4 Key Takeaways from ServiceNow Knowledge 2019

“Hide complexity, embrace simplicity.”

It’s no wonder the theme of ServiceNow CEO John Donahoe’s opening keynote at Knowledge 2019 resonated so strongly with us.

We at Lionbridge laser-focus on a few things: simplifying the user experience (for customers and employees alike), improving interactions with the customer, and cherishing our people. Time and again at Knowledge 2019, both presenters and attendees demonstrated that they share our values. And that’s pretty exciting.

Last week, members of Lionbridge’s GeoFluent real-time translation team were on the ground at ServiceNow Knowledge 2019. We had the opportunity to connect with and learn from over 20,000 like-minded attendees who are passionate about reducing complexity and enhancing the customer and employee experience across industries.

Amid two days chock-full of learnings, four key takeaways emerged. Here are four trends and themes on our minds after ServiceNow Knowledge 2019.

The importance of digitizing workflows

Digitization forms the backbone of simplicity. And simplicity is the foundation of a positive customer experience.

We found ourselves nodding along with Donahoe as he compared the simplicity of the digital apps we turn to in our personal lives with the fragmented complexity of our workplace tools. Digitizing workflows has positive effects on both internal processes and the customer experience. We choose to digitize our personal lives—why should work be any different?

Plus, digitization can help companies redirect their employees to more nuanced tasks. For example, companies that digitize their call centers with our GeoFluent tools reduce their need for on-staff linguists—while streamlining operations and improving the customer experience.

ServiceNow Chief Innovation Officer Dave Wright elaborated on this idea during his day two keynote. “We’re going to see a convergence where we use virtual agents, automation, and virtualization to get to the point where there are no Level 1 tickets,” he said. That means that organizations can reserve humans for higher-value work that can’t be automated.

The rise of no-code platforms

Something democratizing the workflow digitization process? The rise of no-code platforms.

Today, even people without a development background can build digital tools into their workflows and increase both speed and go-to-live time.

This has been a key feature of GeoFluent for years. We designed our platform so that anyone—with or without development expertise—can use it easily. Our customers benefit from pre-built modules, real-time feedback, and a centralized system that makes work easier.

This type of platform simplifies the experience for employees, which in turn improves the experience for customers.

The value of partnership ecosystems

Digitization work can’t be done alone. We heard this theme over and over during our time at Knowledge 2019. It’s critical that organizations rely on partners to implement their global platforms in the best possible way. This allows them to improve the platform experience by integrating with partners that can add efficiencies to their systems.

For example, organizations using ServiceNow Connect & Incidents can seamlessly integrate with GeoFluent Virtual Translator for ServiceNow. This is a SaaS-based plugin that seamlessly adds multilingual capabilities to an organization’s existing ServiceNow Connect and Incidents communication channels. This allows organizations to quickly add interaction support in 100+ languages using their existing staff—with no IT involvement required.

By working with multifaceted partners, organizations can add so much more to their platforms. This saves them time and employee effort while streamlining and enhancing the customer experience.

The need for enterprise-wide digital transformation

We’re all-in on the idea that digital transformation will improve processes and services across industries. But there’s a key truth that will help us get there: to be successful, digital transformation must be enterprise-wide.

At ServiceNow, we spoke with representatives from many companies who indicated their use of the ServiceNow platform helped engender digital transformation in their organization. The common factor among these cross-industry representatives? Their organizations had prioritized the use of the platform across several teams.

ServiceNow—and digital transformation in general—works best when it’s embraced across departments. The people we spoke with indicated that the platform helped unite them with teammates from HR, IT, sales, and more. And with the addition of GeoFluent, companies using ServiceNow can connect globally.

It’s an exciting time for agile organizations leveraging digital tools to improve their services—for employees and customers alike. The whole Lionbridge team is grateful to ServiceNow for its partnership and for hosting an incredible, thought-provoking event.

Interested in learning more about how Lionbridge’s GeoFluent can add simplicity to your workflow and improve your employee and customer experience? Reach out to GeoFluentSales@lionbridge.com today.