Looking to Uncover ServiceNow Value? Track Adoption.

ServiceNow continues to gain traction among enterprise organizations for its ability to centralize operations and streamline workflows. But when it comes to measuring whether your roadmap is delivering real value, are you considering all the right metrics? 

According to CoreX’s Head of Global Delivery, Ross Rexer, if you're not tracking user adoption, you may be overlooking one of the most critical early indicators of platform success.

To justify business value, Rexer suggests focusing on the 'I' in KPI, using adoption as the core indicator. "The more adoption, the more value you’re getting out of the system," he explained.

From Login to Last Mile: What real adoption looks like

Adoption isn’t just about whether people log into the platform but instead about whether they’re truly using the system to streamline work and unlock value across the business. ServiceNow is designed to serve as the central orchestrator of enterprise operations, integrating workflows across departments and connecting both native modules and third-party tools. 

But if employees continue relying on manual workarounds like sticky notes or email threads, even after major investments, that orchestration breaks down. One of the first questions organizations should ask is whether purchased modules are actively being used in day-to-day processes.

"When the ServiceNow customer buys, they get the platform database and all that comes with it,” says Rexer. “And then they buy SKUs; ITSM, HR, legal, etc. So, the first question becomes: Within the module I allocated significant budget for—sometimes in the hundreds of thousands or even millions—are all the stakeholders using the ServiceNow workflows we built?”

ServiceNow's platform and workflow architecture allow customers to track and analyze user behavior and engagement throughout the system in a consistent manner.

“How many team members access and perform work in our workflows against our staffing allocation and productivity objectives? How much time is spent in the dashboard that we’ve built vs. actions taken directly from the data and analytics provided? Those are examples of the indicators and stats that we use to show adoption numerically,” said Rexer.

He provided a project as an example where CoreX was brought in to help the customer implement advanced service mapping for all of their critical IT and non-IT assets for the client, where CoreX was pulled in after an initial ITSM implementation. 

“As our team began the work to map critical services into the existing operation, it was very clear that the broader organization was not using the system, and adherence was below 50% across all production workflows,” stated Rexer. “This put not only the business case for the expansion initiative in jeopardy, it also called into question the value derived from the initial investment in foundational ITSM.”

Every unused or underused module represents a missed opportunity for automation, alignment, and long-term return on investment. Measuring adoption helps uncover these gaps early and allows teams to recalibrate, realign, and re-engage. In short, adoption is an ongoing indicator of whether your transformation efforts are working.

The Bigger Picture: Understanding “macro-level” adoption

Adoption means more than tracking the usage of deployed modules; it also requires a macro-level view of what’s been purchased, what’s been implemented, and what remains untouched.

Looking at adoption starts at the departmental level and moves across the organization. In a ServiceNow integration, things start with the different licenses purchased and a deployment roadmap. Rexer described the landscape as a mix of in-progress and planned deployments, which can fragment the value proposition if not managed holistically.

Once a license has been deployed, there should be an expectation that it’s providing value and that people are using it. Drilling down into adoption is the way to check if the deployment is providing that value.

Undeployed pieces of ServiceNow are “just sitting out there,” said Rexer, and come into play when considering macro adoption, rather than adoption from the perspective of actually using already deployed pieces of ServiceNow. Macro adoption looks at the ServiceNow footprint enterprise-wide from a value perspective.

Rexer continued, “This, too, reflects adoption—or the lack of it. You’re spending $150,000 a year on CSM, which may have been included in a broader platform purchase, but you haven’t deployed it. You are leaving significant ROI and efficiency gains on the table and potentially sacrificing an improved customer experience.”

Adoption Is a Mirror for Transformation

Adoption is more than simply a box to check. Rather, it reflects how well your organization is managing change, aligning teams, and delivering on strategic goals. It reveals whether workflows are truly improving, whether teams are engaging with the tools they’ve been given, and whether platform investments are turning into business outcomes. Without clear visibility into usage patterns and organizational engagement, it's easy for gaps to form between implementation and impact.

By tracking adoption at both micro (user activity) and macro (enterprise deployment) levels, teams can identify friction points, realign priorities, and ensure their roadmap evolves with the needs of the business. 

However, reading the signs correctly requires a culture that embraces continuous improvement, cross-functional alignment, and proactive change leadership. For organizations committed to long-term transformation, adoption isn't the end goal; it's the pulse check that keeps you on course.