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ServiceNow preps mobile apps for real-time transformation tracking
Shifting to measuring results of its trademark workflows, not just building 'em. And it comes with a 'bat-phone'
ServiceNow will soon release mobile apps that allow real-time tracking of metrics, so business leaders can see the progress of digital transformation initiatives.
The apps will be companions to Impact – a product ServiceNow announced last month. It diverges from ServiceNow's usual offerings in measuring the results of its core workflow engine – rather than driving workflows. The companion apps will be applicable across its expertise in HR, ITSM, and other areas of business.
Impact includes consulting, best-practice templates, and some AI fairy dust, all in the service of tuning ServiceNow's SaaS to ensure it delivers desired business outcomes, especially as applied to digital transformation projects.
Premium support is also part of the Impact package. Paul Fipps, ServiceNow's senior vice president for customer and partner excellence, described one element of that support as a "bat-phone" that summons highly qualified personnel to address issues rapidly.
Fipps told The Register that while ServiceNow can monitor the effectiveness of workflows created on its platform, Impact adds the ability to assess the experience and results it generates. That's needed, he said, because businesses often find their digital transformation efforts don't deliver hoped-for returns on investment.
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Which is where the mobile apps come in. Fipps claimed they'll literally track progress against corporate performance indicators in real time, and that ready access to those metrics will be welcomed by users. When The Register suggested that real-time business metrics in users' hands might produce more anxiety than good management, Fipps responded: "As a person who has run large organisations you are always asking the question 'Where are we on the journey?'"
The apps supporting Impact won't be ServiceNow's last foray into the mobile world. Fipps indicated that the company has content it feels is currently under-exposed, and plans are afoot to pipe it into apps and to use personalization to deliver it to users. ®