Our Mission
At Align Financials, we are committed to helping ServiceNow customers maximize the value of their platform and achieve tangible outcomes.
Our team of Financial, Technical, and Procurement experts help customers enhance efficiencies, optimize costs, reduce 'swivel-chairing', and achieve seamless, intuitive experiences that improve results and enhance the user experience.
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Leveraging solutions such as Procure-to-Pay, Cash-to-Close, and Investment Planner, we help ServiceNow customers exceed KPIs and increase ROI.
Our Philosophy for Success
Implementation Best Practices
We often hear from customers who have invested in new solutions but struggle to demonstrate the anticipated value to their leadership. Just as new running shoes won’t compensate for a lack of race training, a great solution won’t compensate for a bad implementation. Before spending more time and money, consider a few best practices to set you up for success:
Identify Goals and Vision
Specifically, why are you doing this? What do you hope to gain, and why are you doing it? What is happening in your organization today that you wish to solve or improve? You need a solid vision to sell it to your team and your leadership.
Analyze Your Foundation
Looking at your current processes and operations, is everything running as smoothly and efficiently as possible? Following our athlete model, are you eating and training right? If not, stop the tool discussions and determine where processes can improve. A tool won’t fix an under-performing process; but it can enhance a good one.
Know Your Weaknesses
Every athlete has areas that need extra work; organizations are no different.
Look at other implementations you’ve done and note what went well and what areas needed work. If you already have solutions that aren’t meeting your expectations, critically examine their shortcomings and what contributes to them — there’s no sense in recreating what hasn’t worked.
This journey will take effort, so build a plan that plays on your team’s strengths and accounts for areas that need extra attention.
Gear Up for It
Adopting an enterprise operations approach takes discipline. Like a casual athlete deciding to take it to the next level, lifestyle changes and demands can be significant. If you begin this journey without a solid organizational change management plan, the stress on the athlete (the people) will become too great, and the good intentions won’t be enough to reach the goal.
Everyone on the team must understand what they’re working toward and why. If the executive leadership has a vision, but the middle management isn’t entirely on board, doesn’t completely understand it, or can’t explain it to their employees, the program won’t succeed.
Name Your Coaches
Executive leadership must rally the troops, set the strategy, and keep motivation strong. Without a strong champion in upper management, enthusiasm will wane, and results will diminish.
Of course, they'll need process owners. Someone needs to analyze performance for each process or practice and look for ways to improve. If you do not assign process owners, the best you can hope to achieve will be similar to what you're doing today. That's because your teams are in tactical or performance mode. They may sense that something could be better but will need to watch the gameplay videos or analyze the stats to know where to focus their improvement efforts. That's why a process owner is so critically important.
Prepare for the Long Haul
Pace yourself. Grow into it and celebrate the milestone successes. Build a roadmap and visualize the wins on the way to the top. Implementing an roadmap without refined processes and a robust support model will yield frustration and dissatisfaction. Invest in your people and processes to operate at their personal best, then let your new solutions give you the competitive edge.