John Lewis selects ServiceNow to transform IT management

Retail chain John Lewis Partnership has chosen two tools from ServiceNow's Software-as-a-Service suite to improve its internal operations.

John Lewis implemented the IT management services provider's incident and problem tool in September and will roll out the change-management tool in February.

Speaking to Computing at the Knowledge 11 conference in Frankfurt, Simon Skelton, John Lewis IT management services manager, said the retailer had been looking to replace a number of legacy systems.

"We've got multiple bespoke legacy systems – a 10-year-old Touchpaper Classic helpdesk, 30 or 40 Lotus Notes incident-logging systems, and numerous email inboxes that aren't managed well," he said.

"We're replacing all these tools across the partnership, including Waitrose, with one consistent tool for all our service desks," he continued.

A main function of the ServiceNow platform is the self-service portal function, which can log specific problems, such as the John Lewis website being down or a member of staff needing help to set up a new user.

It can be accessed by all 4,000 staff at John Lewis. Skelton says that staff who deal with the incident logs will be able to use their time more effectively.

"We're one of the few retailers on a growth strategy, but we don't want to recruit more supporting IT staff as we grow the business.

"This tool means we don't have to recruit staff while we double in size, so we can keep our profit margin as it is," said Skelton.

Skelton went on to say that although there is no way to know exactly how much the product will save in costs and time because there is no data available from previous systems, it is clear the ServiceNow platform is working to the company's advantage.

He said that another benefit of the platform is that ServiceNow upgrades itself.