ServiceNow CMS

content-management-systems-101-how-to-pick-a-cms

  1. Pre-Planning & Planning, Designed to equip you with tools to get started with your Planning efforts.
  2. Let’s Build!
  3. Testing Time
  4. Launch It!
  5. Support & Training for Ongoing Maintenance

 Overview

The ServiceNow Content Management System (CMS) is a powerful application which enables you to create a customized user interface for your instance and extend the look and feel of the (OOB) ServiceNow Employee Self-Service (ESS) Portal.

ServiceNow CMS Design
ServiceNow CMS Design

The ServiceNow CMS application is fully customizable and allows you to meet your corporate branding strategy (colors, fonts, styles) for a truly unique look and feel while delivering an enjoyable user experience. That said, asking the right questions upfront will help you set the stage for a shorter and more enjoyable experience through your project life cycle.

PRE-PLANNING / PLANNING

Does this sound familiar? Client – ” This what we want…” “and we need done by XYZ”. All before they’ve gathered or performed any analysis with user feedback, customer requirements, or scope and level of effort for undergoing a project, let alone one with the magnitude of a custom CMS project.

So PLEASE, before jumping in and building your awesome new ServiceNow CMS site make sure you have a sound understanding of what needs to be built and why your building it the first place. Yes, I understand that you’ve been told it needs to be done by x-Date and needs to include XYZ functionality. But doing so will likely co$t you in the end.

Save yourself and your organization a lot of time and money spent on wasted resources, activities, and lost faith from user community by doing some upfront due diligence. Get to the bottom of it, the core problem or issues your solving by understanding “Why, What, Where” first, before jumping into the “How”, this will be worked out once”Why, What, Where” have been addressed.

In short, don’t overlook the importance of the User Experience (UX/UI) or the people who will be using your new and awesome looking CMS site. Otherwise you’ll be left scratching your head and asking yourself “Why aren’t people using the new CMS/ESS site we just built?” Instead of hearing the sound of happy users for bringing them a great looking and useable CMS they’ve been asking for.

To get you started i’ve listed a few of the questions below, however stop here. Do your Homework. Research and Reach out to users, form small testing groups, understand and fix process gaps, and make sure everyone agrees on a strategy.

  1. Process (Standards & Support Mechanisms)
  2. Overall Architecture (Scope)
  3. What Key Functionality is needed? (Start with Must Have’s and then add Nice to Have’s)
    1. Are there any special features needed?
    2. What browsers are supported?
    3. Should end users see the regular interface?
    4. What devices will be supported?
  4. Look and feel: Are the layouts, colors and style guides already defined and inline with organizational standards. (Corporate Style Guide).
  5. Develop your CMS site on a sub-production instance where you can safely test, find bugs, and fix them.

Example of the ServiceNow Service Management Portal

800px-Sm_cms_example_portal_servicenow_2016

 

I recommend reading these great resources to help prepare you for the journey.

The goal of this post is the end-to-end development of a CMS from a development perspective and each organization will have their own set of unique scope of requirements.

However, if you have questions or comments please let me know and I will do my best to respond in a timely manner.

Please – If you enjoyed this post please “LIKE” and/or “SHARE” below and make sure to Following EcoStratus Technologies .

 

ABOUT JAMES

Screen Shot 2015-10-07 at 9.25.08 PMJames is the founder of Ecostratus Technologies and Principal ServiceNow Consultant.

James has more than 20 years experience within complex enterprise IT environments, 50+ successful ServiceNow implementations across various industries and has trained more than 400+ ServiceNow System Admin. James is passionate about technology, happy customers, and building lasting customer relationships.

SERVICENOW, ITIL, AND PMI CERTIFICATIONS:
* ServiceNow Knowledge 14 & 15 Trainer
* Certified ServiceNow System Admin, Implementation Specialist, and System Admin Trainer
* Certified ITILv3 Foundations, RCA, and OSA
* Certified PMI CAPM

 

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