo where we we showed how a person with um just their voice could create code that helps service now um workflows get created or through you know simple text explaining what they need in a form using generative AI cap capabilities which are already being built into service now are already there to some extent create a form and management capabilities so they can have what they need on the platform without needing to know how to be a developer without knowing who to call an it um all of that is possible and it's all coming and I think those things will be really transformative for our federal customers over time yeah it's a really really exciting space and I got to see that firsthand um and knowledge too and you the art of the possible as you kind of said earlier on in the conversation you're coming with people who've got different types of problems and being creative and then thinking okay how do we use this technology as an enabler to add massive success to improve people's uh you know Journey you know to make that more streamlined and create a a great experience with you know everybody has got skin in the game and they want to have that particularly within the federal sector We crave these great experiences you know I hear it time and again and you know we we talk about customer experience we talk about employee experience but you know really um the employees are customers of the agency you know when I was a CIO I was providing a customer experience to everybody who came to it to get a new computer or get a phone or when the printer broke or whatever challenge they were having and you know we always talked about customer experience and you know when when we provide the tools to the uh service providers inside an agency to provide great customer experiences that's that great employee experience that we're talking about those employees that um work in organizations where it's easy to work and they have those great employee experiences they're not frustrated by the technology around them they are much better prepared to provide great customer experiences so and then they feel very engaged in their in their job and their work and their and their role and driv driving these very important missions we have in the federal government driving them forward so we have a we have a think a uh you know very virtuous cycle here where if we invest the techn in the Technologies to make it easy to get your job done you're going to create employees who are ready to you know serve them serve their customers and we can provide them technology do that as well and all that can happen on on service now then you throw in the low code capabilities we discussed and let let them build applications very rapidly to meet the needs that they have the unique need sometimes and we're working with cios to run uh very um very tight technology shops where we're helping them understand their hardware and software and saving money for them there we're supporting their it operations and um supporting cyber security you can see how service now can play a role in every aspect of a government agency and that's really the goal we know it's possible we're seeing it happen already jnan album Federal CTO service now thank you very much for joining us on our podcast today Mark thanks for having me I really appreciate being here 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.al this.com to listen to more podcasts view our open roles and stay up toate with industry news thanks for listening and stay tuned for more great episodes coming very [Music] soon