IT management, MSP

ServiceNow Debuts Intelligent Automation Engine for IT Service Desks

Chris Pope
Chris Pope

ServiceNow, the cloud-based IT service management software provider, has unveiled an automation engine that is designed to bring machine learning to everyday work.

The ServiceNow Intelligent Automation Engine, which made its debut at this week's Knowledge17 conference, applies automation to various IT use cases.

By doing so, the automation engine empowers companies to "prevent outages before they happen, automatically categorize and route incidents, benchmark performance against IT peers and predict future performance," ServiceNow said in a prepared statement.

ServiceNow Intelligent Automation Engine: A Closer Look

The ServiceNow Intelligent Automation Engine is part of the ServiceNow Now Platform, which helps companies create contextual workflows and automate business processes.

Companies can use the ServiceNow Intelligent Automation Engine to develop models that prioritize and route tasks across departments, ServiceNow stated. As such, the engine can help businesses identify problems to prevent service issues, benchmark services and predict performance.

In addition, the ServiceNow Intelligent Automation Engine's core capabilities include:

  • Application development.
  • Knowledge management.
  • Performance analytics.
  • Reporting.
  • Subscription management.

The ServiceNow Intelligent Automation Engine drives automation that extends beyond cost savings, Chris Pope, ServiceNow's senior director for the office of chief strategy officer (CSO), told ChannelE2E.

With the ServiceNow Intelligent Automation Engine, businesses can reap the full benefits of intelligent automation, Pope stated.

"The intelligence side of automation is gaining importance," he said. "You can have all the automation you want, but you need to focus on the outcomes to get the best results."

Many Organizations Want Intelligent Automation

Many organizations plan to leverage intelligent automation solutions in the near future, according to the new ServiceNow "Today's State of Work: After Breaking Point" survey of 1,874 IT executives.

By 2018, 46 percent of IT executives said they will need greater automation to handle the volume of tasks being generated, the ServiceNow survey indicated. And by 2020, 86 percent of survey respondents said they will hit the intelligent automation "breaking point."

Moreover, the survey showed highly automated companies are six times more likely to experience revenue growth of more than 15 percent versus companies with low automation, ServiceNow said.

"In a world of smarter homes, cars and commerce, the workplace has been a holdout—but not for long," ServiceNow CSO Dave Wright said in a prepared statement. "The shift to greater automation is coming now to transform everyday work."

How to Avoid the Intelligent Automation Breaking Point

ServiceNow offered the following recommendations to help companies avoid the intelligent automation breaking point:

  • Find HR, customer service, IT and other business processes that need to be improved.
  • Look at critical business services and automate workloads.
  • Collaborate with internal teams to address business concerns.
  • Deploy best practices around change management.
  • Develop and evolve internal teams' skills to help workers succeed in an automated world.

Many employees "feel like they're working a sixth day each week," Wright said in a prepared statement.

However, intelligent automation ensures companies can leverage machines to "free up employees to do the creative, innovative work they crave," Wright indicated.

Dan Kobialka

Dan Kobialka is senior contributing editor, MSSP Alert and ChannelE2E. He covers IT security, IT service provider business strategies and partner programs. Dan holds a M.A. in Print and Multimedia Journalism from Emerson College and a B.A. in English from Bridgewater State University. In his free time, Dan enjoys jogging, traveling, playing sports, touring breweries and watching football.

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