How to Know If Your Service Organization Is Ready for ServiceNow
Karen Mehal
Published Date
When I look back on almost 30 years of working with service organizations, one thing stays true no matter the industry or the technology: transformation succeeds or fails long before the software ever goes live.
It starts with asking the right questions about your business, your people, and your processes. You can’t fix what you don’t understand, and you can’t improve what you can’t see.
If you are exploring whether ServiceNow is the right platform to unify your operations, here is how I recommend evaluating your readiness.
1. Take an Honest Look at How Work Flows Today
Too many organizations skip this step or assume they already know. But mapping how work really happens, not just what is in a process document, is critical.
This means going beyond the C-suite perspective and spending time with field technicians, dispatchers, depot repair teams, customer service reps, and everyone else who shapes the customer experience.
Ask yourself:
- Where are the handoffs slowing us down?
- What workarounds have teams created?
- What is the customer impact of these gaps?
The most successful projects start with a clear picture of the current state and a shared vision of what great looks like.
2. Understand What Is Out of the Box vs. What Needs to Be Built
One of the biggest misconceptions I see is assuming that everything in a demo is instantly available.
You will hear terms like “the art of the possible.” That is useful to inspire your roadmap, but you need to separate inspiration from reality.
When you look at a capability, ask if it is:
- Native to the platform and ready to use
- Built on platform with accelerators
- A custom development that will require budget and specialized skills
Clarity here reduces the fear that transformation will disrupt your business.
3. Assess If Your Data Can Support the Journey
Another common point of failure is underestimating data complexity.
Years ago, data migration was manual and consumed a big part of the budget. Today, crawlers and mapping tools can help you:
- Analyze your legacy data
- Identify what needs remediation
- Migrate records without disrupting daily work
Before you start, get clear on the state of your data. Clean, structured data is what makes transformation worth it.
4. Involve Both Leadership and Frontline Teams
When leaders decide to transform without involving the people doing the work, projects fail quickly.
I have seen field teams handed new apps designed by people who never spent a day in a service truck. The result is solutions that look good in a conference room but fall apart in real life.
Success depends on:
- Executives who champion the vision
- Frontline teams who shape the requirements
- Skilled partners who understand both strategy and the reality of service delivery
If you cannot explain why the change matters and show how it will make daily work easier, expect resistance.
5. Balance Speed and Scale
It is natural to want results quickly. But fast deployments without a foundation can create more problems than they solve.
I recommend combining an “as-is” assessment with a vision of what great looks like. That clarity helps you decide:
- What must be live early to deliver value
- What can be staged over time
- Where you need flexibility to adapt
ServiceNow is modular. You do not have to do everything at once, but you do need a plan that balances speed and long-term scalability.
6. Think Beyond Technology
Field service at its core has not changed. You still have people in the field fixing problems. What has changed is the ability to connect everything (assets, teams, suppliers, and customers) in real time.
If your systems rely on nightly integrations or manual reports, you are missing the chance to create a seamless flow of information.
ServiceNow is more than a tool. It is a platform that helps you:
- Understand what is happening across teams and assets
- Anticipate issues before they impact customers
- Empower employees with better data and workflows
When all these pieces connect, you do more than digitize old processes. You transform how your business operates.
Ready to Explore Your Readiness?
If you are considering ServiceNow and want help assessing where to begin, my team and I are here to guide you. We have helped some of the world’s most complex service organizations through this journey and can help you too.
Book a meeting with Bolt Data to explore your readiness and next steps.
