ServiceNow is one of the most powerful and widely adopted enterprise platforms for IT and business workflows, used by thousands of global companies to streamline operations. The cloud platform helps enterprises streamline and automate workflows across IT, HR, customer service, and operations to improve efficiency and service delivery. The real challenge is maintaining momentum after go-live, as unclear ownership, inconsistent processes, and confusing dashboards often limit the platform’s ability to deliver meaningful value.
“Leaders don’t need more tools, they need clarity on how those tools translate into real outcomes,” says Richie Adetimehin, who helps enterprises turn ServiceNow into a strategic, outcome-driven platform by aligning workflows, data, and AI.
Outcome-Driven Transformation as a Leadership Imperative
Richie anchors his work on practical measures like Mean Time to Resolve (MTTR), a simple but telling indicator of how smoothly an organization operates. MTTR captures how long it takes to identify and resolve an issue from the moment it is raised, and in his view, it reveals far more than system performance alone. It speaks to clarity, confidence, and the ease with which teams can get work done. “A 20% MTTR reduction is not just a technical win, it is a business and people win,” he explains. “When you reduce friction for IT engineers and business users, performance improves naturally. It restores confidence, accelerates delivery, and reduces burnout.”
For him, outcome-driven service transformation begins with removing noise from systems, enabling smart decisions from clean data, and designing experiences that make work easier, not more complicated.
Why ServiceNow Initiatives Lose Momentum
The excitement of launching ServiceNow often overshadows the discipline required to sustain it. Without clear ownership, process consistency, and a system designed for simplicity, unnecessary complexity creeps in. Many enterprises assume the platform itself is the issue. Adetimehin sees it differently. “Most programs fail because they lead with technology instead of business purpose,” he says.
The organizations that succeed are those that treat ServiceNow as a strategic business value engine. They prioritize user experience, maintain clean and reliable data, and reinforce a culture built around clarity rather than reinvention. “Value emerges only when organizations build measurable outcomes into the fabric of their operations,” he adds.
Three Practical Levers for Cutting MTTR and Unlocking ROI
Richie Adetimehin outlines three actions that consistently help companies regain control and drive meaningful results.
The first is designing for flow rather than tickets. “Standardize categorizations, improve assignment logic intelligently with AI, and remove steps that don’t serve the user,” he says. Focusing on personas ensures workflows reflect the reality of how people work rather than how systems are traditionally built.
The second is operationalizing knowledge. This includes using AI for triage, enabling similarity matching, and shifting from task automation to guided decision-making. “AI should accelerate decisions, not just automate tasks,” Richie Adetimehin says.
The third is holding teams accountable to outcomes. For cost avoidance, productivity and efficiency gains, he encourages leaders to prioritize work deflection, MTTR, first-contact fix, and user satisfaction over system usage metrics. “Product owners and process owners must be accountable for service health, not just platform activities,” he says.
AI’s Next Frontier: From Reaction to Prevention
Once a company has established strong fundamentals – clear processes, clean data, and disciplined operations, it becomes much easier and more natural to introduce emerging technology like AI. After an organization strengthens workflow design, knowledge practices, and outcome accountability, AI becomes the force multiplier that elevates those improvements. It is the point where operational maturity meets intelligent capability, opening the door to a different way of working.
“Incidents will be predicted before they happen, and resolutions will be generated on demand,” he says. “The biggest change is not automation, it is augmentation. AI will make every engineer more capable and every service more resilient.”
His work with enterprises centers on building AI roadmaps, establishing governance around generative models, and scaling AI responsibly while maintaining security, reliability, and compliance. From intelligent CAB agents to proactive incident prevention, Adetimehin sees AI as the accelerator that enterprises have been waiting for, provided it is deployed with guardrails and strong leadership alignment.
Building Foundations That Scale
Strong foundations determine the success of every transformation effort. Culture, clarity, and disciplined operations matter just as much as technology. “High-performing organizations champion transparency, continuous learning, and the willingness to challenge legacy behavior,” he says, urging companies to stabilize essentials like their Configuration Management Database, keep workflows clean, and establish clear ownership across the platform. These fundamentals give teams visibility, reduce unnecessary friction, and create an environment where both ServiceNow and AI can deliver real, sustained impact.
When leaders commit to simplicity and outcomes, ServiceNow evolves from a system of record into a true strategic asset, one that elevates performance, resiliency, and the experience of both employees and customers.
To connect with Richie Adetimehin, visit his LinkedIn.
