A major food retailer was using manual processes to map their mission-critical business services which was time-consuming and inaccurate. They implemented ServiceNow's ServiceWatch product to automate service mapping which mapped 4 key services in just a couple days and keeps the maps constantly up-to-date. This has improved risk assessment for changes and accelerated incident resolution times. It has also increased executive support for IT by demonstrating how IT supports the business.

1. A major food retailer with more than 1,200 stores along the East Coast and nearly
100,000 associates depends heavily on a large number of mission-critical business
services. As a result, their IT organization is committed to continually improving service
delivery. As part of this commitment, the company recently launched a broad-reaching
IT Health and Readiness program. One of the key objectives of this initiative was to
enhance their change and configuration processes. According to their manager of IT
service management, “We wanted to know how planned changes would affect our
business services, so we could lower risk for our business.”
Manual Service Mapping Couldn’t Keep Up
At the time, they were mapping business services manually. A team of two architects
spent two years—and an enormous amount of effort—mapping their services and
continued to update the service maps every six months. The service maps were kept in
Word documents, making them cumbersome in an operational setting. Accuracy was
also a major issue and according to their ITSM manager, “As soon as something was
updated, it was already out of date.”
The company was already using ServiceNow for ITSM, including incident, problem,
configuration, change and asset management, as well as the ServiceNow knowledge
base and self-service portal. By adding ServiceWatch, they were able to leverage their
existing ServiceNow investment to get the service visibility they needed.
Up-To-Date, Accurate Service Maps
The food retailer started with four of their 23 critical business services. Once they
turned on ServiceWatch, it mapped the four services in only a couple of days.
The results were impressive. According to the ITSM manager, “We finally know exactly
how these business services are configured, and the beauty is that ServiceNow keeps
the maps up-to-date—so we always know we’ve got accurate information.”
Major Food Retailer Takes Control of
Mission-Critical Business Services
Industry
Food retailer
Highlights
• Achieved accurate and efficient service
mapping through automation
• Delivered improved service and incident
resolution while lowering risks
• Demonstrated business value of IT and
gained critical executive support
“With ServiceNow, we can instantly see which
IT components support each of our business
services and mitigate any business risks before
making an IT change.”
­—Manager, IT Service Management
ServiceWatchServiceMapping Derisks Changes andAccelerates IncidentResolution
servicenow.com ServiceNow / 1
Case Study

2. “ServiceWatch has
given us enormous
confidence. We can
now show our
executives what IT
is doing to support
the business.”
—Manager, IT Service Management
Reduced Risk and Improved Service Quality
She continues, “We now understand the potential business impact of each change—which
means we can lower our risks. It’s also dramatically improved our communications.
Before we make a change, we can now reach out to the service owner and get their
approval. That’s huge for us.”
ServiceWatch also helps the company resolve incidents more quickly. Now, when there’s
a service issue, they can drill down into the service map to find the cause. According
to their ITSM manager, “In the past, our service desk team would spend hours or even
days trying to find out what was broken. They don’t have to do that anymore.”
Momentum Is Building
She sums it up this way, “ServiceWatch has given us enormous confidence. We can
now show our executives what IT is doing to support the business. There’s been strong
business buy in—and that’s another huge win for us.”
Case Study
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