IDC VENDOR SPOTLIGHT

Sponsored by: ServiceNow

At a time when students are questioning the cost and value of higher education and
deferring enrollment, institutions need to offer compelling new services that can be
accessed both onsite and remotely so that students remain engaged and satisfied.

Integrated and Automated Workflows

Transform the Student, Staff, and Faculty
Experience in Higher Education
December 2020

Written by: Ruthbea Yesner, Vice President, IDC Government Insights and Education

Introduction AT A GLANCE
Digital transformation (DX) has accelerated rapidly in higher education
in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting disruption in KEY STATS
Recent IDC surveys of global education
services delivery and business models. As a result, colleges and respondents have found that:
universities are working to swiftly modernize their operations to deliver » 24% feel stabilized and out of crisis mode from
digital services that can support a mix of onsite and distance learning. COVID-19; over half are focused on business
These services are necessary to enable a hybrid workforce with more continuity and cost optimization.
remote employees, increase automation of administrative processes so » 40% are accelerating their digital DX efforts.
staff can focus on high-impact work, and underpin advanced tools for » 70% are making changes to quickly adapt
campus and building operations and safety. Colleges and universities, technology to accommodate new workflows.
whether public or private, large or small, are all competing to attract
WHAT'S IMPORTANT
students. To achieve that goal, they must offer convenient and fast
» Permanent changes as a result of COVID-19 will
online services, such as digital admissions and student onboarding, in affect every department and role.
order to maintain student relationships and engagement and, most of
all, provide support and comfort in destabilizing times.
With the future of education likely to be a mix of onsite and remote experiences, DX becomes an imperative to help
institutions develop new ways to recruit and onboard incoming students, engage current students and faculty with
different pedagogical methods, and run school operations. This modernization will require investment in new
technologies and analytics to continue to improve long-standing processes and workflows.
IDC VENDOR SPOTLIGHT Integrated and Automated Workflows Transform the Student, Staff, and Faculty Experience in Higher Education

Figure 1 shows recent IDC global survey data from education respondents indicating that technology investments will
focus on closing gaps in transformation and introducing new disruptive services.

FIGURE 1: Technology Investment Is Focused on DX

Q Which statement best aligns with the way your organization is thinking about technology
investment as it relates to digital transformation efforts?

We will invest in technology to close the gaps in our digital transformation. 36.2%

We will invest in technology to introduce disruptive new business models. 26.3%

We will invest in technology to mitigate the impact of recession. 21.5%

We will invest in technology to take market share. 16.0%

Base = 43 education respondents

Source: IDC's COVID-19 IMPACT on IT Spending Survey (conducted June 4–15, 2020)

The Multifaceted Benefits of Intelligent, Streamlined Workflows

IDC defines DX as "a means of applying new technology to radically change and improve processes, customer and
employee experience, and delivered value." For colleges and universities, DX is a journey of large-scale change in which
institutions manage and embrace innovation and digital disruption to achieve their mission. However, higher education
institutions often use multiple, disparate systems that were created and customized over time, making updates or
changes to them difficult and costly. Fortunately, technologies to create intelligent and streamlined workflows are a
foundation of DX.
Each role in the complex university system has a unique job to perform; implementing technology that automates and
streamlines all jobs offers benefits, such as fewer errors and faster time to resolution. Additional benefits include:

» Better student experiences. Students want to navigate administrative tasks such as signing up for classes, filling out
financial aid forms, or getting answers to questions without interruptions or bottlenecks. Self-service options and a
consistent online experience mean issues are resolved faster and students have daily positive experiences with
their college or university.

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IDC VENDOR SPOTLIGHT Integrated and Automated Workflows Transform the Student, Staff, and Faculty Experience in Higher Education

» Higher employee productivity. The siloed nature of departments in higher education makes collaborating and
sharing data and content difficult because of manual operations or lack of access. Streamlined workflows can help
faculty and staff share data and content, improve collaboration for doing tasks faster and with more insight, and
free up time from menial tasks to focus on higher-value work.

» Greater operational continuity from HR to facilities management. With more employees working from home,
staff need to be able to take care of tasks online, such as signing contracts or getting automated alerts for
unauthorized building access.
Moreover, the broadest benefits of intelligent and streamlined workflows are among the most important: improvements in
recruitment, yield, retention, and revenue. Some of the first meaningful interactions a potential student has with an
educational institution occur during the recruitment and admissions process; the student experience during these
administrative tasks impacts the success of the admissions process and is tied directly to revenue. In challenging economic
times, prospects and current students need to feel secure and supported, and this happens when they can readily find
answers to questions, conveniently take care of tasks such as filling out change-of-circumstances forms, and easily manage
financial requirements.

Trends in Higher Education Driving DX

COVID-19 has created a defining moment for DX in higher education as institutions have been forced into rapidly delivering
online learning, remote work, and online processes. Transformation plans have been accelerated, and higher education
leadership teams and faculty have shifted their thinking to embrace technology as an essential enabler for DX and the
"next" normal. IDC predicts that this future normal will be a hybrid model of campus-based and online virtual experiences
that students navigate seamlessly over the course of a lifelong relationship with an institution. However, the global shift to
online learning and operations has exposed gaps in technology skills and fluency as well as access and support. As today's
changes become more permanent, services will need to be effectively scaled. Institutions will need to be agile and resilient
in response to continuing shifts in student and faculty expectations and to meet the following challenges:

» An increasingly competitive environment and business model disruptions with online courses/massive open online
courses (MOOCs) and lower-cost options

» Ongoing revenue shortfalls, budget constraints, and decreased state funding

» An expanded attack surface leading to security vulnerabilities

Considering ServiceNow
ServiceNow Inc. is a $3.4 billion company with headquarters in Santa Clara, California. It has over 12,500 employees.
The company supports 80% of the Fortune 500 as well as dozens of colleges and universities worldwide. In recent years,
ServiceNow has evolved from an IT service-focused solution provider to an operations and application platform provider
with purpose-built industry applications. For higher education, ServiceNow offers purpose-built applications that serve to:

» Speed course development

» Streamline financial aid

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IDC VENDOR SPOTLIGHT Integrated and Automated Workflows Transform the Student, Staff, and Faculty Experience in Higher Education

» Automate student, staff, and faculty onboarding

» Improve intake and fulfillment of research grants
» Manage alumni information and support alumni outreach
» Support facilities management in building access, campus security, and permitting
ServiceNow's Higher Education IT Solutions provide cloud-based, natively integrated applications designed to support
IT service automation, resource management, employee and student workflows, and shared support services. The Now
platform is becoming a "platform of platforms" as the core integration and automation layer for a modern system of record.
This is an important advancement for the user journey, whether users are administrators, students, or alumni. The
ServiceNow platform continues to add new capabilities for an integrated experience, including an intuitive interface,
low-code/no-code capabilities, and modernized services such as self-service and embedded analytics.
The platform includes point-and-click, drag-and-drop customization tools to help users create workflows for unique
higher education business requirements. ServiceNow applications cover all IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) processes and
are natively integrated on a single platform providing web intuitiveness and process automation. Figure 2 illustrates the
functions that the Now platform supports in IT, employee, student, and alumni workflows.

FIGURE 2: The Now Platform for Higher Education

Access Layer
Team Team Document Access portal,
productivity communication collaboration Company intranet

Workflows
Student Faculty/Staff IT

Customer Field Serv. Enterprise Legal Onboarding Fin Ops HR Service Sec. Ops GRC
Service Mgmt. Service Mgmt. & Transitions Mgmt. Delivery

Platform
IT Service IT Ops
Mgmt. Mgmt.
Experience Integration Mobile Application Intelligence Security Core Reporting
Services Dev elopment Services & Analytics

System of Record IT Asset IT Business

Mgmt. Mgmt.

Marketing/ Facilities/
IT/
Recruiting/ SIS/LMS HR Finance Research IT Security Campus
Operations
Admissions Security
Enterprise
DevOps

Source: ServiceNow, 2020

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IDC VENDOR SPOTLIGHT Integrated and Automated Workflows Transform the Student, Staff, and Faculty Experience in Higher Education

Of note is the mobile application that enables IT and customer service employees to route requests for action wherever
the requests might be and provides support to employees wherever they are via mobile, web, chat, or third‑party
interfaces. Additionally, the ServiceNow Mobile Studio enables the building and deploying of native iOS and Android
mobile applications using no‑code tools and a drag‑and‑drop interface. Employees can use applications with read and
write capabilities anywhere, even when they're offline. This capability addresses current staffing and developer shortages
in higher education with a low-code/no-code platform, helping meet department-level needs for applications.
Additional functionality includes:

» The ServiceNow Customer Service Management application enables staff to provide support for students and
alumni through communication channels such as web, email, chat, telephone, and social media. Customer service
and help desk managers can create cases as needed and route them to available customer service agents with the
necessary skill sets.

» ServiceNow Agent Workspace is a command center for prioritizing work and taking action. Activity streams keep
the latest updates in view, and machine learning surfaces similar incidents, which enables customer service and IT
agents to have the context they need to resolve issues quickly from a single dashboard.

» Alert Intelligence is an IT operations management capability that helps IT operators focus on key issues with
prioritized alerts and provides insights about past incidents, similar and repeat alerts, and knowledge base articles
and metrics. Alert Intelligence helps IT operations teams quickly get to the root cause of a service performance
issue or an outage, collaborate with different teams, and launch remediation workflows from the same console.

» ServiceNow is delivering change automation enhancements to its IT service management (ITSM) products. IT can
integrate change with DevOps using out‑of‑the‑box REST APIs, automate manual approval processes, and provide
clear audit trails for better governance.

» ServiceNow has responded to COVID-19 with pandemic-related functionality to combine many data points into
one dashboard to enable a safe return to campus and safe ongoing campus operations. ServiceNow can help track
sentiment and symptoms of students, staff, and faculty; support contact tracing; and help students find the
information they need quickly. Its facilities management capabilities help educational institutions schedule the
return of stakeholders to campus, monitor occupancy levels, and ensure the safe usage of workspaces.

Challenges
Many vendors see the opportunity in higher education as COVID-19 has spurred institutions into DX. Higher education
decision makers should take time to understand the breadth of possibilities with ServiceNow in connecting systems and
simplifying and automating workflows.

» Higher education buyers should investigate how well different vendors understand the workflows of specific
education personas, including ServiceNow's deep understanding of these workflows. This includes moving beyond
IT and CIOs to help departments solve specific workflow challenges, both internal for staff and faculty and external
for students and alumni.

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IDC VENDOR SPOTLIGHT Integrated and Automated Workflows Transform the Student, Staff, and Faculty Experience in Higher Education

» ServiceNow may be challenged to extend its brand awareness beyond its leading work in ITSM to its platform
capabilities that are more tied to DX and mission outcomes.

» While the education market is becoming more crowded with vendors addressing transformation in higher
education, ServiceNow can position itself to become a significant solution provider to higher education institutions
by leveraging its ITSM strength, automating workflows, and providing an integrated platform in which tools,
capabilities, and frameworks are empowered by intelligent automation.

Conclusion
Integrated, intelligent, and automated workflows are a fundamental pillar for DX The ability to create new
in higher education and efforts to modernize services and experiences. The ability
capabilities quickly is
to create new capabilities quickly, and from hybrid work locations, is paramount
as situations change daily, and responsiveness eases the concerns of students paramount as situations
who want to continue their student journey. Institutions have a unique change daily, and
opportunity to expand accepted practices for student services, administrative responsiveness eases the
processes, and campus management to meet current challenges. At a time when concerns of students
students are questioning the cost and value of higher education and deferring
enrollment, institutions need to offer compelling new services that can be
who want to continue
accessed both onsite and remotely so that students remain engaged and their student journey.
satisfied.

About the Analyst

Ruthbea Yesner, Vice President, IDC Government Insights and Education
Ruthbea Yesner is the Vice President of IDC Government Insights. In this practice, Ms. Yesner manages the
U.S. Federal Government, Education, and the Worldwide Smart Cities and Communities Global practices.
Ms. Yesner's research discusses the strategies and execution of relevant technologies and best practice
areas, such as governance, innovation, partnerships, and business models, essential for government and
education transformation.

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IDC VENDOR SPOTLIGHT Integrated and Automated Workflows Transform the Student, Staff, and Faculty Experience in Higher Education

MESSAGE FROM THE SPONSOR

Deliver great students, faculty, and staff experiences
ServiceNow offers one platform to connect and optimize institutional operations. As the platform of platforms,
ServiceNow enables institutions to connect legacy tools and systems in one place, unifying operational and data siloes.
To learn more about ServiceNow for educational institutions, visit www.servicenow.com/education

The content in this paper was adapted from existing IDC research published on www.idc.com.

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