Investment funding is a means of securing the capital required to manage, execute and deliver programs and projects involving successful delivery of products or services. To assist businesses strategically manage investment funding, ServiceNow New York release comes with an investment funding application in ServiceNow SPM (formerly ITBM) module that allows businesses to prioritize, strategize and manage investments.

Why Organizations Need ServiceNow SPM (Formerly ITBM) Investment Funding Solution

Funding can be internal, external or a combination of both. It can start from a simple investment on a single team to complex, international investments involving a joint venture. In the usual business planning cycle, internal funds are allotted to subsidiaries, business units, regions or departments.

Investment funding in a company requires involving several teams in the organization which can be challenging. The teams involved in managing programs and several projects are linked to deliver products and services. Each team is responsible for the success of their department to ensure the funding proves ROI.

Business units and delivery teams along with program and project teams need funding to deliver products or services. The risks may be external or internal, while the internal risks are validated by management, external risks can’t be ignored. Both external and internal risks can be mitigated. Information about these risks can be sent to management to facilitate better decisions. The investments allotted should be tracked from a top down view and bottom up view. This is why data management becomes a top priority.

The need to manage and deliver data to management in order to facilitate decisions along with managing the investment utilization is where the investment funding application within ServiceNow SPM (formerly ITBM) Module comes in. 

ServiceNow’s Investment Funding within ServiceNow SPM (formerly ITBM)

Investment Funding in ServiceNow helps management plan, manage and prioritize investments by allocating funds to entities subsidiaries, business units, programs, projects and teams. The Investment Funding features do the following:

• Create investments for funding entities
• Allocate funds to an investment
• Request funds from one or more funding sources

Figure: Investment Object Properties

Top Down Funding and Bottom Up Funding

Top Down Funding is a model where management allocates funds based on  business goals or a strategic initiative. Bottom Up Funding is a model where delivery teams request investments from funding sources in order to achieve an outcome or deliver a product or a service.

Features of ServiceNow’s Investment Funding Application within SPM (formerly ITBM) Module

• Create a top-level investment for a target to receive and allocate funds.
• Create an investment to fund a target.
• Request funds from a funding source for your investment.
• Allocate funds to investments based on business goals and available funds.
• Enter actual spends for your investments to track fund utilization.
• Place an incoming fund request on hold due to priorities or lack of funds.
• Track the flow of funds from your investment to other investments to make an informed decision when you allocate or request funds.
• Overview of domain separation in Investment Funding. Domain separation permits businesses to segregate data, processes, and administrative tasks into logical consortium called domains. This way one can easily control several aspects of this separation, including which users can see and access data.

About Author

Lokesh Kumar Narayana works as an ITSM process expert at V-Soft Consulting. He has over 14 years of experience which spans across both infrastructure management and software development services.  He is a ITIL® 2011 expert, Prince2® practitioner, ISO/IEC 20000® practitioner, certified Scrum® Master and a COBIT® Certified Professional. He has made notable contributions to the organization with his existing knowledge as a Principal Consultant in the ITSM Space.