Operating critical energy infrastructure demands certainty. Across transmission, distribution, and control environments, operational technology systems must remain available, secure, and auditable at all times. For one North American energy operator, the systems responsible for keeping the grid running had grown increasingly complex beneath the surface.
OT assets were widespread across control centers and field environments, but visibility depended heavily on local expertise and disconnected tooling. Asset data lived on security platforms, in spreadsheets, and in legacy repositories. Compliance reporting required manual reconciliation. OT workflows were not yet fully integrated into the organization’s enterprise ServiceNow platform.
Leadership recognized the risk of operating critical infrastructure without a single, trusted operational view. The organization needed a stronger foundation.
Challenge
What began as a visibility issue had quietly evolved into an operational and regulatory challenge. The organization faced:
- OT asset data spread across multiple tools with no single source of truth
- Manual compliance and regulatory reporting processes
- Limited confidence in asset ownership, scope, and governance
- Incident and change workflows lacking full OT context
- No scalable access control model for sensitive OT data
- Growing concern around audit readiness and operational risk
The grid could not be managed at scale on fragmented truth. The organization needed governed visibility before it could enable automation or expansion.
Solution
The organization partnered with CoreX to establish a purpose-built OT foundation on ServiceNow. This was not approached as a traditional implementation. It was positioned as a stabilization and governance initiative designed to support long-term scale. The program focused on:
- Establishing ServiceNow as the system of record for OT
- Centralizing OT assets into a governed CMDB
- Modeling assets using formal industrial hierarchies
- Enforcing strict OT-only access controls
- Enabling OT-specific Incident, Change, and reporting workflows
- Supporting regulatory reporting directly from trusted asset data
Phase one intentionally scoped to control-center environments, prioritizing accuracy, security, and governance over speed.
Results
The initial phase delivered a durable OT operating foundation. The organization achieved:
- Centralized OT asset visibility within a governed CMDB
- Deduplicated, verified asset records aligned to industrial models
- Strict segregation of OT and IT data through role-based access controls
- Context-driven OT Incident and Change workflows
- Automated compliance and regulatory reporting dashboards
- Improved leadership confidence in OT risk posture and data integrity
What once required manual reconciliation could now be trusted automatically.
Summary
By anchoring the program in governance, security, and visibility, the organization shifted from operating on assumptions to operating on truth. OT data became a protected infrastructure rather than operational exhaust.
The result is a secure, scalable OT foundation built to support future grid expansion, automation, and resilience. Phase one established control. What comes next is scale.
