Across North America, one major energy provider operates the invisible systems that keep life moving: electric transmission, distribution networks, and natural gas infrastructure spanning multiple grid environments. From control rooms to field operations, thousands of operational technology (OT) devices quietly sustain the flow of power and energy every hour of every day.
But as the grid evolved, so did the complexity beneath it. OT data existed across disconnected security tools, spreadsheets, and legacy asset repositories. Each system held part of the truth, but no single place held the whole story. Compliance reporting required manual effort.
Visibility depended on local knowledge. And OT had not yet been fully integrated into the enterprise ServiceNow platform in a way that reflected its true operational and regulatory importance. The organization needed better tools and a trustworthy foundation.
What began as a visibility challenge had quietly grown into an operational and regulatory exposure. As OT environments scaled, the gaps between systems widened. Leaders faced persistent uncertainty:
Manual workflows and disconnected data increased the margin for error. Compliance depended on reconciliation rather than confidence. Security controls relied on trust instead of policy enforcement. The organization could not operate the grid at scale on fragmented truth.
To confront this challenge, the organization partnered with a specialized ServiceNow consultancy with deep OT and industrial domain expertise. This engagement was never framed as a traditional implementation. It was framed as a foundation project; one designed to stabilize the core before enabling scale.
The mission was precise:
Phase one would focus on control-center assets only. The goal was not to do everything at once, but to do the right things first, with absolute rigor.
The transformation unfolded in layered, disciplined steps, each designed to build trust in the data before speed in the process.
Thousands of OT devices were centralized into the ServiceNow CMDB through a custom integration with the organization’s OT security platform. Identification and reconciliation logic was implemented to ensure that assets were not merely imported, but verified, deduplicated, and governed.
Devices were modeled using a formal industrial equipment hierarchy, creating a consistent structure across voltage and gas environments. Each asset was linked directly to its control and monitoring systems, ensuring operational context traveled with the data, not separately from it.
What changed:
OT data carried a different risk than traditional IT data, and it required different safeguards. Advanced role-based access controls were implemented so that sensitive OT records were visible only to authorized OT groups. Platform-level controls ensured that reporting, dashboards, and record access could not cross OT and IT boundaries.
Security was not layered on after the fact. It was embedded directly into the operating model.
What changed:
With governed asset data in place, operational workflows were rebuilt on real context. OT-specific Incident and Change processes were configured to leverage live CMDB relationships. Regulatory reporting shifted from manual compilation to automated dashboards driven directly by trusted OT data.
For the first time, leadership could view compliance posture, asset condition, and operational workload in one system, without reconciliation.
What changed:
Technology alone would not carry the transformation. Governance and enablement were treated as first-class deliverables. Formal OT CMDB governance sessions established ownership and standards. Data validation processes ensured alignment with real-world conditions. OT teams participated in functional and technical enablement, followed by structured User Acceptance Testing, controlled production release, and post-go-live hyper care.
What changed:
By the conclusion of the first implementation phase, the organization had achieved something far more durable than a successful go-live:
A single, governed OT system of record within ServiceNow
Verified visibility across all in-scope control-center devices
Automated regulatory reporting built on trusted data
Operationalized OT Incident and Change Management
Enterprise-grade security controls separating OT and IT
A platform foundation designed to scale into substations and broader grid operations
What once required inference could now be proven. What once required manual reconciliation could now be trusted automatically. The grid did not just become visible, but also governable.
This transformation was never about dashboards as much as it was about certainty. By anchoring the program in governance, security, and visibility, before automation and scale, the organization shifted from operating on assumptions to operating on truth. OT data is now protected as critical infrastructure, not treated as operational exhaust.
Phase one built the foundation. What comes next is expansion, automation, and a resilient OT operating model prepared for the future of energy.