ServiceNow Misconception #3 - Customer Service Management (CSM)

What is CSM and When is it Truly Needed

In our third and final entry in this series, we cover the Customer Service Management (CSM) module.?? While it does offer a number of benefits, the reasons behind why most customers believe they need the module are not always accurate.??

The two most common reasons customers look at CSM are because they want Case Management or additional external client portals. ?Additional client portals can easily be achieved with a standard ITSM license and while Case Management can be quite useful, it alone is not worth the additional complexity and expense of purchasing and deploying CSM.??

What is CSM?

The CSM module is designed for customer service operations and offers a variety of features.? Below are some the most valuable:

Case Management - Centralized case tracking allowing customers to simply open a support Case while the support agents can determine the best method to address (i.e. Incident, Request, etc.).? Think of a Case as an umbrella task that can encapsulate an Incident, Problem, Dispatch, etc. ??A customer issue may require a support organization to create multiple tasks to resolve and fully address.? Case allows a customer to track progress of their issue without having to see all the inner workings.

Field Service Management – Enables a variety of features for field service technicians including, work order, work order tasks, dispatching capabilities as well as additional Asset Management features.?

Other Valuable CSM Features

• Partner support and account management tools
• Preconfigured external customer portals
• Unified agent workspace for managing interactions across multiple channels

These CSM features are great but only truly valuable for organizations with the proper use case and level of operational maturity.? Too often organizations believe they need these features before they are ready.??

What Can Be Achieved within the ITSM Module?

Many of the business outcomes that the CSM module offers can be achieved with standard ITSM features.

• External Client Portals: Additional portals can be created and segmented as needed within ITSM. ?These can we setup with their own external knowledgebase for customer reference and self-service.?
• Service Catalog: A well curated service catalog can help guide customers to submit the proper task type whether it is an Incident, Request, Problem, etc. While there is value in Case Management for many organizations a proper service catalog will suffice.
• External User Management: External user accounts and details can be tracked and segmented from internal user information.?? The pre-configuration within CSM simply makes this as well as tracking Partner in the Company table easier to achieve.
• Agent Workspace: Creation and customization of Workspaces is available without CSM.? Most organizations still require customization or changes to Workspaces even with CSM.?

The Bottom-line

Before purchasing the ServiceNow CSM module, organizations should carefully evaluate their needs and determine what can be achieved with standard ITSM features. While CSM offers some great features it is important that businesses weigh the additional license expense and cost to deploy these features.?

For the right organization CSM can help to elevate their centralized support and field service organizations to the next level – for the wrong organization it can be a more costly option that will not be fully utilized.

One Final Note…

This article concludes our 3-part series on common ServiceNow Misconceptions.?? While the goal was to cover the most common misconceptions seen in the marketplace there are many others that could and possibly will be covered in the future.? However, there was one final takeaway that all readers should keep in mind.?

When looking at any additional module/feature/license separate true capabilities from what are preconfigured dashboards/workflows.? While preconfigured items may offer an initial advantage they also come with persistent increased costs.?

Are you considering whether the CSM module is the right fit for your organization? Let’s discuss how to maximize your ServiceNow capabilities without the additional costs!