One of the things that fascinates me the most about ServiceNow is not the tool or the platform, neither the applications nor the power of the technology. What truly fascinates me is the ServiceNow community. ServiceNow created technology where the foundation of the platform is all about collaboration within the tool, but they have extended this notion far beyond the platform. There are going to be over 6000, (yes you read that correctly) over 6000 people in attendance for the upcoming Knowledge 14 conference next week in San Francisco! This is the biggest conference focused on Service Management, period. Why are all of these people coming?

This weekend, while I was finishing up some work and finally watching the finale of "How I Met Your Mother" (very disappointing, might I add), some similarities between the show and this conference struck me. For those who aren't familiar with "How I Met Your Mother", the basic premise is that the main character, Ted, is on a constant journey to find his future wife.

Similar to Ted looking for his life partner, many people come to Knowledge14 looking for just that... Service Management partners and other customers they can trust, learn from, laugh with, make it through good times and bad... and of course have a few glasses of wine with...it's not just about the tool! There's much more required to be successful. Truly successful companies have navigated their way in their Service Management journey by:

• Building a strategy that aligns to the organization's mission and developing an iterative roadmap to achieve key wins and gain momentum continuously
• Integrating Organizational Change Management best practices to ensure adoption - this goes way beyond just marketing and communication plans
• Defining services in a portfolio and publishing orderable services in a manner that makes sense to customers
• Designing processes and a governance model to ensure sustainability beyond the initial tool implementation

For those of you who are "How I Met Your Mother" fans, and have seen Ted's struggles in finding the right woman, we hope you don't have to suffer as much as Ted did. Learn from Ted's struggles by navigating your way through the conference to Cask's Booth to learn how we can tailor solutions to fit the needs of your organization.

So when we look back five years from now and talk about how we met, I think many of us will say, "at the ServiceNow Knowledge 14 conference in San Francisco". It's going to be legen....

Wait for it.

Dary

Jason rosenfeld, service management practice lead

Jason has 15+ years of hands-on Service Management, Service Delivery and Consulting experience building Service Management programs, roadmaps, services, portfolios and processes for Higher Ed, Financial, Federal, Defense, Tech, and Entertainment customers. He is a certified ITIL Expert, TIPA Assessor, Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, Flawless Consultant, and holds ISO/IEC 20K and 27K certifications.Jasonis the former President of the ITSMF USA San Diego LIG, was a finalist foritSMFUSA 2012 Member of the Year and is a regular speaker atitSMFevents.