Vanessa Smith, ServiceNow and Anish Sethi, United Nations | ServiceNow Knowledge 23

This is techstrong tv. Welcome back to ServiceNow Knowledge 2023. org, which has got a whole sort of unique mission, something you might not have seen or heard before.

Vanessa, let's start with you. What's the mission exactly? Why do we need a dedicated unit for this?

What's, what's fundamentally changing about the way we think about, say, nonprofits in that whole sector? Sure. First, so first, thanks for having me.

org. Um, I have the honor and privilege to lead this initiative, which is really focused on addressing the transformation gap that we see exists between the for-profit world, who for decades have benefited from digital transformation and the value that digital transformation can bring from an efficiency, effectiveness, and agility perspective. Bring that same level of transformation to the nonprofit world at scale.

Traditionally, nonprofits either due to funding issues, uncertainty in the macro environment, haven't had the level of expertise or the number of resources to drive digital transformation at scale. org is about bringing the power specifically of the ServiceNow platform to drive efficiency, effectiveness, and agility to the nonprofit world at scale. By doing that, we live out our own purpose as an organization by making the world work better for everyone and democratizing the now platform for the nonprofit world.

And how did you guys get involved with this conversation? How it's been a journey for us, and we have very similar missions. When we started our journey with ServiceNow, it goes back to what UN stands for.

I mean, the secretary, I point here, the Secretary General, had, uh, announced the sustainable development goals for the world. That's the 2030 agenda to make a world a better place. And when we talk about those goals, we, uh, have, we have areas that touch almost everything.

Connectivity, poverty, education, all of that is covered, but not many people know. Behind these goals was a reforms agenda that the Secretary General announced for un and that reforms agenda was very simple. Let un be a technology organization which can standardize and improve on processes.

And with that mission in mind, we approached ServiceNow. I mean, I did go and meet the then CEO of ServiceNow, John Donahue, and said, explain that, you know, what is a reforms agenda and what are we trying to do? And he was smart about it, and he understood what a world of non-profit is.

His wife used to work for you, and it's here, the refugee agency that we're talking. He said, Anish, I totally understand. If you can make them work together, I promise you ServiceNow would give you what you need.

And that was the start of what we call the journey. We had to put a lot of construct in place, a lot of education, a lot of, uh, building blocks for be, for us to be able to then say that, you know what, you could be using the platform at the pace, at the power at which it was meant to deliver. That is digitizing the processes.

I do run that agenda for un I I do run that, uh, digital solution center. And for me at, at site at every time is what is a solution that one agency is using that I can replicate to the second to the third? We are a nonprofit UN agency, totally cost recovery.

And I'm actually be very proud to say that we are an implementation partner of service now within the nonprofit world. We live this dream to be able to democratize the use and the power of platform, not just to the UN constitutes taking it at further into the UN mission. When what you saw in the opening remark, the Ukrainian crisis and the platform of the contact center, that's the power of working together.

That's the power of being able to come up with a solution that can solve a problem at the pace at which it's needed. It's the pace that the construct and the homework was able to solve. What makes digital transformation in a non-profit different from a for-profit entity?

What are their challenges? What are their issues? What are you seeing that they're struggling with?

Sure. Um, thanks for that follow up question. So first, um, we truly believe the benefits can be the same, if not better, in the non-profit world.

As the for-profit world of digital transformation, here are some of the challenges that have held non-profits back. So number one, at least in today's economy, the uncertainty around the macro has put a real drag on the certainty of funding in the nonprofit world. So whether you talk about tailwinds, headwinds, crosswinds, supply chain inflation, the pandemic, all of these things have mean meant that we've created an uncertain environment from where those funds are gonna come from.

I think we cited a stat from the United Nations that less than 50% of their funding is certain going into the future, uh, follow on years. So their ability to invest in technology to drive digital transformation has been a real challenge, um, for them. And so as we engage with the non-profit community, how do we bring the expertise that we are able to build within the for-profit world, two nonprofits to address that funding challenge, for example.

Um, and then just second, just this digital maturity gap right now. We see today that only about 12% of nonprofits, um, would be considered highly digital, mature, digitally matured because of the funding, the access to the skill sets, et cetera. org and through leaders like a niche who have brought a pace of change, um, to their organizations, that we can close that digital transformation gap between for-profits and nonprofits and the benefit, which is why we're all doing this.

It's not necessarily driving top line, bottom line efficiency. Like we talk about in the corporate world. It's literally about saving human lives.

So Anish talked about the refugee call center that his and his organization stood up for the UN refugee agency U N H C R, through the power of the ServiceNow technology, through the technology from British Telecom, um, Anish and his team were able to set up a call center for Ukrainian refugees, and they're able to literally call in and get the help they so desperately need, whether that's housing, relocation, mental health services. This is just one example when you've got a leader in an organization who can close that digital transformation gap at scale. And when we find partners like ServiceNow, like British Telecom, what we can do together is really, really palpable.

Arguably, the UN is either one of or the largest nonprofit in the world, but when you look closer at it, it's probably made up of a hundred thousand nonprofits that are all individual little units. So how do you get that knowledge transfer from one to the other? Cuz everybody's got a little unique process or a way of doing something that they prefer.

So it's a cultural challenge. I'd imagine. 0, it's, it's UNC itself as technology driven organization, I talked about the reforms agenda, and that's what Secretary General started about 10 years back telling UN look, we need to be able to intelligently not just share knowledge, but to be built on common processes.

That's what drove us to say that, you know, what, what, what can we do to un to go to that level, to automate those processes, to standardize those processes, and then use the digital power to transform into efficiencies that will help us deliver our mission at fraction of that cost. Because cost is really, really important. Uh, when it comes to agencies, there are a lot of agencies in those hundreds which are in the forefront and visibility where they could be a crisis that brings them there.

They have the ability to draw more. They are digitally more savvy. But then there are other spectrum of UN agencies, which, which struggle.

They have very important missions, but they are never in that limelight. They struggle to hold on to those few dollars that they get from member state, but they are continuing to solve the problem. The power that we do with creating a cross-platform solution and the power we do by equally creating it in a sustainable and a cost effective way helps us, you know, help other UN agencies to be able to use the same power to be equally efficient.

Again, I, some of the challenges that she talked about is very visible. When we work with cross borders, we work with cross-cultural agencies, we see equally other challenges that I think ServiceNow has been very helpful, uh, in understanding and coming forward in unique ways in solving that. And I, I think the important that is always at the top of our mind is data sovereignty UN provides a very special, um, space for the world data and is covered under the amenities and privileges act of un which every member state respects for un when we talk about crisis data, it's UN data.

It's not a national data. It does not matter if the crisis is in one part of the world. No, it's a UN data.

How do we extend that model into a place where this data is still protected in the cloud of a private service provider and multiple service providers working together? I think this is, this is the homework that we will continuously evolve with service order or we have actually done a lot in, in, in being able to come up with those models where we can actually, we know where they're hosting our servers that are running these solutions. Their coun, legal council team and other audit teams have written agreements in ensuring that, you know, these are protected, but we need to build on those fundamental building blocks that makes solution easy and accessible to our constituents.

0 agenda, which is how could UN be the smart organization that drives the digital agenda and the digital public good to help other member states, other countries? There is a lot of digital divide, whether it's through connectivity or through literacy or through capability in the world still. How could we create that infrastructure that can be used as digital public Could I, I think that to me opens the door and I welcome the ServiceNow or org initiative.

I think we will be solving some of those challenges. Do you think that if we can lower the cost of providing the services, that there might be more funds available to create more nonprofits to go handle different tasks and things that we just don't have the resources now to go address? Uh, yes.

Um, I, I do agree with that. org is to be focused on a couple of things. One is delivering in, in the for-profit world, we'd call it business outcomes, but delivering against the organizational mission and KPIs is very key.

When we stand up an initiative, whether it's the regional call center or even some of our traditional I tsm, um, employee experience solutions for ServiceNow and we engage with a non-profit, we are focused on how important it is to drive adoption and everything that goes into driving that value and that outcome. So that's number one. The second part of the equation, other than just low cost, is around total cost of ownership.

org where corporations are trying to support nonprofits, there's some model that says, Hey, let me give you something for free. And we all know nothing in life is free. Yeah.

org, we're saying we're trying to create sustainable partnerships with the nonprofits and NGOs that we work with. And so we're focused on not just a free upfront, throw something over the technology over the wall and see what you can do with it. We're there for the long term.

How are we gonna implement it? We bring in partners like for example, with the regional call center mm-hmm. We partnered with not only British Telecom, but also third era to implement the solution fastly and at scale.

And then there's the ongoing support. What happens if something goes down in the call center? How do we make sure a niche and his team have the full support to create a sustainable solution, not a one-off, one time, um, throw over the wall free exercise.

So focus on driving organizational outcomes to achieve the mission faster, and a focus also on reducing total cost of ownership of running the solution. org is taking to the nonprofit community cuz they can't afford to just accept a bunch of free stuff and then figure it out on the other end. Every dollar that is applied to it or to manage a process is one less dollar that goes to the core mission for the Absolutely.

Um, what is your sense of the average, um, non-profits budget? How much of that is allocated to these kind of infrastructure management issues and the, the tools to get the job done and can and how much of that might be reallocated? So it's, it's a very interesting question, but, uh, it impacts all the nonprofits.

Uh, and when we hear that technology is driving the business, these smaller nonprofits are unable to get that level of funding dedicated to the improvement. That's where, uh, sustainable solutions that we put together by partnerships and not necessarily lowering the cost of licenses. When we approach ServiceNow, we said, it's your call.

I'm not here as a procurement negotiator with you. Mm-hmm. You want, you, you need the dollars to innovate, but we need your support to be able to create a sustainable model, to be able to create that value that not just one of the rich agencies where this ratio is absorbed much easier, where they have the dollars to innovate and transform faster is helping us out build that infrastructure, build that capability, build that, uh, implementation overheads that then can actually help the smaller agencies we have in the last four years, build that foundational models and it will evolve on that.

Again, very hard to say, but I think most of the UN agencies, we find that this ratio, uh, of operational versus execution is about 40, 60, you know, 40 goes towards operational. And it's not that, it's just, it, it's sometimes calamities ask for people to be dedicated. I mean, at pandemic you would've seen almost every country, every government, every locality would have been creating solutions to help that local population.

Hindsight, you got back and said, why did we create so many vaccination portals to register it? Why didn't the world come together and create a centralized, because that's a natural reaction to any disaster. How do I put, because everyone's focused in solving the problem at that point in time.

Efficiency takes a backseat. But if you have thought ahead, if you have created a portfolio of solutions, like we talked about the contact center, I want to keep it in my digital solutions portfolio and said this is, this is how you just pull it and implement it. The team is ready, the infrastructure is ready, the the team which knows is ready.

That's the template for us to be able to do more with less. And I, I'd love to just build on what Anish just said. We talk about, um, in our, uh, ServiceNow vernacular, you know, cost reduction or growth.

The answer is yes, very similar. I think what Anish was describing there, we can help with both operational efficiency and with program deployment. So there's a room for the room for the platform to help in both areas.

And if we do some things preparatory, which might feel like operational expenses, it really does in the long term help achieve missions faster when, for example, disasters occur. Do we need to get more IT people involved in these efforts? Because, you know, the person who is passionate about a particular topic or subject, you can't really say to them, all right, great, join on up in here, man, this database.

Right, right. So how do we get the people who have the skills more involved? Um, I'll, I'll go first and I'd love to get yours as well.

So technology and technical skills gap for not only ServiceNow technical capabilities, but all technology is something that is, um, an issue across the globe. And one of the other announcements that ServiceNow talked about on day one of knowledge was around rise up and Rise up is our program to reach 1 million people around the world and train them up on the digital skills that we need in the marketplace. So certainly, um, part of the goal and um, aligning with the Rise up team is how do we take some of these people who need to be trained and are going through the rise up curriculum and leverage this new pool of technical talent for a market segment that has a lack of access at times to that technical talent, uh, technical talent.

So I think there's a good relationship that we can build to solve and address that technical skills gap through Rise Up and looking at the nonprofit or NGO community is one of the beneficiaries of that. That's very good. I mean, it was, it is a great program.

Mm-hmm. We see that every day. The challenge of, uh, transforming into a different skill from where we started.

And UN has a large workforce where we have run, I mean, I have teams which ran the learning and the training and the development. How do we actually get through the digital literacy transformation program, which is the foundation for the UN stuff to be able to be instrumental in making that change. But again, I I want to just move that focus a little bit from there to to, to the power of partnership.

You know, uh, when we started this journey, uh, I, I can't claim we knew everything. I can't claim that I had people who knew about this. I just had that vision that if I could bring people together towards the cause, I will be able to make that difference.

And that will spun off a chain where I would have that power of actually, uh, educating the UN staff who could then take on more and more and more. And I shamelessly went up to ServiceNow and asked for what they've helped us with. I equally went to the partners.

I said, look, you do it for profit. I'm not asking you to give charity and do it for no profit. Mm-hmm.

To give me a reasonable prize for you to do something good. And then do, do know that I will build that capability on ITSM stack one year down the line where I would need you to take on lead for the new things that ServiceNow is doing. I'm just giving your example.

But I do that with almost every vendor. I, I I think we learn and then we build up on things that we believe are fundamentally important for UN to retain that knowledge. And that's the only way we can lower the total cost of ownership and build an infrastructure and an army of people who could then drive the transformation that has worked for us.

It has, it, it it, but the initial set of de-risking, I am a not-for-profit. I am cost recovery. So I cannot put risk of unknown to the stakeholders of other UN agencies which are putting in money with us to do something.

I need to de-risk that. And I've been vocal, look, I may not know it, but I will build a coalition of willing, that coalition of willing for me has been very powerful. They've always stood up when we've called for action.

Mm-hmm. We have seen a lot of talk about AI this week. Mm-hmm.

What impact will AI have on non-profits? Well, I think the beauty of the AI challenge and opportunity as CJ so articulate, discussed in the keynote this morning is that for over five years now, we've been building AI technology into our suite of products, whether it's I T S M or csm. We saw some great examples of how do you describe the next best action.

How do you provide self-service in the hands of constituents or employees who are leveraging the help desk? So the same type of embedded AI and generative AI technologies that we brought to the for-profit world. I think we gave examples this morning of Starbucks and being able as a, um, coffee drinker to stop an order that went to the wrong location and take it to a new location.

There are similar use cases that nonprofit community can take to their world that are gonna drive that similar type of efficiency. So everything that we're building from an AI perspective into the ServiceNow platform is available in the same way to nonprofits. And the question is, what are the specific use cases?

Um, and maybe that's something Anish you can, you can talk about that are relevant from an AI perspective that will already are built into the platform that nonprofits can take advantage of. It's so topical. Uh, we, we had a board meeting two weeks back in Washington, and we had, I mean, my board is the group of CIOs of all the UN agencies mm-hmm.

Uh, in, in who consume our services. So The, the topic was generative AI and the, the mushrooming of generative AI in almost everyone's vocabulary. It's like, how do we, how do we leverage?

It's not that we don't leverage ai. We, I mean, I, I have teams that run data and analytics practices, which, which have been building on repeat un un cases, UN had Secretary General had talked about data strategy and how do we, we build our intelligence on data. Un like I started this conversation, is owns a lot of intelligent data, uh, when it comes to all the humanitarian agencies.

So we have involved food program, food data, we have in humanitarian nations, like, um, unit cr or Im the migrant data. We have the travel agency, which has the climate data. How do we correlate all of that as an intelligence which can drive, uh, the Secretary General's call for action, that call for reforms.

We are seeing and tracking technology that we are coming to that place where it can actually drive the insight into action. Um, I think I welcomed this morning's announcement with, uh, Nvidia and, and CJ in terms of, you know, being able to create domain specific, uh, intelligence in the platform. I think that's what we need to respect when it comes to AI for the world of non-profit.

We, we want to be able to talk about biases. We want to be able to talk about privacy. Mm-hmm.

All right guys, this has been awesome. If you have IT skills out there, these two need some help, please volunteer. Thanks for being on the show.

Thank you so Much. I appreciate that. Thank you so much.

Thank You folks. It's been a full two and a half days now at ServiceNow Knowledge. We have seen just about everything under the sun from helping nonprofits to how AI is gonna change the world.

Thanks for spending some time with us. We hope you found this informational and useful. And hey, do some good.

Take care. Thank you. Thank you.