Introduction to ServiceNow

ServiceNow is a cloud-based IT Service Management platform for organizations that need to automate, organize, simplify, and scale their day-to-day operations. While it started as an ITSM portal, it has expanded over the years to provide processing solutions for various departments in an organization. It particularly helps by centralising data and automating repetitive tasks.

As a high-demand platform that needs skilled ServiceNow Admins to operate it, we will explore everything that you need to know about ServiceNow to start your career through these free tutorials. 

In this chapter, we will give you a brief introduction to ServiceNow, what it does, and how it benefits you as a user. 

What is ServiceNow?

ServiceNow is a cloud-based platform designed to streamline your workflows and improve overall efficiency. It is a tech stack of various services and solutions built into the platform for general use. It works with your existing systems and data to bring everything together in a single portal. 

ServiceNow is particularly used to simplify everyday operations such as raising an IT ticket or managing employee records. It provides user-friendly tools and low-code features to automate day-to-day tasks.

Why and who can use ServiceNow?

Why use ServiceNow? 

ServiceNow Platform is basically used to digitize, automate, and optimize organizational workflows across IT, employee, and customer operations. The main reasons why organizations are adopting ServiceNow are:

1. Efficiency and productivity: It significantly increases efficiency by automating repetitive operations and standardizing workflows. It also reduces manual efforts and human errors.
2. Improved Service Delivery: It supports intelligent routing, knowledge bases, and automated escalation, which help resolve issues faster and reduce downtime.
3. Scalability: It is highly scalable and flexible, allowing you to modify and expand it to meet your unique requirements.
4. Increased Collaboration: ServiceNow makes collaboration easy within teams and departments by leveraging centralized data and workflows.

Who can use ServiceNow?

The ServiceNow platform is ideal for different departments in any organization looking to automate. The platform supports a wide range of use cases for: 

• IT Teams: For managing assets, incidents, changes, problems, and service requests.
• HR Departments: To handle onboarding, HR service queries, leave requests, and employee support workflow. 
• Customer Support: By providing self-service client portals and tracking customer issues. 
• Developers and Admins: To navigate the platform, build workflows, and integrate it with third-party software.
• Security and Compliance: Automatically connects security tools to the platform and identifies data breaches in accordance with GDPR and CCPA regulations.
• Maintenance: By scheduling repairs for assets or HVAC systems and tracking safety inspections.  

These are some of the major areas in any business where ServiceNow helps automate and improve team productivity. 

History of ServiceNow

ServiceNow was founded by Fred Luddy in 2003, initially named as Glidesoft, Inc., as a workflow automation tool for IT departments. The former idea was to automate routine tasks for both employees and customers, specifically for the IT help desk. 

Now, in 2025, ServiceNow is a leading service management and CRM platform. From HR, security, finance, marketing, and customer experience to sales, it integrates data across all departments using various ServiceNow modules. 

ServiceNow Versions

• Aspen (2011)
• Berlin (2012)
• Calgary (2013)
• Dublin (2013)
• Eureka (2014)
• Fuji (2015)
• Geneva (2015)
• Helsinki (2016)
• Istanbul (2017)
• Jakarta (2017)
• Kingston (2018)
• London (2018)
• Madrid (2019)
• New York (2019)
• Orlando (2020)
• Paris (2020)
• Quebec (2021)
• Rome (2021)
• San Diego (2022)
• Tokyo (2022)
• Utah (2023)
• Vancouver (2023)
• Washington (2024)
• Xanadu (2024)
• Yokohama (2025)
• Zurich (2025)

ServiceNow Features

Before you jump into learning ServiceNow and getting hands-on, it is essential to understand the platform’s features. The extensive features of ServiceNow make it one of the most potent platforms for enterprise service management.

• Centralized Platform: All apps and workflows in ServiceNow use a single data model to minimize silos and maintain consistency.
• Low-Code Platform: ServiceNow App Engine enables low-code/no-code application development, allowing you to build custom business apps easily.
• Seamless Automations: Workflow automation helps with complex processes by utilizing visual workflows, approval chains, and triggers.
• Self-Service Portals: The platform provides simple user interfaces that give employees and customers access to self-service portals.
• Efficient Tools: It uses AI and Machine Learning to deliver powerful predictive analytics, automatic ticket classification, and virtual agents for speed and accuracy.
• Smooth Integrations: It integrates easily with external systems, including Slack, Microsoft Teams, SAP, and more.

Career Opportunities in ServiceNow

ServiceNow is an emerging platform in the IT sector due to its advanced features and capabilities. The platform’s complexity makes it essential for employers to hire certified professionals with high salaries. Some of the significant career opportunities are: 

1. ServiceNow Administrator
2. ServiceNow Developer
3. ServiceNow Architect
4. ServiceNow Quality Analyst
5. Business Analyst
6. Implementation Specialist

Apart from IT job roles, ServiceNow also offers jobs in marketing, sales, user experience, and digital technologies. In IT departments, a ServiceNow administrator or developer can earn up upto 92 lakhs per year, starting at 20-25 lakhs per year in India. The salary can vary by experience and region. 

Overview of ServiceNow Products

ServiceNow currently offers a range of products and modules. Here is a list:

1. IT service management (ITSM): The service management module helps manage IT needs, including assets, changes, releases, costs, and problems. It uses the Common Service Data Model to align business and IT strategies.
2. IT operations management (ITOM): As the name suggests, it helps manage an organization’s operations. The modules allow teams to create records across deployments, enhancing team efficiency and innovation. 
3. HR service delivery (HRSD): In any organization, simplifying HR operations is essential. This module automates onboarding and offboarding and creates a self-service portal to reduce HR workload.
4. IT Business Management (ITBM): In an organization, this module focuses on overseeing business investments. It helps provide transparency into projects, processes, and people within an organization.
5. IT asset management (ITAM): A centralized system for managing an organization’s assets. By tracking the contracts, warranties, and maintenance schedules of software, hardware, and cloud assets. 
6. Security operations (SecOps): Security is always a primary concern for management platforms. With SecOps modules, organizations can unify security tools and processes to identify threats and respond to them faster.
7. Configuration Management Database (CMDB): This ServiceNow module helps manage information about the organization’s IT assets and relationships. With accurate and up-to-date information, it helps reduce risk and improve service quality. 
8. Governance, risk, and compliance (GRC): GRC enables an organization’s security teams to create and monitor policies. It makes audits easier and helps ensure regulatory compliance, protecting assets and building trust among stakeholders.