1. Build your business case
Success Pillar: State and measure your business goals

2. Success Pillars – Structure
State and measure your business goals
Actively lead the transformation
Get your ServiceNow foundations right
Create excitement, drive adoption 1
State your transformation vision and outcomes 1
Engage executive sponsor to drive change and remove roadblocks 1
Manage to
“Out-of-the Box” 1
Design an engaging self-service employee & customer experience 2
Build your business case 2
Find, manage, and coordinate capable, certified partners 2
Discover and map your service assets 2
Design an optimal agent and rep experience 3
Build a phased
program plan, identify quick win 3
Build dedicated, dynamic governance process, policies & team 3
Plan your architecture, instances, integrations and data flows 3
Create change management plan 4
Baseline and track performance, usage KPIs and metrics 4
Reimagine how you want work processes to flow 4
Plan for upgrades at least once a year 4
Build an internal team of ServiceNow experts & train users 5
Define and map out your business services 5
Build a community of champions 6
Manage platform demand

3. Build your business case
The business case provides the economic rationale for your ServiceNow investment. It contains the information necessary for key business stakeholders to make a decision, framed as a cohesive story: your business objectives for transformation, how they'll be measured, and how your ServiceNow investment will deliver on these objectives.
A good business case is always required in order to compete for funding against other projects. The business case is needed to provide the scope and recommendations for your ServiceNow Investment. In addition the business case needs to provide financial evidence and define how value realization will be measured. Finally, ongoing monitoring will help ensure your business case translates into a successful deployment and ultimately value to the business.
Insight: Building your ServiceNow business case
Use a structured process to understand key challenges and quantify potential value of improvement. Your business case should answer:
Why - Conduct focused interviews
What - Document challenges and develop recommendations for solution capabilities
How - Select key improvement metrics and validate with key stakeholders
So What - Combine benefits with cost assumptions to produce a TCO and ROI estimate
Before presenting your business case, spend the necessary time to validate that it's solving the right problems for your key stakeholders.
Key Implementation Steps​
Start
Improve​
Optimize​
1. Identify key issues and business improvement areas
2.  Develop recommendations
3. Construct the business case
4. Socialize, communicate, and finalize
5. Monitor and manage value realization

4. Step 1a: Conduct background research
Before getting into the thick of building the business case, perform some homework around the current state and also build up the network of people you’ll need to interview to dive deep into opportunities. The goal of this step is to obtain a baseline of improvement opportunities and identify the key stakeholders who can provide further insights.
Conduct background research to gain a baseline of information and identify the problems that the business case needs to propose solutions for
Find representatives from your IT service management, IT operations, and security operations teams, etc. (i.e. potential users of ServiceNow) who can recommend resources to review and nominate people to be interviewed. Process owners are good candidates for this role.
Collect relevant documents (e.g., strategic plans, reports, etc.) from members of each interest group to learn what you can before conducting interviews
List out what you think are improvement opportunities that address people, process and technology
Identify key stakeholders that you will need to interview who have the subject matter expertise and a broad understanding of how business problems are being solved today
Steps
1. Identify key issues and business improvement areas
2. Develop recommendations
3. Construct the business case
4. Socialize, communicate, and finalize
5. Monitor and manage value realization

5. Step 1b: Identify key issues and business improvement areas
Before developing recommendations for your ServiceNow business case, capture key challenges and opportunities for business improvement within your organization. Focus on gathering compelling feedback you can present as evidence. The goal of this step is to document the needs of the business unit(s).
Conduct focus interviews to identify key issues and business improvement opportunities
Select individuals you need to learn from, then schedule and execute all those interviews within a limited time period (30 – 60 Days)
Create an interview guide to prepare for stakeholder interviews
Meet with executive sponsors and conduct an executive discovery to define strategic goals and which outcomes they need
Based on your background research, identify areas of research you need to perform, such as opportunities for automation
Create interview guide that you can follow to consistently learn what you need to learn across multiple interviews:
Compose 1-3 interview questions for each of the areas of research you need to perform, identified above, such as "can you describe your process for XYZ?"
Sequence your questions logically – with questions you most need the answer to up front (e.g. (1) Describe the process (2) What challenges exist within the process? (3) What are the biggest opportunities to improve the process? (4) What roadblocks prevent you from making changes? (5) Who are the critical stakeholders and decision makers? 6) What is the potential benefit if you can improve it?)
Alternative technique is to use the 5 Why’s methodology for getting to root case
Include spaces for you to record interviewee responses in the interview guide document
Practitioner Insight: Consider conducting workshops which will allow you to reach multiple voices at the same time.
List key business challenges to determine new use cases or improvement opportunities based on interviews
Create a list of challenges experienced by your interviewees and rank them based on your sense of priorities to the business
Translate the challenges into use cases that will address the business needs. One use case might be the challenge of getting a newly hired employee ready to work and how it equates to a use case for employee onboarding.
Steps
1. Identify key issues and business improvement areas
2. Develop recommendations
3. Construct the business case
4. Socialize, communicate, and finalize
5. Monitor and manage value realization

6. Step 2: Develop recommendations
Once you have identified a draft statement of business challenges and opportunities, develop ServiceNow implementation recommendations that will support business outcomes. The goal of this step is to propose ServiceNow solutions which solve for current business challenges.
Research solutions that you think could solve for uncovered business challenges
Research and identify solutions from the ServiceNow product catalog
Use sites such as ServiceNow.com, Community, and attend events such as SNUGs, Knowledge as research tools
Partner with the ServiceNow account team to provide you information and see demos of product
If required, research other alternative solutions (existing or new) which you’ll need to compare to ServiceNow in later steps to complete the business case
Identify implications of solution adoption to prepare your organization for potential implementation challenges
Identify any systems that may need to be replaced or integrated, if your proposed solution is adopted
Identify risks, risks migrations, or other requirements which may need to be addressed as part of the implementation program:
Consider what organizational change management (OCM) may be required to adopt the solution
Estimate strategic and technical governance needed to support the solution
Estimate other related risks or requirements (technical or not)
Recommend solutions which solve for business challenges
Map ServiceNow product capabilities to your prioritized list of use cases (identified in Step 1)
Create a Strategy Map which details how the ServiceNow solution will solve business challenges.
Practitioner Insight: When identifying challenges and opportunities for your business case think in terms of business outcomes defined in a transformation strategy (e.g., business automation, digital transformation.) Also, Look for the low hanging fruit with regard to business processes that are ripe for automation.
Steps
1. Identify key issues and business improvement areas
2. Develop recommendations
3. Construct the business case
4. Socialize, communicate, and finalize
5. Monitor and manage value realization

7. Step 3a: Estimate implementation time and cost
Estimating the time and cost required for implementation is a critical factor. Unrealistic expectations surrounding implementation planning is one of the key root causes for system failures. The goal of this step is to estimate the time and cost for the implementation project. 
Develop an early estimate for the implementation timing and costs for the ServiceNow solutions identified
Obtain an estimate for the implementation project from your ServiceNow Account Executive team and ask for annual costs such as:
Implementation of the Now Platform
Training users on the Now Platform
Annual license for the Now Platform
Estimate internal costs for the implementation project such as:
Include internal resource costs needed to support the implementation of the Now Platform
Include internal administration costs for the Now Platform
Include other internal fees such as
Legal
Sourcing Team
Internal IT & Infrastructure
Help desk
Include projected costs for headcount change
Consider investment drivers such as:
The amount of revenue the implementation could earn for your organization
The amount of money your money save by implementing the solutions (e.g. efficiencies, spend increases, automation)
The potential cost savings you could achieve from regulatory, compliance, safety requirements (e.g. audits, GDPR)
Ensure proper phasing of capabilities to account for dependencies, OCM and required benefit timing
Provide a proposed roadmap for the rollout
If a simple single solution is being implemented, only a single launch plan is needed
If a solution has multiple components with more complexity, plan a prioritized and phased rollout with sequence considerations based on importance of achieving quick wins and attainment of business outcomes
Steps
1. Identify key issues and business improvement areas
2. Develop recommendations
3. Construct the business case
4. Socialize, communicate, finalize
5. Monitor and manage value realization

8. Step 3b: Estimate benefits relative to cost
Estimating costs and benefits of your recommendations will be key to getting buy-in from key stakeholders and ultimately approval for investment. Don’t get too specific at this point in the process, just estimate using rough numbers. The goal of this step is to estimate costs and benefits of the solutions implemented.
Estimate business case benefits to demonstrate value received
Set aspiration improvement metrics for each use case (i.e. what success looks like)
To ensure against double counting benefits, identity non- overlapping and distinct benefit improvement measures
Include the targeted outcome, data points that make up the improvement metrics, the calculation, benefits and assumptions
Select metrics that will show if progress is being made towards business outcomes over a course of time
Cite your sources and assumptions
Define targets for adoption and use of ServiceNow among target populations (employees and fulfillers, e.g., service desk agents)
Support benefits with 3rd party data when possible
Support your metrics with industry metrics from 3rd partner sources such analyst reports (e.g., Gartner, Forrester), trusted industry blogs and metrics, or actual results from ServiceNow customers which can be provided by your Account Executive team
Estimate TCO, ROI and Value Achievement
Calculate the total economic cost over the lifetime (TCO = total cost of ownership) of the investment 
TCO = Solution costs plus implementation costs plus internal costs
Calculate Return (i.e. value) on Investment (ROI), use ServiceNow’s Value Calculators  when possible (Forrester Certified)
Financial return is calculated for 3 or 5 years; partner with Finance to determine years of analysis
Consider how long it takes you to achieve business value (e.g. faster incident response within 3 to 6 months after go-live)
Practitioner Insight: You may not have all the data and the data you have might not be precise. The goal is to align with the professional judgement of key operators.
Steps
1. Identify key issues and business improvement areas
2. Develop recommendations
3. Construct the business case
4. Socialize, communicate, and finalize
5. Monitor and manage value realization

9. Step 3c: Construct the business case
It’s time to package up your research and estimates into a formalized business case document. The goal of this step is to formally construct a draft business case. 1
Formalize the business case into consumable content
Draft the business case using a document such as Microsoft Word PowerPoint, or another company required form
Create an Executive Summary including:
Business issue(s)
Problem statement(s)
business implications
The body components of the business case should include:
A list of key business challenges uncovered from stakeholder interviews
Recommended solutions which solve for business challenges
Estimated solution implementation costs
Forward looking metrics
TCO and ROI
Create a final statement summarizing the business case, the total investment required, and business outcomes to be achieved  
Provide a specific “call to action” to ensure there is a series of defined next steps for moving the initiative forward
Follow your organization’s internal process
Determine if existing forms or processes exist within your organization. Check with areas such as Vendor Management, Legal or Finance.
Practitioner Insight: Numbers alone do not make the business case. How you design, develop, and present the business case is as important as the return (ROI) and other figures you project.
1 – Sample business case available in the appendix
Steps
1. Identify key issues and business improvement areas
2. Develop recommendations
3. Construct the business case
4. Socialize, communicate, and finalize
5. Monitor and manage value realization

10. Step 4: Socialize, communicate, finalize
To accelerate adoption of your business case, you’ll need to gain business partner support and executive sponsorship throughout the organization. Validate with your business partners that the business case is solving the right problems. Then finalize the business case by following the formal project proposal process. The deliverables for this step are stakeholder support from the business and formal submission of the business case.
Build consensus on the right problem with key stakeholders
Meet with your executive sponsor to build initial internal support for your proposal
Meet with business partners to validate that assumptions are accurate and your metrics are relevant/applicable
Ask if the business case is solving the right problems
Ask for open and honest feedback
Ask for guidance on anything missing or additional points needed
Ask if the business case is on the right track to solve their business challenges
Incorporate any additional feedback or information found from additional research
Continue to market your business case proposal to build the support you need for formal project approval
Submit your business case
Follow your organization’s formal process to submit the business case for project approval and funding
Proactively work with your Legal and Vendor Management teams to ensure a smooth and efficient process
Present your business case
Present the business case to the applicable parties when ready
Steps
1. Identify key issues and business improvement areas
2. Develop recommendations
3. Construct the business case
4. Socialize, communicate, finalize
5. Monitor and manage value realization

11. Step 5: Monitor and manage value realization
The business case should be a living document and not something that is shelved once you implement. Use your business case as a guide to manage value realization and understand where you can increase value realization as business needs change.
Value Realization and Management
Make the business case part of regular ServiceNow Steering Committee (or strategic governance) reviews
Explicitly confirm assumptions and benefits are still accurate and relevant
Measure benefits attainment against targets (Financial and Operational). If financial benefits have not been explicitly defined, establish baseline measures and interim targets/goals aligned to your ServiceNow roadmap
Identify root opportunities of benefit shortfalls for continued improvement and /or corrective action
Set milestones at every 6 months with what you expect to deliver to the business by that time
Govern the implementation project to deliver on value. Ensure budget and timing trade off decisions are made with an understanding of their impact to value achievement
Value Awareness
Define value/KPI owners to ensure appropriate process and people changes occur to deliver on financial benefits
Educate project / implementation team on expected financial outcomes (+ something about realized benefits)
Promote value achievement successes
Create a library of success stories
Create awareness by performing ongoing storytelling and education to business partners across the enterprise
New Value Creation
Assess ’unseen’ areas of improvement and quantify value where appropriate (solicit ideas from implementation team)
Raise and prioritize new value creation opportunities with explicit financial benefits to the strategic governance committee for inclusion in the roadmap
Practitioner Insight: Changing culture to get everyone to focus on value is not just at the executive level, but everyone on the team. Use explicit story telling along with data analytics as a means to help train staff to spot value opportunities.
Steps
1. Identify key issues and business improvement areas
2. Develop recommendations
3. Construct the business case
4. Socialize, communicate, and finalize
5. Monitor and manage value realization

12. KPIs and Stakeholders Key Performance Indicators Essential KPIs
# of business leaders who have reviewed and provided input (relative to target)
% of business case investment approved
‘Nice to Have’
# of stakeholders from other business units interested in the business case expansion into their business unit
Stakeholder Map
Responsible/Accountable
ServiceNow Platform Owner
Executive Sponsor
CIO
CFO
Senior Leadership
Consulted/Informed
Business Leaders
Service Owners
Business Partners

13. Appendix

14. Desired Business Outcomes
Sample Strategy Map
Strategic Drivers
Business Issues
Desired Business Outcomes
Value
Supply Chain Excellence
No standard or data structure to drive supply chain vendor renewals
Automated End-to-End vendor process
Save 20 % on maintenance costs by better tracking production assets, Approx $1.5M / year

15. Sample Business Case – IT
SAVE $10,575,460 ANNUALLY
ANNUAL VALUE
Executive Summary
IT Productivity Increase
Automate requests and reduce/deflect incidents through self-service, automated assignment, and routing.
Faster Support Resolution
Track KPIs and link them to compensation to create incentives for faster service performance.
Fully Automated Services
Automate IT services to save an hour each time an automated service runs.
Fewer Major Outages
Reduce high-importance/critical incidents and recovery time through notifications and automatic remediation
Value Drivers
Key Value Drivers
20% Increase
Value: $6,016,016
10%
Faster
Value: $2,939,648
20%
Savings
Value: $39,347
25%
Reduction
Value: $1,580,450
Estimated savings based on a financial model constructed by Forrester Consulting, applying the TEI methodology to data from interviews with actual ServiceNow customers. Calculations based on a set of default value. All values are based on estimates and should not be considered promises of realized values. For more information, go to the ServiceNow Value Calculator

16. Sample Business Case – Customer Service
SAVE
$5,148,540 ANNUALLY
ANNUAL VALUE
Executive Summary
Support call NPS increase
Experience a 10-plus percentage point increase in Support Call Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Faster issue resolution
When customers use self-service to resolve common issues, customer service agents can then focus their time on more complex cases resolving issues faster.
Value Drivers
Key Value Drivers
10 Point Increase
Value: $3,281,040
10% Faster
Value: $1,867,500
Estimated savings based on a financial model constructed by Forrester Consulting, applying the TEI methodology to data from interviews with actual ServiceNow customers. Calculations based on a set of default value. All values are based on estimates and should not be considered promises of realized values. For more information, go to the ServiceNow Value Calculator

17. Sample Business Case – HR
SAVE
$5,028,722
ANNUALLY
ANNUAL VALUE
Executive Summary
Employee inquiries resolved instantly
Deliver a better employee experience by providing self-service portals for employees.
Increase in HR productivity
Self-service, automation and improved services increase HR productivity.
Value Drivers
Key Value Drivers
50% Automated
Value: $3,076,076
37% Increase
Value: $1,953,646
Estimated savings based on a financial model constructed by Forrester Consulting, applying the TEI methodology to data from interviews with actual ServiceNow customers. Calculations based on a set of default value. All values are based on estimates and should not be considered promises of realized values. For more information, go to the ServiceNow Value Calculator

18. Sample Business Case – Security Operations
SAVE
$3,821,145
ANNUALLY
ANNUAL VALUE
Executive Summary
Faster security incident response
Improve defensive response by providing one place to consolidate, prioritize, route and remediate security incidents.
Faster vulnerability response
Automatically import vulnerability scan data, prioritize critical vulnerabilities then automate workflows and remediation.
Value Drivers
Key Value Drivers
45% Faster
Value: $3,444,405
25%
Faster
Value: $376,740
Estimated savings based on a financial model constructed by Forrester Consulting, applying the TEI methodology to data from interviews with actual ServiceNow customers. Calculations based on a set of default value. All values are based on estimates and should not be considered promises of realized values. For more information, go to the ServiceNow Value Calculator

19. Sample Business Case – Intelligent Apps
SAVE
$9,928,660
ANNUALLY
ANNUAL VALUE
Executive Summary
Build apps in one-third the time
Faster development and delivery of projects through use of no-code and low-code models, and the delivery of innovative services faster.
Lower development cost
Reduced need to write native code, added abundance of reusable code and APIs enables the use of junior developers to deliver projects.
Value Drivers
Key Value Drivers
1/3 time saved
Value: $8,156,160
50% Savings
Value: $1,772,500
Estimated savings based on a financial model constructed by Forrester Consulting, applying the TEI methodology to data from interviews with actual ServiceNow customers. Calculations based on a set of default value. All values are based on estimates and should not be considered promises of realized values. For more information, go to the ServiceNow Value Calculator