ServiceNow is a bedrock of digital operations, used by organisations across a range of industries to help teams manage services, automate workflows and improve customer experience.
You may already be seeing the benefits of your ServiceNow investment, but often there's still untapped potential that can drive even greater efficiency. By leveraging the platform’s capabilities more effectively, teams can streamline operations, reduce manual work and create more connected and agile systems.
The challenges of disconnected ServiceNow operations
ServiceNow was designed to bring data, processes and people together. But in many businesses, it remains confined to isolated functions such as IT service management or HR.
Without integration across departments and supporting systems, teams still rely on manual effort to share data, re-enter information or chase updates between tools. This fragmentation slows operations, creating a frustrating user experience for employees, limiting visibility and increasing risk.
Automation and integration can close these gaps. By connecting your existing enterprise systems and streamlining workflows, you can turn ServiceNow into a single, unified platform that supports every part of your organisation.
Why organisations struggle to unlock the full value of ServiceNow
Even if you have a clear case for automation and integration, you might be finding progress slower than expected.
In many cases, ServiceNow implementations focus on getting core capabilities live quickly, with integration treated as a later phase that never quite arrives. In others, automation efforts start small and remain tactical, addressing individual pain points rather than reshaping end-to-end processes.
Security and governance concerns also hold teams back. To connect systems or automate decisions at scale, you need to have confidence that your data flows are controlled, auditable, and compliant. Without this, integration is relegated to future planning and momentum slows.
But the longer automation and integration are delayed, the more likely you’ll start to see ServiceNow as purely a business-critical operational tool – and from there, its potential for transformation is often forgotten.
How to move from connected tools to connected outcomes
To move beyond this mindset, you need to approach ServiceNow automation and integration deliberately, considering how your platform can move beyond supporting individual teams to enable organisation-wide outcomes.
Every ServiceNow journey is different, but tailoring these practical principles to your needs and goals can help you unlock sustained value from your investment:
- Start with outcomes, not technology
Automation works best when it’s tied to clear business goals, such as reducing resolution times, improving onboarding or strengthening operational resilience. - Design for the whole environment
Effective integration considers the wider ecosystem, from enterprise resource planning (ERP) and HR platforms to monitoring, security and collaboration tools. - Build trust through governance
Clear ownership, secure by design integration, and transparent controls will keep your operations secure and support continuous progress. - Deliver value incrementally
Plan achievable steps towards your broader goals. With each success, you’ll build the confidence and momentum that will keep your ServiceNow transformation journey on track.
What will ServiceNow automation and integration deliver for your organisation?
By following these steps and implementing ServiceNow around your technology, people, processes and governance, you’ll shape a more holistic and efficient business.
By designing secure integrations that eliminate manual effort, improve data visibility and enable end-to-end automation across key functions such as IT, HR, finance and customer service, you can achieve:
- Faster time to value
- Greater efficiency and visibility across operations
- Reduced cost and risk through secure, compliant workflows
- More empowered teams that can focus on high value work
- Improved employee experience.
From this streamlined position, your teams will spend less time navigating systems and more time focused on work that adds value.
As interest grows in data-driven and AI-enabled operations, your connected, well-governed data will also prepare your organisation for future change. Intelligent operations rely on consistent processes and trusted information, so strengthening ServiceNow automation and integration now creates the conditions for future capability.
Supporting your ServiceNow journey
The potential ServiceNow has for your organisation is significant. At CGI we help organisations move beyond maintaining ServiceNow, to using it as a platform for measurable, secure transformation.
Take our recent work with SGN as an example. We deployed a new ServiceNow solution that enhanced both security and performance, creating a health scan score of 92%, while enabling opportunities for ongoing operational improvements.
As a long-standing ServiceNow Elite Partner, we’ve completed more than 4,000 ServiceNow solution implementations globally, helping clients streamline their digital operations with the right workflows.
We combine global experience with a UK-based team of certified specialists to deliver automation and integration projects across industries, from connecting enterprise systems to simplifying workflows, and helping organisations realise faster value from their investments.
The results? Faster workflows, improved resilience and measurable savings – all delivered securely, at pace.
If you’re looking to understand more about maximising your ServiceNow investment, read our automation and integration brochure. When you’re ready to explore how to achieve a more connected, secure and scalable digital enterprise, our ServiceNow experts are here to help – fill in this quick form and I’ll be in touch.
See how we transformed SGN’s ServiceNow platform
Fill out this form to find out more in our automation and integration brochure
About this author
Tony Kavanagh
Director Consulting Services
Tony is the leader of the CGI UK ServiceNow Advisory Practice and is responsible for driving and developing client and partner engagements across multiple sectors.
