Connected Operations breaks down data siloes so enterprises maximize their IoT investments and view the health of assets in near real time, across multiple locations
ServiceNow, the leading digital workflow company that makes work, work better for people, introduced Connected Operations, a powerful new solution that bridges IoT data with ServiceNow digital workflows so enterprises can monitor and manage critical infrastructure, get faster return on their IoT investments, and pursue new business models. With IoT technologies on track to connect 50 billion smart devices this year, IoT data can be transformative, but only if businesses use the data effectively. By bringing IoT data directly into the Now Platform, organizations can view the health and history of assets in near real time across multiple locations in a single platform, giving them valuable insights, improving customer satisfaction, and enabling new revenue streams.
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“The power it gives us is incredible”
Digitization continues to transform industries, and organizations must introduce new business models to survive. ServiceNow Connected Operations enables businesses to transform operations, rapidly respond to data and insights, and evolve to a new product-as-as-service model. Any issues that arise automatically trigger an operations incident so that teams can act and triage and resolve issues quickly with Customer Service Management and Field Service Management workflows. This eliminates tedious maintenance coordination across cross-functional teams and reduces the chance for an issue to impact the company or its customers. With IoT and operational workflows on a single platform, companies can transform the customer experience and enhance customer satisfaction by enabling new business models.
“IoT offers massive potential for enterprises to transform operations, respond to insights in near real time, and evolve to a product-as-as-service model,” said Jonathan Sparks, vice president of IoT and operations products at ServiceNow. “To date, IoT data often have been stuck in siloed systems. With Connected Operations, companies now can realize the full value of IoT data, action these insights to solve issues before customers even know they’ve happened, and unlock new levels of productivity and growth.”
Wisconsin-based Traffic and Parking Control Co., Inc. (TAPCO), which provides intelligent transportation solutions for private businesses and every level of government in all 50 states, was an early, insightful adopter of IoT. To make better use of always-on streams of device data, TAPCO partnered with ServiceNow to pilot the new Connected Operations product. Before Connected Operations, data collected from IoT devices was stored and indexed on TAPCO’s network and servers. ServiceNow and TAPCO saw opportunities to connect this actionable insight into Customer Service Management and Field Service Management workflows, yielding greater automation and efficiency. Thanks to Connected Operations, much of this process has been automated. Now, a device’s performance signal triggers an automatic search of TAPCO’s equipment records, and all pertinent information is delivered directly to customer service and the remote operations center simultaneously to increase system uptime for critical transportation systems.
“The power it gives us is incredible,” says Jason Anderson, TAPCO’s IT Director and member of its executive team. “For us, there was a lot of opportunity to move to a digital workflow. Not having to jump back and forth between multiple systems, not having to look up contracts over on this file server, not having to look up the customer contact. All of the information is consolidated right here when the alert arrives. This allows for streamlined internal workflows, which increases our responsiveness, resulting in an improved customer experience.”
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Connected Operations includes:
- IoT Bridge: Brings siloed data from IoT-connected assets into the Now Platform and monitors infrastructure across locations. It can authenticate and communicate with IoT devices via standard IoT protocols such as MQTT and HTTP. It also scales to support many devices and grows with IoT investments, making it quick and easy to connect critical IoT infrastructure.
- IoT Rule Engine: The IoT Rule Builder allows users to create rules to ensure organizations are notified of problems as soon as they arise. In a simple, visual interface, users can quickly build rules without any need to code. These rules are informed by rich business context from the ServiceNow Configuration Management Database (CMDB). Once IoT data is consolidated within the IoT Bridge, the IoT Rule Engine evaluates the data for potential problems in near real time.
- Operations Incident: IoT Events are created when the IoT Rule Engine detects an issue, and one or more events can become an Operations Incident, which cuts down on noise and reduces false positives. Leveraging digital workflows to assist, teams can collaborate to triage the affected asset and define a course of action to resolve the incident.
- Connected Workflows: ServiceNow Connected Operations integrates with Customer Service Management with Field Service Management out of the box, allowing cross-team coordination in one intuitive workspace as response efforts are managed. From the Connected Operations Workspace, teams can create a proactive case in ServiceNow Customer Service Management and notify potentially impacted customers. They can also create a work order in ServiceNow Field Service Management to dispatch a field technician, who can also see IoT data, to conduct repairs.
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