Last week I had the very fortunate opportunity to attend a ServiceNow user group meeting in Cleveland (yes, the mistake by the lake).  The meeting wasn’t very huge, but I had the chance to see a lot of cool technology thanks to the host.  On top of the great event, it was also hosted in a historical room with wood from the actual Sherwood Forest (how cool is that…just be thankful I didn’t break out into my “Men in Tights” song and dance).

Going back to the technology, I admit I was pretty wowed…at first.  The presentations displayed showed a lot of Twilio integration which, when coupled with ServiceNow’s workflow, provided a very simple and powerful platform for technology integration.  In the demo that I saw, someone made a call into an automated call system, and at the same time the call flow showed in a live ServiceNow instance.  Eventually the incident was marked as complete and the presenter showed how ServiceNow could leverage Twilio to make an outbound call to provide an automated phone survey.  All of this was shown as live through the workflow display provided by ServiceNow.  In short, it was very cool….for about two minutes.

And I apologize for making it sound like I’m knocking any of the work completed by that gracious presenter.  When it comes to excitement, I admit I can be difficult to impress (to this day my wife gives me grief for standing in front of the Western Wall in Jerusalem and stating “ehh…it’s ok”).  The other point of view I’d like to provide is that of a realist; the person that’s been in the trenches and has seen really cool technology come and go, and has been equally disappointed in the lack of adoption.  Tablet computing, mobility, IP telephony integration…all really neat technology that has made it into our IT lives, but yet, is not 100% mainstream in solving all of our problems.

And why is that?  Because when a new technology comes out, “the business” still wants to know the “whys” and the “hows” of its use.  In short, where is the value gained from using said technology?  This is why the title of my post includes “But Process Enables.”  I’ll also be one of the first (which I’m sure I’m not) to state that process is boring.  In fact, sometimes it’s horrendously boring.  And if the ITIL books are any indication how boring they are, try to give one of them a read and tell me how far you make it.  Enough of the flack against process and ITIL though, it’s still necessary in IT.  I’d even be so bold as to say it’s the foundation of any solid IT structure.  Products, a.k.a. technology, may automate work and provide a way to work through the processes, but having a process map to guide its use means a better value can be achieved.

Is this post trying to blow out technology’s candle to make the process one glow brighter?  Maybe.  But I also just want to convey a little bit of caution.  As really cool as technology is, and believe me, I love it just as much as the next nerd out there, I just want to give a bit of caution as to its use.  Know what you’re going to do with the products before spending hundreds, thousands, or even millions on really impressive technology that doesn’t provide any value.

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Started working in IT in 1999 as a support desk analyst as a way to help pay for food during college. Studied Electrical Engineering for two years before realizing biochemistry was more fun than differential equations, and so ultimately graduated with a Biology degree in 2006. Having (reluctantly) failed at getting accepted into dental school, embraced working in IT and has gone broke becoming an ITIL Expert. Likes to jog, sing camp songs, quote Mel Brooks movie lines and make dumb jokes and loves working for an Israeli tech company where December 25th is a regular work day.