On Wednesday, February 20 at the Pink Elephant conference, a dynamic panel of ServiceNow customers answered audience questions about avoiding the pitfalls that make IT so freak'n hard.

These customers have seen it all – from a historic government entity whose small team was resistant to change, to a global enterprise that bit off more scope than it could chew – to avoid the common sand traps of IT, the IT leaders recommended two things:

1) Find a single system of record to run IT, and
2) Take advantage of technology to continually improve services and drive new ones.

The right IT service management solution automates workflows. It encourages social collaboration. It streamlines processes and opens up doors to greater visibility. Finally, it paves the way for future growth and more innovation.

That's technology to help IT leaders keep pace with change and evolve with the industry. That's technology our customers use everyday.

Tim First from Perrigo used to struggle with how to prioritize incidents and requests. Then, his team built an encompassing and objective framework for prioritization (within ServiceNow) and automated the processes they had carefully defined. Now, IT at Perrigo has the resources to drive resolution as quickly as possible, without the typical loss of time and fumbling common to the industry.

Luis Orozco from IESO noticed that with IT requests coming by phone and email, his team became known as "email coordinators" rather than solution providers. Sometimes, due to faulty prioritization, the boss might get a call at 2:30 am. Then, Luis used ServiceNow to automate notifications and immediately alert the right people. He even gave customers the ability to override priority categorization with a valid reason. Now, the boss sleeps through most nights and customers use their privileges responsibly.

Max Vorhies from Associated Wholesale Grocers realized that the business had no idea of the value IT provided. Within ServiceNow, he activated metrics to quantify successes, service levels, and time reduction to solve incidents – which, over a three-month period, was reduced by 96%. This new visibility speaks wonders to the rest of the business.

Ted Benoit from Teck Resources saw more and more change requests going to the CAB (Change Advisory Board). Then, he employed ServiceNow to implement an online approval process. Now, change management is streamlined and few incidents make it to the CAB.

By taking advantage of the technology that comes with an innovative IT service management solution, companies can actively keep pace with change and reinvent the role of IT in their organizations. As panel moderator Brian Hollandsworth says, we must "Evolve or be extinct".