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Authentic, Authoritative, Unapologetic ServiceNow commentary by Cory "CJ" Wesley and Robert "The Duke" Fedoruk
CJ: All right, well, we're out.
We're rolling now.
Duke: How many episodes?
Almost a hundred episodes and
we still can't get this right.
CJ: Oh, man.
Duke: All right, Corey, what
are we talking about today?
CJ: Special episode today, Duke.
Today we have some awesome
people here from one of our
favorite companies, Vivid Charts.
Duke: Vividcharts is one
of my favorite companies.
I had an awesome two years there helping
them set up, , one of my favorite
apps in the ServiceNow ecosystem.
I just can't wait to dig into this.
, with this on this episode, we have Rob
Walsh, co founder and Ashley McGill.
Chief Marketing Officer.
What a treat.
Welcome guys.
Ashley M: Hey, so pumped to be here.
Rob W: Yeah, thanks for having us.
We're really pumped.
Duke: All right.
For those in the audience that haven't
necessarily heard of VividCharts,
Rob, why don't you, why don't you
tell us what VividCharts is all about?
Rob W: Yeah.
So vivid charts is an in platform
application on the ServiceNow store,
and we specialize in automated
operational reporting directly
out of the ServiceNow platform.
So it's a very horizontal app.
We've got use cases across the board,
but at the end of the day, what
we try and focus on is looking at
reporting as an end and workflow.
Right.
Service now provides
reporting out of the platform.
They provide great analytics capabilities.
But since we launched in 2018, we really
found there are certain constraints
that prevent customers from really
getting an end to end automated report.
porting workflow, and that's what
we focus our application around.
CJ: End to end reporting workflow.
Good.
Go ahead.
Elaborate a little bit
more on that one, Rob.
I think having spoken to you about
it before, I think it'd be really,
good information for an audience.
Rob W: Yeah.
If you think about when a customer
buys into the ServiceNow platform, the
single platform approach, single data
model, they're going to have such a
wide variety of apps and data types
and workflows running through the
platform at any given point in time.
A part of that vision when they're
buying into that platform approach is the
promise of visibility and transparency
to executives, stakeholders, external
customers, many, many different personas
throughout the organization, right?
And across all these different personas,
You're going to run into many different
preferences, expectations, data needs,
and expectations around the types
of reports they're interested in,
what they should look and feel like,
and how they're delivered to them.
And so when you start to unpack that and
talk with customers, you start to hit
some pretty real constraints in achieving,
satisfying that wide range of stakeholder
expectations out of the platform.
So again, while ServiceNow provides great
reporting and analytics capabilities
in the platform, there are so many
situations where customers are having
operational reviews, talking about
data and analytics in meetings, and
They don't have the data types and the
report types that they need to actually
facilitate these different interactions.
So what VividCharts focuses on
is identifying these constraints.
mapping them to operational scenarios
where you're presenting data, you're
discussing data, you're distributing
data and providing new visuals and
report types that close that end to
end reporting workflow, not just self
service dashboards that you can click
around and interact with on your own.
Duke: Hey, Rob, I'm wondering if you
could like getting to brass tacks, who
hurts the most for not having vivid charts
and how would they express that pain?
And
Rob W: Yeah.
I think there's two lenses
to look at that question.
There is who is actually
creating the reports, right?
And what hurts for them.
And who's receiving the reports
and what hurts for that.
So if you think about who's receiving
the reports, they're probably delivering
a set of expectations, questions
they want answers to, key strategic
outcomes they're driving towards,
and they want reports and data.
To back them up in that process, right?
How do we drive towards these outcomes?
We want these questions answered, right?
So give me data and reporting
that helps us with that, right?
So that takes us to the report
builders who have to figure out
a way to make that happen, right?
And when you start to hit the constraints
and trying to figure out what are the
best ways we can deliver on that set
of requirements for the end audience,
that's where it starts to get pretty
painful where If you have a set of
requirements that you can't achieve in
the ServiceNow platform, where do we go?
We go to places like Excel,
PowerPoint that are easy to wield,
their tools we're familiar with.
So we have a lot of flexibility
there and we can maybe deliver on the
requirements, but it takes an immense
amount of work and exploration to
actually put it all together, right?
And if you achieve that in Excel,
in PowerPoint, you might have
just signed up for that chore to
take place on a monthly basis.
If that audience wants
it every single month.
So there's pain on the receiving side
where they have to wait until that report
builder or data analyst can actually put.
what they're asking for together, right?
And they want to make decisions on demand.
And then there's pain in who is actually
going out and figuring out how do we
deliver on this set of requirements?
And that's the time suck, right?
So if you, you know, look at an automated
end and reporting workflow, if we can
make that process easier for the builder,
allow them to deliver on the requirements
in a quicker, more efficient way.
But also have it in platform so
that once they built it, it's there
on demand in an automated fashion.
Whenever that audience wants it, that's
what I talk, or that's what I mean.
When I say end to end reporting workflow,
we automate that manual work for the
builder and then make it available
on demand for that, the end customer.
Duke: Do you mind if I just
give an example from my time at
Rob W: I'd love that.
Duke: VividCharts?
Okay, so it's like getting
right to specifics.
, I remember I worked in ITBM consulting,
or SPM now, I guess, project and
portfolio management for a couple of
years before I started VividCharts.
And I just remember how much crazy work
it was to do project status reports.
And we know that there's a project
status report tool in service now.
And it's...
You know, it's okay, but
that's the hard limit.
Um, it's okay.
It's all right.
Right.
Sorry, but I'm not waking
up early to play with it.
And so what happens is the project
managers typically like run a bunch
of separate reports in service now,
and then copy and paste those into
PowerPoint so that they can put their
own branding and stuff around it.
And , you can't understate the branding
because some of these PMOs are talking
to people outside the organization.
And what is it going to
look like to see this?
You know, I mean that the whole like,
okay, service now interface for the
project status report, which is a
definitive bias for internal stakeholders.
So the problem was the right kind
of data wasn't on the immutable
service now project status,
CJ: talking
Duke: it.
So you couldn't show it
outside the organization.
What a waste of time for the
people who actually reported
outside of the organization.
So with vivid charts, they built a
solution using all the VividCharts
components, nothing super special,
to basically make a fully brandable,
configurable project status report.
And it was awesome!
I don't know if I could ask how much of
the sales pipeline is that thing alone,
Rob, but it was really successful.
But it goes to just underscore
how good the app is.
Rob W: Yeah.
I mean, if you look at the pipeline
project status is a big component
within that, but what's interesting
about what's happened since we've.
You know, we took that use case, right?
Exactly how you described.
You get a precision control
over the data points that you
want on your status report.
You get precision control over
the aesthetics and branding.
So it matches your corporate standard.
And then you can automate and distribute
in a way that makes sense for whoever
you're serving it up for, right?
If it's C suite, or if they're outside
of the organization, like you mentioned.
And what's interesting after we,
you know, started rolling that
use case out with different PMOs.
We started to get a pretty natural
set of questions around applying
that same concept, but across
many other record types, right?
So within SPM, you've got
program status reporting.
You've got demands that you might want to
summarize in a very concise business case
format that's easy to review and discuss.
You might have portfolio
steering committees that
are meeting and looking at.
Both single project status reports,
but also need aggregate level portfolio
information in the presentation.
So it's really organically grown where
we've taken that concept, applied it to
different record types, and then also
combined it with some of the other report
types we do for automated slide decks and
dashboarding to really give PMOs and ITSM
teams and other teams in the platform.
A wide range of reporting tools to
meet these many different expectations
that they have from stakeholders.
Ashley M: Yeah.
And if I could add a little bit
to what Rob just said, I love the
portfolio steering committee deck.
, use case specifically, because at some
of these large companies, leveraging
service now, you know, enterprise
companies, leveraging service.
Now, they can have 5, 6, 7 upwards
of that steering committees that meet
every month and each of those decks
needs to look slightly different.
Each of this.
Those who
are reporting out portfolio.
Sometimes it's the same portfolio,
but they have a different set
of, stakeholders who need to see
different types of information.
And the expectation is that it's all
going to be in a slide deck, right?
Some of those stakeholders who
need that information may not
be in service now regularly.
They may be unfamiliar with how to
build reports with how to navigate it.
And ultimately, those
people want to consume that
information in a presentation.
And so the ability to automate that
slide editor, that slide UI directly
in the platform and eliminate the
need of exporting information external
to the platform only to manipulate.
For additional chart types in Excel
or actually spend time formatting
those PowerPoints, those portfolio
managers, those program managers can
spend more time actually managing
what matters, which is their projects.
Right.
And build better business outcomes,
but still ensure that the organization
is getting the information they
need in a timely and sort of
aesthetically pleasing manner.
Yeah.
CJ: Silence.
Ashley M: You spend a lot of time
formatting slides, you know, and
it's been accepted for a long time.
And I think that the, the turning
point for companies that are
paying the amount of money they
pay to have these giant service.
Now, instances, if you are spending all of
that time, making sure that your data is.
Up to date and correct and service.
Now, shouldn't the reward be automatic
slide deck creation with that data?
Once you've taken the time to
set up the template, obviously,
I mean, I certainly think so.
We shouldn't be asking them to swivel
chair into multiple different programs
to get that presentation that they need.
CJ: Amen.
The first thing that catches my, ear
when I've listened to both now, , you and
Ashley is the end platform aspect of this.
And, like Rob, paint on slides, I peened
when you said reduced time in Excel.
Because the Excel is not my
favorite, place to spend my time.
And like you mentioned, , if you're able
to recapture that time and spend more of
it in service now, not only does it, help
you and your reporting aspects and your
dashboard and things of that nature, but,
, having clean data and service now helps
drive all your processes in the right way.
Rob W: Yeah, absolutely.
And the clean data is a really important
point to call out on that, Corey.
And when we think about automating
presentation or reporting outputs, it
creates a much better and more aligned
incentive to keep the data up to date
and current in the platform, right?
If you're a project manager out there,
and you're having to produce your query.
Report that you're needing for
stakeholders off of the platform.
It's a, it's an incentive problem.
You might not go in and actually
update the data in service.
Now you might forget to do it
or just neglect it altogether.
So when you automate that output from
the system, you actually incentivize
adoption of the platform, the processes
and good data quality as a result.
, CJ: absolutely.
If you make, , getting the value
contingent on, the data being
clean and service now, right?
Like, all of a sudden, you notice that
more people are using service now, and
that's the, that's 1 of the ultimate,
, outcomes that you want out of any
service now, , implementation anyway.
So vivid charts is.
Really kind of that the situation where
you can sometimes look at it as the end
of the pipeline, the presentation to to
management part of the pipeline, but it's
really driving the very beginning of the
pipeline to write like the use of service.
Now, the clean data, the more
time spent there and less time
spent than other applications.
You guys have
Rob W: Yeah, absolutely.
And I'll.
I'll, I'll tee the Duke up on this
one, I know he preaches outcomes
and we talks about reporting.
He's really upfront about when you're
building a reporting program, right?
Put outcomes at the front of it.
What questions do you want it to answer?
And when you get very
prescriptive on that piece.
That's where we tie in our
automated operational reporting.
If we know the questions we want
answered, we know the precise
data points format of the report.
We want generated.
That's where you get a lot of power out
of the automation and it's aligned to the,
you know, the key outcomes and decisions
you want to drive in the process.
So, Robert, I think.
In our conversations in the past,
that's been a consistent theme, and
I think it's only proven more true
the more, we've put VividCharts
out there in different use cases.
Duke: Most definitely, like, in my
mind, there's, there's really 3 things
that Personas that do reporting right?
And when you think about when
somebody buys any feature in service
now, it's usually some top end
stakeholder who is the buyer, right?
And they make the decisions.
But that person is rarely
like in service now, right?
They pass it down to somebody more
operational to a get the deployment
done and then be do the work.
And so most of the reports that we
see are for what I call operators
and operators are the people who you.
do the work and they just need to know
what's the next best thing for me to
work on for this process to succeed.
They aren't looking at the big picture,
you know, the big, you know, the big
line graph that should move up or
down depending on our preferences.
They're just looking at
what's the next best task.
And then sometimes you have an
analyst layer in there that says,
are we or aren't we getting closer?
But it rarely goes all the way up
to what I call the stakeholder.
And like the person who's going to make
decisions based off of the outcomes
that we should be reporting on, right?
We have these indicators moving
up, these indicators moving down.
How shall we spend our very
limited managerial energies?
We can't just say move everything up.
We can't do that.
We have to be judicious with our energy.
And the one thing I always loved
about VividCharts was that finally
that stakeholder layer has a
reason to be in service now.
The PA dashboards are way too difficult.
They're way too mechanically in depth.
VividCharts can give them a simplified,
branded, interface that's way easier
to build using the same kind of PA
components, the same ServiceNow data,
and they can have it on their desk
whenever you want, even in slideshow form.
Sorry, I totally ranted on you.
Rob W: It was a great rant.
I'm glad you did.
And I think everything
you're outlining is so true.
And what we hear with customers
on a weekly basis as we're
talking with them, right?
We've talked a lot about
different personas, different
stakeholders, and that comes with
different expectations and needs.
So while ServiceNow again
provides really great Thank you.
Operational reporting analytics solutions
where you can go in depth layer into
layer of the data when you got to surface
that up and really tell a story with it.
That's the gap and that's where
vivid charts being in the service now
platform become so powerful because we
can get to all of that data, whether
it's standard table data, whether
it's performance analytics data.
Right.
We can get to all of that data, but
put the nice polished front end to it
that suits these different audiences.
Ashley M: And another point this brings
up for me, as we talk about this is we
push this idea of freeing your service.
Now, data democratizing your service.
Now, data.
You shouldn't have to go through a
bottleneck or a funnel of operators
who have to build reports on demand
for you, or, you know, you're only
seeing that information monthly.
Because that's when something's
being exported from the platform and
being served up to decision makers,
you actually now have the ability
to make decisions in real time
because you always have access to it.
And to your point, Rob, in a platform in
a digestible format, such as a slide deck,
, while still driving people to service now.
CJ: I'll tell you , what I just
loved about what you just said.
, so make decisions in real time, right?
Due to , having constant
access to that data.
When I'm working with my clients,
1 of the things that is always.
, the struggle, is helping management
make those real time decisions
often because the data that
they're working with is old, right?
Like we've mentioned, right, , somebody's
exported it to excel and now they're doing
some kind of manipulation or someone's
exported it and they've taken the data
and doing something in PowerPoint.
And by the time it works its way
through all the different layers of
management and gets to whatever meeting
that is going to be presented in.
It's weeks old typically, right?
And so you don't even know now if
you're making the decision based on
what is now, you only know that you're
making a decision about a snapshot
in time that might no longer be
relevant, you know, and that's extremely
important when you're doing resource
management and you're thinking about,
okay, how do I knock this Q down?
Right?
Like, do I have You know,
a little bit more budget.
Do I bring in more people so that we can
, knock down this backlog or, something
else, but the backlog might already
be gone by the time you're reviewing
, that data with, , vivid charts, right?
Like that , gets rid of that process.
You always know where you are.
Ashley M: Yeah, absolutely.
And that we talk a lot about
enabling agile, what I call
agile strategic planning.
It's been a buzzword in the
digital transformation world
for a couple of years now.
And so this idea that an annual
planning model, an annual strategy
planning model is outdated.
And if you can't be more nimble
than that, you're not going to
win in the marketplace anymore.
So why are we always reporting
on and consuming stale data?
If the idea is to get to the root of
the problem as quickly as possible, you
brought up resource management, which
I think is super important as well.
It's hard enough to manage resources,
especially at a large company, when
you're looking at stale data all the time.
So all these things lead back
to the ability to promote agile
planning within your organization
and be as nimble as possible.
CJ: Absolutely.
Duke: So a little earlier, we talked
about, that the personas of reporting
and my model for doing reporting,
but I think that is interesting
segue to some really, cool event.
, that vivid charts has coming up,
, actually, , you want to talk to us
about the upcoming digital conference?
Ashley M: Yeah, definitely.
I can take the beginning of that
so we have a digital conference
coming up on October 12th next
Thursday, , called real time.
, the idea is that exactly what we've just
been talking about our goal as vivid
charts as a company, our mission statement
really is to bring people as close to
their service now data as possible.
You were getting updates.
Your reports to your data to your
decision making in real time as soon as
that data is live in service now, and
you've refreshed your reporting outlook.
You can instantly see
that data in a format.
That's been built for you by your
report builders in the organization.
We have been thrilled with the
willingness of people in the ServiceNow
community to participate in this and
to come and speak on our behalf on
the importance of reporting , data
visualizations, how people consume
information that comes out of ServiceNow.
So we've got a couple independent
experts like yourself, , that
we're really excited to have.
And I would love if you talk about your
session a little bit when I'm done, we've
got two ServiceNow product managers.
Who specialize in process mining and
analytics to come speak about those.
, and we have four customer stories for
people who have taken vivid charts
in a variety of different functional
areas and really seen a huge upswing
in the amount of productivity and.
Efficiency that they see in those areas
that they've automated that reporting.
You free up so many resource hours.
In fact, we have some really
great resource calculators.
If anybody's interested in exactly
how many resource hours and what
that translates to into cost
resource costs at the end of
the year that you're reclaiming.
And these are not small numbers.
These are numbers in the
hundreds of thousands up to a
million dollars a year, right?
In resource you're saving by automating
that reporting so people can get back
to the business of driving results.
That's what next week's
conference is all about.
It's all about building that ServiceNow
community around data and analytics
and why it's so important, highlighting
obviously the areas that ViviCharps helps
people accomplish those goals, but then
also creating a network of people who
are willing to share and educate, right,
and sort of move the process forward.
Duke: Cori said the M word.
Millions,
CJ: Yeah, yeah, oh, I'm sorry, yes,
, this is a huge, huge, I like, I don't
understand why, yeah, it's crazy, right?
Like , why, um, I can't understand
why, not everyone, , is actually
subscribed here to vivid charts, right?
Because , when you start
to think about it, right.
And everything you just said that
value, that recap, recapturing all that
time that you're spending now on doing
something that you've probably normalized
because businesses have normalized this.
Data driven reporting kind of process
over time, where it's just going to
take this amount of time and you're just
going to have to use these five different
applications and somebody is just going to
have to spend four days on a deck, right?
And we've all normalized then
it's just kind of a fact of life.
And what you're saying
is that's all wrong.
Ashley M: Right.
You have to meet the expectation, you
know, and just to give a throw out
a couple more numbers that help you
get to that million dollar figure.
If you're a company that has 500 active
projects and the people you have building
reporting are expensive resources.
Think, project managers service.
Now, highly trained personnel
think about what they cost an hour.
And to your point, it takes 1.
Thank you.
project manager four days to build one
deck that they've got to do every month.
Think about the project managers who
have to report on their projects weekly.
Think about how much time it takes
them over the course of a year.
So those numbers add up really quickly.
Duke: Yeah,
CJ: Yeah, are they doing anything
other than building the deck
Duke: Right.
Well, I mean, it, it takes away from
their key thing, which is project
management, and that requires
a lot of time attention case.
Nobody's noticed before.
CJ: and make a break on projects?
Duke: what I love about this is it just
so many times I just like I've been
griping about this for almost two decades,
even before my service now life is just
like you deploy a tool and like item
number seven on the scope of work is do
reporting and that's all the line says
before it goes into like do documentation.
It's just and what it ends up being
is this gigantic afterthought.
And what that ends up being is
just like every few days you're
the admin of the tool and somebody
says, oh, I just I need this.
But I need this list of
of tickets by priority.
And then 3 days later, it's like, no, I
don't need it by priority by category.
And they just can't understand
why they don't get what they want.
Because you're not looking at the
big picture, but sorry, , actually,
can you tell us when this event is?
Ashley M: Oh, yeah, let me
just do the quick, , rundown of
exactly what we're talking about.
So we're doing 6 hours for this
digital conference, 11 am to 5
PM on Thursday, October 12th.
, it's all free to attend.
There are 14 sessions.
That compromise three different tracks
for all different types of stakeholders.
We want everybody to feel welcome
and feel like there's content
that they can get value out of.
So we've got a technical track where
we're going to do two workshops that
are being hosted by our internal
VividChart ServiceNow developers.
One of them is being hosted
by Rob Walsh himself.
We're going to be in the tool
actually building and showing people
how to get to some end results
that we think they'd really like to
see within their own organization.
Then we have a process track.
So think workflow.
Think, , mid manager level value, right?
Like, I've still got hands on
keyboard trying to figure out
how to build these things.
, but maybe I'm not the person
who's actually figuring out what
tables to pull from, et cetera.
I'm focused on outcomes and then
we've got the strategic track.
So that's going to be for
decision makers for executives.
People are typically only consuming the
reporting, but they're often the people
signing the check for service now, right?
The instance.
So we want to make sure people
understand, you know, you've spent
all this time and investment and
resources to get your service.
Now, instance up and running,
get everybody trained on it.
Now, what are you doing with that data?
Well, you're not the 1 personally.
That's going to be managing it.
You should care because it's
going to help drive your service.
Now, adoption.
It's going to make the product stickier
within the organization and it's going
to make your implementation look that
much better because you've figured
reporting out as you're going into
it as opposed to an afterthought.
So, yeah, 14 sessions.
Six hours.
We're going to have a fun, happy
hour at the end with some service.
Now, trivia be able to win some prizes
and again, just a whole host of dynamic
speakers, both vivid charts and external,
and we're really excited about it.
Duke: Okay.
Rob W: And I think, Corey, you use
the term this has been normalized in
organizations, this way of reporting.
And what's really great about this
event, in my opinion, is You're
going to hear from your peers that
that doesn't have to be the case.
They're going to show you, Hey, we
did it and here's how we did it.
Right.
And that's, really the spirit of
the ServiceNow community at large.
And part of why it's been such
a successful platform is because
the community shares their success
stories for others to learn from.
So.
Again, we're really excited to have
some great customers presenting.
CDW, their managed service provider
team is going to be presenting on
automated customer facing reporting.
We're going to have GlideFast
presenting on automated customer
facing status reporting.
We're going to have leaders from
the Teradata and Cignet PMOs talking
about how they've operationalized
automated reporting within their PMOs.
And, , all of these people are
your peers and they've, done it
with our help, they've done it
with their internal resources.
So I think it is really going to be a
great event to learn, but also to, to
really connect the dot to where the
way you're doing it today, isn't the
way that you maybe should be doing it.
And taking the leap isn't as
difficult as you might think it is.
CJ: Yeah, that's great.
And , one of the, sessions that
they really caught my eye, Rob.
Um, Robin Ashley is vivid
charts versus PowerPoint.
The heavyweight report bill showed out.
Duke: nice.
Who's doing that?
Ashley M: Uh, Ksenia, our director
of customer success is going to
be the main speaker on that one.
And so the idea is she's going to take
a desired outcome, a report that she
wants to build with ServiceNow data.
She's going to pre record herself doing
it in PowerPoint versus setting it up in
a VividCharts template in the platform.
And then we're going to play them side by
side and she's going to provide commentary
on how much easier it is and the things
that you're missing when you think
you're being efficient in PowerPoint.
So that one's going to be really fun.
CJ: I love this.
I love this.
This is this right here, this
session is going to illustrate like
all the value right there that vivid
charts brings to the table, right?
Because you're going to see.
Transcribed by https: otter.
ai Immediately, like how much better
it is to do things in vivid charts
than it's to do in PowerPoint.
And I'm Microsoft certified.
I've been in it for a
long, long time, right?
Like, I do not like PowerPoint.
I am not a fan of Excel, right?
. So, , I'm definitely
in, in the audience of.
Yes.
Move it all to service.
Now move it to vivid charts.
Let's do everything there.
Let's leave these kind of relics
of the past , behind, especially
if you've already, if the
data's already in service now.
I'm looking very forward,
very much forward to this.
In addition to, , a very on a Duke
session about building service now
reporting program that matters.
Do you want to talk
about that a little bit?
Duke: Um, sure.
I guess the thing that I am most
passionate about is, everything
that happens before you realize
the genius of vivid charts, right?
going from that stage of, air
quotes do reporting to making a
solution that actually matters
that actually moves the needle.
I can't even calculate the amount of
money that has been spent on service
now that hasn't even at the start.
At the start, talked about what outcomes
do we expect are going to improve.
CJ: Yes,
Duke: I'd take like 9 out of
10 customers that just say,
okay, we got to implement ITSM.
If you ask them, what outcomes does
incident manage, incident management
provide, and how do you know it's working?
Like how many out of 10,
Corey, do you think would just
stare blankly back at you?
CJ: uh, 9 10 didn't, then it's approved.
Duke: I would, I would agree.
And so it's like somebody has to care
about building a solution that matters.
And that's what I love about
the ServiceNow ecosystem.
everybody's baller, right?
They're just like, Oh my goodness.
Finally, a lever that I
can use to up my career.
I can slay some dragons with
this tool, look like a hero.
And that gets me to the
next stage of my life.
So I'm banking on the people who want
to slay dragons will listen to this
story, will listen to this, lecture
that teaches you how to actually build
a reporting paradigm and transition
from just being that poor SOB that's
got to listen to like the next
different way somebody wants a list.
View grouped going from just these ad
hoc reports by the dozen to building
a program, a reporting program that
takes whole solutions from deployment
to the visualization of wow, this is
working well, this was money well spent,
CJ: Yes.
Duke: or we're not getting the value yet.
And here's where it's going wrong.
CJ: Yes.
Duke: did that answer ranted there a bit,
CJ: No, no, absolutely.
Right.
And I'm going to take this, a
little bit to a meta level.
. And talk about the outcomes of, building
a reporting program around outcomes.
. And 1 of and that may come is that
you get a, you end up with a service
now, , platform and instance, . That
is more helpful to the business
than it's ever been before.
. And that's one of the things that we're
seeing now in this industry kind of
writ large is that, , a lot of folks
have been service now customers now
for quite a while, and they're starting
to get to that point where, they're
looking to get more out of the platform,
more out of the instance, right?
And they don't necessarily know
where to go or where to look right.
And I'm looking at how vivid charts
can actually provide help provide
that direction on how to take that
service now program to the next level.
Duke: Yeah, like I guess part of
what inspires it is like 17, 18
years ago when I was at a company
where we're using, we're using
magic, a Corey, you know, magic,
CJ: Oh, yeah.
Duke: weren't using, we
weren't using service now and.
Every single week, one group
manager would be like, I need
you to tweak this report for me.
it's my good morning.
Here's what we have to worry about.
And God helped them all.
They were all legit trying to, at
least they're reaching out to reporting
and saying, here's how I need to
improve the performance of my team.
But it was like 20 of these people, over
20, like individual group managers all
like with their own separate morning.
Like hit list report,
CJ: Yep.
, Duke: each of them were getting
some parts right, but nobody
was seeing big picture stuff.
And I was so like, I just, I
just spent so much time on it.
So much time.
And then, you know, we
had crystal reports.
in magic, right?
Crystal reports.
Oh,
CJ: that was good stuff.
Duke: I would have preferred having vivid
charts, but crystal reports was nice.
And I just decided I took a
whole bunch of time off hours.
I built a beautiful single crystal report
that took the best ideas of everybody.
And put it on one chart and it
showed them , here's the, your super
mega ultras that you got to worry
about, or everybody's fired, right?
Here's other stuff you
might be interested in.
Here's some lightweight trending.
And it was just game breaking.
they were so amazed by it.
but I didn't get there from nothing.
I had to really think about what makes
a good report, a good report and.
you know, I moved a
gigantic mountain with that.
I don't know where I'm going with this,
but essentially, it's just if you want
to go from somebody who's just filing
ad hoc reports to being the driver of
other teams being super satisfied with
being able to build their own case.
You know, for anything, here's
why we're doing awesome.
Here's where we're lacking extra
managerial energy or resources.
You can't do that with a whole
ton of forethought and I'm going
to teach you the forethought.
I just did a whole second pitch.
That's awesome.
But it's my podcast,
so I don't feel sorry.
CJ: So, one of the questions that I
wanted to ask is, , how did you all decide
to throw a digital conference, right?
, this doesn't seem to me like
something that you do on a whim,
nor does it seem to, be something
that, is a small endeavor.
So I'm just wondering, like, you know,
how you woke up one day and said, you know
what, we should do a digital conference.
Thank you.
Ashley M: no, that's a great question.
well, I mean, the first thing I'll
say is, , obviously our whole product.
Positioning proposition is
built around efficiency, right?
And being able to do things
digitally and in real time.
So I feel like it really played into
kind of our core mission and what
we're after when we talk about the
value that we provide our customers.
But really, I think the impetus
goes back to knowledge in May.
Um, it's my first time attending
ServiceNow's knowledge conference in May.
We brought a large team.
We got a ton of value out of it.
Simply because you gather all of these
really amazing people on their service
and service now community in one space.
But I was really blown away with
the level of speakers that they
were able to pull in and have speak
on a variety of different topics.
And as much as we were there to build
brand awareness and show people why
Vivi, you know, why and how Vivi charts
could help them in their business.
It was also great to sit on some of
those sessions and just learn a ton.
And so as a business, we
are really focused on.
Providing value back to the community.
And I felt like what a low tension
way to get a bunch of people together
and continue to build the service now
community and position vivid charts
in the center of it, then to have
this digital conference where we get
all these amazing people together
who are going to speak on different
topics and provide a ton of value.
, to our current and hopefully
future customers, right?
To your point, it's not a small endeavor,
but it's absolutely been a labor of love.
And I just think that the gains from
it will continue far beyond the event.
There's going to be so much content
that we're going to be able to put out
into the world to help people learn
how to better utilize their service.
Now, data, it just will
continue to give back.
I believe long after the conference.
CJ: Yeah, I'll be honest,
Duke: go ahead.
Thank you.
CJ: Let me start that over.
I'll be honest.
This is the 1st digital conference that
I'm actually looking forward to, right?
You know, that like most of the time.
, you go to a digital conference or you,
or one, , attempts to put one of these
things on and , the level of content
versus, um, it, it just doesn't seem like
they've thought it through in the way that
you all have, this feels very cohesive.
It feels like you have something
for everyone, no matter what part
of their career they're in or
what type of career they're in.
And I feel like it's going to
answer a lot of questions around.
Not only vivid charts, but reporting
and outcomes related to reporting
and why all of this matters.
Ashley M: Yeah.
I mean, those are such
thoughtful compliments, two
cliches that come to mind.
One is content is king, right?
It's really easy, especially as a marketer
to get preoccupied with how things look
and how you're presented and positioned.
And yes, of course I care about those
things, but if the content wasn't going
to be good, people weren't going to come.
And then the other cliche
is that a rising tide.
Lifts all boats.
Right?
I think I got that right.
And simply that means is we all learn
together and grow in our understanding
of how best to utilize service.
Now, obviously, hopefully vivid charts
wins in terms of showing people the value
that comes with not letting your service.
Now reporting be an afterthought,
but it also just helps to educate
people to your point at any area of
their any stage of their career as
far as service now goes, to better
educate themselves on these topics.
So we are really thrilled.
Duke: right, we are at
40 minutes of record.
Rob, Ashley, any last
words for the audience?
Rob W: for real time.
Ashley M: Right.
Gina is going to be a party.
CJ: Yeah, so where can we find it?
Duke: we'll put the links in
the, in the description below.
and also wherever you see
this posted on social media.
So we'll show both the links
for the real time event.
And, Ashley, if you could also send
me the resource calculators you
were talking about earlier, we'll
put that in the description below.
Ashley M: I will say that
if you head to vividcharts.
com, it's the first thing
you're going to see.
There's a banner at the top of every
single one of my web pages right now with
a link to take you directly to register.
So if you don't want to go
searching for other links, that's
a really easy way to find it.
CJ: Awesome.
Duke: All right.
I guess we're going to end it here.
Rob, Ashley, such a pleasure.
Thank you for making time for us.
Rob W: Corey, thank you
so much for having us.
This was a blast.
CJ: That was amazing.
Really, really appreciate you all's time.