ServiceNow offers Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solutions for enterprises that need better management of their digital workflows. Like Salesforce, Oracle, and other competitors, it’s made a significant business of acquiring smaller companies over the past several years, then integrating those acquisitions’ assets into their product stack. That makes ServiceNow training a big deal for some technologists.
ServiceNow’s broadening portfolio now includes products for customer service management, financial services operations, order management, field service management, HR and legal services, supplier lifecycle management, and much more. No matter what your industry or enterprise, chances are good you might find yourself building out and/or maintaining ServiceNow products as part of your organization’s overall stack.
Where can I start ServiceNow training?
Like many enterprise- and business-oriented software companies, ServiceNow offers quite a bit of in-house training, along with professional certifications. And just like those other training programs, ServiceNow segments its training into multiple areas of focus.
For example, its NextGen Professionals Program has three areas of focus: Academic, Skills for Life, and Youth Development. Within these three areas, ServiceNow provides technical training and certification opportunities to students, veterans, youth, and transitioning workers.
The company also provides a helpful "Chart your own learning adventure" page to help applicants discover courses and certifications by keyword and validate skills.
Is ServiceNow worth learning?
That’s an excellent question. Given its penetration into the enterprise, there’s no downside to learning ServiceNow’s technology if your tech work supports operations and management. ServiceNow also likes to claim that its training and certifications can also help build a technologist’s business sense.
"While our training and certifications give teams and individuals the skills they need to master ServiceNow, we also look to educate the whole person, focused on business acumen to build a meaningful, future-proof career," says Deaddin Edris, ServiceNow's senior manager of product marketing, training and certification.
Is ServiceNow training free?
The company has introduced a "Welcome to ServiceNow" course that gives users a free start to learning. The on-demand course takes two to four hours and lets individuals work at their own pace. It features an overview of the ServiceNow platform, including the user interface, and how to navigate and use menus on the platform, and more. At the end, there’s an optional micro-certification.
After completing the Welcome to ServiceNow course, learners who want to follow a system administration learning path should complete the new ServiceNow Fundamentals courses to ensure they have the content and knowledge needed to cement their status as ServiceNow experts.
Additionally, ServiceNow Fundamentals, the company's marquee course for individuals looking to become Certified System Administrators, will be split into two courses (ServiceNow Administration Fundamentals (SNAF) and ServiceNow Administrator Advanced (SNAA) starting on October 31, 2022.
Does ServiceNow training include certifications?
The company also offers five certifications tracks, including:
For the application specialist track, for example, there is a three-stage path comprised of a prerequisite course, followed by 10 individual training blocks, followed by the certification exams.
More advanced certifications (such as the Certified Technical Architect certification, which is a three month program costing $6,000) require three years of ServiceNow subject matter expertise (SME) experience. The advanced tier also requires several minimum ServiceNow certifications as a perquisite, including:
- Certified Administrator Certification (CSA)
- Certified Application Developer (CAD)
- Two Certified Implementation Specialist (CIS) disciplines (ITSM, CSM, HR, SecOps, ITOM etc.)
The Certified Master Architect (CMA) certification requires at least five years of ServiceNow consulting experience and experience as technical lead in more than six ServiceNow customer implementation engagements (mostly large, complex, and global in nature). The program, which costs $15,000, is approximately six months in duration and includes several components, including team activities, weekly webinars, immersion events and finally a board review.
ServiceNow also offers custom training and adoption plans, including the Adoption Accelerator, a series of four guided workshops and a personalized coaching session. From a training perspective, ServiceNow is also evaluating new technologies that incorporate areas such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and virtual reality.
