For many organisations, going live on ServiceNow feels like a real milestone. The programme is delivered, the platform is switched on, and the project team moves on. On paper, the hard part is done. But a few months later, the questions start to appear. Teams are still relying on workarounds. Customer and service workflows don’t quite flow end to end. Adoption feels patchy. And while ServiceNow is technically live, the value expected from it is harder to point to.

This isn’t unusual. It’s something we see time and again. ServiceNow platforms rarely fail outright after go-live, but they often lose momentum as day-to-day reality takes over. In day-to-day operations, the signs are often subtle. CSM is live, but agents don’t fully trust it. ITSM is stable, but disconnected from customer-facing workflows. Service operations sit across multiple tools and teams. Reporting exists, but doesn’t quite answer the questions leadership is asking.

Individually, none of this feels critical. Taken together, it slowly erodes confidence in the platform. Over time, teams revert to email, spreadsheets, and parallel processes. ServiceNow becomes something people work around rather than work with. When you look closely, this rarely comes down to the technology itself. More often, it’s the result of what happens after go-live. Design decisions made during delivery are rarely revisited. Ownership of outcomes becomes blurred once the programme team disbands. Support models focus on keeping things running, not on improving how work actually flows.

At the same time, the business doesn’t stand still. Customer expectations change. Teams reorganise. New services are introduced. But the workflows in ServiceNow remain largely frozen in time. What was fit for purpose at go-live slowly drifts out of alignment with reality. Because this happens gradually, it’s easy to ignore. But the cost accumulates. Adoption drops. Data quality suffers. Leaders start to question return on investment. And the conversation quietly shifts from “how do we improve this?” to “do we need something else?”

At that point, organisations often assume the answer is another major programme or another platform change. In many cases, that’s unnecessary. Recovering value from ServiceNow rarely starts with a large transformation. More often, it starts by stepping back and looking honestly at how work actually happens today. Where do customer journeys break down? Where are teams compensating manually? Which workflows are over-engineered, and which ones are simply missing? What is the platform doing well, and where is it getting in the way?

Focusing on a small number of high-impact areas and improving them properly creates momentum. Confidence starts to return. Adoption follows. Value begins to compound again. ServiceNow is a powerful platform, but it isn’t self-sustaining. Value doesn’t come from going live once. It comes from continually aligning the platform to how the organisation actually operates. When value fades after go-live, it’s rarely a sign that ServiceNow was the wrong choice. More often, it’s a sign that the platform needs attention, ownership, and a pragmatic reset.

And in our experience, the most effective resets always start small.