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ServiceNow Deployment

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• Description
• Goals / Deliverables
• ServiceNow Corps
• Members of ServiceNow Corps
• RACI

ServiceNow Deployment

ServiceNow provides a system and processes to streamline work throughout universities with the ability to deliver a platform with an end‑to‑end service experience for students, faculty, and staff.

Description

Currently, ServiceNow is the IT Service Management tool currently used by multiple SDSU IT units (Academic Affairs, Auxiliaries, and Divisions) across the campus for submitting, reassigning, and tracking IT requests and support tickets.

ServiceNow provides a system and processes to streamline work throughout universities with the ability to deliver an end‑to‑end service experience for students, faculty, and staff. It increases the value of IT by connecting people, tools, and ideas to streamline processes and improve efficiencies and collaboration.

ServiceNow has helped universities modernize their IT service management systems by providing one single source of information across campus, not just for IT, but across all departments.

It has improved communication between departments, faculty, and location keeping everyone on the same page through improved incident tracking, effective tools for any and all departments, improved metrics and reporting to learn how to better streamline services, provide a more accurate reporting and metrics, and the ability to create a knowledge base for any and all documentation.

Faster resolutions have been achieved by giving users the ability to search via a knowledge base without having to submit a request. It provides the ability to submit new requests and services and manage and track them through one single contact center across campus.

Check out this short video from ServiceNow to get an overview of ServiceNow’s capabilities for Higher Education.

Goals / Deliverables

Plans to expand Incident Management to additional groups such as Instructional Technology Services and IT Computer Operations are underway. Further to be implemented at SDSU are the following products within the ServiceNow platform:

• Service Portal

  Software applications are the foundation of workplace productivity, but these tools are only as valuable as the number of employees who use them. With the Service Portal, you can deliver your apps to employees through a modern, easy-to-use portal they can access from any device, any time.

• Service Catalog

  The Service Catalog enables the university to charge forward with digital transformation and deliver a wide range of products and services through a modern and user‑friendly storefront. Users enjoy greater self‑service satisfaction and faster request fulfillment just as they do on their favorite consumer sites. The Service Catalog codelessly automates workflows and approvals to enable organizations to improve the customer experience, accelerate service delivery and reduce operational costs. Our Computer Operations team will transfer many of the existing SharePoint processes into the ServiceNow Catalog.

• Knowledge Management

  The Knowledge Management application enables the sharing of information in knowledge bases. These knowledge bases contain articles that provide users with information such as self-help, troubleshooting, and task resolution.

• Request Management

  Request Management delivers employee self‑service through a published catalog of services, automated workflows, and service level agreements. Mobile capabilities can be enabled to give employees the freedom to request services anytime, from any device—and get automated status updates to ensure expectations are met.

• Change and Release Management (Future Implementation TBD)

  With Change and Release Management, we can control every aspect of the IT change processes from creation to approval. Minimize change impact with clear information on risk and scheduling conflicts.

• Configuration Management Database (CMDB) (Future Implementation TBD)

  The CMDB provides a single system of record for IT to gain full visibility of the infrastructure and services, leading to more control of the environment and better decisions. To effectively manage and improve systems, we need to know exactly what assets are in our IT environment and have current, accurate configuration data. An accurate CMDB makes it easy to understand the IT environment, particularly in the areas of service impact analysis, asset management, compliance, and configuration management. The CMDB is the foundation of the ServiceNow Platform and is essential to use for most other ServiceNow products.

• Configuration Management (Future Implementation TBD)

  With the Configuration Management application, we can build logical representations of assets, services, and the relationships between them that comprise the infrastructure of our organization. Details about these components are stored in the CMDB which we can use to monitor the infrastructure, helping ensure integrity, stability, and continuous service operation.

• Asset Management (Future Implementation TBD)

  Asset Management is used to know what assets we have, where they are, who uses them, how they are configured, and what they cost. It automates our IT asset life cycles with workflows. It tracks the financial, contractual, and inventory details of hardware and devices, as well as non‑IT assets, throughout their life cycles. Once an asset is deployed, Asset Management records all maintenance activity and enables you to perform regular audits, right up until asset retirement.

ServiceNow Corps

As the ServiceNow project initiative gains momentum campus-wide at SDSU for IT issue management, it is imperative that we ensure issue management processes are consistent and efficient, and that the data we capture is complete and accurate in order for leadership to make strategic decisions that enable teams to achieve strategic goals and improve customer experiences.

To bolster this work, the IT Division is establishing the SDSU ServiceNow Corps (SNC), which will be made up of representatives from every unit using ServiceNow for issue management and request processing in order to serve as “power users” who will partner with the ServiceNow Operations Team to learn best practices, ensuring their own teams are leveraging effective practices. Ideally, each unit below will have a representative as an embedded resource with a deep understanding of how to leverage ServiceNow.

• Academic Affairs
• Business & Financial Affairs
• Colleges
• Graduate & Research Affairs
• IT Division
• Strategic Communications
• Student Affairs & Campus Diversity

These unit representatives will be expected to complete SDSU ServiceNow Corps training via a self-enroll course in the Canvas Learning Management System. The training is asynchronous, self-paced, and performance-based. The expected time commitment is not more than two hours. Upon completing the course, each member of the SNC will have learned how to:

1. Manage/process ServiceNow tickets assigned to their team and individually.
2. Use the SDSU ServiceNow Overview dashboard for reporting on their team's ServiceNow activities and progress toward Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
3. Move and implement existing request workflows (i.e. Google Forms, SharePoint processes, etc.) into ServiceNow.

Upon joining the SNC, each member can expect to:

• Complete training via the SNC Canvas Course within one week of receiving the invitation.
• Practice and familiarize themselves with the learning objectives mentioned above.
• Guide their team(s) on reporting, meeting targets, and determining what processes can shift into ServiceNow.
• Participate in disucssions, review and provide feedback of ServiceNow best practices and management of team tickets and processes, including working with their leadership to establish targets for their area of campus.

Members of the SNC*:

*For SNC queries, please contact Ed Legaspi <[email protected]>, Temp Associate Director for User Services.

RACI

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