When You Try to Be Your Own ServiceNow Partner… and Accidentally Become a Case Study

I started working with ServiceNow back in 2010. At the time, there were very few partners in the ecosystem—and, to be honest, we were often learning right alongside them. I had no idea then how many lessons I’d learn, how many things I’d see (the good, the bad, and the downright hilarious), or the skills I’d develop along the way.

Hi, I’m Allison Shirey, Senior Vice President of Delivery for North America and a proud Certified Master Architect (CMA). You could say I’ve banked my career and future on ServiceNow—and I’d do it again.

Back in 2010, my scripting experience was limited to my MySpace page (shoutout to my Top 8) and putting an obnoxious song on loop. And yet here I am, more than a decade later, having lived through every kind of ServiceNow journey you can imagine.

One thing I’ve always admired about ServiceNow is its focus on building a strong, collaborative community—of developers, admins, architects, and advocates alike. Honestly, without the old-school ServiceNow Wiki (yes, it was a wiki pre-Aspen), I’d have been completely lost. Those long days, frustrating nights, and poorly timed platform upgrades built the foundation of what I know today.

The Harsh Truth: Being a Customer is Harder

Looking back at all the roles I’ve held, I can say with confidence: working for a customer is far more challenging than working with a partner.

• You're limited to what the organization is willing to buy.
• You’re held to a budget you had no part in creating.
• You’re often stuck with too few resources to get the job done right.
• The people “in charge” don't actually know what happens in the day-to-day.

And in today’s world of tighter budgets and cost-cutting, more and more companies are deciding to self-implement their ServiceNow platforms.

While I respect the DIY mindset—and even understand the motivation—it comes with some major risks. If your organization is considering self-implementing, here are a few critical “gotchas” to think about first.

Gotcha #1: Resources

Just Because You Can Doesn’t Mean You Should

Ah yes—resources. The bane of both partners and customers alike.

Finding someone who knows the platform, understands best practices, and has the experience to build scalable solutions is hard. If you’re lucky enough to have that unicorn in-house—congratulations! That’ll help. But here’s the reality: one person does not make a team.

I've been a “team of one” at several points in my career, and I can tell you: it does a disservice to the implementation and the people involved.

Many companies assume: “We have great developers—how hard can it be?”

Let me stop you right there. Please revisit the words best practices and platform knowledge.

There are so many nuances in ServiceNow that only come with experience. I look back at the things I built in 2010 and cringe. Did they work? Yes - somehow. Were they scalable, maintainable, or future-proof? Absolutely not.

This creates friction and frustration for your developers in several ways:

🚩 1. The Learning Curve

Without experienced guidance, your developers are effectively on an island. They have no one to bounce ideas off, no one to validate designs, and no quick answers to urgent questions.

They spend hours solving something that a seasoned partner could resolve in 15 minutes. That’s time, money, and morale down the drain.

🚩 2. Fear of Job Security

Most developers are assigned to ServiceNow after owning a legacy tool or system. The transition comes with fears: fear of the unknown, fear of “being found out” (hello imposter syndrome), fear that learning a new platform could cost them their job if they don’t get it right.

One of the reasons I love what I do is seeing the “aha!” moment when it all clicks—when someone realizes they can master this. That’s why partners spend so much time enabling internal teams in a safe space, without judgment.  There is always a point in our engagements when everything just clicks. It’s honestly the best feeling in the world to see that lightbulb come on and see the confidence shine through

🚩 3. Training (or Lack Thereof)

It blows my mind how many organizations skip training entirely when self-implementing. You’re asking someone to implement a business-critical platform—possibly the backbone of your digital transformation—with little to no formal education.

At the very least, they need to understand:

• Platform terminology
• Navigation
• Core components
• Underlying components and when to use them
• Governance models

Training isn’t optional. It’s table stakes.

Gotcha #2: Time

The Hidden Cost of “Saving Money”

Let’s talk about time.

The longer your implementation takes:

• The longer you’re paying for legacy systems.
• The more technical debt you accumulate.
• The more change fatigue your users experience.
• The longer you delay realizing actual business value.

I get it—partner price tags can be intimidating.  There are unrealistic expectations set in the sales cycle or comparing costs of former partners.  But what many miss is this:

👉 A good partner saves you time, money, and sanity in the long run.

They reduce time-to-value. They provide training. They build scalable, maintainable solutions. And—this one’s big—they help you avoid implementing a spaghetti mess of technical debt that someone has to unwind later (usually at 3x the cost).

Gotcha #3: Governance & Change Management

The Most Forgotten Essentials

Last but definitely not least: Governance and Organizational Change Management (OCM).

These two areas are often overlooked in DIY implementations—and it shows.

Governance

Governance ensures the platform is delivering the right outcomes for the business. It aligns decisions with goals. It prioritizes efforts. It ensures the right stakeholders are heard.

We all remember 2020.  Everything changed overnight.  Organization goals – thrown out the window. Plans for the year – forget about them.  Business Outcomes – back to the drawing board. Governance helps you through these critical business pivots.

Without governance:

• The loudest voice wins.
• Priorities shift constantly.
• Strategic goals get lost in the noise.

Governance isn’t red tape. It’s focus.

Organizational Change Management (OCM)

OCM is not just communication.

It’s:

• Early user engagement
• Training
• Stakeholder engagement
• Leadership alignment
• Culture change
• Creating a clear “what’s in it for me” narrative

Done right, OCM drives adoption, reduces resistance, and makes your implementation stick.

Too often, IT rolls out changes without involving or informing the business. This creates a trust gap—and leads to shadow IT, confusion, and resentment.

Been there. Fixed that.

My Final Thoughts

At the end of the day, self-implementation may be the only option available to your organization right now—and that’s okay.

This blog isn’t here to scare you. It’s here to help you think critically about what self-implementation really means. You need to ask:

• Why are we moving to ServiceNow?
• What problems are we trying to solve?
• What didn't work before?
• What does success look like—and how will we get there?

Don’t let poor planning, lack of training, or missing governance derail your investment.

I love working in the ServiceNow ecosystem. I believe in the power of the ServiceNow platform (I promise it’s not a cult) and that it can transform how organizations of all sizes work. But success doesn’t happen by accident. It happens when leadership invests in people, process, and vision—not just technology.

Remember: If you build it, they might come… but they won’t stay if it doesn’t work for them.