ServiceNow HRSD Implementation | State Research University

Replacing Manual Processes with a Modern Platform

The Client

The University is a large public research institution serving more than 26,000 students and supporting thousands of faculty and staff across its academic, research, and administrative operations.

Like many higher education institutions, The University depends on its employees to keep a complex organization running. Faculty, staff, HR professionals, and administrative teams all need dependable access to services, information, and support. When those services are difficult to navigate, the impact reaches far beyond HR. It affects the employee experience across the institution.

After working with Beyond20 on successful ServiceNow ITSM and CSM initiatives, The University saw an opportunity to bring the same structure and service experience to Human Resources.

The Challenge

HR support at a large university has to work for a lot of people, a lot of needs, and a lot of sensitive situations.

At The University, employees were reaching out to HR for everything from policy questions and service requests to more sensitive Employee Relations matters. Much of that work was being managed through shared inboxes, manual follow-up, and information spread across different places.

That setup made things harder on both sides of the experience. Employees did not have one central place to find HR information, submit requests, or check the status of a case. HR teams had to sort through incoming emails, route work manually, and keep track of requests without a consistent case management process.

Knowledge was another challenge. HR information lived in multiple locations, which made it harder for employees to find answers on their own and harder for HR staff to give consistent guidance. Every question that could not be answered through self-service created another email, another handoff, and another item for the HR team to manage.

The University also needed a stronger way to handle sensitive Employee Relations work. These cases required clear ownership, role-based access, and confidentiality controls that could protect employee information while still helping HR teams manage the work effectively.

The University’s goal was simple, even if the work behind it was complex: spend less time chasing emails, and more time supporting people. They needed a partner who understood both the ServiceNow platform and the realities of delivering HR services inside a large, complex institution.

The Engagement

Beyond20 partnered with the University to implement ServiceNow HRSD (HR Service Delivery) and extend the value of its existing ServiceNow platform into Human Resources.

Because the teams had already worked together on previous ServiceNow initiatives, the engagement began with a strong foundation of trust, platform knowledge, and shared context. Beyond20 understood the University’s environment, and the University had a clear vision for what better service delivery could look like for employees and HR teams.

The project followed a phased, collaborative approach that included HR-focused design workshops, agile configuration sprints, testing, training, and post-go-live support. Early workshops helped the University map its HR service needs, understand current-state pain points, and make practical decisions about how work should flow in ServiceNow.

From there, Beyond20 helped translate those needs into a scalable HRSD solution grounded in ServiceNow best practices.

Key areas of the engagement included:

HR Case Management

Employee inquiries were moved out of shared inboxes and into a centralized, structured case management process. Inbound HR emails could automatically create cases, while routing and assignment rules directed work to the appropriate HR services and teams.

The solution included notifications, forms, templates, and business rules to help standardize common HR activities. Instead of relying on manual tracking and follow-up, HR teams gained a more consistent way to manage cases from intake through resolution.

HR Centers of Excellence

Multiple HR Centers of Excellence were configured to reflect the way the University’s HR organization works. These COEs helped organize HR services, define ownership, and route requests to the right groups.

This structure also supported stronger security and accountability, especially for services that required more careful handling.

HR Services and Digital Forms

Employee-facing HR service offerings and request forms gave employees a guided way to ask for help. Rather than figuring out who to contact or what information to include, employees could start with the service they needed and follow a clearer intake process.

These digital forms supported standardized service delivery, automated approvals, and fulfillment workflows, helping HR teams receive better information upfront and reduce unnecessary back-and-forth.

Knowledge Management

A major part of improving the HR experience was making answers easier to find. The implementation included HR Knowledge Management capabilities such as employee-facing and agent-facing knowledge bases, standardized article templates, review and publishing workflows, and retirement processes to keep content accurate over time.

HR cases were also connected with knowledge content, giving HR staff a better way to use existing answers during case work and support continued self-service adoption.

Employee Center

The University’s existing Employee Center was expanded to include HR services and content. Employees gained one central place to submit HR requests, create and track HR cases, access HR knowledge articles, and navigate HR resources.

This gave the University a more intuitive front door for HR support and helped reduce the need for employees to search across multiple channels.

HR Agent Workspace

HR Agent Workspace gave staff a centralized view of case management, work assignments, case activity, task management, and operational reporting.

This gave HR teams a more organized place to manage work and better insight into what was coming in, who owned it, and how it was progressing.

Employee Relations

Employee Relations work required special attention because of the sensitivity of the information involved. Role-based security and access controls were built into the solution to protect confidential employee information while still giving authorized HR staff the tools they needed to manage cases effectively.

Security and confidentiality were part of the design from the start, helping the University support employees with greater care and control.

To support adoption, the engagement also included training, knowledge transfer sessions, and quick-reference materials. The goal was to help HR teams feel prepared to use the platform at go-live and continue expanding it as the University’s needs evolve.

The Result

With ServiceNow HRSD in place, the University now has a more connected, scalable foundation for delivering HR services, built to grow alongside the institution.

Employees have a simpler way to get help. They can start from Employee Center, search HR knowledge articles, submit requests through guided forms, and track case progress in one place. Instead of sending an email and wondering what happens next, employees have a clearer path to support.

HR teams have a better way to manage the work behind each request. Cases are captured in a structured system, routed based on service needs and ownership, and supported by workflows, templates, notifications, and reporting. That gives HR staff more visibility into workload and service performance while reducing the manual effort that came with shared inboxes and disconnected processes.

The University also strengthened the way it handles sensitive Employee Relations matters. Role-based access controls and secure case management help protect confidential information while giving HR teams a consistent way to manage sensitive work.

By extending ServiceNow into Human Resources, the University built on its broader service management strategy and created a stronger experience for the people who support its mission every day. HRSD now gives the University a foundation for continued improvement, including expanded HR services, more automation, stronger self-service, and a more connected employee experience across the institution.