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Digital innovation-the adoption of digital technologies, in general-is accelerating business. By 2020, worldwide spending on digital transformation will reach $ 1.3 trillion, growing at a 10.4% year-on-year rate, according to Statista. The benefits of digital innovation can be substantial, with McKinsey estimating that innovation with a focus on the customer experience can produce a 20% to 30% increase in customer satisfaction. But it is also full of challenges. A study by Everest Group in 2018 found that 73% of businesses are not getting any business value whatsoever from their digital innovations.
The causes of failure in digital transformation range from lack of upfront commitment to overly technical techniques. Regardless, companies are looking to maximize their investment in new talent and technology as the pandemic drives business online. A recent WalkMe report found that 42% of organizations rate lack of technical knowledge and skills as their number one barrier to successful digital transformation, emphasizing the barriers that can be overcome.
Aware of the growing business opportunity, ServiceNow, the workflow automation platform, today introduced a new product aimed at better computing digital transformation initiatives. Called ServiceNow Impact, the company claims it uses AI to “close the value gap” by estimating how much different tech investments are worth in an organization.
Benchmarking changes
According to IDC, companies have invested billions of dollars in tech but most don’t know enough return on investment to justify it. This “value gap” is often caused by the proliferation of different projects that do not work effectively together, as well as the increasing need for companies to spend resources on maintaining legacy solutions. A 2018 Deloitte survey found that the average enterprise spends 57% of its IT budget on supporting business operations – mostly legacy operations – and only 16% on fostering innovation.
ServiceNow says Impact is designed to address this by offering customers a personalized experience with access to business value data and benchmarks, driven by AI. The service-which includes access to support teams and training resources designated by ServiceNow-recommends the next best actions and practices to assist in the ongoing change effort.
“ServiceNow Impact delivers a premium, consumer-grade digital experience personalized according to duty and travel,” ServiceNow SVP of customer excellence and partner Paul Fipps told VentureBeat via email. “Built on [ServiceNow’s existing platform], Impact of Service Today [features] preventative controls, proactive recommendations, and AI-enabled suggestions and alerts for platform health and optimization. The solution also offers ‘Impact Squads,’ dedicated teams of experts, partner collaboration, and mentoring sessions that… can filter, prioritize, and suggest actions from recommendations driven by AI. “
AI for supporting innovation
Although it is too early to measure the effectiveness of ServiceNow Impact, the benefits that AI brings to the table for digital transformation are becoming clearer. As cloud consultancy startup Virtusa writes in Bloomberg, AI solutions such as conversational AI and machine learning-powered cloud management promise to brighten the future of digital transformation — and offer more innovative ways to address business challenges.
To take an example, a growing number of startups are using AI to improve enterprise spending management, such as Yokoy. Others have applied AI to digital risk, compliance, and security issues. Meanwhile, a separate cohort is developing AI to automate data access controls as workers-and workplaces-increasingly share.
“AI solutions can now be customized to meet the company’s unique set of challenges. One can say that AI is ready for a business world riddled with unprecedented disruption and uncertainty, ”Virtusa wrote.
Fipps added: “The ServiceNow Impact digital experience with AI-driven value acceleration is a difference compared to our peers. Tailored to the user’s organization and role, ServiceNow Impact delivers a personalized value guide for digital innovation in [our platform]. Customers can… track progress against their outcomes, share insights and peer or industry benchmark comparisons, and make data-based decisions to optimize their journey into digital transformation… The ServiceNow Impact is also uniquely targeted at multiple people in an organization-at the operational level (admin), functional level (platform owner), and executive level (CXO). ”
Now available, ServiceNow said Impact is used by customers including Anaplan, NewsCorp, Infor, and the State of Montana. In conjunction with Impact, ServiceNow today released an update to its training and certification platform that offers on-demand, instructor-led, and custom training and certification programs.
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