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When three farm credit cooperatives came together in 2017, leaders had to choose one direction for the new financial institution—including one direction for IT. Each of the three original entities had legacy IT systems that worked for them. IT leadership’s job was to find the right system for the new organization. They wanted a user-friendly platform agile enough to easily expand throughout the enterprise and beyond.
The company has $23.4 billion in assets and a passion for agriculture in rural America.
At a Glance
IT leadership’s job was to find the right system for the new organization. They wanted a user-friendly platform agile enough to easily expand throughout the enterprise and beyond. This agricultural financial services company resulted from the merger between three smaller farm credit cooperatives. They are member-owned and support rural communities by providing loans, leases, crop insurance, risk management and home mortgages.
Finding the Right System for Integrating Three Entities
At the time of the merger, each entity used a different IT Service Management solution. To bring IT under one umbrella, they needed one solution for all IT ticketing needs. One of the three companies already used ServiceNow. The IT team assessed each solution for ticketing capabilities and chose ServiceNow. At that point, they knew that they needed extra hands, and minds in the mix to build out an effective platform to support the ticketing system needs for all three entities. The search for a capable partner began.
Through research and networking, Crossfuze, a ServiceNow Elite Partner specializing in platform experience with solid financial services industry experience, quickly bubbled to the top of the partner list. The company also needed the service desk support Crossfuze had within its managed services offering. Their team realized that Crossfuze’s offering met both of their needs—making them the perfect partner.
Crossfuze’s Creativity and Strategy Helped Build a Playbook for Future Expansion
Crossfuze shared how they used the platform themselves and some stories of how they helped companies like this one shape ServiceNow to a platform with workflows extending beyond IT support into other departments. Intrigued by this experience, the client asked Crossfuze to assess their ServiceNow instance for improvements and opportunities.
Together, they created a 2-year playbook. This strategic plan outlined the enterprise’s current state, desired future vision, and provided the smoothest path to reach their goals. Today, this organization references the playbook as they navigate their ServiceNow journey.
ServiceNow Platform Applications in use:
- ITSM: Hardware Asset Management
- Change Management
- Service Portal with Visual Task Boards and Reporting
- ITBM: Demand/Idea Management
- SAM · Security Operations
- ITOM: HR Delivery
- Future Delivery: Flow Designer, Orchestration
"Early on, Crossfuze showed that they were vetted in our desire to do more with our investment in ServiceNow. They dove deep into our business, helping us understand how to align our business objectives to the capabilities of the platform. They were and are instrumental in giving us the confidence in knowing what is possible with the platform."
Two years later, the company is expanding the 2-year playbook into a 5-year view. Over the next 5 years, they plan to take the platform to the next level of maturity—focusing on more complex and transformational projects.
"Crossfuze isn’t just a partner, they are strategic thinkers helping us to apply the capabilities of the platform in creative ways to address both simple to complex challenges. We’re looking forward to what the next several years brings."
Changes in Perception
Their many successes include the implementation of a knowledge manager to track knowledge consumption. The metrics show an upward trajectory in knowledge consumption and service portal usage. Today, their tracking system identifies the terms employees type in the search box. This system shows them where the knowledge base falls short, and quickly shows them where to make improvements.
ServiceNow’s ability to track requests and funnel the largescale ideas to the ITBM platform impressed the team. This workflow saved the team additional resources they initially thought they would need to manage these requests. The team also analyzes data collected by the platform to
get a sense of ROI which is also heading up and to the right.
The Relationship is Akin to a Friendship
It’s not just knowledge of the platform that makes Crossfuze valuable. Deep knowledge of both financial services and ServiceNow means the Crossfuze team also understands what can and can’t be done with the client’s existing software licenses. “I look to Crossfuze to help bridge the gap of understanding between what we can do using the licenses we have and what we need to plan for—and what that will entail from a cost, timeline and resource perspective. What’s possible with the licenses isn’t always clear on the surface. Crossfuze helps us to dive in and dig out possibilities that drive the business forward leveraging the investments we already made.”
"The Crossfuze project team and engagement managers feel like friends. They are self-aware and respectful enough of our team and their goals to be proactive when communicating changes. They aren’t afraid to challenge us respectfully to drive more innovation out of the platform and us as a team."
A Vision for the Future
Today, this agricultural financial services firm continues to build upon the ServiceNow platform to meet the needs of various areas of the business. They look forward to the next level of platform maturity where things are at a point where the team’s fine-tuning it to make work easier for users both in IT and across other lines of business. It’s a challenge Crossfuze embraces
with excitement and conviction to help their client keep its leadership position in the market.
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