What a difference three years in service management makes
- Summary:
- Digital transformation is taking shape on the path to cloud computing and service management. ServiceNow's Paul Hardy reflects as the year draws to a close
Of course, in software engineering terms, December is just like any other month. But perhaps it does give us a chance to reflect back and look at the kinds of conversations we are having today compared to the ones we might have been having a year or 18 months ago.
I’ve been in my current role for three years now and that period of time certainly allows me to identify a tangible change in the way we consider cloud computing, data management and software application engineering in the era of service management.
Digital transformation – but what happens next?
As we move into 2019, we can see that the conversation surrounding digital transformation in all its forms has now progressed to the point where business systems are actually being changed.
Let me put that another way. Customers have digitally transformed at least some – not often all – of their operational foundations and are now able to look at ‘outcomes’ fuelled by greater productivity resulting from digital transformation.
These are outcomes where the customer has employed digital workflows, services-driven efficiencies and areas such as big data analytics to create not just improved balance sheets, but new workflow models inside teams, departments and the organization at large.
Back to the question – what has changed in IT?
I would say that it feels like we are really on the flight path to changing the way new technologies are being applied. In this transformational stage, we are now able to have a lot more conversations about tuning, augmenting, finessing and enhancing much of what has been deployed.
But even getting to this stage has allowed a lot of customers to understand what really happens next.
A green-field, blank-sheet mindset
Some customers are planning their next stage of digital enablement with a blank sheet of paper and an almost green-field mindset. They know by now that much of the IT stack they have been running up to now will simply not exist in the future.
That’s not to say that there is any danger of a rip-and-replace culture developing; it’s more a question of knowing how big the opportunity is ahead of us.
As customers start to develop what are still nascent systems engineering plans designed for inherent growth, they start to discover user functionality that they didn’t even think they needed. This is because users now have the opportunity to drive development from the front line, rather than accept the top-down model that most of us have traditionally come to accept in the past.
Inside these new IT systems, we see digital workflows where DevOps practices help create greater work experiences and help people – and I mean both users and software engineers – at every level to drive unprecedented new levels of productivity.
Inside these new systems, software engineers are able work to manage upwards, articulating operational models to senior management – and downwards, to team system admins and DBAs – to make it all happen.
A logical virtuous journey
What happens next is that management can then take those clearly articulated operational models from the technology function and carry them forwards to build new business strategies. Those strategies will also help the business to decide which strategic partnerships they should be forming.
It’s not all plain sailing of course. We know that formulating a roadmap to get people from point A to point B will always be a complex process and it could almost be described as ‘muddy’ to start with -- but we tend to find that the ground hardens pretty quickly and customers find out where they need to stand.
We also know that customers are now more focused on finding the productivity-obsessed people inside their organizations who want to drive change. Those that don’t want to change may often tend to stay around for a while, but ultimately there tends to be a natural attrition factor and these people either leave or simply don’t form part of future plans.
It is important that customers remember not to spend time focusing on those ‘no-change’ people, as they ultimately won’t help achieve the next phase of growth or help form the great work experiences that all employees will demand.
The cloud-native era
Cloud computing – and indeed, cloud-native apps and services – has become a reality not just in my stamping ground in Europe, but all around the world.
There is still some trepidation in the cloud, but that trepidation comes from customers now spending time not just working out whether to go for cloud, but also looking at which applications and data should be placed where on different public and private cloud environments, in what is an inevitably hybrid cloud world.
It has almost gone full circle and customers are now asking what they shouldn’t put in the cloud. So a new fascination with moving towards positive productivity and great employee experiences has come to the surface.
Most of the conversations I am having are ones that concern technology and business developments that will play out inside a three- to five-year period. This is the time window that most customers plan within for the next stage of digital transformation.
I hope I’ve convinced you that things have really changed. As I said, we’re on the flight path now, not just looking up at the clouds … or indeed the stars and beyond.
The last twelve months have been just about the most exciting time in my career and I feel that it must also be a time of great technology passion for many others. I look forward to working with customers and partners and continuing these conversations next year. Happy 2019!