Why Performance Analytics?

Venetia Rook - 1st December 2016

I had a great time at the NowForum and managed to attend a couple of interesting breakout sessions. I also had the opportunity to wax lyrical on the Engage ESM stand about my not so secret passion for Performance Analytics, but if you missed it my summary is below.

I’ve had better Christmas Presents!

My background with ServiceNow is as a customer. Having been part of the team that successfully implemented ServiceNow, there I was, leading the ITSM Reporting Team and struggling to provide the level of BI required. The team were constantly exporting data from ServiceNow and manipulating it in Excel for establishing trends and reporting against targets, then producing charts and copying them into various Word and Powerpoint documents every month. (Yes, I can feel you nodding along sympathetically).

My director at the time delighted in telling me he’d bought me Mirror42 for Christmas, which was a step in the right direction, but the situation dramatically improved when ServiceNow acquired Mirror42 and developed the in-platform Performance Analytics (PA) we have today.


Getting Started

To get you started with PA, ServiceNow provide you with a solid base, not just for Service Management, but across the platform. Out of the box content includes 50 dashboards, with supporting dimensions, reports and KPIs.

Focus on Processes

For me, the immediate objectives that I was able to meet were to make my reporting team more efficient and providing meaningful, reliable information.

The key benefit of PA though, is enabling the Process Owners to focus on process efficiency, using core components of the tool.


External Data? Of Course We Can!

Scoresheets provide a simple view of the scores collected for each indicator, along with their breakdowns, all neatly presented in their own pigeon-holes.

But if that wasn’t enough, you can also populate Manual Indicators directly into the Scoresheet (like an Excel spreadsheet) to bring in scores for data external to ServiceNow.

Want to report on 1st Line Fix Rate against Average Number of Calls? Enter the Service Desk call stats into the Scoresheet (or import using a Transform Map) and the data can now be used in any calculation.


Visualise the Data

Now you’ve got all this marvellous data, it’s time to present it so that everyone else can share in the bounty and, another plus for your reporting team, they can spend more time analysing trends rather than copying charts into those Word docs!

  • Scorecards - The CXO view on a page to visualise indicator trends.
  • Widgets - A veritable goody bag of chart types to choose from, ranging from the simple line chart to the colourful Bubble Chart and the ever effective Heat Map.
  • Dashboards - Finally, bring together the indicators in meaningful sections, the dynamic alternative to the monthly report. Being able to see performance throughout the month, gives you a chance to influence events before they potentially get worse.



Enhanced Operational Reporting

As an added bonus, PA also enhances your operational reporting capability, providing these two features:

1. Multiple Data Series
Visualise multiple queries in one chart, e.g. Incidents v Problems Created per Month.

2. User Interactivity
Enable users to apply filters on a Homepage to change the focus to their preference. Saves having to build lots of reports for different dimensions – your reporting team will love you!


Christmas Cracker

So, why Performance Analytics?

  • OOB content across the platform
  • Focus on continual process improvement
  • Accurate and timely metrics
  • Variety of visualisations
  • Include data from external sources
  • Enhance your operational reporting

Make your reporting team happy this Christmas and whilst you are starting your New Year health check, consider using PA to enable a far more effective New Year overhaul for your processes.