Ask the Expert with Kirk Hogan: Unblocking your Enterprise’s Transformation Journey

Join Kirk Hogan, VP of Technology, Platform and Integrations Strategy, NewRocket to gain new perspectives on how you can take your enterprise’s transformation journey to the next level. With a wealth of experience and a deep understanding of the evolving technological landscape, Kirk discusses how to navigate the complexities of technical debt and how to align IT strategies with broader business objectives.

In your experience, to what degree does technical debt block an enterprise's transformation journey? (0:14)

First, let’s define technical debt. I believe it is the known and unknown differences between a supported COTS product (in this case ServiceNow), and the state of configuration currently in place. In almost every case I have seen, most technical debt falls into the unknown, which is the biggest blocker for a predictable transformation journey. If the technical debt is known, it can be carried forward, or backed out in order to take advantage of new features and capabilities of the COTS product upgrades. In today’s terms, these upgrades are offering game-changing AI capabilities, easier interoperability in the technical environment, or user experiences that are streamlined, intuitive, and memorable. I have seen organizations with so much technical debt accumulated over years that they are almost paralyzed and have to either perform painful and lengthy upgrades, or even go on un-supported versions until they build a plan for a way out. I believe it is one of the biggest blockers around the unknown technical debt.

What is one tip you can recommend for aligning an IT landscape with broader business goals and objectives? (1:23)

One tip would be to understand the objectives and key metrics from your business stakeholders wanting to leverage IT. IT must support business processes, and those processes must further their goals, and this approach will help prioritize what IT is required, and when. Timely execution will drive fans, and make IT a true business enabler.

What is one key indicator that could help organizations determine their current position in their transformation journey? (1:53)

A key indicator would be around that business stakeholders will know what is required from IT to support their objectives. Typically, key indicators are efficiency driven, and will be measured as an increase or reduction in any measure. If the stakeholders are finding value in the IT support, then a key indicator will be adoption rate of the new processes.

In your work with clients, what is a common challenge you see that organizations face when struggling to meet their broader business goals? (2:23)

A common challenge would be expecting perfection or achieving their entire goal in one go. It’s not feasible or realistic. Aligning with the 80/20 rule will help business move from meeting or missing their goals into achieving them. Transformation is a journey of evolution, and each step brings them closer to their envisioned end state. Things change along the way, so build a program that is a collection of multiple phased wins. Progress will be achieved at the sub-goallevel, and allow for the appropriate amount of change to happen while still working towards goals that can be achieved in smaller time increments.

What features from the ServiceNow Vancouver release could change the way organizations approach their broader business goals? (3:10)

There are so many features in Vancouver, but if I had to pick one, I would suggest Process Mining, or Process Optimization as it was previously known, is a way to leverage Performance Analytics and Machine Learning to identify candidates for Optimization, and in many cases automation. It watches the data you point it at that represents where most human effort is captured and managed. By looking at this information over time, in aggregate, it can spot trends that it highlights for review, and in many cases identifies proposed changes that you can accept and have take effect from that point forward. The great thing is that it’s not theoretical. It has baseline measurements before the new process is adopted, and will measure the performance improvement using real workflow that your business operates on.

What is one key performance indicator that organizations could use to gauge their transformation stability within the business? (4:04)

One key indicator would be Change Success Rate. In a business where change is governed well (emphasis on governed well), and a transformation plan is identified, there should be expected outcomes or results identified to justify the change in the first place. When a change is proposed, reviewed, approved and executed, there is an immediate step to confirm the successful or unsuccessful state of the change execution. An increase of Change Success Rate will indicate that the value is being realized as planned, therefore justifying further investment in the transformation journey. Coincidentally, this is also one of the best ways to monitor and manage technical debt.

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Ready for a deeper dive? Join Kirk, Mukul Sharma, Chief Growth Officer, NewRocket and Simon Cox, Chief Transformation Officer, ServiceNow on the upcoming webinar First Unblock, Then Unlock Your Transformation Journey.