Deutsche Bahn Systel uses ServiceNow to put the power of IT in the hands of users

Deutsche Bahn is an international integrated provider of mobile and logistics services. The company’s railway network is located in Germany and is the largest railway network in Europe, covering 33,000 kilometers and capable of transporting 7 million passengers per day. Not surprisingly, the technical requirements of this powerful organization with 320,000 are complex and diverse. This is provided by the subsidiary Deutsche Bahn Systel (DB Systel), which is the digital partner of all companies in the group.

DB Systel has been rethinking how to provide technology to Deutsche Bahn employees through the ServiceNow Now platform, which in turn has led to a broader transformation agenda that focuses on putting the power of IT in the hands of users-rather than relying on the core that determines the needs of the entire group Features.

Before this week’s ServiceNow Now at Work virtual event, we had the opportunity to talk with CIO Claudia Plattner of DB Systel. For all our coverage from work, check out the dedicated event center of diginomica here, where you can find the link to the event itself.

Plattner explained that DB Systel is looking for a platform that will guide users through the entire process of IT production-the platform will provide services to customers, ensure that all configuration steps are processed in the background, and that processes like billing are complete automated. It also needs to integrate with all other platforms of DB Systel, which has become a major advantage of ServiceNow in recent years. Plattner said:

It is an illusion to think that you have only one platform that will solve all your problems, but it is not the case. Therefore, the key is integration, and we are looking for something that can be well integrated with other existing systems to make this order fulfillment process truly seamless. In this way, everyone in the company can focus on the actual production of IT and order the cash flow order process for them.

DB Systel signed the first contract with ServiceNow in 2017, and we put it into use in 2018. Since its launch, Deutsche Bahn technology users can manage their technology products by themselves, and cash processing orders have all been completed, and it has become a reality on the Now platform. Plattner explained:

For us, success is that users do not need a centralized IT department to serve them. If one of the teams says “We have a new product to offer,” then they must be able to buy it, develop the product, put it in the store, connect all the points, and make sure to connect it to the rest of the platform.

From owning distribution channels to billing-it’s all done automatically, they don’t have to talk to anyone to do this. We want to make the team work in a way that does not have to wait for the central IT to complete tasks for them. They can put time into the market under their control. We certainly hope to have a zoom effect there.

Support changes

As with any technology project, the potential benefits of a new platform usually have little to do with the technology itself-people and change management are required to fully realize the opportunity. Plattner has not forgotten this. He understands that as users adapt to take responsibility for their own IT, the entire Deutsche Bahn needs an education process. she says:

People do need to spend some time to understand that wanting to manage your own products means you have to manage your own products. If you are used to making decisions for yourself, it will take a while to get used to making your own decisions about the product. For example: define your own life cycle, make sure to sell the product in a good way, and be able to tell the advantages. No one will do this for you.

You must make the following decision: What is the billing method? What is the business model behind it? If you are not used to doing this, suddenly everything is brand new. It is very interesting to see. Some of us are very advanced, with advanced thinking and strategic thinking. But for others, this is a major change in their working methods, perceptions and responsibilities. This will take a while.

Looking to the future, Plattner sees many use cases for the Now platform, which can be used for everything related to the service management of the Deutsche Bahn Group. A project currently underway is using an asset management platform on which her team is building a comprehensive view of all assets within the group. This can be any asset with a CPU, and can include any asset from cars, trucks with sensors, escalators, servers, cell phones or computers. Plattner explained:

Currently, asset management is carried out in a decentralized manner. And it will continue to be done in a decentralized manner because you need to optimize for a specific business. But what we really need is a focused understanding of what is happening. Some people use ServiceNow for daily management, while others use it only for centralized views.

Here, various aspects play a major role. First of all, this is a security issue and you need to know what happened. The next thing is that if you have a unified view of all assets, it enables you to make business decisions. Also, suppose you want to find out which assets you want to develop into a digital twin model, this will be the basic information that will enable you to expand from there. We are discussing various evolutionary options. There is a lot of potential there. We have not been there yet, but this is where we are going.

advice

Plattner said the key advice she will provide to another company on how to use ServiceNow is to carefully consider what you really need from the Now platform. She said that before promotion, having a clear understanding of what you want to achieve from the platform will be beneficial in the long run. Plattner also urged companies using the Now platform to concentrate on development rather than in a distributed manner. she says:

If you are looking for a distributed development environment-assuming that teams around the world can actually make changes or programming on the platform-I would say never do it. It should be centralized, and only one team can work on the platform itself. You can use it all over the world, but programming on the platform in a decentralized manner is not interesting at all. If you are looking for features that can be expanded quickly, please have a team responsible for programming. After that, for various purposes, it was installed and run on the entire planet, and a common data model was used in the background.

The final recommendation is to have one person focus exclusively on licensing. This is so complicated and confusing, and it really helps to leave one with nothing but optimizing the licensing model.