ServiceNow is a prominent cloud platform that helps automate enterprise workflows to enhance operational efficiency, customer experience, and IT service delivery. Organizations face an important decision when implementing ServiceNow: trusting their internal teams to configure the platform or hiring an expert ServiceNow consulting firm. Each option has its pros and cons.
If an organization plans to streamline their workflows and digitally transform their operations, ServiceNow Implementation Services is a key factor. Which path the organization selects depends on whether they plan to use ServiceNow Consulting Services or have internal resources configure the ServiceNow system. Deciding which option is important because it can have implications for the success of the project, ROI, and scalability in the future. Considering the increasing complexity of the platform, as well as the changing business objectives, evaluating the trade-offs is crucial. This article outlines the differences, advantages, and scenarios when each option is the best fit.
Here we are going to outline the major differences between ServiceNow Consulting Services and in-house configuration to assist organizations in selecting the best route based on expertise, timeliness, cost, scalability, risk mitigation, innovation, and support.
What Is ServiceNow Consulting?
ServiceNow consulting involves comprehensive expert advice from certified partners or firms experienced with the platform. This includes strategic planning, needs assessment, design and configuration, testing, integration, change management, user training, and continuous improvement. Consulting firms provide domain knowledge across IT Service Management (ITSM), Human Resources Service Delivery (HRSD), Customer Service Management (CSM), IT Operations Management (ITOM), and Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC).
They use established best practices and agile approaches to help reduce risk and quickly drive value. Their involvement consists of everything from building the initial roadmap to providing post-deployment support to help organizations create tailored foundations for scalable business value.
What Does In-House ServiceNow Configuration Involve?
In-house ServiceNow configuration refers to the use of your internal IT resources (i.e. system administrators and developers) to design, build and administer workflows on the platform, without a consulting service. Generally, this setup will identify 1 or 2 system administrators and developers to configure IT Service Management modules, customize forms and workflows, integrate with existing systems, and support data migration. Ideally, you’ve decided to in-source to gain control over your ServiceNow configuration, leverage organizational processes, and decrease reliance on professional services.
Nevertheless, in-house teams frequently balance ServiceNow responsibilities with other duties in IT and vary in experience and knowledge according to prior work experience and formal training. To all intents and purposes, it is life as usual – they are repairing the software (patches), responding to incidents, and making enhancements that respond to evolving user needs. In some cases, companies will establish Centers of Excellence to gather knowledge and share it while creating guiding processes and standards.
Key Comparison: ServiceNow Consulting vs In-House Configuration
1. Expertise and Skillset
ServiceNow consultants have certified knowledge and extensive experience in a variety of industries and use cases, which helps them foresee issues and to design the best solutions possible. Their knowledge of the ServiceNow platform across projects allows them to solve problems quickly and efficiently, adhere to platform best practices and take advantage of best-in-class features and functions.
On the other hand, internal teams may lack the specialized experience or in-depth ServiceNow knowledge of the platform’s latest functionality and enhancements. Gaps in knowledge and experience coupled with the learning curve can slow down deployments or result in less than optimal configuration. Ongoing training is needed, but it takes resources to train and it takes time to learn and practice.
2. Implementation Speed
Speeding up your project delivery time by using reusable frameworks, standardized ways of working, and existing resources that concentrate only on implementation. Predicting issues and developing lessons learned based on previously delivered engagements helps projects mitigate issues, yield faster turnaround times, and limit re-work.
Customer-based configuration projects often lend themselves to competing resources, people doing multiple projects at once, and variable priorities that cause slow progress. With no deadlines, pressure from external stakeholders, or standard processes, the project risks delays and scope creep.
3. Cost Considerations
Customer-based configuration may appear to be a low-cost investment upfront, as it saves the customer money in the short-term by not paying for consulting fees. However, the customer will incur additional costs through extended implementation time frames, errors from learning the configuration through trial & error, and some potential productivity loss through incorrect configuration.
Consultant services may have fixed price costs, but can decrease the total cost of ownership with faster project time frames, less errors, and better alignments with your business objective. Partners often enable more flexible ways to engage, allowing the customer to better manage the budget and select the scope of work.
4. Customization and Scalability
Experienced consultants can help clients to balance the ratio of customization to standardization of the platform to maintain a simple solution that is easy to support and upgrade. Setting up scalable production workflows to support the complexity of being an enterprise, while avoiding technical debt.
In-house staff may excessively customize, or inadvertently not standardize correctly on configurations and the result is brittle systems which lead to challenges on scale, and increased costs to maintain. Staff may also not have familiarity around and experience with modular design patterns that would enable greater flexibility.
5. Risk and Compliance Management
Consultants provide expertise related to implementing controls, audit trails, and security that meet industry standards. These consultants take a more comprehensive approach that identifies risks and implements strategies to reduce exposure, generating governance.
In-house staff typically do not have a background with compliance frameworks (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA, SOX, etc.), which could result in inadequate controls and/or not remediating vulnerabilities in a timely manner.
6. Maintenance and Support
ServiceNow Consulting Services go beyond implementation, providing ongoing maintenance support, monitoring, patch management, feature upgrades, and end-user training – often as part of ServiceNow Managed Services. This provides a foundation to ensure that an organization’s digital platform(s) remain optimized, secured, and in a constant state of evolution.
In-house teams conduct maintenance duties along with myriad other IT responsibilities; as a result, they may not have the bandwidth or skill to respond in a timely manner and may lack the innovative capacity to move an organization forward. Keeping pace with ServiceNow’s release schedule requires a certain level of expertise and proactive nature.
7. Innovation and Future Readiness
Consultants can provide valuable advice and guidance on emerging capabilities within ServiceNow, such as AI-enabled automation, low-code workflow automation, predictive analytics, and advanced integrations. This innovation focus solves for organizations often struggling to evolve their ServiceNow platform(s) with velocity, if at all, and hinders business responsiveness and digital competitiveness.
In-house teams may struggle to quickly (or strategically) integrate new features resulting in decreased responsiveness to the business and reduced digital competitiveness.
When to Choose ServiceNow Consulting?
Organizations looking to make significant change and needing to get to market quickly with expertise, design, and future view, find it to be a suitable option when engaging with ServiceNow consulting. When the organizations are large enterprises that do not have enough ServiceNow specialization within the organization, interested in deploying multiple modules, or with governance and compliance needs assessing integration, consulting is useful. Consulting is also useful if you need help developing strategic Roadmaps, making change management more agile, and extending optimization on the platform.
When In-House Configuration Works Best?
In-house configuration may be the best option for small organizations with narrow-scope implementations or well-established, certified teams supporting ServiceNow. When workflows are clear and stable, and the move to digital is not overreaching, in-house efforts generally provide a level of operational control and cost savings. In-house configuration works very well when the organization is focused mostly on incremental updates or has less need for customization.
A3Logics’ Perspective: Why Strategic Consulting Delivers More Value
A3Logics emphasizes that genuine digital transformation extends beyond system configuration to include strategy, process reengineering, and continuous innovation. A3Logics’ ServiceNow Implementation Services provide not only deep domain knowledge, a structured methodology, and collaboration partnership, but also ServiceNow Consulting Services that ensure custom solutions that support scale, integration, and compliance with change management programs to enable adoption.
They also offer ServiceNow Integration Services that connect ServiceNow to ERPs, CRMs, legacy systems, and third-party cloud services, enabling organizations to eliminate silos and encourage data-driven decision-making. A3Logics combines technical excellence with business acumen, improving ROI and perpetuating the momentum of the digital revolution.
Final Thoughts
Making a choice between ServiceNow Integration Services and in-house configuration will require a thorough evaluation of business goals, skillsets, and transformation complexity. While in-house effort provides control and potentially cost-saving, consulting services provide planned value through expertise, project speed, and strategy for scaling at enterprise level.
By working with experienced agencies like A3Logics, clients can be assured of going to market faster with certified consultants who are experts in ServiceNow deployment, integration and scaling ServiceNow platforms. Services include life cycle implementation support through implementation services and ongoing consulting and integration services to support agile, compliant and innovative ways of working. In conclusion, organizations pursuing sustainability, and measurable digital transformation will benefit the most by partnering with trusted ServiceNow consulting firms.
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