What we said at ServiceNow Summit 2024

Andy Venables talks onstage in the Customer Experience track

Speaking at ServiceNow Summit events in London and Edinburgh this month, Andy Venables, Founder and CTO at POPX, has warned businesses that digital transformation implementations that do not go live within the first three months risk losing out on multiple benefits, including important outcomes such as service automation.

The ServiceNow Summit, which took place at The Mermaid in London’s Puddle Dock and Kimpton Charlotte Square Hotel in Edinburgh, saw a number of digital transformation experts, with representatives from Experian, Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC) and ServiceNow joining Andy onstage. Discussions focused on a number of relevant topics, from AI through to how intelligent automation can be used to drive greater business productivity. 

One of Andy’s messages and key talking points on the day was: “It’s no secret that businesses are increasingly looking at technology solutions to automate everyday processes so that they can become more productive, but too many risk losing out to the competition by dragging their feet in the early phases of a project. In a competitive marketplace, you need to be delivering value in line with your business case within three months to start demonstrating results to business stakeholders.

“Of course, the next three months after going live can be spent bedding in and extending the value to include other techniques, like machine learning and performance analytics,  but it’s far better to be under-configured and live, than customised and awaiting a slow sign-off or extended testing period. For too many organisations, trying to be perfect is the enemy of achieving good and rapid business outcomes that deliver results and a return on investment.”

The message on the need to accelerate digital transformation comes at a time when a study by Amazon Web Services revealed a 31% increase in AI adoption among UK businesses from 2022 to 2023, highlighting the need for organisations to get to value or risk falling behind the competition. Adoption of generative AI and the automation of business processes represent the next phase in driving growth and productivity. The key, according to Andy, is to lean on established methodologies for accelerating the onboarding process.

Andy's concluding message at the ServiceNow Summit events was: “For most of the processes that you want to automate, your business will not be unique, so you will not need extensive customisation. Don’t try to build a perfect and bespoke solution that you’ll regret later.  Your best approach is to work with a partner that has a tried and tested method of getting digital transformations to value quickly.”

Andy is a recent  ServiceNow Certified  Master Architect, and has vast experience leading large and complex software solution implementations across multiple sectors. Having worked with Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and software houses, he then spent six years as a senior architect at ServiceNow before founding POPX.

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