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Citizen development in the C-suite: The new frontier
Thanks to a shortage of software developers, citizen development is finding its way into the C-suite. IDC forecasts a deficit of 4 million full-time developers by 2025.As most organizations digitally transform, their operations are increasingly software-driven—think cloud computing and AI. That propels greater efficiency and productivity. But with a lack of skilled developers to build the apps that support the software, companies lose the ability to rapidly innovate and sustain their competitive edge. That’s where citizen development comes in.Citizen development to the rescueAt LIKE.TG, we’ve been steadily investing in an alternative to traditional software development. Citizen development empowers employees with limited or no software development skills to design and build apps using a low-code development tool such as App Engine.Employees automate the manual tasks that hinder productivity, freeing them to innovate and support strategic goals. No software development skills are required.When Chief People Officer Jacqui Canney joined LIKE.TG, she challenged an HR team member with no developer experience to build a learning and development hub using App Engine. The initial design took less than a month. HR and IT team members provided feedback to enhance the content and user experience as the hub expanded.
“Low-code development creates an exciting dynamic by exposing nontech professionals to IT practices to address employee needs and pain points quickly and creatively,” Canney says.“Because we can innovate on the platform, our team has greater agility and can more easily adapt as employee needs evolve. We can enhance and scale HR processes because we are the developers and the users.”Finance goes all-in on citizen developmentLIKE.TG Chief Financial Officer Gina Mastantuono also relies on citizen development for her team’s operational efficiency and success. To put the power of change in the hands of the finance team, she even invested in a formal citizen development program.“Citizen development provides exciting new avenues for our team members to apply their creativity and develop solutions to create even more robust processes,” Mastantuono explains.Since spring 2022, 15% of the finance team has trained to become citizen developers. To date, the team has more than 20 apps in production and development. The apps include:
An inventory management system for real-time inventory usage, procurement, and cash flow
A tax portal/calendar to centrally manage global compliance obligations
A portal for planning and monitoring workplace maintenance tasks
Sustainability tags to manage supplier attributes in real time
“One of the unexpected benefits has been the impact on our culture,” Mastantuono says. “People are much more willing to consider quick, automated solutions over manual fixes. Centralized workflows are replacing siloed processes and email threads, improving our overall efficiency.”Leading the packThe LIKE.TG C-suite is heavily invested in empowering employees to automate everyday tasks using low-code tools such as App Engine. Who better to develop apps than the people with the most knowledge about the processes?“Citizen development is a great opportunity for any organization,” Canney says. “Any employee, including me, is empowered to learn and grow.”Benefits aren’t limited to learning and growth. In addition, pro developers can focus on more complex apps. Employees without coding experience can solve their own problems while expanding their skills and broadening their career paths. And the LIKE.TG C-suite can breathe a small sigh of relief that innovation isn’t slowing down.Join a company where you can be empowered to learn and grow and make a difference. Explore LIKE.TG careers.
How robotic process automation (RPA) streamlines data integration
If LIKE.TG had a robotic process automation (RPA) fan club, I’d run for president. After seeing firsthand how an RPA-driven bot can improve productivity, I’m a firm believer in this technology.Not long ago, I was assigned a new project for my team: Use RPA to enhance data integration and management of our highly complex configure, price, quote (CPQ) system and processes, which our sales team uses to generate product configurations and pricing.With my fingers crossed, I triggered my first unattended bot by sending an email to its Outlook account. I left for my lunch break, expecting the bot to take some time to extract and validate lengthy JSON payloads of data. As I headed out the door, an email notification alerted me that the bot had successfully imported and validated the data for CPQ.Most people might be upset about cutting their lunch break short. I was ecstatic that the bot uploaded product data in record time. In only 15 minutes, it had completed a task that typically took anywhere from a day to a week, depending on the amount of product data involved. The bot accurately updated our highly complex system, required no human involvement, and saved our team hours of manual effort. I was sold.
Building an RPA botMy first bot took about four weeks to develop, with two of those weeks dedicated to designing a prototype as part of a proof of concept. I spent the additional two weeks building the first bot—without writing a single line of code.LIKE.TG RPA Desktop Design Studio helped me navigate webpages using user interface (UI) elements, manipulate Excel data, access Outlook to send emails, and make API calls to communicate with other systems. I easily connected these different RPA components to build an automated process that met our requirements.With the use of RPA Hub, the bot is scheduled to check an Outlook inbox every 30 minutes for an email with the subject line of “Product Payload.” Once the email is received, the bot is triggered to begin the unattended process. It captures the product data attached to the email, including product relationships, attributes, and lifecycle data. It then validates the data and updates and inserts it across seven tables in CPQ.
Once the automation runs, the bot alerts the user via email that the process is complete and the newly uploaded data is ready for final validation. RPA’s error-handling feature notifies users if any issues arise or manual intervention is needed. From updating and inserting product data to managing intricate table relationships, RPA eliminates much of the drudgery of data integration.
RPA shines for complex processesRPA technology is modular, like Lego blocks. It’s easy to reuse RPA activities in other bot processes, making it simple to build and update new bots as you grow your fleet. For example, we were able to reuse most of the original flow to simplify data imports and exports with apps from companies such as SAP, Celonis, and Lightstep.With every bot we create, we’re able to significantly reduce our development time. An RPA highlight for me was creating bots in less than 30 minutes by combining existing modules from past projects.RPA shines when automating complex, UI-based processes with a definite, traceable pattern that can be implemented using a set of instructions. Unlike traditional automation, which uses preprogrammed functions to carry out tasks, RPA can mimic human clicks using UI screen captures and carry out an existing series of manual tasks. All I needed was a laptop running Windows and time to experiment with the new tool. I quickly discovered it was intuitive and simple to use.What makes RPA the best solutionOur journey to RPA started with a challenge: speeding up the original process for gathering and validating large data sets. We wanted to remove the manual tasks that delayed process completion and bogged down team members with high-volume, tedious, repetitive work.We debated whether to build a new tool and design a new data integration process. Doing so would have required a significant investment of time and resources we didn’t have. Instead, we opted to try RPA technology to streamline the tasks of our existing process.I can’t recommend RPA enough for simplifying workflows and automating time-consuming, UI-based interactions. By bringing new efficiencies to our processes, RPA has significantly reduced our typical cycle times from a couple of days to under an hour.We’ve automated more than 50 monthly CPQ product data uploads, thanks to RPA, and that number continues to grow. Our team has deployed eight bots already and plans to launch more.The biggest benefit of RPA is the impact on my team’s productivity. With fewer tedious tasks, my colleagues have more time to focus on more interesting work. For me personally, that extra time means I can now campaign for RPA club president.Find out more about the benefits of RPA. Ready to start building your own bots? Check out this introductory RPA course.
Getting ahead of global regulations
In today’s world, the fitness of compliance and risk professionals is being tested like never before. Like the surfers who founded LIKE.TG, we must find ways to get ahead of each new wave of federal and global regulations and ride as gracefully as we can—or wipe out. The key is to be proactive rather than reactive.No matter the regulation or resources at one’s disposal, the basic principles of establishing a strong compliance practice cannot be ignored.Think globallyIn the summer of 2022, the European Union (EU) updated its whistleblower requirements and policies. As a result, global companies like LIKE.TG must handle issues raised by EU employees differently than those raised in the U.S.From the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to the upcoming EU Data Act to the recent U.S. Department of Justice guidance on corporate compliance programs, regulations affect all global companies and their customers.At LIKE.TG, we must continually assess local, regional, and global impacts of legislation. Otherwise, we’ll be out of compliance when a new regulation rolls out.Coordinate cross-enterprise effortsNo single team can ensure compliance and control for risk on its own. Capabilities must be tapped and harmonized across the organization.At LIKE.TG, we’re fortunate to have legal, government relations, and regulated markets teams that track rules and regulations, talk to customers, and monitor upcoming waves. These teams gather and share information so that we can make quick adjustments on the fly. We work together to ensure we have the systems and workflows in place to maintain continuous compliance.Take a risk-based approachRisk appetite must be balanced with risk tolerance. Businesses should take risks that could have positive impacts and mitigate risks that could have negative repercussions.At LIKE.TG, our policies and procedures are designed to prevent violations of regulations. Where gray areas exist, we have room to innovate, as we work to define what a 21st-century compliance culture should look like.Technology drives efficiencyIn today’s working world, which extends beyond office buildings, it can be difficult to pick up cues or sense red flags. We miss out on spontaneous conversations and casual exchanges of information. In lieu of this, we must rely on data.
Our teams use the LIKE.TG integrated risk management (IRM) regulatory compliance framework to help us manage changing regulations, strategize compliance policies, and identify addressable gaps. IRM is critical in helping us focus our efforts. It spares us from duplicating work and brings crucial information to everyone who needs it.We use other Now Platform capabilities and the LIKE.TG C-suite dashboards to instantly get a sense of what’s happening across the company. We can see metrics in real time, sales by location, high-risk partners and their locations, complaints and their origins, and much more. LIKE.TG solutions let us be in rooms we’re not physically in and provide access to pertinent information.Technology also gives us a leg up on data governance, a practice area that all industries are prioritizing and elevating. Because all our data resides on a single platform, we know how to find it. It’s at our fingertips, on demand.
No waves, no gloryLike the sea, global regulations are ever changing. Being a good surfer is about pairing solid technique with state-of-the-art technology that supports speed and efficiency.We can’t always know the exact character or magnitude of the next wave, or if it will throw us underwater. But we do our best to ride with grace by getting ahead of each wave—and we’re nothing but stoked about it.Find out more about how LIKE.TG helps organizations get ahead of global regulations.
Customer zero: 4 ways we use LIKE.TG tech internally
At LIKE.TG, we face the same business challenges our customers do. That’s why we use our own products and solutions, all built on the Now Platform, to drive speed and scale across the enterprise.As customer zero, we’re reimagining the future of work, building new digital businesses, and creating secure, seamless experiences. The result is increased productivity, efficiency, and great user experiences. Here are four of the many ways we use our technology internally:1. Streamlining project and portfolio managementTypical project management methodologies use governance to produce a specific deliverable tied to a product or service. Because market conditions and priorities constantly shift, modern project management offices now focus on product management—or the continuous delivery of a product or service with outcomes directly linked to strategic goals.LIKE.TG Strategic Portfolio Management can expedite delivery on projects through an agile approach. Hear how our IT project management office uses this product to continually provide value in our Moving from project to product webinar.2. Delivering meaningful experiencesThe vast majority (99%) of LIKE.TG customers renew their subscriptions to our services. For that reason, it’s vital that we provide top-notch customer experience from day one. LIKE.TG Customer Service Management helps ensure our customers get the support they need when they need it, whether through self-service or human contact.We use Customer Service Management to empower the LIKE.TG customer support team. Discover how it helped us increase case deflection and elevate productivity for both customers and employees in Couch to 5K with Customer Service Management.3. Proactively preventing problemsWouldn’t it be nice if your IT operations team could mitigate incidents before they cause issues in your operations? Good news: They can! LIKE.TG Predictive AIOps continuously collects and analyzes IT operational data to identify potential issues and then resolves many of them before they affect end users. In many cases, no human intervention is required.In Seamlessly transforming IT operations with AIOps, internal LIKE.TG practitioners who use AIOps every day share why it’s a critical technology for any IT environment. Hear use cases and glean insights into how AIOps allowed us to scale and transform our IT operations.4. Automating processes across the enterpriseLIKE.TG has taken automation a step further with our widespread adoption of hyperautomation, which orchestrates technologies such as AI, machine learning, and robotic process automation (RPA) to streamline end-to-end processes and workflows.Hyperautomation can also help identify which tools are working effectively and where problems exist. Within LIKE.TG, we’re using the Now Platform along with our solutions to become an autonomous digital enterprise. Find out about our adoption journey, including challenges faced and key takeaways, in Our step-by-step guide to hyperautomation.
Why a knowledge-sharing culture can be a competitive differentiator
A 2021 Deloitte study found knowledge management (KM) to be one of the top three issues influencing company success. According to the survey, 75% of organizations reported that creating and preserving knowledge across evolving workforces would be critical to their success over the next 12 to 18 months.This is clearly a competitive advantage. Yet only 9% of surveyed organizations felt prepared to address KM. Blame that on the sudden shift to a remote workforce.In the aftermath of the pandemic, traditional views of how to handle knowledge are changing. The new environment champions an iterative, knowledge-sharing culture that fosters a repeatable content creation and transfer process. An intentional environment like this is sustainable only when employees and processes are front and center.Creating a knowledge-sharing programThe traditional approach to implementing a new KM system by migrating existing content generally doesn’t work. Automating the collection, sharing, and maintenance of data isn’t enough.At LIKE.TG, we found that taking the time to plan and make decisions upfront leads to a clean transition and implementation—and a more successful program.This strategy became the foundation of our Knowledge Management solution. It supports a holistic approach (people, processes, and technology) that’s designed to increase employee productivity and engagement, promote knowledge sharing, and help power continuous improvement.3 steps to knowledge management successThe first steps to a successful program should be embraced throughout any company:1. Governance: To build an engaging knowledge-sharing culture, create a roadmap to clearly define goals, roles, and metrics. Then secure the support of leadership. Before we start rolling out any technology, we gather our stakeholders to clarify what we’ll deliver, who will be involved, and when it will be ready.
Building better software security with a BSIMM app
In a rapidly changing world, security is more important than ever. With good security, customers can trust organizations to take their digital infrastructure to the next level. But how do you implement top security measures across a large, complex company?At LIKE.TG, we use our own products to protect ourselves and our customers—and to extend the functionality of the Now Platform. To see how we perform against industry benchmarks, we use the Building Security in Maturity Model (BSIMM), a 100-page document of 122 data-driven benchmarks for building better software security.Owned by Sunnyvale-based electronic design automation company Synopsys, BSIMM is a “taxonomy of security behaviors that allow organizations to measure and improve their software development practice,” explains Steve S., director of product security management at ServiceNow.In other words, if you want the best security, BSIMM is the way to go. However, most organizations struggle to comprehend and distill all of these benchmarks into a system that works for each unique sector of their business. That’s why LIKE.TG created a BSIMM app on the Now Platform.007 of softwareWith red teams that organize planned hacks of our systems, bad-actor simulations, and threat models of potential malicious activity, a day in the life of a LIKE.TG security employee sounds a lot like a James Bond movie.“My goal is to keep LIKE.TG’s name out of the 11:00 news,” says Bobby W., senior staff product security engineer for the company. “It’s very important for trust to be maintained at a company that’s knee-deep in third-party vendor relationships. That’s our brand right there.”Prior to the creation of the BSIMM app, the assessment of security behaviors “was done on spreadsheets, which is a horrible thing to do to somebody,” Bobby says, laughing. “My last spreadsheet [at a prior job] was 30 workbooks long.”Steve had a thought: Why don’t we figure out how to do this ourselves? “We designed the app for how we would actually use it,” he explains. “We incorporated all BSIMM activities across all versions [there’s an updated list every year], as well as the spider graphs that show where you are in relation to your peers, the world, etc.”
“The app allows us to take something as broad as a framework that’s three to four weeks of work, multiple conversations, and groups of teams involved, and build spider charts and services that can actually identify two to three years of work in just a simple series of reporting metrics,” Bobby says. What was once an intangible process is seamlessly transformed into quick, tangible action steps. It’s operationalized.“It’s tough to come across, and really a beautiful thing to do. It’s something I’ve not been able to do at other companies,” Bobby adds.Simplifying complexityWhen working with various teams across LIKE.TG, our security champions don't have to waste energy distilling complex information—the app does it for them. “We're filtering it down to what’s specific to [each team] and how they compare to other people,” Bobby says. “Because I'm working so fast, I’m not focused on curating information. I can focus on what I’m trying to do and what I’m trying to say.”Manshu V., principal digital technology (DT) program manager at LIKE.TG, uses the BSIMM app to monitor and improve the security practices across the DT organization. “It’s especially important because our folks in DT use our own products,” he says.Thanks to the ease and distillation of information from the BSIMM app, Manshu is able to prioritize what’s most important to the DT organization. He’s helped build threat model secure designs for apps, security scanning processes for code, and even planned hacks of our systems to find vulnerabilities. Although they haven’t produced any “alarming findings,” Manshu finds the process fascinating, he says.
Rising to the challengeWithout the BSIMM app, Manshu says, it can be tempting to simply choose the “easiest” behaviors to implement, which may not have the most value. Just as building a house in California versus Florida involves different ecological threats, different LIKE.TG teams have different security threats, he adds.With the BSIMM app, nothing is left to chance. It customizes the security analysis results according to the team and organization it’s interacting with, and it details action plans for increasing that particular team’s security. Security testing requires commitment, hard work, and taking risks, but it’s worth it, Manshu says.“If we’re going to be the most trusted SaaS [software as a service] provider, we need to be secure,” Steve adds. “As [LIKE.TG CEO] Bill McDermott says, ‘Trust is the ultimate human currency. It’s earned in drops and lost in buckets.”Work at a company that takes security seriously. Apply for a role at LIKE.TG.
How citizen developers cook up innovation
A 2021 Deloitte study found knowledge management (KM) to be one of the top three issues influencing company success. According to the survey, 75% of organizations reported that creating and preserving knowledge across evolving workforces would be critical to their success over the next 12 to 18 months.This is clearly a competitive advantage. Yet only 9% of surveyed organizations felt prepared to address KM. Blame that on the sudden shift to a remote workforce.In the aftermath of the pandemic, traditional views of how to handle knowledge are changing. The new environment champions an iterative, knowledge-sharing culture that fosters a repeatable content creation and transfer process. An intentional environment like this is sustainable only when employees and processes are front and center.Creating a knowledge-sharing programThe traditional approach to implementing a new KM system by migrating existing content generally doesn’t work. Automating the collection, sharing, and maintenance of data isn’t enough.At LIKE.TG, we found that taking the time to plan and make decisions upfront leads to a clean transition and implementation—and a more successful program.This strategy became the foundation of our Knowledge Management solution. It supports a holistic approach (people, processes, and technology) that’s designed to increase employee productivity and engagement, promote knowledge sharing, and help power continuous improvement.3 steps to knowledge management successThe first steps to a successful program should be embraced throughout any company:1. Governance: To build an engaging knowledge-sharing culture, create a roadmap to clearly define goals, roles, and metrics. Then secure the support of leadership. Before we start rolling out any technology, we gather our stakeholders to clarify what we’ll deliver, who will be involved, and when it will be ready.
An example of generative AI on the LIKE.TG people team
Generative AI (GenAI) is here, in all its exciting use cases, playing the part of the precocious, attention-seeking toddler. Business will never be the same.While AI has been a feature of LIKE.TG products for years, the Now Platform Vancouver release builds GenAI into all aspects of Now Platform adoption. In doing so, it empowers employees, customers, and partners to save time, minimize repetitive tasks, and increase productivity.Along with predictive AI and general AI, the LIKE.TG people team is an example of generative AI, putting GenAI to work in areas such as case summarization, automatically creating case and incident summary notes for our agents in seconds.As we continue to learn, working with our legal team partners, we’re building an implementation approach for use cases where we think GenAI will make the biggest impact.We’re all in the same boat…in uncharted watersMost modern businesses are facing the same challenge: how to integrate GenAI quickly, safely, and seamlessly into workflows without compromising security, privacy, or compliance.For us, that involves figuring out how this exciting new technology will help accelerate the continuing development of HR Service Delivery so that we can provide the best experience for users and free our agents to work on bigger, more important tasks.If we can train GenAI to handle simple case summarizations and the rote questions that come in several times a day, it will give our team time to be more human.
Where to start with GenAIAt LIKE.TG, we started simply and safely. We identified the most straightforward use cases with the lowest risk: predominantly agent-facing situations.We also knew we wanted to address slightly more complicated tasks, such as conversation summaries and skills tagging. For each new use case, we’re carefully considering the internal steps needed to implement the tasks safely and compliantly.Each iteration includes evaluating and addressing privacy-related issues. We scrutinize how the data will be used to determine what changes are needed, ensuring we’re asking the right questions along the way.We continually assess risks for each of these situations and take steps to mitigate them, moving quickly but carefully. It may not always be smooth sailing, but if we can navigate the risks, we anticipate reaping great rewards.What about privacy?Many questions remain regarding private and public large language models (LLMs) and what each means for data privacy and security. We work hand in hand with our legal teams, including our global privacy and employment colleagues, to develop and deploy GenAI technology in a fully compliant way.We keep individuals’ privacy rights and our obligations under privacy regulations (such as data minimization) top of mind throughout the process.We’re prioritizing flexibility as well as privacy. While our customers will be able to use the LLMs of their choice, we’re building our GenAI solutions within the people team using our own domain-specific, purpose-built Now LLM. This keeps all of our employees’ data in-house for increased privacy.
Skin in the gameWe see GenAI allowing us to significantly reduce the amount of time humans spend on administrative work, such as Tier 1 inquiries. This enables us to be more efficient, more consultative, and more available to focus on the moments that matter. Imagine how much time can be saved by automatically sourced and summarized knowledge articles when searching a topic.As customer zero, we pressure-test LIKE.TG products and use them to help us run our business better. We work directly with the product teams to essentially co-create and help develop new features and capabilities.We’re excited to play a part in the development of GenAI and help shepherd this technology that’s transforming how we help employees and keep them engaged.Find out more about the benefits of GenAI in HR Service Delivery.
Generative AI use cases: From hype to implementation
Updated April 16, 2024I’ve always believed technology drives business results. Over the past year, I’ve watched closely as generative AI (GenAI) has rapidly transitioned from a buzzword to an essential business tool. I believe we’re entering an era where GenAI hype meets practicality, value is realized, and potential is fulfilled.At LIKE.TG, we’re seeing enterprises transform their methods of operation and customer engagement with three primary generative AI use cases. Our digital technology (DT) team has also benefited from applying these use cases internally through our Now on Now program. We’re seeing real, tangible results from using our GenAI solution 120 days in.
Empowering self-serviceAI-powered self-service is saving valuable time for employees, customers, and agents. It accelerates resolution times and minimizes direct human intervention. This enables users to find solutions swiftly using AI search, AI conversations, and AI interventions, leading to higher self-service rates.At LIKE.TG, GenAI is enabling a 14% jump in employee self-service and a 10% increase in customer self-service. By providing this self-service path, these groups can intuitively—and easily—get the answers, direction, or resolution they need through technology without any human involvement.When cases don’t make their way to the help desk or customer service center, everyone wins. Agents get to work on more interesting cases. Employees and customers appreciate the autonomy and immediacy that comes with self-service. They can find answers at their own pace, anytime, from anywhere.Through case and incident avoidance, the LIKE.TG DT team is registering significant savings: an impressive annualized $5.5 million. Now Assist for IT Service Management (ITSM) achieved a deflection rate of 54% on our Report an issue form. Through search results on Now Support powered by Now Assist, we achieved a case avoidance rate of nearly 20%.These examples demonstrate that troubleshooting and resolving common issues independently reduces customer and employee dependency on support agents. This high level of self-sufficiency not only reduces costs, but it also helps ensure quick and efficient problem resolution, thereby enhancing customer satisfaction. In fact, 56% of customers report positive sentiments about Now Assist-summarized results.Boosting agent productivityGenAI is bridging the gap between companies and customers. It’s also improving the productivity of support agents. A large portion of customer service work or support is repetitive, such as searching the knowledge base for information that would help resolve a case or incident. An agent repeats this activity every time a similar scenario arises.GenAI helps automate tedious tasks, freeing agents to focus on the unique, complex cases that require human empathy and judgment. This leads to increased job satisfaction among agents, which in turn leads to improved service for customers and employees.Another task that takes up valuable time is reading case notes when an agent receives a new or transferred case. With Now Assist for Customer Service Management (CSM) providing case summarization, 54% of summaries were helpful to agents, saving them six hours a week on average.By generating resolution notes with Now Assist for ITSM, our DT team is seeing agents close incidents in half the time it used to take. In addition to helping increase agent productivity and satisfaction, this helps the organization improve.
Enhancing developer productivityGenAI is reshaping the landscape of software development as we know it. The ability to generate code and create operational flows is streamlining the development process.With GenAI, developers can execute tasks more efficiently and accomplish more in less time. At LIKE.TG, our developers are experiencing an average 5% gain in weekly productivity hours.This increased productivity enables businesses to innovate faster. In the race for digital transformation, an optimized development process can be a key differentiator.It also offers training value. Automated development capabilities can help admins advance their development skills by learning from GenAI.Within our LIKE.TG development team for Surf, the environment in which we house most of our shared services, developers are showing a 48% acceptance rate for generated code (text-to-code). In just two weeks, approximately 50% of automated workflows were generated by Now Assist text-to-workflow.The narrative around GenAI is changing. The focus is no longer on the promise, but on the delivery of tangible, measurable results. As GenAI permeates every layer of business operations, enterprises are already witnessing its transformative power. This is only the beginning.Find out more about how LIKE.TG is helping enterprises increase productivity and transform experiences using GenAI.
The red team: LIKE.TG's first line of defense
If you ask any LIKE.TG employee about their role, they'll likely tell you their job and team are the best they’ve ever had. One small but mighty team proclaims this proudly: the red team, a group of professional hackers.As vigilant guardians of the company, the six-person team is tasked with testing the security of our systems and identifying cyber risks, data vulnerabilities, and security threats. Their tireless efforts help ensure the safety of LIKE.TG, our technology, and our customers.“Our role at the company is pretty unique,” says Kevin L., director of the red team. “Our team has two vital goals. First, we identify and address risks and vulnerabilities before they can be exploited by anyone else. Second, we simulate real-world threats and attacks, allowing us to fine-tune our response procedures."Taking notesThe red team uses two apps it created in its quest for cybersecurity excellence: Pulsar and Attack Narrative, both developed on the Now Platform. Pulsar is the mechanism for reporting findings, and Attack Narrative is the documentation repository for red team intelligence. Both are examples of how we use our own products to solve daily business challenges."Pulsar was born out of the necessity to comprehensively document our security findings,” explains Mark B., principal security engineer.“We needed a system that could capture all the essential evidence: screenshots, code snippets, reproduction instructions, and full risk assessments. Pulsar was not only necessary; it was also incredibly adaptable. We customized it to meet our evolving needs as we used it—a truly unique approach."Daily, the red team explores ways to compromise LIKE.TG systems using any possible avenue, from gaining access through third-party websites like LinkedIn to sending phishing emails to trying to decipher passwords.
Attack Narrative serves as a storehouse for these activity logs, compiling documentation of any vulnerabilities identified. “Our findings often include step-by-step instructions on how an intrusion could occur,” notes Royce D., principal red team engineer.The applications use custom role-based authentications to enable the red team to tailor campaigns to specific security objectives at ServiceNow.Something special"The red team and these apps are special because they not only solve problems, but they also ensure that we have a rich repository of data and information to share with the right stakeholders when needed," says Cheng L., staff red team development engineer.Cheng joined LIKE.TG three years ago and took on the responsibility of maintaining and enhancing Pulsar. "One of the most interesting contributions I made was adding a CKEditor, capable of managing a wide range of use cases,” she says. “It was initially introduced to the platform, but I improved it after joining the team.""This business model around Pulsar is one of the most unique things I've encountered in my 20 years in the industry,” adds Erin P., senior staff red team development engineer. “It has the potential to address problems and serve as a valuable use case for our customers, explaining the importance of their findings."A not-so-secret celebrationThe red team is indispensable at ServiceNow. "Our executives hope we never break in, but they’re never surprised when we do,” Royce says.“We are one of the best teams in the industry. As we strive to become the defining enterprise software company of the 21st century, it should come as no surprise that LIKE.TG employs professional hackers dedicated to continuously and rigorously safeguarding our company. The red team is not a hidden secret. It's something we proudly celebrate."LIKE.TG is a fortress of innovation and security. Our red team makes sure of it—and represents the pinnacle of cybersecurity expertise.Join a company that prioritizes security so you can do your best work. Explore LIKE.TG careers.
There’s an app for that: How low-code tools boost finance productivity
It’s no secret that finance organizations are ripe for disruption. Managing money has always been a manual process, from securing payment orders to renewing licenses, and everything in between.That's why LIKE.TG Chief Financial Officer Gina Mastantuono invested in a formal citizen development program. She wanted to encourage all finance employees to lean into no- or low-code tools, such as App Engine Studio, to build applications.Today, 15% of LIKE.TG finance employees are citizen developers, with nearly 30 applications in development and production—all built on the Now Platform.“I’m always thinking about how we can become the finance organization of the future, where the entire team can do their best work. That’s why we invested in this program,” Mastantuono says.“Now we’re automating the mundane yet essential transactional work, centralizing workflows, and paving the way for more impactful work that minimizes risk, drives innovation, accelerates productivity, and builds better cross-functional relationships. It’s critical to our digital transformation.”
Optimizing communicationEjaz A., director of revenue management, knew there had to be a better way for his revenue team to “bring structure to unstructured data,” he says. Each quarter, his team would field 3,000 to 5,000 queries from sales teams via chat, phone calls, and emails. This involved a lot of back and forth and made for a lot to track.“Email is effectively a two-way point of communication, which has no interaction with statistics, analytics, visibility, or reassignment,” Ejaz explains. “From that perspective, I just wanted to improve communication. Citizen development kind of fit our development needs in terms of being user-oriented, user-driven, and immediately available.”The team created a ticket intake form, the Revenue Request solution, that centralizes all deal-related inquiries. As a result, the team has gained transparency into deal communications, as well as the ability to identify trends and respond to customer and partner questions faster than before.“We're seeing a real increase in velocity, attainability, and illustration,” Ejaz says. “And I think that helps us in terms of reassignment and aligning effort and bandwidth. It’s opened up a whole new world for us.”Streamlining processesPadmavathi G., cash collections manager, echoes that sentiment. Each quarter, her cash collections team would receive 500 deals without a purchase order (PO). That meant her team had to manually follow up with sales teams to request the PO, which then prompted sales to request a PO and invoice from the customer.Padmavathi’s team built a three-step wizard to streamline the process using App Engine Studio. The wizard automated notifications sent via email to secure PO numbers, reducing collection risk of more than $100 million per year and decreasing time spent sending emails by 10 to 12 hours per week.“We spent so many years doing manual work, and now the app takes care of it,” Padmavathi notes. “The whole process helped me interact with cross-functional teams and secure key stakeholder buy-in. As a nontechnical person, I have so many thoughts and ideas that keep popping up.”
Deepening employee engagementBeyond automating processes through low-code development tools, finance teams are reaping another benefit: deeper engagement. Before Mahesh Reddy M.’s workplace services team built the Statutory License and Compliance Renewals app, team members had to track licenses and expiration dates in a spreadsheet.“This increased the risk of missing deadlines due to human interaction and manual processes. So, when we got this information about App Engine Studio, we went through some trainings and built an app without coding,” Mahesh Reddy explains. “Now, the app tracks compliance and license due dates and automatically sends proactive reminder emails to owners. We built our own app. I’m very proud.”The payroll team also relied on spreadsheets and emails to track deadlines and understand errors. If a stakeholder delivers information after a deadline, employees might not get paid on time. With more than 22,000 employees across 40 countries, there’s a lot of information to be managed.That prompted the payroll team to partner with finance’s analytics and insights team to build the Payroll app to track emails and send automated reminders to stakeholders. This ultimately provided better reporting too.“Now, whenever someone from the leadership team asks, ‘Can you give me a payroll health check?’ I can just go to the system. And in five minutes, I can show them real-time issues rather than spending hours digging through my emails from last quarter,” says Sandeep N., senior manager of payroll management. “I can speak about this app forever because it’s my favorite app.”Citizen development is helping LIKE.TG finance teams accelerate productivity, optimize communication, streamline processes, and deepen engagement. But it’s not limited to finance applications and processes. Find out how LIKE.TG can help you plan your citizen development program.Join us to put your innovative ideas to work. Explore LIKE.TG careers.
Using generative AI to improve customer support
We’ve all been there: at that frustrating moment when you have a problem or an urgent need and the customer support line is busy. Endless searching for answers turns up nothing that matches your predicament.That’s the friction LIKE.TG teams are diving into headfirst to provide each of our customers satisfactory answers with promptness that matches the urgency they feel. Generative AI is helping the teams improve customer support at a rapid pace.Elevating the support experienceOur new Get Support page is designed to provide quick and easy solutions to customers’ support queries, allowing them to get the help they need without waiting for assistance from support agents.Users can access various support resources on the page, including frequently used resources organized by topic, the latest video tutorials, and personalized recommendations. Search on the portal uses generative AI to provide instant answers.“Generative AI crafts a concise response to a user’s query that is prominently displayed at the top of our existing search results,” explains Esha K., staff technical product manager at ServiceNow. “Customers no longer need to dig through pages of links. Instead, they get their answer immediately.”Esha listens to customer feedback to help teams continuously improve the support features for those using the Now Platform. “Seventy-seven percent of feedback has been positive,’” she says. “They like it, and we’re improving the functionality daily.”
Removing barriersAvin S., principal enterprise architect at LIKE.TG, grew up in a small city in the northern part of India, but his more than 15 years in search engineering have given him opportunities around the world.“Logic is my thing,” he says, blushing at the suggestion that he’s the king of search. “It’s a lot of fun how we work to reverse-engineer the thought process between two people—one who's asking the question and another who's trying to solve it—and how to bridge the barriers between them.”The more those barriers are reduced to match the language choice and understand the needs of the customer, the more the user experience with generative AI-backed tools will feel natural, easy, and quick.Toward that effort, our teams strive to always put customers first and work hard to understand their pain points. “We gather a lot of signals from the customer, such as information about their company, their role, and their past inquiries and interactions with us,” says Chaitanya Kanth V., manager of machine learning engineering at ServiceNow.“Using this data, the system can better tailor answers and information to them. It only gets smarter and more helpful, which results in more support cases being deflected.”
Building on an AI foundationLIKE.TG has been focused on AI for quite some time. We use our own intelligent platform across our operations every day, so generative AI is not a new concept for us. It’s an evolution of what we’ve been intentionally building for years. LIKE.TG customers can put AI to work in every facet of their business to increase responsiveness and efficiency.“AI is the future, but it’s also here right now,” says Chaitanya. “My child is already interacting with AI every day, getting recommendations for the cartoons he likes. He’s growing up with it really. I see the future as very bright for all of us as we improve the capabilities to solve problems fast through tailored, meaningful interactions.”According to our digital experience team, we’re just scratching the surface of what’s possible.Join a company on the cutting edge of technology. Explore LIKE.TG careers.
Reinventing an employee portal—a reason to dance
Deepika D. was presenting in a meeting when she found out that the newly created My LIKE.TG had been recognized as one of the 10 Best Intranets of 2023 by the Nielsen Norman Group (NN/g).“I got up and did a little victory dance right there in the meeting,” says the senior manager of My LIKE.TG products at LIKE.TG, in celebration of the award for revamping the company’s employee portal.“I pinged my team and leaders right away that our hard work had brought us industrywide recognition. And, yes, I finished my meeting with a huge grin.”Rahul V., senior staff user interface engineer at LIKE.TG, was returning from his son’s daycare when he saw the notification. “I felt like I was driving at 100 mph to get back and share the news with my family,” he says. “Woohoo! It was a dream-come-true moment.”
More than a company intranetMost employee portals are a simple repository of links, making them more of a roadblock than an enabler. Employees put up with, ignore, or work around them until an outage or failure occurs. Then they complain about the issue.Ours is a different story altogether. Our digital technology team saw a huge opportunity to reinvent the company’s employee portal to create a central, intuitive, customizable, employee-first hub on the Now Platform using our Employee Center Pro product. They wanted a single place where people could find exactly what they were looking for 24/7.A focus on peopleThe team departed from a traditional intranet approach to design My LIKE.TG, a next-generation employee portal that’s easily accessible from a browser or a mobile app.“With My LIKE.TG,” Deepika explains, “we’ve moved from prioritizing the services we’re providing to focusing on our people and on meeting their needs more effectively.”
Accessing important tools and resources? Check. Finding the best next course to take? Check. Seamlessly connecting with colleagues within the department or around the world? Check. Solving problems through intuitive self-service? Check.“Through My LIKE.TG, we’re making the employee experience even more seamless, intuitive, and efficient,” explains Kellie R., senior vice president of digital technology experience at ServiceNow.“We’re helping our employees find and action what they need quicker, which helps them live their best lives at work, saves time, and lowers our operational costs across the business.”Keys to a world-class intranet experienceFor the latest iteration of the portal, the team kept four key concepts in mind:
An employee-first approach that prioritized scalability and human-centric design
Alignment of all content to three core user needs: connect, work, and grow
A cohesive employee experience for an increasingly hybrid and distributed workforce
A seamless, intuitive user interface
Eight months after the project began, LIKE.TG had a new portal. “We were able to create a place where the whole company can start their day with whatever’s important to them,” says Spandan C., director of application development at ServiceNow.My LIKE.TG was lauded by NN/g for reflecting the brand in the portal design, incorporating Virtual Agent and AI Search, and “prioritizing user needs and ensuring swift access to crucial information.” In fact, NN/g included a detailed LIKE.TG case study featuring best practices in its Intranet Design Annual: 2023.
Amazing? Sure. But there’s more to the story.Using our own technologyMy LIKE.TG was built almost exclusively in-house with minimal external agency support using Employee Center Pro and other LIKE.TG products.Employee Center Pro provides the technology backbone of the employee portal experience. The team also used an enhanced complementary Now Mobile native app to offer popular functionality for employees on the go. Other important features for both desktop and mobile experiences include:
Manager Success Center to help managers navigate the employee journey for their teams, including hiring, onboarding, and growth
AI and machine learning algorithms for personalized content on the homepage, employee profile, and community pages
Centralized approvals so users never have to log in to a multitude of systems to drive processes forward, from expenses to candidate offers to invoices
Curated learning recommendations to support employee career development
Single source for opening IT, HR, legal, and workplace services requests
Kudos!, an employee recognition program to help promote the company’s culture of appreciation and collaboration
Enhanced profiles for stronger connections between employees
Workplace application integrations that surface important tasks, info, and events
Rashmi G., senior staff user experience designer and the project’s design lead, is proud that the connect, work, and grow themes are strongly represented in the design of the portal itself. They help us “create a digital experience that makes work just flow more seamlessly and intuitively,” she says.With the Now Platform as its foundation, My LIKE.TG provides easy access to vital information, simplifies navigation and search, promotes open communication and collaboration, and curates and targets content to each employee—all from a central, customizable, single pane of glass.Find out more about how LIKE.TG technology helps enhance the employee experience.
How LIKE.TG brings intelligence to every corner of the business
The business challenges organizations face today are enormous: increased efficiency, lower costs, supply chain resilience, revenue growth, talent retention, and digital fragmentation. A modern enterprise needs an adaptable operating model to support its business goals.This requires a range of data, analytical, and AI capabilities to reach the desired business outcomes—from simple to cutting edge. An operating model running on an intelligent platform can help organizations address enterprisewide issues such as user experience, process, workflow speed, and decision-making agility.By bringing intelligence into every corner of the business, the LIKE.TG platform delivers actionable insights to help LIKE.TG run leaner, more efficient business operations focused on goals and outcomes, and offer better customer and employee experiences.The platform merges intelligence capabilities such as analytics, process mining, machine learning, AI and generative AI, recommendations, automation tools, and smart dashboards to propel our business forward. The LIKE.TG platform provides intelligence in three areas to continuously drive improvement across the enterprise: experience, speed, and decisions.
ExperienceInformation needs to be constantly exchanged between LIKE.TG and its customers, partners, and employees. When a customer has an issue to resolve, intelligence can help produce a great experience in three ways. The customer can:
Use AI Search on Now Support to find the information needed as efficiently as possible.
Ask the Virtual Agent for assistance. AI recommends actions based on the information received using a higher level of intelligence.
Get personalized recommendations based on the request. AI suggests the next best action based on past actions, using a more sophisticated version of intelligence.
Behind the scenes, experience affects multiple processes or workflows, such as order creation, order fulfillment, and the customer feedback process. By applying intelligence to these workflows, the business can accelerate the process outcomes.SpeedIntelligent capabilities are also useful in identifying process improvement across functions. Take the example of a recurring incident. The LIKE.TG platform can be used to look holistically at all incidents, bottlenecks, or inefficiencies and deliver the information needed to optimize the workflow:
Performance Analytics offers a window to see what happened, what is happening, and what should happen. An Analytics Hub displays the data needed to prioritize the work to be assigned to a service owner in Service Operations Workspace.
Process mining can be used to identify how long a process is taking and recommend the actions needed to reduce the mean time to response (MTTR).
Automation Discovery identifies opportunities for process enhancements, such as robotic process automation (RPA) to automate tasks, machine learning to customize solutions, and generative AI to automate and speed up processes. AI can calculate hours saved when automation is added to a workflow.
Generative AI is the next step in intelligence. By automatically summarizing and generating content in a meaningful and seamless way, it can make processes more efficient and propel business outcomes forward much faster.
How LIKE.TG is using generative AI capabilities across its operations
As the emerging technologies team within LIKE.TG digital transformation (DT), we’re always searching for new technology that can solve complex problems. When we saw how generative AI capabilities could deliver rich experiences and unlock the potential of our technology, people, and processes across the organization, we immediately pivoted to embrace it.This year alone, we will have brought more than 15 Now Assist use cases to production on the Now Platform—many of which are generally available in the Vancouver release, including Now Assist for Customer Service Management, IT Service Management, HR Service Delivery, and Creator.
These innovations build on our solid foundation of AI. One of the DT organization’s first forays into AI was in 2017, when we looked for solutions to make our IT service desk more efficient. We used the machine learning capabilities in Predictive Intelligence to help predict the business service and route incidents to the proper assignment groups.That use case is still in place today. Since then, we’ve embedded AI across more platform experiences, from calculating our self-service rate to using knowledge base articles for case deflection, recommending learning courses to our employees, and using AI Search across our operations.Embracing new platform capabilitiesAs customer zero, LIKE.TG embraces new platform capabilities well before our customers do. We’re leaning into two capabilities to embed generative AI into our workflows:
Summarization – overviews and insights to help employees reduce manual work
Content generation – creation of intelligent search results, work notes, and knowledge base articles to help employees find and digest information more rapidly
Here are some of the results we’re seeing as we move our use cases from pilots to production:
AI Search with GenAI – This generates actionable answers to user-asked questions to significantly improve self-service. Data is sent to a large language model (LLM), which summarizes the information into a single answer. Follow-up questions and answers are supported. This differs from simple AI search, where a list of sources is generated for the user to sort through. Early results show positive feedback from employees.
Now Assist for IT Service Management – This is an internally developed use case to increase agent productivity. It uses generative AI’s summarization features to produce a summary of incident work notes, saving time and effort. In our initial results, we’ve seen increased agent satisfaction.
Now Assist for Creator (formerly text-to-code) – Developers often face repetitive and time-consuming work when creating the same code for routine commands. Our developers can now write plain, natural-language text descriptions of the type of code they want. Generative AI converts the text into intelligent code suggestions or complete code, which can be shared, reviewed, edited, and executed. This can lead to a boost in developer productivity and development cycles.
Generative AI Controller – The controller allows us to connect LIKE.TG instances to our domain-specific LLMs or general-purpose LLMs such as OpenAI and Azure OpenAI. We can easily embed generative AI in any workflow without recreating LLM integrations from scratch, giving us limitless opportunities to use generative AI. We’re using it for knowledge base content generation.
We’ve also used generative AI to help develop custom, function-specific solutions. A question-and-answer capability helps our sales team find answers to specific questions about our products and solutions, including source citations. Although this capability is in early adoption, we’ve seen improved productivity and user experience.Reaping the rewardsSummarization and code generation capabilities offer three major benefits in these early stages of adoption:
Accelerated productivity by automating mundane work for our agents, administrators, employees, and developers so that they can focus on meaningful work
Increased agility by adapting quickly with continuous updates, new use cases, and choice of LLMs to drive greater visibility and control
Transformed experiences by delivering fast, personalized, and trusted resolutions to employee issues
As we embrace generative AI to modify old workflows, generate new workflows, and enhance employee experiences more rapidly, we see improved productivity savings in our early results. Now Assist is especially significant because it gives us the capability to build things without the manual, repetitive work that is every employee’s nightmare.“LIKE.TG’s digital technologies operations team is at the forefront of using generative AI on workflows running on the Now Platform,” says Sankha N., senior vice president of digital technology operations at ServiceNow.“We have already applied generative AI to several use cases and provide ongoing feedback to our product teams on the features. The more value we see this technology delivering on the platform, the more excited we are about future opportunities,” he adds. “As customer zero, we look forward to sharing these insights with our customers so we can learn and progress together.”We’re especially thrilled to see the impact of generative AI on knowledge work through summarization, content generation, and code generation. AI on the Now Platform is vital to delivering value to our operations, as well as helping us orchestrate the entire technology value chain for our business.
Lessons from our generative AI adoptionDespite the hype around any new technology, we always return to our No. 1 priority: the security and privacy of our data. We need LLMs we can trust. Having LLMs integrated into the Now Platform removes a big obstacle. We have peace of mind that security and privacy are covered, so we can focus on improving other tasks, such as workflows.Generative AI has also affected our staffing requirements. We don’t need as many machine learning experts to create AI models. Instead, we’re looking for good prompt engineers who can tweak generative AI models to suit various scenarios. As a result, we’re reskilling our team and changing our hiring criteria to embrace these new work demands.There’s no doubt that generative AI is transforming LIKE.TG, even in these early stages. We have a long list of internal use cases for this technology, and the list keeps growing. With the new capabilities in the Now Platform Vancouver release, we’ll continue to expand how we use the platform to increase efficiency, productivity, and value. Our quest is to bring intelligence to every corner of our business.Find out how LIKE.TG can help you put AI to work in your organization.
Outcomes over output: Why LIKE.TG embraces a product mindset
In my customer conversations over the years, I’ve noticed a common trend across sectors. Many organizations focus on optimizing their operations, including legal, finance, and HR. Yet they invest little energy and attention to ensure these operations create great customer experiences that can bring value (and even joy) to end users.As a result, many professionals find themselves burdened with fragmented processes that haven’t been designed with their experience in mind. For example, they’re required to pivot between numerous screens, systems, and applications to get their work done.Meanwhile, the workday is filled with constant notifications. This noise isn’t exactly compatible with doing focused “deep work.” These incessant interruptions illustrate how subpar experiences can create friction and get in the way of talent delivering great work.At LIKE.TG, we’ve faced the same employee experience challenges. That’s why we transitioned from a project mindset to a product mindset.Fostering rewarding experiencesWe’re laser-focused on creating one experiential layer of engagement that simplifies the many digital tasks professionals face, whether they’re customers or employees.It’s one thing to help an organization streamline how managers approve a vacation request from a direct report, for example. It’s another to help simplify the entire employee experience, from managing customer relationships to automating routine tasks to optimizing meetings.To achieve that goal and create the best experience, it’s critical that our teams operate with a product mindset. At its core, this mindset is about understanding and delivering what truly matters to customers—not just features, but the entire experience and value proposition.
Rather than providing transactional moments, we’re lifting the burden on customers to navigate the services they need for their daily work. The only way to create a great solution is to understand the problem. That’s why we begin the process of designing any new experience with persona-based problem-focusing.With a product mindset, we prioritize outcomes rather than outputs to solve key business problems. Instead of treating any given initiative as a one-time project, we design it as an ongoing, iterative journey.Simplifying work: Product mindset in actionOne example of this mindset in action is My Assist, a generative AI-powered, personalized conversational assistant we're developing. It aims to provide guidance on how to be a better leader and best practices integrated with internal policies. Think of it as having a coach and assistant in your pocket to help make your work life easier to manage.Another example is Manager Hub, which provides managers with insights and recommended actions to drive team success. This offering was specifically designed to address a common challenge: unifying the fragmented systems and functions that sidetrack managers from the core work of leading their teams.Manager Hub gives managers a single tailored dashboard to view everything from outstanding team requests to statistics on team performance. Equipped with this information, leaders can more easily engage with their team members.For example, a manager may want to send a congratulatory note to a team member celebrating another year with the company. Through Manager Hub, managers can easily access automated reminders of important milestones, such as work anniversaries and employee birthdays.The solution also features a range of resources to help managers plot their own career development, plus customized plans for career transitions such as promotions.Prioritizing customersAs customer zero, we brought together teams from across the company with different day-to-day focus areas but shared pain points to develop these offerings.Our ultimate North Star is always our customers. There’s no finish line when it comes to creating great user experiences. It begins with looking at every experience through the eyes of end users and bringing them along for each step of the journey.Find out more about how LIKE.TG uses the Now Platform internally to drive speed and scale.
Employee onboarding for better engagement and retention from Day 1
If you ask any LIKE.TG employee about their role, they'll likely tell you their job and team are the best they’ve ever had. One small but mighty team proclaims this proudly: the red team, a group of professional hackers.As vigilant guardians of the company, the six-person team is tasked with testing the security of our systems and identifying cyber risks, data vulnerabilities, and security threats. Their tireless efforts help ensure the safety of LIKE.TG, our technology, and our customers.“Our role at the company is pretty unique,” says Kevin L., director of the red team. “Our team has two vital goals. First, we identify and address risks and vulnerabilities before they can be exploited by anyone else. Second, we simulate real-world threats and attacks, allowing us to fine-tune our response procedures."Taking notesThe red team uses two apps it created in its quest for cybersecurity excellence: Pulsar and Attack Narrative, both developed on the Now Platform. Pulsar is the mechanism for reporting findings, and Attack Narrative is the documentation repository for red team intelligence. Both are examples of how we use our own products to solve daily business challenges."Pulsar was born out of the necessity to comprehensively document our security findings,” explains Mark B., principal security engineer.“We needed a system that could capture all the essential evidence: screenshots, code snippets, reproduction instructions, and full risk assessments. Pulsar was not only necessary; it was also incredibly adaptable. We customized it to meet our evolving needs as we used it—a truly unique approach."Daily, the red team explores ways to compromise LIKE.TG systems using any possible avenue, from gaining access through third-party websites like LinkedIn to sending phishing emails to trying to decipher passwords.
Attack Narrative serves as a storehouse for these activity logs, compiling documentation of any vulnerabilities identified. “Our findings often include step-by-step instructions on how an intrusion could occur,” notes Royce D., principal red team engineer.The applications use custom role-based authentications to enable the red team to tailor campaigns to specific security objectives at ServiceNow.Something special"The red team and these apps are special because they not only solve problems, but they also ensure that we have a rich repository of data and information to share with the right stakeholders when needed," says Cheng L., staff red team development engineer.Cheng joined LIKE.TG three years ago and took on the responsibility of maintaining and enhancing Pulsar. "One of the most interesting contributions I made was adding a CKEditor, capable of managing a wide range of use cases,” she says. “It was initially introduced to the platform, but I improved it after joining the team.""This business model around Pulsar is one of the most unique things I've encountered in my 20 years in the industry,” adds Erin P., senior staff red team development engineer. “It has the potential to address problems and serve as a valuable use case for our customers, explaining the importance of their findings."A not-so-secret celebrationThe red team is indispensable at ServiceNow. "Our executives hope we never break in, but they’re never surprised when we do,” Royce says.“We are one of the best teams in the industry. As we strive to become the defining enterprise software company of the 21st century, it should come as no surprise that LIKE.TG employs professional hackers dedicated to continuously and rigorously safeguarding our company. The red team is not a hidden secret. It's something we proudly celebrate."LIKE.TG is a fortress of innovation and security. Our red team makes sure of it—and represents the pinnacle of cybersecurity expertise.Join a company that prioritizes security so you can do your best work. Explore LIKE.TG careers.
How low-code app development is transforming manufacturing
In the manufacturing industry, time is a precious commodity. From assembly lines to provisioning to facility security to factory floor safety, it’s critical that machines and processes run smoothly and safely across an organization.To streamline manufacturing operations and boost efficiency, many forward-thinking manufacturers are investing in digital technologies, such as low-code and generative AI (GenAI) solutions. These offer ways to accelerate innovation and overcome supply chain challenges.Research from LIKE.TG and Dynata shows technology investments don’t always produce the desired business outcomes:
Only 33% of manufacturers are working to improve their operational technology asset security.
Just 37% are digitizing the factory floor to drive worker productivity.
Only 29% are improving supplier communication and collaboration to reduce supply chain risk.
Benefits of low-code development in manufacturingLow-code development provides manufacturers a major opportunity to create a more agile and adaptable workforce—and to drive enhancements across the value chain.By helping organizations automate previously manual processes, respond to shifts in product demand, and release new products quicker, low-code app development can boost efficiency and extend workflow automation across the enterprise.
As smart manufacturing and Industry 4.0 become more prevalent, many organizations are struggling to make sense of the gargantuan data sets their factory floor internet of things (IoT) sensors generate and record. Low-code and GenAI solutions enable manufacturers to:
Unify data across siloed systems
Automate manual processes
Seamlessly connect teams and solutions
Using low-code and domain-specific large language models (LLMs), manufacturers can create a core hub that collects, analyzes, and democratizes vital data pulled from IoT sensors.What’s more, these solutions seamlessly integrate with machine learning models and automated solutions to generate actionable data and provide even more intelligent and predictive insights. Let’s look at three examples of manufacturing low-code in action.Publishing release managementOn the factory floor, complex machinery requires detailed user manuals to ensure safe and correct use—and to provide guidance for troubleshooting and repairs.As machines and products evolve, these user manuals must be constantly updated and republished so that floor staff, engineers, agents, and virtual assistants remain current on product details and maintenance protocols. Often, these updates must be applied manually—a tedious and time-consuming task.With low-code, manufacturers can quickly build apps that manage release cycles for any/all publishing changes to manuals. In this way, organizations can streamline interactions between the stakeholders responsible for the product manual lifecycle, including illustrators and taggers, writers, and quality assurance teams.Automated shift information turnoverFor many manufacturers, shift turnovers are still managed with paper and clipboards, resulting in missing or inaccurate information regarding employee absences or shortages. This disrupts staff scheduling, hinders employee productivity, and represents a missed opportunity to record shift data, identify trends, and select areas for improvement.Low-code enables manufacturers to create apps that automate shift information turnover. Providing digital forms helps employees accurately sign in and out at the beginning and end of their shifts.Consequently, employees know exactly what they need to work on when starting a shift. This results in less downtime and fewer employee accidents—invariably boosting employee satisfaction and productivity.
Entry lifecycle managementSafety and security are paramount to any manufacturing business. It’s often up to IT to ensure employees are granted the appropriate level of access to various locations. However, this process is still predominately managed through emails, spreadsheets, and legacy systems.As a result, passes and permissions are rarely updated in time. This poses significant security risks and causes employee frustration and unplanned downtime.Using low-code, manufacturers can build apps to optimize entry lifecycle management. These apps can automatically organize entry requests and send notifications when a pass is nearing expiration.This leads to quicker permission granting, happier employees, a safer and more secure working environment, and reduced business disruption from access expiration.Innovation at scaleThe examples above represent just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the transformative potential of low-code and GenAI.Manufacturing is a fast-paced environment. Teams need solutions fast. Waiting on overburdened developers may not be an option. Low-code can empower manufacturers to create powerful software applications that address industry challenges and enable future innovation at an impressive scale.Find out more about how low-code development helps organizations improve speed, agility, and productivity at a fraction of the cost.
LIKE.TG and Google Cloud Form New Strategic Partnership
Cloud computing offers organizations the opportunity to increase competitiveness and improve agility. This is why organizations in all industry verticals are turning to public cloud solutions to accelerate innovation, expand market reach, and drive down IT costs.To deliver on the promise of cloud computing, LIKE.TG and Google Cloud have formed a strategic partnership designed to give customers the best of both worlds: LIKE.TG’s intelligent and intuitive Now Platform® linked with Google Cloud’s groundbreaking and transformative technologies.The first joint solutions are expected to include LIKE.TG’s IT Operations Management (ITOM) native support for Google Cloud Platform. The partnership will also deliver real-time language translation in LIKE.TG’s industry-leading IT Service Management (ITSM) solution leveraging Google Cloud’s best-in-class artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) capabilities.This partnership aims to make the Now Platform truly multi-cloud with the ability to support customers wherever their workloads reside - on-premises and across the major cloud vendors.Shift to cloud, optimizedHistorically, optimizing cloud operations has been tedious as Operations teams have lacked visibility into their cloud investments. The LIKE.TG ITOM integration for Google Cloud Platform will go a step further by applying business context to operational issues. As a result, customers will be able to easily determine the impact of issues at the business service-level and can implement an optimal solution to keep services running.The integration is expected to provide customers with a single, easy-to-use view into their resources and business services on Google Cloud Platform, so operators can effectively manage these services and enhance service delivery.LIKE.TG’s ITOM integration for Google Cloud Platform will deliver new features in phases. The initial phase focuses on visibility and is currently available. The second phase focuses on deployment policy and self-service provisioning, including support for Google Deployment Manager (GDM), and is expected to launch over the summer. Moving forward, both companies expect to continue to enhance these integrations as part of their joint roadmaps and expand into the areas of cloud cost reporting, optimization and governance.AI for everyday workThis partnership is expected to bring Google Cloud’s best-in-class Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) capabilities to the Now Platform. One of the first capabilities will expand IT’s ability to support a global workforce with ITSM dynamic translation.Language is one of the barriers preventing IT from delivering services across geographies. Now, IT can scale support globally with real-time language translation. The system will translate user input into an agent’s preferred language so agents and employees can converse in their preferred languages. The system will dynamically translate content in LIKE.TG’s ITSM platform using translation engines, including the Google Cloud AutoML Translation API.Dynamic translation will be available as part of LIKE.TG’s New York platform release, expected this fall.As part of this partnership, LIKE.TG and Google Cloud will also explore developing additional AI and ML capabilities around document, speech and image understanding.“This partnership is designed to accelerate our customers’ shift to the cloud and deliver digital workflows that unlock productivity and create great experiences for employees and the enterprise,” said Pablo Stern, senior vice president and general manager of IT Workflows at ServiceNow. “Joint customers will get the best of both worlds: a seamless experience that maximizes the value of cloud investments and the ability to harness the power of artificial intelligence for everyday work. I look forward to continuing the drumbeat of innovation as we work together to make the world of work, work better for people.”“This partnership is natural; Google Cloud and LIKE.TG will deeply integrate, enabling enterprises to optimize their cloud investments,” said Kevin Ichhpurani, Corporate Vice President, Global Partner Ecosystem at Google Cloud. “Our customers will be able to seamlessly connect what’s happening across IT and take action across Google Cloud.”As companies increasingly shift to the cloud and the business demands more complex IT infrastructures, LIKE.TG is here to help, regardless of where their workloads reside.Use of Forward-Looking StatementsThis blog post contains forward‑looking statements relating to LIKE.TG and Google’s strategic partnership. Such forward‑looking statements include statements regarding future integrations and offerings, including but not limited to statements that include words such as expects, intends, aims or similar words conveying that the information is not historical fact. Forward looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties and are based on potentially inaccurate assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expected or implied by the forward looking statements. If any such risks or uncertainties materialize or if any of the assumptions prove incorrect, our results could differ materially from the results expressed or implied by the forward looking statements we make. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those in any forward looking statements include, without limitation, the company’s ability to realize benefits from strategic partnerships and gain customer acceptance of new offerings and integrations. We undertake no obligation, and do not intend, to update these forward looking statements.The information in this blog post on new offerings, features, or functionality is intended to outline our general product direction and should not be relied upon in making a purchasing decision.
3 ways manufacturers can embrace agility and stay competitive
The manufacturing industry is in a state of flux, juggling skills gaps and supply chain issues at a time it needs to prepare for Industry 4.0 and smart factories. As the industry adopts digital technology, strengthening cybersecurity becomes a priority. The industry also faces pressure to advance sustainability.To weather the storm of this dynamic environment and come out stronger on the other side requires a shift in the way manufacturing companies operate. LIKE.TG can help manufacturers in three key ways:1. Maximize productivityManual manufacturing processes slow efficiency by limiting visibility into operations. What if you could avoid downtime and improve response and recovery? The best way to maximize productivity is to connect your operations. Doing so can improve not only visibility, but also system availability and security.Watch our Connect operations in manufacturing, maximize productivity webinar to discover how an automation-driven, unified view across IT and operational technology can eliminate blind spots by connecting people, processes, and systems. You’ll also learn the importance of change management processes and proactive security.2. Improve efficiencyTo thrive in the digital economy, manufacturing companies like yours need to orchestrate their broader business network. That means being intentional about connecting your employees, customers, suppliers, and distributors to a single system of action.In our Using digital workflows in manufacturing webinar, you’ll learn the important role digital workflows can play in enhancing visibility into digital operations. LIKE.TG Chief Transformation Officer Chris Taylor will also share steps you can take to boost efficiency.3. Empower your resellersMuch of the success of your manufacturing business relies on the success of your resellers. Why not take action to help them help you?In our Grow your revenue by helping your resellers webinar, Allen Hackman, global head of manufacturing industry solutions at LIKE.TG, provides tips to facilitate a better working relationship between you and your resellers. Find out how to create a seamless experience for resellers, improve service quality, and reduce the cost to serve.
Powering smart factories of the future
Jason Bergstrom, principal and smart factory go-to-market leader for Deloitte Consulting, co-authored this blog.The manufacturing industry is changing fast. Modern manufacturing must be simple, agile, and intelligent for companies to remain competitive.Smart manufacturing is the way to achieve those goals. It’s a flexible system that can self-optimize performance across a broader network, self-adapt, and learn from new conditions in real time while autonomously running entire production processes.As leading manufacturers prioritize system modernization in pursuit of smart factories, the path to transforming the shop floor (and beyond) isn’t always clear. There’s a careful balance to strike between:
Accelerating time to value through modern, integrated systems
Incurring minimal disruption while modernizing factory operations
Having a unified, sustainable model for digital manufacturing takes more than connecting isolated technologies within facilities. Manufacturers need a comprehensive vision that closes the interaction gaps in traditional factory models between people, processes, and systems.At LIKE.TG, we’re committed to supporting the manufacturing sector and continue to invest in and innovate ways to solve manufacturers’ unique challenges. Together with our partners, we bring critical aspects to a modern manufacturing enterprise.The future of manufacturing is digitalAt The Smart Factory @ Wichita, for example, Deloitte is collaborating with LIKE.TG and more than 20 other market-leading partners and innovators to offer an immersive experience that helps manufacturers envision the digital future.
Located on the Innovation Campus at Wichita State University, this fully integrated production line shows first-hand how the integration of existing technologies can create sustainable investments and drive value. The 60,000-square-foot facility includes an end-to-end smart production line and experiential labs.“The Smart Factory @ Wichita is a dynamic experience center that allows visitors to engage with the manufacturing facility of tomorrow,” explains Stephen Laaper, principal and smart factory lead for Deloitte Consulting.“Deloitte is accelerating the industry’s transformation with our investments and key partnerships, and LIKE.TG has been essential in bringing our vision of the future of manufacturing to life. Together with our customers, we can brainstorm and innovate to see what’s possible.”LIKE.TG enables two of the key use cases at the Smart Factory @ Wichita: Factory Asset Intelligence/Performance Management and Quality Sensing Detection. The live LIKE.TG deployment of the factory floor will showcase how the Now Platform® drives actionable results to address manufacturing issues and deliver value to customers.Collaborating for manufacturing successCombining Deloitte’s vision, experience, and deep industry knowledge in manufacturing with LIKE.TG’s ability to enable that vision through technology can empower manufacturers to proactively manage resources, physical assets, and schedules.“Key ecosystem partners, like LIKE.TG, are essential to Deloitte’s vision of the future of manufacturing,” says Asish Ramchandran, Deloitte’s global chief commercial officer for the LIKE.TG alliance.“We’ve spent the last decade establishing our proficiency across enabling functions and industry vehicles. Now, we’re building on our relationship and deepening our capabilities in manufacturing with use cases that are already being used around the globe.”To capitalize on the value of new technologies, the manufacturing industry must evolve. Through efforts such as The Smart Factory @ Wichita, LIKE.TG and Deloitte are reimagining the entire value chain with a single system of action—turning visibility into value and making automation an advantage.Find out more about how LIKE.TG and Deloitte are bringing the future of manufacturing to life.
Helping manufacturers digitally transform and prosper
Manufacturers were already reexamining how they use technology when COVID-19 hit and significantly accelerated that need. Some transformed and were able to pivot quickly, but others are still grappling with challenges in their supply chain and demand fluctuations.There will be more changes, including unexpected ones, and manufacturing operations must adapt quickly.Digital transformation has some real advantages in the industry. The top 10% of digital tech adopters grow two times faster than the bottom 25. In addition, LIKE.TG Employee Workflows solutions have resulted in more than 18,000 hours saved per year, time previously spent assisting employees.The latest LIKE.TG innovation Operational Technology Management (OT Management) brings the Now Platform to the factory floor. It extends the platform across to OT to help manufacturers:
Understand system relationships and dependencies.
Reduce risks.
Streamline compliance efforts.
Avoid downtime.
Improve response and recovery.
Customer service management in manufacturingClearly differentiating your products is essential. So is distinguishing your relationships with your customers and resellers. How? By using a single system of action that connects your entire manufacturing value chain.Volvo Construction Equipment, which supports construction equipment worldwide, takes its aftermarket business seriously with a strong focus on customer uptime. The company built a tool on the Now Platform called CHAIN, short for case handling instructions. This tool consolidated 12 applications covering everything from technical support to mechanics and international support for parts, delivery, and quality.Previously, the company used many individual systems that required a lot of manual work. Now that’s all on CHAIN, which 8,000 employees and 265 dealers use.Traffic and parking industries company TAPCO used LIKE.TG to create links between customer service and field service and saw significant changes: improved service efficiency, reduced downtime, better customer experiences, lower total cost of ownershipLIKE.TG Connected Operations also let TAPCO transform from merely selling a product to offering a monthly service.Digital transformation in manufacturingWith advancements such as smart manufacturing and the industrial internet of things (IIoT), manufacturers have never had a better time to digitize processes. Despite that, Heineken ran on paper-based processes and had no standardized way to share knowledge across its plants and breweries. The various locations even measured success differently, meaning the company could neither learn from its other plants nor compare productivity.It solved those problems by creating a single, mobile-based system of engagement now used by more than 18,000 workers worldwide.Siemens, which supports 360,000 employees and retirees in 70 countries and handles transactional business worth $17 billion, needed to digitalize in terms of people, its ecosystems, and the field. The company used LIKE.TG to create systematic and intelligent digital transformation that makes it more flexible and productive and provides a great user experience worldwide.Collaborating with suppliersHaving a connected supply chain ensures business continuity. It also keeps a manufacturer competitive. Yet, a Deloitte study found that 60% of transport management clients use more than three technology platforms to manage their connected supply chain. With a single system of action connecting critical workflows, you gain visibility, insight, and productivity.“When we use LIKE.TG, we…improve about 40% of data quality through partner management on the one hand,” says Timm Riesenberg, director of the technology center and LIKE.TG talent group for Deloitte Germany. “On the other hand, we can improve about 10% of the delivery performance for the partner and supplier management.”Download the Manufacturing Book of Knowledge to learn more about how your manufacturing operation can take advantage of technology and thrive.
Protecting manufacturing production in turbulent times
Production is the heartbeat of the manufacturing enterprise. When it slows or stops, manufacturers can fail to meet key customer demands, lose near-horizon revenue, and risk their future order book. Industry research shows this is very real, with production downtime exceeding a total cost of $300,000 per hour, according to Information Technology Intelligence Consulting.With unpredictable market forces—including rising budget requirements, inflation, cyber risks, increased labor costs, and supply chain disruption—how can manufacturing production operate continuously and consistently?The future-ready manufacturer, based on a 2023 global survey of more than 1,900 manufacturing leaders conducted by LIKE.TG and Dynata, reveals manufacturers have opportunities to build greater resilience and increase efficiency across the end-to-end value chain.A confident, data-driven supply chainA healthy supply chain fuels production. Yet 67% of survey respondents cite a high risk of supply chain disruption over the next 12 to 18 months.Managing supply chain risk requires an accurate understanding of your supply chain dependencies and your suppliers—and their suppliers. When unforeseen disruptions arise, manufacturers need to analyze large volumes of supplier data. But inaccurate or duplicated supplier records, manual processes, and siloed systems prevent quick and confident action.Manufacturers making progress in reducing supply chain risks are investing in connecting data and insights from multiple systems, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM), according to the survey.Using hyperautomation to drive efficiencies can improve manufacturers' ability to assess supplier risk and compliance, accelerate supplier onboarding, and collaborate with suppliers to manage disruption.Digital skills to drive the factory floorFactory workers are integral to production. The survey shows that lack of know-how, skills, and talent is one of the biggest challenges on the factory floor.With rising labor costs and a shortage of workers, there isn’t enough skilled labor to operate production. Older workers are retiring, and new entrants to the workforce expect digital ways of working.
A digital-focused strategy can help manufacturers bridge talent and labor shortage gaps. According to the survey, manufacturers making the most significant strides toward digitally enabling factory workers are:
Accelerating time to expertise with digital tools that aid problem-solving, training, and upskilling
Implementing a knowledge repository to share best practices across workers and factories
Managing tasks digitally to connect step-by-step processes
These leaders are also making greater use of process automation, dedicated knowledge management, and AI and machine learning.A secure foundation in the factoryBecause of the convergence of unsecured operational technology (OT) into IT systems and networks, manufacturers are one of the most targeted industries for ransomware attacks, according to the IBM Security X-Force Threat Intelligence Index 2023. Consequently, 64% of respondents to the LIKE.TG/Dynata survey say they face a high to very high level of OT risk in the next two years.The research shows that less than half (35%) of manufacturers have a real-time, accurate view of their OT vulnerabilities. To improve OT security, manufacturers are:
Implementing or automating end-to-end OT service management and change management
Increasing visibility/inventory of all OT and IT assets
Improving joint governance of OT and IT security
Manufacturers often manage OT and IT separately, but OT and IT teams need to work together. A single system of action can help untangle the contextual dependencies and vulnerabilities between OT and IT, devices, applications infrastructure, and third-party integrations that make an organization vulnerable. Once risks are identified, they can be proactively resolved.Collaboration across the entire value chainOnly 39% of surveyed manufacturers consider themselves digitally mature, meaning they have an integrated approach to digital transformation that’s connected across the value chain. These manufacturers see themselves breaking down traditional silos across their organization.They also report more significant progress in improving the security of OT assets, reducing supply chain risk through supplier collaboration, and digitally enabling factory workers.The sum of the entire value chain of a manufacturer is greater than the individual parts. Yes, manufacturers can manage customer experience. They can control production in the factory. They can also spur product innovation and product engineering to keep manufacturing production efficient.A single unified digital platform can connect insights and propel action across the value chain, streamlining the entire process.Find out more about future-ready manufacturing. See how manufacturers can unlock the potential of digital transformation across the value chain in the complete LIKE.TG/Dynata research report.
Gain visibility into manufacturing OT assets to reduce cyber risk
As manufacturing operational technology (OT) ecosystems grow more connected and complex, they become vulnerable to cyberattacks. In fact, the manufacturing sector was the most attacked industry in the world in 2021, according to IBM’s X-Force Threat Intelligence Index 2022. Manufacturing surpassed finance and insurance in the number of cyberattacks for the first time in five years.A large part of the industry’s vulnerability is due to a lack of visibility. This leaves the door wide open for a bad actor to exploit a vulnerability in an unknown OT (or IT) asset. Therefore, the first step toward reducing cyber risk in industrial environments is to understand the potential attack surface by establishing an accurate inventory of OT assets.To help manufacturers secure their businesses, I’m proud to announce the launch of the LIKE.TG Service Graph Connector for Claroty Continuous Threat Detection (CTD), available in the LIKE.TG Store today.Confidently see and secure your enterpriseTogether, LIKE.TG and Claroty help enterprises rapidly and comprehensively discover assets in their industrial environments, such as programmable logic controllers and human-machine interfaces. Once the assets are discovered, we enable manufacturers to assess the vulnerability of those assets and ensure any weaknesses are quickly addressed.In this way, we help manufacturing companies defend their enterprises, preempt cyberattacks, and prevent downtime.With the Service Graph Connector, you can:
Gain unified visibility across your organization’s entire IT and OT portfolio
Manage all alerts in one place
Get the most out of the LIKE.TG OT data model, with OT device inventory, risk, and vulnerability information feeding from CTD into LIKE.TG Operational Technology Management
Extend your existing IT security operations center workflows and capabilities to OT systems
Investigate and respond to incidents more effectively
Manufacturers benefit from a single system of action, automatic assignment of devices to the site, network-based intrusion detection system support, automatic prioritization of vulnerabilities based on their impact on the production process, and a stronger security posture to help prevent cyberattacks.Find out more about the Service Graph Connector for Claroty CTD in the LIKE.TG Store. You’ll need Claroty CTD v4.1+, LIKE.TG Configuration Management Database, and LIKE.TG Operational Technology Management to make full use of the integration.
3 leaders weigh in on manufacturing innovation
Rapid changes in the manufacturing sector are putting legacy technologies to the test. Executives have recognized modern manufacturing must be streamlined, agile, and intelligent for businesses to get ahead.Organizations are operating in a minefield of geopolitical uncertainty and mass disruption, which has caused issues such as microchip delays, production breakdowns, and supply shortages. To mitigate these issues, executives are taking steps to digitize the factory floor and create safer, smarter, and risk-proof operations. But manufacturing innovation isn’t easy.I spoke with three industry experts on the Innovation Today podcast to get their takes on how top-performing companies are building the factories of the future.The need for a unified platformManufacturers have made significant investments in their legacy tools and products, and they can’t simply shut them down and start from scratch. Graeme Wright, chief digital officer for manufacturing and utilities at Fujitsu, points out legacy technologies and approaches have created silos in most manufacturing organizations.“IT and OT [operational technology] don’t tend to talk to each other,” he says. This disconnect makes it difficult to streamline technologies and processes across departments.Most manufacturers lack a unified platform to provide visibility into the technology on the floor and how it’s being used, increasing the risk of cyberattacks and workplace safety incidents. At the same time, manufacturing is struggling to attract and retain talent.This has complicated knowledge transfer because so much information is in people’s heads and has never been digitized, says Vamshi Rachakonda, vice president of sales at Capgemini Americas. When they leave, they take it with them.Like workers in other sectors, manufacturing employees are looking for a consumerized work experience, which wasn’t possible in the sector until recently, Wright says. Today’s manufacturing firms must take major steps toward digitization to survive in this challenging landscape.
A layered approach to digitizationA number of digital solutions have emerged to create a future-proof factory floor. But where should you start? Rachakonda says executives should “peel the onion,” approaching digitization as a step-by-step opportunity rather than a problem they can solve overnight. He suggests organizations begin by taking stock of their existing technologies and processes to develop realistic goals.Once that’s done, prioritize creating a single source of truth that everyone in the organization can reference. Organizations should invest in a platform that streamlines operations, Wright says. LIKE.TG Manufacturing Connected Workforce accomplishes this by digitizing standard operating processes, simplifying knowledge transfer.While consolidating knowledge, identify places where departments might share data. “You can’t manage what you can’t measure,” Wright says. Data sharing should be a top priority for IT and OT.To that end, LIKE.TG Operational Technology Management can provide a unified view of all IT and OT assets. Aligning IT and OT enables the two functions to communicate seamlessly about what they need. It also allows security teams to identify and prioritize cyberthreats across the entire technology ecosystem.Wright suggests manufacturers create an automation Center of Excellence to discover bottlenecks and identify opportunities to automate. Use your existing employee base where possible, deploying tools such as robotic process automation (RPA) and machine learning to handle routine tasks so that humans can focus on more challenging and creative work.Prebuilt orchestration on the Now Platform automates repetitive tasks. “Take the human element out of these tasks so the humans can do more innovative work,” Wright adds.Once you address the knowledge repository, prioritize workplace safety. Virtual reality and augmented reality allow workers to get hands-on training without exposing them to unnecessary risk, Rachakonda says. These technologies can simulate the types of dangers someone might face on the factory floor so that workers know what to look for before they encounter those situations.The importance of cultureOverall, Rachakonda emphasizes the importance of focusing on tangible, impactful steps with a broader goal of digitizing the entire organization. “That's where you are going to get more funding, more trust, more acceptance from all the stakeholders involved,” he says.Samit Pathak, a senior manager at Deloitte, stresses that software can’t fix everything. Culture matters too. “The last few years have put a microscope on that,” he says. Organizations should develop muscle memory to respond to crises with agility and speed, he adds. That means building a culture of preparedness throughout the organization.Pathak cites the automotive industry as a positive example. The industry prizes communication, clarity, and visibility as part of its risk prevention strategy, he says. This culture helped absorb some of the shock of the supply chain issues the automotive industry faced coming out of the pandemic.“Being proactive, looking beyond your org, and thinking about the multitiered nature of the value chain,” he says, are the values that matter most.Find out more in our ebook: Accelerate time to value in manufacturing.
