New Report Reveals Opportunities to Optimize ServiceNow Operations as Platform Adoption Accelerates

• xtype’s 2025 State of ServiceNow Operations Report identifies key optimization areas as organizations expand their ServiceNow implementations

xtype, the Multi-Instance Governance Platform company, today released its inaugural 2025 State of ServiceNow Operations Report, revealing valuable insights into how organizations are governing their ServiceNow implementations. The comprehensive study examines operational practices across instance management, development processes, security, and governance - as well as Gen AI adoption - as organizations expand their ServiceNow footprints.

Key Findings

The 2025 State of ServiceNow Operations Report is based on comprehensive survey data collected from ServiceNow customers across industries in Q4 2024. The study analyzed customer behaviors, operational patterns, and technology adoption trends across organizations with varying platform maturity levels, uncovering several valuable insights:

• Multi-Instance Management Practices: 70% of organizations report that clone-down processes impact development workflows, with 43% performing clone-downs quarterly. Early-stage users (0-2 years) typically maintain just two development instances, while 55% of mature teams manage 4+ instances, demonstrating how complexity scales with adoption.
• Governance and Security Landscape: The report reveals varied approaches to governance, with 30% restricting admin privileges to development instances only, while 16% provide full admin access across all environments. In terms of audit practices, 25% track audit logs in spreadsheets, and in healthcare specifically, 20% maintain no formal audit logs despite regulatory requirements.
• Industry-Specific Patterns: In heavily regulated sectors like healthcare and financial services, organizations are adapting their ServiceNow operations to meet demands, with 66% of financial services organizations maintaining larger teams (16+ members). Additionally, 83% of retail organizations cite governance and compliance as a top operational challenge.

Maturity Impacts Operations

The report identifies distinct operational patterns based on platform maturity:

• Early-Stage Users (0-2 years): 65% manage deployments via spreadsheets and 75% maintain at least two development instances. Without proper instance management tools, these organizations struggle to scale effectively.
• Growth Stage (3-5 years): This largest segment (41% of respondents) shows evolving process maturity, with 67% performing clone-downs monthly or quarterly. However, 73% report extended developer downtime during these processes, translating to significant productivity losses. Many organizations in this category cited "environment sync issues" as a persistent challenge.
• Mature Users (6+ years): Despite their experience, only 57% utilize commercial tools for deployment automation, with the remainder still relying on homegrown solutions or manual processes. Most concerning, even at this stage of maturity, 55% identified "customization versus standardization" as their primary operational challenge when managing dev, test and production instances.

"These findings expose critical challenges in ServiceNow instance management as organizations scale their implementations," said Ron Gidron, CEO of xtype. "ServiceNow isn’t one system anymore—it’s dozens. Customers are running production, test, dev, training, and regional environments with no visibility, fragmented changes, inconsistent policies, and risky workarounds. This is no longer a DevOps problem—it’s a governance problem. And xtype is the first platform purpose-built for it.”

Gidron continued, “The security findings reveal a systemic governance failure. With many allowing unrestricted admin access and operating without any cross instance audit trails. In healthcare, the fact that 1 in 5 organizations lack formal audit logs isn’t just risky—it’s a regulatory crisis waiting to happen. This isn’t a tooling issue. It’s a lack of visibility, control, and accountability across environments. Without governance, these teams are flying blind.”

AI and Advanced Technology Adoption

The report reveals significant momentum in AI adoption and other advanced technologies:

• Gen AI Implementation: While 14% have already implemented Gen AI capabilities within their ServiceNow environments, a substantial 70% plan to adopt within the next 12 months. This demonstrates strong interest in leveraging ServiceNow's latest AI innovations to automate processes and enhance service delivery.
• AI Adoption by Industry: Technology and telecom sectors lead in AI adoption, with 33% having already implemented Gen AI solutions - more than double the overall average. Additionally, 82% of large teams (16+ members) plan to adopt Gen AI within the next year.
• Creator Studio Traction: 11% of organizations are currently using ServiceNow's Creator Studio, with an additional 41% planning to adopt it. However, adoption intent varies significantly by industry, with 60% of financial services respondents indicating no current plans to implement it.
• Platform Expansion: Nearly 100% of respondents plan to onboard at least one new ServiceNow module in the coming year, indicating exceptional confidence in the platform's value proposition.

“Our data shows that ServiceNow customers are enthusiastically embracing the platform's expanding capabilities, particularly around AI," said Scott Willson, Head of Product Marketing at xtype. "The strong planned adoption rates for Gen AI—70% within a year—demonstrate that organizations see tremendous potential in these new capabilities. However, maximizing AI's value requires a solid operational foundation. Organizations that proactively address instance management challenges, implement strong governance frameworks, and automate key processes will be best positioned to leverage AI and maximize the platform's transformational potential."

About xtype

Founded in 2020, xtype is the first and only governance platform for ServiceNow. Built for multi-instance environments, xtype gives platform teams real-time visibility, control, and automation to accelerate delivery without losing compliance. Global leaders in banking, insurance, and healthcare trust xtype to reduce risk, enforce policy, and move faster with confidence. www.xtype.io

ServiceNow, the ServiceNow logo, Now, Now Platform, and other ServiceNow marks are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of ServiceNow, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries.

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