Customizations to your IT service management (ITSM) platform are fantastic—right up until they aren’t.
ITSM enhancements to platforms like ServiceNow® enable new functionality and boost efficiency, but the paradox is that the more efficient they are, the quicker you’ll grow beyond their capabilities. Companies with highly built-out and customized ServiceNow instances will find that later, they need to migrate to a greenfield instance.
The reasons here could include a merger, a shift to cloud services, a business acquisition, or any other rationale. Whatever the cause, you’re dealing with a complex ITSM machine with plenty of moving parts. These migrations are tricky to handle, especially when companies try to do everything through old-fashioned, manual processes.
There are better ways manage your ServiceNow migration than outdated manual migrations or labor-intensive custom development. But before you explore solutions, take stock of your ServiceNow environment and determine what you hope to achieve with your project.
Questions to Ask Pre-Migration
Based on our experience with platforms like ServiceNow, Salesforce, HP Service Manager, BMC Remedy, and more, you must answer a few straightforward questions ahead of time. This can make or break a migration project.
How much customization was applied to your current instance?
This is a common issue for companies that have run instances over a long time period. It’s one of the most important variables for determining the effort and impact of a move to a greenfield instance. Take stock of your custom development and applications to learn how much work will be required during a transition.
Note that there are some easy workarounds to custom application migration—provided you have the right tools behind you. The Precision Bridge Instance Migrator for ServiceNow® contains a series of pre-built templates that ease the process.
How important or useful would it be to seamlessly migrate selected data from your current instance and leave customizations behind?
The functionality you needed yesterday probably won’t be what you’ll need tomorrow. Consider what you’ll lose (and what you’ll gain) if you move to an out-of-the-box instance. How will your system perform when it’s not bogged down by customizations? Develop a set of priorities and selection criteria to determine which elements should be migrated and which are legacy functions that can be left behind.
How would customers react if they lost access to historical records of knowledgebase articles?
Look at things from the customer perspective. What information do they use on an ongoing basis for trend analysis, reporting, and their own service management goals? It’s vital to preserve these elements during your migration and understand how changes in certain functions or data may make things harder for them. Don’t despair if customer data is tied closely to outdated legacy functions. Tools like Instance Migrator for ServiceNow can help preserve what’s needed without substantial development effort on your end.
Do regulatory requirements surround the storage of customer data?
This question won’t be applicable to every company, but it’s crucial for those it applies to. If there are legal requirements or compliance standards that govern data storage and management, you’ll need to understand how to preserve those data mappings, custom fields, and associated attachments during a migration.
How does licensing work for Precision Bridge’s Instance Migrator for ServiceNow?
This is a common question from companies interested in a faster, smarter way to pull off their ServiceNow migration goals. Licensing is based on duration. There are no limits or caps on the number of migration runs available or the volume of data moved. This approach provides complete flexibility for users in how they structure and manage their project.
Which ServiceNow versions and applications are supported?
In terms of ServiceNow versions, our tools support versions from Aspen to San Diego and everything in between.
For applications, users can rest easy knowing that all standard ServiceNow applications have pre-built templates that make migration easy. Also, custom application migration can be supported with some additional development work. With over 100 pre-built templates included, most application functionality will be covered out of the box.
Prepare for Your Data Migration Project with Precision Bridge
The above questions will form the foundation of your migration planning, but as we’ve detailed, actual migration success depends on having the right tools. In terms of results, our tools speak for themselves: The ServiceNow Instance Migrator can save up to 85% in time and cost savings on migration projects, and the majority of projects reach completion within 2-3 months.
More companies than ever now reap the benefits of a seamless ServiceNow migration. Schedule a demo of Instance Migrator for ServiceNow® and see how easy it is to separate, synchronize, or migrate applications to another instance.