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ServiceNow in Healthcare 2023 ServiceNow in Healthcare 2023
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ServiceNow in Healthcare 2023
How Healthcare Organizations Are Automating Workflows

author - Mike Smith
Author
Mike Smith
author - Sam Eaquinto
Author
Sam Eaquinto
 
June 22, 2023 | Read Time: 9  minutes

Margins are tight for many healthcare organizations due to factors like inflation, high costs for labor and materials, fewer high-margin procedures, and staffing shortages. As a result, the demand for automated workflows is growing. This report is KLAS’ first comprehensive look at ServiceNow, a cross-industry vendor that offers automated workflows. Drawing from 17 healthcare organizations’ insights, the following pages share how ServiceNow is being used and what the customer experience is like.

servicenow workflows in use

IT Service Management Is Primary Use Case, Followed by HR & IT Operations Management

IT service management (ITSM) is the most common use case for interviewed ServiceNow customers and is often a starting point for those looking to add functionalities. Customers frequently use multiple ITSM modules, like the incident management, change management, and problem management modules. Workforce optimization modules are also used to track time cards and send text messages to IT personnel about high-priority tickets. Additionally, ServiceNow’s self-service portal allows end users to open and track tickets. The second most common use case is HR service delivery and employee onboarding. Organizations use ServiceNow as a knowledge base that houses policies, procedures, and job aids and that automates HR workflows and employee transitions. The third most common use case is IT operations management (ITOM), which involves optimizing and automating IT infrastructure and services. ServiceNow’s Configuration Management Database (CMDB) is the module most frequently used for ITOM; it tracks IT components and provides strong visibility into operations through its reporting.

top servicenow use cases

Improved Efficiency Is Far and Away the Top Outcome; Organizations Also Commonly Report Better Visibility/Reporting

Almost all interviewed organizations say the ServiceNow product has improved efficiency—for example, it has reduced call volumes, provided faster support access, minimized human intervention, improved resolution rates, streamlined new-hire workflows, and centralized data access. One respondent (a large health system) notes that ServiceNow has improved their processes by automating request routing, limiting human intervention, and reducing back-and-forth communication. Additionally, the reporting enhances customers’ visibility into their environment and provides actionable insights, particularly to those who manage IT operations.

top outcomes from using servicenow

Most Respondents Say ServiceNow Provides Strong Customer Experience

Most customer respondents are satisfied or highly satisfied with their ServiceNow experience, and many who are satisfied are on the cusp of being highly satisfied. Organizations specifically highlight ServiceNow’s integration capability, product quality, and ability to drive outcomes. The product is seen as powerful and multifaceted, and the strategic technology is key to customer success. Respondents are least satisfied with the product’s ease of use and receiving their money’s worth. The platform can be complex and requires resources to maintain, and respondents say users must understand how to use it to realize its full value.

overall performance score servicenow
servicenow highest and lowest scoring metrics

75% of interviewed organizations report seeing outcomes immediately or within a few weeks


time to outcomes

Main Highlights of Customer Experience Are Reporting, Workflow Automation, and Flexibility; Reporting Provides Visibility into Key Data Points, Enabling Better Decision-Making

About one-third of organizations highlight one or more of the following: the reporting, flexibility, and workflow automation. ServiceNow stands out with the reporting and visibility they provide, as this area is a gap for many other HIT vendors. The reporting and visibility enable customers to make data-driven decisions, which leads to smarter actions. Further, ServiceNow’s reporting features provide valuable insights by tracking project work, time spent on tasks, and ticket resolution. Interviewed customers appreciate the enhanced awareness of change-order impacts and customizable dashboards, both of which contribute to better IT resource management. Flexibility and workflow automation are other notable highlights, as customers can streamline various IT processes and take advantage of customization opportunities. Because the ServiceNow product is highly configurable and adaptable, it can be catered to different departments. As mentioned before, ease of use is challenging for some; however, one-quarter of organizations consider it a highlight. These customers appreciate that ServiceNow’s product is cloud based, accessible, and user friendly.

main highlights of using servicenow

Biggest Obstacle for Organizations Is Finding Developers/Staff to Support ServiceNow Platform

Interviewed customers say their main obstacle is recruiting experienced developers and staff who understand the platform. To create custom workflow automation, organizations need staff who know how to configure and develop the platform and tools, and once the product is up and running, ongoing maintenance requires further investments in resources. The second most-mentioned obstacle is ServiceNow’s sales and licensing process. Some organizations feel the sales approach is too aggressive and that the licensing structure is complicated. Other commonly mentioned obstacles are a lack of guidance and the system’s complexity. The expansive platform requires significant back-end configuration and often requires more resources than customers anticipate. Respondents say they must rely on third parties for implementation and guidance. Additionally, ServiceNow’s training program lacks application-use training for specific roles, resulting in customers struggling to make the most of the product.

main obstacles with servicenow

In the Future, Organizations Intend to Focus on Expansion, Adoption, and Optimization

To improve business operations, many interviewed organizations are planning to expand usage of ServiceNow within their IT department and across other departments. The majority intend to deploy additional modules in the departments that are currently using the product, and nearly 40% plan to adopt the solution in more departments, such as HR and finance. Other commonly mentioned future plans are optimization, automation, and integration. Organizations want to optimize their existing ServiceNow environments, consolidate duplicate systems, and prioritize future workflow automation projects. Projects include deploying virtual agents and predictive intelligence to reduce the need for third-party help desks, and some are also focused on automating HR processes and implementing configuration-management and asset-inventory features from ServiceNow. Additionally, organizations are focusing on integration—they want to integrate ServiceNow with their EMR and video chat platforms and leverage the integration to spin up new servers without manual intervention.

future plans with servicenow

Vendor-Provided Information: ServiceNow

Target customer
ServiceNow can help a broad spectrum of healthcare clients, including large health systems, midsize health systems, community hospitals, critical access hospitals, and pharmacy chains.

Number of employees focused on healthcare
[Not provided]

Integration of go-forward solutions
ServiceNow solutions are purpose built and fully integrated with the ServiceNow platform.

AI technology
ServiceNow integrates AI into their platform, enabling data analysis, object classification, natural language understanding, and improved search results. These capabilities help create intelligent workflows, and recently added generative AI capabilities enhance interactions.

  • Models are trained against customer data and public datasets
  • Data source can be any table and field(s) on the Now platform
  • Data is accessible to users based on configured security and access control rights
  • AI is used extensively to optimize tasks (determining intent, predicting sentiment, routing and classifying work, automating data entry, etc.)
  • Administrators can track model’s prediction accuracy, adjust input signals (fields and conditional logic), and retrain models at will

mike luessi headshotServiceNow Healthcare Executive Interview

Mike Luessi,

GM, Global Healthcare & Life Sciences Industry Solutions

What is your background?
I have over 23 years of experience in start-ups and Fortune 500 firms, including Salesforce, UnitedHealth Group, SwervePay, Microsoft, Target Corp, and Unisys. I lead a global team dedicated to creating innovative solutions and partnering with customers across the world to make healthcare work better for everyone.

What should providers know about ServiceNow’s investment in and commitment to healthcare?
ServiceNow provides a platform for digitally transforming healthcare operations. We offer solutions across the continuum that help drive and deliver efficient clinical and patient care delivery. With prebuilt experiences, health systems can drive agility by automating complex clinical, patient-care processes that span siloed systems and departments. By aligning patient, provider, and payer data based on a FHIR-HL7 healthcare data model, care teams can sync around a common plan of care. With one platform optimized to meet ongoing security and privacy regulations, users can efficiently handle clinician onboarding, EMR requests, device management, and previsit management in a single place.

What are ServiceNow’s biggest differentiators?
Born in the cloud and based on a trusted, task-based technology framework, ServiceNow is uniquely positioned to automate, optimize, and modernize work. Using our single, intelligent, composable platform; our consistent data; and our unified technology, healthcare organizations can keep work flowing quickly and seamlessly, all while hiding complexity from end users.

Thousands of health systems, payers, and life sciences organizations globally use ServiceNow to intelligently automate processes and services. An investment not only enables efficient management of clinical care and patient processes but also helps unlock value across any functional area, like risk management, employee management, and field service management, among others.

What core outcomes should healthcare clients expect from your solutions?
The platform enables health systems to deliver effortless, patient-centric care through improved operational performance. By connecting siloed data with purpose-built, industry-specific workflows, healthcare organizations can prevent manual errors and resolve decision-making bottlenecks, thus improving overall efficiency. With ServiceNow, healthcare clients can quickly and effectively boost patient satisfaction and retention, reduce burnout to enable productive clinicians, and improve overall bottom lines significantly.

What is your revenue model?
We are a subscription-based service, and we extend this to transaction-based or fulfiller-based services based on customer requirements.

Platform Technology Specifications

Cloud environment
AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud

Development platforms
ServiceNow uses industry-standard JavaScript to extend application functionality.

Mobile application environment
iOS and Android

Security platform
HITRUST CSF, HIPAA, NIST, SOC 2, and more; SOC 2 + HITRUST, FedRAMP JAB High authorization, SSAE 18 SOC 1 Type 2 Report certified system. ISO/IEC 27001:2013, ISO/IEC 27018:2014, and ISO/IEC 27017:2015 certifications. Further details are available here.

Confidentiality
We support running HIPAA- and GDPR-compliant workloads.

Data encryption
ServiceNow enables Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption using AES with 128-bit or 256-bit cipher suites. Further details are available here.

Integration approach
ServiceNow provides FHIR HL7 data model and provides HL7 API integration by leveraging Redox integration. Redox exceeds HIPAA and NIST encryption standards. ServiceNow Integration Hub provides integration to multiple source systems. Leveraging the ServiceNow Integration APIs and HCLS SN data model, clients can build their own custom APIs and resources for enhanced data integrations.

HITRUST certification
Yes

AI
Yes


About This Report

Each year, KLAS interviews thousands of healthcare professionals about the IT solutions and services their organizations use. For this report, interviews were conducted over the last 12 months using KLAS’ standard quantitative evaluation for healthcare software, which is composed of 16 numeric ratings questions and 4 yes/no questions, all weighted equally. Combined, the ratings for these questions make up the overall performance score, which is measured on a 100-point scale. The questions are organized into six customer experience pillars—culture, loyalty, operations, product, relationship, and value.

customer experience pillars software

In addition to the customer satisfaction data gathered with the standard evaluation, KLAS used a supplemental evaluation tailored specifically to ServiceNow healthcare customers to better understand their experience. Respondents were asked the following:

  1. What automated workflows (i.e., IT workflows, employee workflows, customer/patient workflows) are you using from ServiceNow?
  2. What use cases are you using ServiceNow for, and what outcomes have you realized?
  3. How long did it take for you to see outcomes (financial, operational, or clinical) after go-live?
  4. What have been the highlights of your experience with ServiceNow?
  5. What obstacles have you encountered with ServiceNow?
  6. What are your future plans with ServiceNow?
  7. Why did you select ServiceNow?

Sample Sizes

Sample sizes displayed throughout this report (e.g., n=16) represent the total number of unique customer organizations interviewed for a given vendor or solution. However, it should be noted that to allow for the representation of differing perspectives within any one customer organization, samples may include surveys from different individuals at the same organization. The table below shows the total number of unique organizations interviewed for each vendor or solution as well as the total number of individual respondents.

Some respondents choose not to answer particular questions, meaning the sample size for any given vendor or solution can change from question to question. When the number of unique organization responses for a particular question is less than 15, the score for that question is marked with an asterisk (*) or otherwise designated as “limited data.” If the sample size is less than 6, no score is shown. Note that when a vendor has a low number of reporting sites, the possibility exists for KLAS scores to change significantly as new surveys are collected.

about this report table
author - Sarah Brown
Writer
Sarah Brown
author - Jessica Bonnett
Designer
Jessica Bonnett
author - Joel Sanchez
Project Manager
Joel Sanchez
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This material is copyrighted. Any organization gaining unauthorized access to this report will be liable to compensate KLAS for the full retail price. Please see the KLAS DATA USE POLICY for information regarding use of this report. © 2025 KLAS Research, LLC. All Rights Reserved. NOTE: Performance scores may change significantly when including newly interviewed provider organizations, especially when added to a smaller sample size like in emerging markets with a small number of live clients. The findings presented are not meant to be conclusive data for an entire client base.

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