Building the Foundation for Scale, Value, and Adoption

Christine Morris:
Good morning everyone, or afternoon depending on where you are. We’ll give it just another minute to get a few more folks in here. While we do that, we want to say we really enjoy spending time in person, so we’re going to run a quick poll. We’d love to hear if you’re planning to attend Knowledge.

Ron Burt:
No party like a masterclass party, right?

Christine Morris:
That’s what they say, Ron.

We’ll give it one more minute and then jump in. We’ve got a full house today, which is great. As a former platform owner, I think it’s one of the hardest jobs out there, so I’m really looking forward to our time together today and in future sessions.

All right, let’s dive in. Today we’re going to focus on building the foundation for scale, value, and adoption. This is our first masterclass, and our goal is to make this meaningful. We’re not here to sell you more ServiceNow licensing. We’re here to support this community. We’ve done quite a few of these sessions, and we’ll talk a bit more about that as we go.

I’m Christine Morris. I’m a Senior Director here at Ondaro, and I lead our consulting services team, including folks like Ron, who leads our ITSM practice, as well as functional and process consultants across the organization. I’ve been in the ServiceNow ecosystem for about 11 years now. I spent the first half of that as a customer and a platform owner, so I’ve sat in your seat. Ron has as well, and we think that perspective will help guide the conversation.

Ron, do you want to introduce yourself?

Ron Burt:
Sure. Welcome, everybody. My name is Ron Burt. As Christine mentioned, I’m a former platform owner and now a business solutions consultant. I’m very passionate about CSI. Not crime scene investigation, but continual service improvement. We can always do better.

I spent 27 years in a higher education environment working on CSI initiatives, dealing with competing departments, conflicting priorities, and people who don’t want change. There are always opportunities for improvement, but if you try to do that in a vacuum without governance, you’re setting yourself up for failure. That’s really what I hope we can focus on today—how to think about your governance structure and improve it in a way that works for your organization.

Christine Morris:
Thanks, Ron.

So just a quick overview of what we’ll cover. We’ll talk a little about who Ondaro is, some of the common challenges platform owners face, and then spend time on what a strong governance foundation looks like. We’ll also cover prioritization, roles, managing change and customization, and finally, measuring platform value.

A little bit about Ondaro. Some of you may have known us previously as CAS. We are a pure-play ServiceNow partner with fully certified resources across the platform. What that really means is we have experts across all process areas, and many of our team members, like Ron and myself, have actually sat in your seat as platform owners.

Our work generally falls into three areas. First is envision, which is helping with business transformation. ServiceNow can transform an organization, but the technology is often the easy part. The challenge is organizational change management and preparing your teams for new ways of working. Second is build, which includes implementations, UX design, and custom application development. And third is run, which is ongoing support, helping you manage your platform day to day, and providing additional resources when needed.

Before we go further, a little housekeeping. We want this to be interactive. We’ll have polls and questions, and we encourage you to use the chat. One of the great things about this masterclass community is the ability to share ideas, ask questions, and learn from each other.

We’ve been running these sessions for about a year now. We’ve done several focused on CMDB best practices and lifecycle management, as well as an ITAM masterclass. If you’re interested in those topics, there are additional sessions available.

Now let’s talk about the reality of being a platform owner. There’s a lot that you’re responsible for. It really is like juggling, with multiple priorities all happening at once. You’re managing upgrades, addressing technical debt, dealing with inconsistent data, controlling costs and licenses, and working through a backlog that never seems to shrink. At the same time, there’s constant incoming demand and often unrealistic expectations from stakeholders.

So how do you make the right decisions in that environment? That’s what we want to focus on today.

Let’s start with a quick poll. How does demand typically show up in your organization? Is it a clear intake process, a few manageable channels, or is it scattered across emails, tickets, and conversations? Or are you the intake process yourself?

What we’re seeing from responses is that most organizations fall into that scattered category. Demand is coming from everywhere. That’s very common, and it highlights the importance of establishing a structured intake process.

Now let’s talk about what successful governance looks like. At a high level, it starts with a unified, enterprise-wide intake process. You need a prioritization model that enables consistent scoring and aligns to strategic priorities rather than the loudest voice in the room.

You also need architectural governance to ensure scalable designs and proper dependency management, as well as a focus on reducing technical debt. Coordinated change and release management is critical so that deployments are consistent and risks are minimized.

Another key area is formalized product ownership. As you expand beyond ITSM into other areas like CSM or HR, demand increases significantly. Without clear ownership and prioritization based on value, it becomes very difficult to manage.

You also need to measure platform performance through KPIs. That includes throughput, quality, adoption, and reduction of technical debt. And finally, executive sponsorship is essential. Without it, governance becomes difficult to enforce and alignment across the organization breaks down.

Does that resonate? For many of you, it probably does.

Let’s move into governance structure. When governance is working well, you typically see a layered approach. At the top is executive steering, where strategy is defined and aligned to business priorities. Below that is platform steering, which is responsible for prioritization and ensuring alignment between strategy and execution.

Then you have the delivery layer, where work actually gets done. This is where structure and consistency are critical. You need a defined intake process, clear roles, and a focus on delivering value rather than constantly shifting priorities.

Supporting all of this are partner teams and administrative functions that keep the platform running and enable continuous improvement. Without that foundation, the platform will degrade over time.

The key takeaway is that governance is not about adding complexity. It’s about creating clarity. Clarity around who makes decisions, what gets prioritized, how work is delivered, and how value is communicated.

Let’s do another quick check. How does governance feel in your organization today? For many, it’s inconsistent or slows things down, and for some, it doesn’t exist at all. That’s not uncommon.

Ron Burt:
Let’s talk about roles. These roles are focused on direction, alignment, and control of the platform.

At the top, you have the executive sponsor. This person sets the vision, ensures visibility, and helps secure funding. They also communicate the value of the platform across the organization.

Next is the platform owner. This is the role many of you are in. You connect strategy to execution and ensure that what’s being delivered aligns with business outcomes.

Then you have the platform architect. This role provides guardrails, ensuring solutions are scalable, secure, and aligned with best practices. They also help determine what should be done versus what simply could be done.

Even if one person is filling multiple roles, it’s important that these responsibilities are clearly defined. Without them, you’ll start to see misalignment, excessive customization, and decision bottlenecks.

From there, you move into execution roles. Business analysts work closely with stakeholders to gather and refine requirements. Developers build and configure solutions. Platform admins maintain stability, manage upgrades, and handle support. And scrum masters help facilitate delivery, track progress, and remove blockers.

One common challenge is role overlap, especially in smaller teams. That’s normal, but it’s important to maintain clarity around responsibilities.

Christine Morris:
That’s exactly right. Many of you are wearing multiple hats, and that’s the reality for most organizations.

One approach that can help is using data to build a case for additional resources. For example, if your backlog would take years to complete at your current capacity, that becomes a strong argument for expanding your team.

We also saw some discussion around citizen development. It can be effective, but only with strong governance and review processes in place. Without that, it can introduce risk and inconsistency.

Ron Burt:
Let’s talk about prioritization. When priorities conflict, what typically wins? Often it’s the loudest stakeholder, executive pressure, or whatever is easiest to deliver.

The goal is to shift toward prioritizing based on business value and strategic alignment. When you have visibility into what you’re working on and why, it becomes much easier to manage expectations and make informed decisions.

Christine Morris:
Now let’s talk about managing change, specifically the difference between configuration, personalization, and customization.

Configuration is where you want to live as much as possible. It uses out-of-the-box capabilities and is easier to maintain. Personalization allows you to tailor experiences for users without changing core functionality. Customization, on the other hand, changes how the platform fundamentally operates and introduces long-term maintenance challenges.

Customization isn’t always bad, but it needs to be intentional. Every customization comes with a tradeoff.

Ron Burt:
A helpful way to evaluate this is by looking at business value and complexity. Some changes are required for compliance or critical business needs, while others may offer limited value. At the same time, some changes are simple while others introduce significant complexity.

The goal is to carefully evaluate each change and ensure that the value justifies the cost and complexity over time.

Christine Morris:
Finally, let’s talk about measuring value. It’s important to establish KPIs that align with your organization’s goals. That could include reducing defects, improving platform health, increasing delivery speed, or driving adoption.

The key is to establish a baseline and then track improvement over time. That allows you to demonstrate value and justify continued investment.

Ron Burt:
Exactly. Without measurement, it’s very difficult to show progress. Data helps tell the story and supports better decision-making.

Christine Morris:
As we wrap up, we’d love your input. What challenges are you facing today as platform owners? What topics would you like us to cover in future sessions?

We’ve already heard interest in areas like replatforming, citizen development, and roadmap planning, and we’ll use your feedback to shape what comes next.

Thank you all for joining us. We’re excited to continue building this community and supporting you in your platform journeys.