Set the score, keep the tempo: Why a ServiceNow Centre of Excellence and Innovation turns noise into value

You’ve invested millions in ServiceNow, but are you truly getting enterprise-wide value or just running IT workflows?

Most organizations believe their stage is set. You’ve invested in the best instruments: platforms, partners, and processes. Signals are everywhere: cost, risk, MTTR, release velocity, experience. But when those signals aren’t coordinated – and there’s no conductor – you pay a tax on complexity.

By treating a ServiceNow investment as just a technical platform without recognizing it as a strategic enabler for the business, many enterprises miss the importance of clear enterprise-wide strategy and orchestration, and of coordinated roadmaps leading to business targets. ServiceNow was sold as a platform of platforms – a foundation for enterprise workflows across IT, HR, customer service, and beyond. Its potential is huge: AI-driven automation, integrated data, and faster decision-making.

Yet most organizations hit the same wall:

• Siloed ownership keeps adoption IT-centric.
• Unmanaged demand floods the backlog with pet projects.
• Customization sprawl drives upgrade pain and technical debt.
• Governance gets political, slowing decisions and eroding trust.

The result isn’t harmony – it’s noise. Value stalls, costs rise, and the platform becomes a patchwork of local optimizations rather than an enabler for enterprise transformation.

Case in point: ServiceNow found that 68 percent of its purchased applications remain undeployed after 180 days.  That equates to $3.5 billion spent on technology worldwide over that period without any tangible value for IT or the business.

Adopting a single, business-aligned operating model

A dedicated organizational model can consolidate strategy, governance, architecture, delivery, and innovation into one structure.

The reflexive idea is to strike up new projects, but that’s the opposite of what is required. To unlock measurable outcomes, enterprises need to avoid piling on more piecemeal solutions and instead create a Centre of Excellence and Innovation (CoE&I) that applies the same principles of Service Integration and Management (SIAM) to the platform itself. A CoE&I is not a rebadged platform team. It’s a single, business-aligned operating model that consolidates strategy and governance, business engagement, platform architecture and support, innovation and experience, and delivery. Done right, it turns your ServiceNow investment from an operational expense into a transformation engine for IT and the business, removing the seams that slow down value and embedding continuous improvement and velocity into your enterprise strategy.

• Project vending machine: no enterprise prioritization
• Customize‑first: pattern entropy, upgrade paralysis
• Shadow demand: political work, stranded value
• No conductor: metrics abound, outcomes don’t

Shifting from legacy systems to vehicles for innovation

Intelligent orchestration on now (ION) is Capgemini’s two-layer model for an effective COE&I that works in concert, aligning purpose, direction, and performance to move from projects to product-mode delivery with measurable business impact.

Orchestration layer: Owns vision, value cases, roadmap, and demand triage. It’s the single front door for work, prioritizing by business outcomes, not politics, and ensures the platform plays to the enterprise score – keeping tempo and sequencing releases for maximum impact.

Custodian layer: Owns architecture guardrails, integration standards, security, and run. It makes fast safe, and controls customization sprawl, upgrade debt, and risk, and ensures every release is crisp, compliant, and repeatable.

Across these layers, SIAM principles matter: integration, orchestration, and accountability are critical for success with ServiceNow. They provide the structure for multi-vendor ecosystems, clear roles, and a roadmap that links platform investment to P&L impact.

For example, a Nordic food producer wanted greater control and business agility on ServiceNow. Capgemini helped establish a dedicated instance, set governance guardrails, and prioritize a roadmap for IRM, health and safety, and catalog improvements. With clearer ownership and a product‑mode delivery model, the client achieved faster change velocity, cleaner data, and a platform that supports hybrid operations and continuous improvement.

The payoff:

• 50 percent reduction in maintenance cost through standardization and reuse
• 38 percent faster implementation via accelerators and release trains
• 80 percent improvement in first-contact resolution with integrated workflows
• Lower TCO, higher adoption, and enterprise-grade risk control

The 90-day activation plan

The focus should be on big-picture strategies, not short-term tactics, with the vision of the platform as a vehicle for innovation that transcends simple IT service management.

Through Capgemini’s partnership with ServiceNow, and our expertise with orchestrating platform solutions across industries, we can help you take the required steps.

Days 1–30, foundation: We establish the charter, appoint an executive sponsor, and create a single demand intake process. At this stage, we baseline technical debt and set governance and architecture guardrails to ensure control from day one.

Days 31–60, quick wins: Together, we prioritize two or three high-value use cases and launch a product-mode team to deliver them. We embed joint KPIs, define platform service levels, and enforce standards for speed without risk.

Days 61–90, scale and sustain: We publish a rolling roadmap, implement a release cadence, and introduce a platform scorecard to track adoption, cycle time, and value realized. Early wins feed an innovation backlog, creating a sustainable engine for continuous improvement.

Unleashing potential to keep up with business

Governance first, then speed. Without a CoE&I, you’ll keep funding work that doesn’t move your P&L. With one, you unlock value at scale, and finally make the platform perform.

A mature CoE&I doesn’t just optimize workflows; it creates the conditions for AI-driven efficiency, connected data intelligence, and seamless customer and employee experiences. It turns fragmented processes into integrated journeys: personalized, automated, and future-ready.

The choice is simple: keep spending on projects that stall or invest in a model that delivers measurable outcomes and continuous innovation. Capgemini brings the expertise, accelerators, and partnership to make it real – fast.

The question is: will you keep playing catch-up, or start orchestrating value today?