Novavax boosts efficiency and productivity with ServiceNow

Start with a solid foundation

Through a series of advisory meetings, Novavax and NTT DATA developed a roadmap for the ServiceNow transformation. Together, they assessed the state of Novavax's existing implementation and set near- and long-term goals for the transformation.

"We were impressed with NTT DATA's expertise in the life sciences sector as well as its track record as a ServiceNow consultancy," says Gwen January, Vice President, Global IT Shared Services at Novavax. "We really appreciated NTT DATA’s willingness to take a crawl-walk-run approach in support of our partnership and transformation."

The first stage of that journey was a platform upgrade. Novavax was using ServiceNow's "San Diego" platform release. However, the team realized it could not make significant progress without upgrading the platform to the newer "Tokyo" release—a transition that happened without disrupting business operations.

With the platform upgraded, the teams solidified the foundation of its ServiceNow platform before adding any new capabilities. Although Novavax was already using ServiceNow as an IT ticketing system, the organization had yet to establish the standards and governance required to unlock the full potential of ServiceNow's capabilities.

To that end, NTT DATA recommended that the engagement proceed next with two crucial steps to ensure that IT frameworks and service applications could integrate and work together:

Establish a common service data model (CSDM)

Novavax lacked a standardized framework to define how data was organized and structured across its various IT systems and applications. Without that CSDM framework, it did not have consistent representation of the information ServiceNow needs to enable different IT systems to understand and communicate.

Create a configuration management database (CMDB)

A CMDB is a repository that stores detailed information about an organization's IT assets, known as configuration items (CIs), which include hardware, software, services and other components that make up the IT infrastructure. The CMDB also captures the relationships between the CIs, providing a comprehensive view of the IT environment and its dependencies.

NTT DATA advised Novavax on best practices for designing its CSDM and guided it through development. To ensure that Novavax had an accurate and scalable CMDB, NTT DATA used ServiceNow Discovery to find and map Novavax CIs and add them to the CMDB.

The ServiceNow platform upgrade to the "Tokyo" release and the creation of the CSDM and CMDB served as the foundation of Novavax's ServiceNow transformation. "With that work complete," says January, "we were ready to take the next step.”

Provide omnichannel employee services support

Following this core integration of CSDM and CMDB, the teams then worked to expand ServiceNow to improve the organization's employee experience. The team leveraged the Employee Centre functionality to deploy an employee service portal, which gives employees and managers omnichannel access to a centralized platform to report incidents and request services.

"Having the employee service portal is particularly important to us. We have an expanding global workforce, and the portal provides our employees around-the-clock access to the information and services they need to do their jobs," added January.

Optimize hardware and software governance

As Novavax continues to evolve, the number and nature of its hardware and software assets will adapt with it. In response, the company undertook, as the next step of its ServiceNow journey, to streamline its ITAM with ServiceNow’s Hardware Asset Management Professional (HAMPro) and Software Asset Management Professional (SAMPro).

Both will give Novavax simplified, real-time governance of its IT assets across the enterprise. As a result, the organization will be able to track its assets' location, configuration and status as well as manage maintenance, warranty and licensing information more effectively and efficiently. Furthermore, end users will be able to request equipment from an asset catalog through a modernized, marketplace-like web portal.

By leveraging the expertise of NTT DATA’s advisory services and the capabilities of ServiceNow, Novavax has successfully laid the foundation of a comprehensive ITSM solution that will scale with the company's evolving needs. By continuing to mature its ServiceNow capabilities and implementation, Novavax can continue to ensure seamless IT service delivery, reduce IT costs, and foster collaboration and employee experience, while remaining operationally agile.