Why most ServiceNow transformations fail before they start
And what leading organisations do differently.
There is no shortage of ambition around ServiceNow right now. Organisations are investing heavily, scaling their use of the platform, and increasingly looking to AI to accelerate results. While the potential is real, many organisations are setting themselves up to struggle long before they ever realise value.
According to Sabrina Devett Nielsen, newly appointed CTO in Denmark at Sofigate, the difference does not come from how quickly organisations adopt new features or move into AI. It comes from the work they do before any of that begins.
“The companies who succeed are the ones who did the hard, unglamorous work first, understanding their own processes before touching the platform,” she explains.
The clarity gap no one wants to address
In practice, that work is often skipped. The pressure to move quickly has led many organisations to rely on out-of-the-box solutions or AI as a substitute for internal clarity. It is an appealing shortcut, especially when platforms promise built-in best practices and AI promises optimisation. However, neither replaces a deep understanding of how work actually happens inside the organisation.
This gap becomes particularly visible when frontline knowledge is missing from decision-making. Leaders make choices about processes they are not directly involved in, while the people who understand the day-to-day reality are left out. Sometimes this is because pulling them into workshops is seen as too costly. In other cases, their input is simply underestimated. Either way, the result is the same: solutions are built on assumptions rather than reality, and those assumptions rarely hold at scale.
AI is amplifying the problem
AI is not solving this problem. In many cases, it is making it worse.
The conversation has already moved beyond automation towards agentic AI, where systems are given the authority to execute tasks rather than just recommend them. While the promise is efficiency, the risks increase significantly when the underlying processes, data, and governance are not properly defined.
“The biggest mistake I see is moving into agentic AI before the foundation is clean,” Sabrina says. “Customers hear AI and think resource savings, but they skip the work of defining exactly what task AI is solving and all the edge cases where it breaks.”
A simple example like a password reset illustrates the point. It appears straightforward until the different scenarios are mapped in detail. Questions quickly emerge around identity, context, access rights, and failure handling. Without that level of clarity, automation introduces vulnerabilities rather than removing effort. When something goes wrong, it is typically the end user who discovers the issue first, which erodes trust and creates additional operational burden.
The operating model most organisations still lack
Many of these challenges can be traced back to how organisations structure ownership of ServiceNow. The platform is still often treated as an IT system, even though its real value lies in optimising business processes across the organisation.
“Realising value starts with having the right internal ownership,” Sabrina explains. “You need a Product Owner who genuinely wants to work with ServiceNow and sees it as a business optimisation tool, not just another system.”
That ownership needs to be supported by a broader operating model. Day-to-day operations should be handled internally to build capability and maintain control, while partners are brought in for more complex initiatives. Technical debt must be managed as a shared responsibility rather than deferred indefinitely, and out-of-the-box solutions should be treated as a starting point rather than a default answer.
Most importantly, organisations need to move away from siloed ownership. The organisations that create the most value are those where business and IT work together, bringing both process understanding and platform expertise into the same conversations. Without that combination, decisions are either technically sound but disconnected from reality, or business-driven but difficult to implement effectively.
What separates those who succeed
Over time, a clear pattern emerges. Organisations that succeed are not defined by how quickly they adopt new capabilities, but by the discipline they apply in building the foundation first. They invest time in understanding how work actually happens, involve the right people even when it slows things down, and treat AI as an enabler rather than a shortcut.
This approach is less visible than large transformation programmes or AI initiatives, but it is what creates lasting value. It also reflects a broader shift in how organisations need to think about technology.
At Sofigate, we see this every day. Business is technology, and real impact comes from bringing people, processes, and platforms together in a way that reflects how organisations actually operate. This requires clarity, shared ownership, and a willingness to address the real challenges behind the technical ones.
The real choice organisations face now
For organisations investing in ServiceNow, the question is no longer whether to adopt AI or scale the platform. That is already happening. The real question is whether the foundations are strong enough to support it.
Because speed without clarity does not create advantage. It creates fragility. And the more advanced the technology becomes, the faster that fragility is exposed.
Organisations that take the time to understand their processes, involve the right people, and build true business and IT ownership will move forward with confidence. Those that look for shortcuts will move just as fast, but with far less control over where they end up.
“AI does not replace the need to understand your business,” Sabrina says. “It makes that need more urgent.”
And that is where the difference is made. Not in the technology itself, but in the decisions that shape how it is used.
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