Credit: ID 55578362 © Victor Diola Jr | Dreamstime
Deloitte and Canberra’s BT Automation have implemented the ServiceNow Protected Platform for more than 4000 employees at the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources (DISER).
The project marks the first government department to implement the ServiceNow Protected Platform, with the procurement and implementation taking place in less than six months, meeting Australian data security and sovereignty requirements.
The new platform forms part of the department’s service management transformation, which started with IT before expanding to cover service delivery for a variety of teams and corporate functions including procurement, finance, payroll requests, legal services, and communications support.
“The team at DISER considered user experience to drive adoption of new services, as well as an implementation approach that would deliver business value early and often,” Deloitte Consulting lead ServiceNow partner, Sonia Eland said.
“With this in mind, they took a best-in-class approach to the project, by engaging employees early in the change process, implementing out-of-the-box functionality and adapting processes to best suit the new system.
“Through its new engagement portal and then progressively adding features like virtual agents, together with shutting down old inboxes and manual tools, DISER has reaped the rewards with near-total adoption across a large workforce, delivering significant efficiency gains across multiple teams and functions.”
DISER began rolling out ServiceNow in June last year. The first phase was completed by August 2021, covering ServiceNow ITSM, IT Asset Management, and the ServiceNow Configuration Management Database (CMDB).
The second phase of the project covered service management for other corporate functions and was completed in December 2021 as the department’s portal went live.
BT Automation managing director Mike Bennet added that the company's long history of working with the government means it has a deep understanding of public sector requirements, which was crucial to completing such an extensive and quick implementation.
“The strong collaboration between all parties and the complete focus on driving positive outcomes for the department has led to multiple benefits and rapid time to value,” Bennet said.
The ServiceNow Protected Platform is run on Microsoft Azure and was built to be compliant with regulation governing data sovereignty and security – meeting IRAP requirements for sensitive government data handling at the PROTECTED classification level.
This means the agency can access the full range of cloud solutions built on the Now Platform, with all data kept in-country, and all support services and support staff based in Australia.
ServiceNow replaced a variety of systems and processes, including IT software that was nearing end-of-life, while other teams used a mixture of tools to manage requests.
The new platform consolidates the functions into a single portal, giving employees one place to make requests and access a range of corporate services.
Requests are now automatically routed to the right teams and individuals, eliminating a manual reviewing and sorting process.
The portal enables real-time visibility of the status of requests, and the ability to track and measure performance analytics. It also provides self-service capability, a virtual agent to assist with enquiries, and a knowledge base of articles, making information easy to find.
DISER general manager of ICT operations Steve Stirling said ServiceNow was being used for multiple functions across the department.
“By using one platform to manage complex tasks and requests, we have improved our automation and streamlined a range of administrative tasks, enabling us to assign team members to more important work,” Stirling said.
During March, DISER’s portal clocked 2,300 knowledge article views and more than 6,500 self-service requests, with just 164 requests lodged via email. Over 500 virtual agent conversations were also completed.
"As a result of this go-live, DISER will significantly improve its employees’ experience so staff can focus on what’s important: improving outcomes for citizens,” ServiceNow A/NZ vice president and managing director Eric Swift said.
“In both the private and public sectors, outstanding digital experiences for employees are the key to unlocking productivity and freeing up time. This is driving significant demand from a range of regulated industries for the ServiceNow Protected Platform.
“In our work with more than 100 Australian state and federal agencies, we see them facing increasing demands to deliver more with less, while needing to adapt to increasing security and data sovereignty obligations.”
