For current insights, executives switch from static reports, turning to live dashboards. The dynamic reporting there gives up-to-date intelligence on key metrics. 

Static reports still have value. They capture performance at a point in time. And a collection of them can reveal trends, which might be shared in the latest static report. But leadership now usually requires real-time visibility.

Most of us remember when we had a camera that just took pictures. Eventually, we got a camera that captured video. And now, all of us can live-stream through any number of apps. If static reports are a picture – a snapshot in time – dashboards are a live stream.

What a Live Dashboard with ServiceNow Data Needs

The CIO at your organization may want to see the real-time status of P1 incidents. The CEO will want to know which factors immediately impact business performance. So the CIO dashboard will likely show in real time what the business-critical incidents are.

If you are an MSP, you may create a dashboard for your VP of Sales. It shows the five biggest customers that an outage impacts. You have SLAs that this outage influences. 

To function best, a live dashboard often includes these four features:

  • Real-time delivery. The data must be current, offering insight into the status of the company, of incidents, of SLAs, and so forth – as they are right now.
  • External to ServiceNow. Running reports within ServiceNow can limit not only the performance of ServiceNow, but also the scope of the intelligence. BI teams usually also wish to run analytics in a …
  • Powerful BI tool. The advanced reporting available in PowerBI, Tableau, and other BI tools leads companies to extract ServiceNow data for reporting in one or more of those tools.
  • Merged data. Companies can achieve a 360-degree view only when they combine ServiceNow data with data elsewhere in the organization.

Here are the stories of four organizations that extract ServiceNow data for reporting in dashboards.

Executives’ Dashboards for Business Decisions at Accenture

Leadership across the organization at Accenture rely on dashboards. Often, these dashboards that report data in real time are set up in custom platforms. 

Although they are not in ServiceNow, the dashboards make use of ServiceNow data, combined with data from elsewhere in the organization. So Accenture replicates this ServiceNow data in real time to a data warehouse, where it merges with other data.

The dashboards then empower Accenture executives to make a variety of decisions. Jeff Lowenthal, Enterprise Architect at Accenture explains, “They can look at SLA’s, they can make staffing decisions, they can identify hot spots, heat maps, all that kind of fun stuff that you can do with data.”

Dashboards Fueled by ServiceNow Data at PayPal

At PayPal, the BI teams prefer using their own best-of-breed BI tools. They also needed to preserve ServiceNow performance when running reports. So PayPal moves ServiceNow data to an external database for reporting in PowerBI, Tableau, and other tools.

With these BI tools, PayPal’s teams build their own live dashboards. And word got around, making the ability to self-report even more popular.

Hundreds of Dashboards with ServiceNow Insights at ServiceNow

Naturally, ServiceNow as a company makes heavy use of ServiceNow, the platform. To preserve the performance of many production instances, they move their ServiceNow data to database systems.

From there, they deliver hundreds of dashboards for business units across the organization, including marketing, sales, HR, finance, and customer support.

Relying on MSP Dashboard for Full Visibility at Crossfuze

Managed service providers need visibility, whether they are connecting their ServiceNow instance to an internal system or to customer systems.

Crossfuze (formerly Virteva) functions as the service desk for their customers’ users. So they needed a dashboard to see the performance of SLAs as indicated by a consistent set of data. Moving customer data into their system gave them the ability to create this “single pane of glass.”

Better Visibility and Agility with Live Dashboards

With live dashboards, executives at your organization can have the intelligence they need to stay agile and raise the standard of services. Achieving full visibility gives your company a competitive edge.

ServiceNow customers, including some like you, extract ServiceNow data and extend ServiceNow workflow to stay competitive. For ideas about how you can do the same, check out their stories.

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July 28, 2021     Zak Cole