Benchmarks overview

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated August 1, 2024
  • 5 minutes to read
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    Summary of Benchmarks overview

    The ServiceNow Benchmarks application securely collects daily data from your production instance and aggregates it into monthly global benchmark reports. This program enables you to compare your instance's performance against global, industry-specific, company size, and regional benchmarks. Participation is open to most ServiceNow customers by opting in from their production instance, excluding Express, Federal, and on-premise customers. Managed Service Providers (MSPs) have special access to MSP aggregate score data.

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    Data collection happens daily via Performance Analytics, with monthly uploads and downloads occurring automatically each month. Your instance’s benchmark results, global results, and ranking are provided mid-month, along with actionable recommendation candidates to help improve your KPIs. Email notifications alert relevant users when new benchmark data is available.

    Key features

    • Supports KPIs from multiple ServiceNow applications including ITSM, ITOM, Security Operations, and more.
    • Ability to customize KPI definitions to align with your instance's specific configurations.
    • Mobile-friendly Benchmarks dashboard in Service Portal with filtering by industry, user size, and geography for relevant comparisons.
    • Downloadable KPI reports and percentile rankings to understand your standing within peer groups.
    • Automated email notifications for data availability, historical data recalculations, and KPI updates.
    • Role-based access controls to secure data visibility.
    • Integration with Performance Analytics for detailed daily data collection and KPI drill-down.
    • Scheduled jobs for automatic or manual upload and download of benchmark data, including historical data generation.

    Benefits and practical value

    • Global anonymity: Your organization’s benchmark data is visible internally, while global benchmarks remain anonymous to protect company privacy.
    • Relevant comparisons: Filter benchmarks by industry, user count, or region to compare your performance against similar organizations, identified using standard industry codes and active user counts.
    • Trend analysis: Access six months of historical KPI data to track service delivery progress and identify areas for improvement.
    • Dynamic recommendations: Receive monthly tailored suggestions to improve KPI performance based on recent data.
    • Timely reports and alerts: Monthly reports are refreshed and downloadable, with email notifications sent to designated roles ensuring stakeholders stay informed.

    Important considerations

    • Changes to KPI configurations require one to two months of data collection before reflecting in monthly benchmark values.
    • The Benchmark Scheduler user (bm.scheduler) is automatically created and required for data collection.
    • Benchmarks are calculated excluding MSP data for general benchmarks but MSPs have access to exclusive MSP aggregate data.
    • Benchmark KPI categories only appear on the dashboard when at least one KPI is opted in for tracking.

    The ServiceNow Benchmarks application securely collects daily data on your instance and then aggregates the data into monthly global benchmark reports.

    This video provides an overview of how you can get started with Benchmarks.

    Performance Analytics collects daily data on customer instances. The data from the previous month is uploaded at the beginning of the following month via a scheduled job. If there are any errors, there are multiple retries.

    During the month the data is uploaded, the data is aggregated and monthly results (your instance results, global results, and your ranking) are downloaded to the customer instance mid month. Monthly recommendation candidates are provided that you can implement to help improve your KPI performance. An email notification is sent when the global data is available.

    ServiceNow has over 2850 customers that have opted into the Benchmarks program. All ServiceNow customers are allowed to participate in the Benchmarks program by opting in from their ServiceNow production instance, except:
    • Express customers
    • Federal customers
    • Customers with on-premise instances
    Note:
    You must have a production instance to opt into the Benchmarks program.
    Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and MSP-managed instances are supported and have exclusive access to global MSP aggregate score data. All instances will support the following benchmarks that can be downloaded for comparison in the Benchmarks dashboard:
    • Global, which applies to all customers
    • Industry category
    • User size, based on active user count
    • Companies in your industry category and those that are of similar size to your company
    • Geographical regions
    Note:
    • These benchmarks aren’t calculated using MSP data.
    • Along with the above Benchmarks, you will also receive the top performers in each of these categories.
    Changing KPI configuration within the month requires one to two months of data collection before your monthly values reflect that change.
    Note:
    The Benchmark Scheduler (bm.scheduler) user is added with Benchmarks. It’s required for Benchmarks data collection.

    Key features

    • Available KPIs from other ServiceNow applications such as ITSM, ITOM, Security Operations. For more information, see Benchmark KPIs.
    • Ability to change KPI definitions to match customizations.
    • Benchmarks dashboard in Service Portal (mobile friendly).
    • Ability to download KPI reports.
    • Ability to filter data based on the following parameters:
      • Industry, number of users, or geographical region.
      • Companies in your industry category and of similar user size.
    • Email notification when new aggregate monthly data is available.
    • Percentile ranking to indicate your standing within your participating peer group.
    • Recommendation candidates with guided setup to help improve KPI performance.
    • Product category-based roles to limit data access.
    • Integration with Performance Analytics for daily data collection and drill-down on KPI data.
    Figure 1. Benchmarks dashboard
    Benchmarks dashboard
    Table 1. Benefits
    Benefit Description
    Global anonymity Viewers in your organization have access benchmarks for your organization, however the global benchmarks are anonymous, and don’t include any company information.
    Industry comparison
    Using the Compare with drop-down in the Benchmarks dashboard, you can filter the benchmarks results by industry, ServiceNow user size, or geographical region to make the results more relevant to your organization.
    • Industry is determined based on the standard industry code in the account record for the company.
    • Number of users is determined by the number of ServiceNow active users within the company, so you can compare your company to similar-sized ServiceNow implementations to gain insight about your company.
    • Region is determined based on the Region field in the company table.
    If a filter category includes fewer than 20 participants, the corresponding data is shown in the Other category.
    Trends You can see the results of all published KPIs as well as the previous six months of history.

    You can then use the trend data to measure and report on service delivery progress over a period of time to determine what is working well and what needs improvement.
    Recommendations Data is analyzed and recommendation candidates are provided to help improve the performance of your KPIs.

    All recommendations are dynamic and are updated monthly, based on data from the previous month.
    Reports

    Benchmarks reports get refreshed monthly, which can be downloaded in PDF format. An email notification is sent to the customer when new data is available.

    Email notification

    Users with the Benchmarks admin (sn_bm_client.benchmark_admin) and Benchmarks data viewer (sn_bm_client.benchmark_data_viewer) roles automatically receive email notification regarding availability of monthly scores, historical data recalculation, and new KPIs. You must have system admin (admin) role to modify the email recipient list.
    • An email containing notification information is sent when the monthly global data is available. Monthly results (your instance results, and global results) are downloaded to the customer instance mid month.
      • Subject: New Monthly Benchmarks report is available now
      • Body: ServiceNow Benchmarks has been updated with <month> data. You can see the updated Benchmarks by viewing the Benchmarks Dashboard <Benchmarks Dashboard Portal link>.
    • An email containing notification information is sent when historical data for the past six months is recalculated.
      • Subject: Historical Global Benchmarks scores have been refreshed
      • Body: The global Benchmarks scores of last six months have been recalculated with improved data quality. You can see the updated Benchmarks by visiting Benchmarks Dashboard <Benchmark Dashboard Portal Link>.
    • An email containing notification information is sent when an updated KPI version is introduced (with some fixes, for example).
      • Subject: One or more Benchmarks KPI versions have changed
      • Body: The latest Benchmarks scores have a new version of following KPIs with improved data quality.

        < KPI name>.

        You can see the updated Benchmarks by visiting Benchmarks Dashboard <Benchmark Dashboard Portal Link>.

    Benchmarks notification emails are accessed using the System Settings > Notifications navigation menu.

    Benchmarks data transfer

    Your Benchmarks score data is automatically uploaded to ServiceNow on the third day of the month. Global scores are automatically downloaded to your instance on the 11th day of the month.

    You can manually upload or download scores beyond those days of the month (on demand) by executing the Benchmarks scores scheduled jobs through the System Definition > Scheduled Jobs navigation item.
    • Upload the benchmark scores (automatically runs on the first day of the month)
    • Download the benchmark scores (automatically runs on the ninth day of the month)

    These on-demand scheduled jobs are useful if, for any reason, there was a failure in the automatic upload or download scores process and it is after the cutoff dates. You can also run a scheduled job to generate six months of historical data.

    Benchmarks KPI categories

    Benchmarks supports KPIs from other ServiceNow applications such as ITSM, ITOM, Security Operations, Conversational Interfaces, Success Dashboard, and Strategic Portfolio Management. For more information, see Benchmark KPIs.

    Note:
    The categories do not display on the Benchmarks dashboard unless, any KPI is opted in for tracking the metrics in Benchmarks.