Employee Workflows and Low Code Solutions – Jithin Bhasker, ServiceNow and Chris Tozier, NASCAR

This is texturing TV. Hey everyone, welcome back here to Tech strong TV, you know one of the things I love about doing Tech strung TVs. You never know.

What I'm we're going to cover what areas we hit on. So I I will confess I'm a little I'm a little thought struck. We're actually gonna do a story about NASCAR today, right?

So for all my NASCAR fans out there strap in buckle up, I guess is the right word. We've got a little story about NASCAR and technology and I think you're gonna love it to tell us the story. Let me introduce you to two people and I'm gonna ask them to introduce themselves.

First up. I want to introduce you to Jason bascar. Justin is the GN GM and VP of app engine business unit at servicenow.

Hey gethin. Welcome to techstroke TV. Thank you, Alan.

Thank you for being here children before I need to introduce Chris. I think be a good idea. Maybe give people a little bit about you about what you do at service now and a little bit about this technology partner program.

We're gonna talk about Yeah, of course. Yeah, great me to you all and I'm jippen Bhaskar been with service now for the last four years in the past at service now, I will develop a tools focused on devops and the other persona. I recently took on the role of a GM VP for app engine, and I'm really excited to be here with Chris whom we have a longer deeper conversation prior to service.

Now. I work with companies like Adobe Google Dell and few startups all in technology or product management role and a bit of a corporate strategy as well really excited to be here and looking forward to share more. Thank you.

Thank you given. All right, Chris. Christosier is managing director Enterprise applications at NASCAR and Chris.

Welcome to techstrong TV. Hi, thank you for inviting me Alan. I'm it's great to be here and to talk with Jeff.

And again, we had a great conversation the other day. Um really excited about our technology partnership that we're forging with service. Now, if you think about NASCAR it really is one of the most technologically and Engineering Focus sports that are out there at the very heart of our sport.

It's a car and it's it really is rocket science. What goes into making the sport work and I'm very very happy that as an organization. We have that in our DNA and we've taken some very significant steps recently that are advancing our organization beyond the sport and how we operate so that's what that's what we're excited about talking today with you guys and really looking forward to digging in a little bit.

Fantastic welcome and thanks for being here Chris. Look, no, no pressure. But you're the first NASCAR person we've had on Deck strong TV.

So, you know, we look at we're looking for big things. Well, I'm happy to be the first so all right. So, you know look.

We think of NASCAR we think fast speed these are things that go well with it and what we want to do in it as well right go faster, but we also want to do it with higher quality and with security those NASCAR actually, right? We whether we're talking about cars on the track or what you're doing technologically you want to go fast there. You want to do it better you want to do it safer?

And but we don't often think of NASCAR as a technology company, right? We all know software is eating the world. We've heard that already but When am I talk about like, you know, what's some of the cutting Ed Tech Cutting Edge technology that NASCAR is is working with and bringing or utilizing to bring you know, the very best to it's audience and and to all of us.

That's a that's a great question. It's happening all over the sport. And you know, I don't in a lot of ways.

We are a company like a lot of companies we have to do all the all the same things that a lot of companies need to do. But we also have a very technology focused a very visible product that that we put out every every week, right. So there has been in a ton of change that happens in our that is happening in our sport.

We have a lot of it, you know in a few years ago the timing and scoring of events was very analog and very much driven visually and with with sensors that were physically in the track, so as cars went around the track there was a very kind of analog mindset around where those cars literally were on the track now they're we with our next gen car we've A huge step forward we have sensors all over that car. But the ability to get data off from those cars and in pipeline into all of our partners, so that information has to go to the teams. It has to go to competition.

It has to go to Media. It's an incredible amount of information coming off from these vehicles that needs to be almost, you know, literally real time across a whole spectrum of consumers of that data. So there's been huge advances in that space.

We've had huge advances in how we engineer tracks and how we engineer cars as part of that next gen car project. The simulations that go on to to try out different theories. It's all happening digitally now, it used to have not that long ago.

We'd have to build the car and build the track in order to test it. All of that. Testing is done digitally now.

So there's things that are changing directly in the sport, but we're also changing very very quickly as an organization. Just like everybody else's we've all under undergone an incredible amount of change in the last few years. We've we've undergone merger acquisition activities.

We've all had to deal with a hybrid Workforce and NASCAR is very much a traveling organization. We have one major event every weekend and the whole the whole support organization has to follow that event across the country every week. So it's very different than other sports where you have multiple events on the same weekend.

We have one big one. So that Mobility is very very crucial and the ability for our Workforce to perform all the actions and all that the tasks that may need to do while remaining mobile and very Nimble and fast has just you know, increased exponentially in the last few years. So that that is why we're here with servicenow because they're integral in that support.

Excellent. Thank you. So Jiffy, let's talk about what how do you view servicenow's mission in this partnership?

Yeah, well, by the way, it's an owner to be talking to Chris. We were having a conversation last week about how best to convey the amazing partnership. We are actually forging together.

One thing Chris told me during the conversation is that he wants NASCAR to be one of the most Forward Thinking Visionary customer for service now which stuck in my mind in terms of what we need to do and what what the responsibility we have ahead of us NASCAR started the journey with service now with the employee experience workflow product where we actually automated a lot of manual request process for employees across it HR legal Finance all you can think of As a part of it as we evolve our partnership now Kristen team is actually taking on the Journey of building custom applications for employees across the NASCAR team so that they can actually go faster in terms being able to get all the data and the sensors and the amount of processes. They need to actually bring together to make sense of what they get out of the field which Chris was talking about earlier. Well, that's what we are really excited to partner about just to give you a little background about app engine as a product and a platform.

You all are family with some of our Market leading products, like itsm customer service management employee experience and all of it. Those are the products you can actually buy out of the box, but imagine the amazing platform, which it is all built on. That's what's app engine.

All of is all about. We are unleashing the power of the service now platform to the hands of any employee in the organization across with irrespective of the skill level you have from a developer point of view doesn't matter whether you're a low skill High skill or a pro developer. We're building an experience in which anyone across the organization can build custom applications, which can actually automate a lot of your processes reduce the toil in general.

That's what we are excited about. That's what the partnership which Chris and I are truly excited to move forward. very cool So guys, excuse my I really bad Pond here.

Chris just didn't talk to me. Where does the rubber meet the road? I would saving that to say here.

Where does the rubber meet the road on this partnership where we see it in action? Oh Alan. I thought I've heard every car in racing technology that exists but you actually came up with the one I haven't heard in a while.

So I appreciate that. I you know again, I think it really goes back to the reimagining of how we're using servicenow here. We were itsm customer very focused on our it operations, which you know is still very very important to us.

But the tool set really changed to meet the strategy that we had here again, we went through so much change. We were looking for ways to unify our employee base and looking at different strategies for that. But it really was almost one year ago this month when we were at the service now conference in New York City the you know, we got back to in-person conferences.

We're on the showroom floor and an employee and myself built an app on the showroom floor using an Excel spreadsheet and I used to be very technical. I was a DBA and system administrator, but it's been a while. So I'm a meeting sitter now and I would not I would not Pitch myself as a technical delivery person anymore, but we created an application without any training using the tools that app engine brings to Market and that was really the moment when we decided that service now had to be more than inward facing it operation tool.

We had to get that that functionality out into our into our employees. And you know the the idea of low code and citizen development those those terms have been around for a while. That was the first time where I really saw it happened it, you know it fulfilled the promise of those terms.

So that's when we decided to actually become employee Center and use service now as our portal. As well. So we we are all in on service now because of the functionality that app engine brings to us.

So it really was a real-life moment of getting our hands on the tool with no training and being able to figure out. How how to create an application that was pretty impressive for us so it changed everything. Yeah.

Yeah sounds that's good just in your your thoughts on that. Well what just Chris stall is what inspires me as the head of this business unit Alan well. Your ability to create a custom application which can actually automate a lot of these processes and you can have thousands of those processes any Enterprise you take that's what inspires us every day.

And we pushing the boundaries to be able to make that experience as seamless and easy as possible doesn't matter how skilled you are from a developer or a coding point of view, right? I just want to add another note as well. As a lot of the developers listening to this podcast 60 to 70% of the code is reusable.

And got no also predicts 70% of the applications in the Enterprise World by 2025 will be all developed using low-code application platforms. That's the momentum. We are actually going after those are the users.

We want to really serve and support and Unleash the Power of this amazing industry best workflow platform of service now with no coding required at all. Absolutely. And this look that is the trend in the industry today.

Right? We looked a lot of today's applications actually contain. relatively small amounts of bespoke or original code it is I don't use the term recycled but reused code and you know, because a lot of the functionality you're not Reinventing the wheel every time right and that's what saving us the time in the effort.

We we can reuse the components to literally build an app on the Fly which I guess what you're both talking about here and without being necessarily. The developer right or a professional developer. Let's call it, you know and then but and it around the whole app engine thing and around the whole roll of the citizen developer right for a company like service now, there's two missions here.

They got to serve that citizen developer who's not a full-time developer, but wants to create powerful secure. applications kind of on the fly without having to go to the IT team and go through a whole, you know. The whole process of architecture and aims and all of that stuff, but at the same time there are Developer teams who say hey I got to get this done quickly and it's not forgive the term rocket science.

I you know, the the 90% of what I need already exist. I just want to You know put it together stack it together and get it out so that the team can use it and and those are developers and maybe they have a different. Mindset or a different level of working with an app Engine versus a citizen developer.

Right just and I mean, but you got to serve both of those audiences. Absolutely. And before I took on this role Alan, like I was sharing in my intro I build real developer tools very much focused on developer as a Persona and the more I have been embedded into that Persona and the world everybody loves automation.

Everybody loves the ability for you to pick a snippet of code and be able to automate and integration. It could be an APA connection which you want to do between applications irrespective of it. Like I said, 60 to 70 percent of all those components and lines of codes are reusable and there is a huge opportunity where we could actually deliver with the help of app engine irrespective of whether you're a pro developer or a city center developer in a company and that's what we want to support NASCAR with Crystal me.

We want to be the most Innovative partner and we want to put that innovation in the hands of every employee in NASCAR side, and that's a big responsibility. Us but it's the responsibility. We are thrilled to take on to be able to support that organization to go even more faster as the best racing car company racing Sports company in the world.

Excellent. I love it guys. We're about out of time Jason for people want to get more information about app engine or maybe become like a partner like NASCAR.

com within service now? Where should they look? com.

You could find creative workflow is the bigger umbrella of the product platform portfolio. We have and within the Creator workflow. You have the app engine and you have a lot of information and and you can also go to Google got now Forester all of them considers as a leaders and missionary in terms of delivering this platform and the capability in the market.

Great Chris besides watching races on TV. Where can we find out more about kind of the technology Mission and NASCAR. Do you guys have anything up on that?

Boy, there. Are there have been a lot of news stories. We get a you know, obviously we get a lot of attention for a lot of the changes that happen.

com. There are news stories that come out regularly because of how we are pushing as an organization to be technologically advanced that really is the first best way otherwise, you know, send us an email. I'm you know, we certainly will find people who can talk to you about what we're doing.

We're always looking for good partners. We're looking for ways of doing things better and faster. So, you know, thank you so much for giving us the opportunity and the platform for this discussion.

Oh Chris, we'd love to hear more about NASCAR. I I think our audience would too, but we got to run right now Chris just and thanks so much for being on Tech strung TV with us. Love this partnership.

You know, we'll be watching how it progresses and what's happening. Good luck to both of you. Excellent.

All right, thank you. All right. We're gonna take a break here on Tech strong.

We'll be back in a moment.