Service-now.com is bringing
enterprise social capabilities to the software as a service IT
service-management platform with the addition of chat and live feed to the
Winter 2011 release.
Service-now provides the chat and live-feed capability as a plug-in that SNC administrators can turn on to enable micro-blogging and an activity stream
devoted to IT service-management issues. Although the capabilities are
described as a “plug-in,” there is no software to install, and the features are
available to all current subscribers.
The Winter 2011 release became available Feb. 16. The published license cost is
$110 per month per IT-process user. Volume discounts are available.
In my tests, the chat and live-feed systems performed as expected. The question
IT managers should ask themselves is, “Do I want yet another social platform”
in the user environment? Because Service-now is geared for front-line and
senior IT support staff, the answer could well be “yes.” During my tests, I saw
how easy it was for other staff members to monitor my current support cases and
“tiger team” tough questions in the chat activity stream.
Further, the live-feed stream is a good way to further communicate how a wide
variety of projects are unfolding in an organization. For example, I used the
recent eWEEK Lab relocation in San Francisco as a test case. While e-mail memos
worked to outline the move process (including IT and telephony systems), the
live feed provided battle-in-progress updates about how the plan actually
played out. Problems were easier to spot in the live feed than in e-mail.
While I recommend that organizations turn on the live-feed and chat features in
existing Service-now installations, there are a few caveats. As with any new
communication technology, your organization should first develop and publish an
acceptable-use policy for chatting on the platform. For one thing, Service-Now
chats almost always end up being appended to the permanently stored trouble
ticket. I found this to be a good source of troubleshooting knowledge and
recommend that IT managers make a routine practice of storing chats. This means
that service techs should know that their comments are being stored and
searched.
Existing subscribers should also carefully plan a chat and live-feed adoption
campaign. During my use of the Winter 2011 release, I found it quite
challenging to keep more than two chat support sessions going at the same time.
IT managers who are looking at boosting help desk productivity by mandating
multiple chat sessions should carefully assess the typical support-technician
workload before implementing such a change.
In the Breach
Service-Now Winter 2011 is a full-service IT service-management tool, and as
such, has an almost dizzying array of features. This explains the relatively
complex process needed to configure the live-feed feature in my Service-Now
instance. IT managers have a great deal of flexibility about where the live-feed
feature appears in the service-tech screen. Once the feature was fully enabled,
it was easy for me and my test users to access the functionality.
The chat feature was much easier to use but also provides a large number of
customization features. For example, the chat feature can automatically display
messages such as “please wait while a service technician is contacted.” Other
routine messages can tell users that the technician is working on the problem,
thereby reducing repetitive and time-wasting typing on the part of the service
tech.
The live-feed and chat sessions seemed well-suited to the specialized, rapid-paced
service environment. While using the Service-Now tool during my tests, it was
clear that the social media tools are well-suited to the real-time, fast-paced
nature of service-desk operations.
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