The Line That Sparked This Blog

“We digitised. We didn’t transform.”

That quote from the ServiceNow AI Summit in Melbourne hit like a lightning bolt. Every organisation in the room nodded.

Because it’s true.

We’ve automated. We’ve replaced emails with workflows. We’ve built service catalogs, launched portals, and rolled out dashboards. But in many cases, the way work gets done hasn’t really changed.

We’ve Made Things Digital—Not Better

Forms are digital, but still confusing.

Routing exists, but things still sit in queues.

Reporting is live, but the data doesn’t drive decisions.

Teams are still working in silos—even though the platform isn’t.

Digitisation is useful. It makes work more visible.

But visibility isn’t value.

Transformation is when that visibility leads to different decisions, better experiences, and measurable outcomes.

What the Summit Told Us (Loud and Clear)

The most honest insights came from the customers on stage:

• “We spent millions, but didn’t see the value we hoped for.”

• “We enabled everything—but nothing connected.”

• “We have AI tools—but we’re not ready to use them well.”

• “We forgot to ask: what are we actually trying to solve?”

That’s not a tech problem. That’s a vision problem. And it’s incredibly common.

Why So Many Transformations Projects Stall

1. The vision is vague – The goal is “improve efficiency” or “digitise X process.” But that’s not transformation—that’s admin work.

2. The roadmap is just a list of features – If your delivery plan is “VA, Flow Designer, AI Search,” you don’t have a strategy. You have a menu.

3. The platform becomes a tool, not a capability – You end up building point solutions instead of a cohesive ecosystem.

So What Does Real Transformation Look Like?

Let’s simplify. Transformation happens in three layers:

Iteration.

Innovation.

Transformation.

You can’t skip steps. But you can make progress fast once you’re clear on what each layer means.

ServiceNow Transformation: The 3-Layer Framework at a Glance

• Iteration = Clean up the mess.

• Innovation = Rethink the experience.

• Transformation = Redesign the operating model.

This ServiceNow Transformation framework isn’t theoretical. It’s grounded in what we saw at the Summit, and what we experience every day with customers.

Where Most Organisations Are (Honestly)

If you're struggling with:

• Too many forms

• Too many queues

• A Virtual Agent no one uses

• A catalog nobody trusts

• Or leadership asking, “Why aren’t we seeing ROI?”

You’re likely stuck in iteration. And that’s OK. Because iteration is where you start. Not where you end.

Common Signs You’ve Stopped at Digitisation

• Every form works—but they all work differently

• Nobody knows which catalog item to use

• Fulfilment teams are constantly reassigning tickets

• Dashboards are live—but ignored

• You’re measuring volume, not outcomes

How to Move Forward (Without Rebuilding Everything)

You don’t need to start from scratch. You need to refocus:

• What are you trying to achieve for the people using the platform?

• What’s slowing teams down that shouldn’t be?

• Where is the platform fighting against the business instead of enabling it?

From Insight to Action: Start With a Lens, Not a Feature

Instead of planning your next release around what’s trendy—plan it around what’s broken.

Then map your next priorities against the framework:

Voice of Experience

We’ve walked into dozens of platforms where the issue wasn’t capability—it was clutter.

Everything “worked.” Nothing worked well.

We didn’t need to start over. We needed to step back, simplify, and realign the platform to what users actually needed.

That’s what unlocks the ability to innovate—and eventually transform.

The Real Risk: Mistaking Movement for Progress

Just because you’re delivering stories doesn’t mean you’re delivering value.

Just because you’ve automated something doesn’t mean you’ve improved it.

Digitisation feels like transformation—until you zoom out.

Final Thoughts: It’s Time to Reset

You can’t fix what you don’t acknowledge.

Most platforms aren’t broken. They’re just busy. Noisy. Disconnected.

That’s why now is the perfect time to pause—and reframe what transformation actually means.

Start with clarity. Move with purpose. And use the right lens at the right time.

What’s Next

In the next post, we’ll tackle the first and most foundational step in detail: Iteration.

The often-overlooked clean-up phase that sets the stage for everything else.

Because if the platform’s not working well now, nothing else will land later.

Let’s fix that.

Part 2: Iteration: Clean up the Chaos

Need clarity on where you are—and where to go next?

The 3-layer framework I introduced in this blog is part of the roadmap process we run with customers. It’s designed to meet you where you are—whether you’re cleaning up, scaling up, or just trying to get unstuck.

If you want to explore what that looks like in your environment, let’s have a conversation.