From legacy desk to modern ServiceNow platform: a UK financial services firm

A UK contractor accountancy and financial services business had outgrown its legacy service desk. Support teams worked from a system that made self-service impossible, categorisation inconsistent, and reporting unreliable. There was no branded portal, no structured catalogue, and monitoring alerts that did not automatically become tracked incidents — meaning issues could surface without anyone acting on them.

The challenge

Delivering a clean platform meant designing the foundations correctly rather than replicating old habits. The client needed to move away from a legacy service desk toolset that limited self-service, standardisation and automation, and to present users with a consistent, on-brand support experience.

The main challenges were:

• Defining a clear category and service structure so incidents and requests routed correctly from day one.
• Building a service catalogue with order guides that captured the right information at the point of request.
• Delivering a Service Portal that matched the organisation's branding while staying close to out-of-the-box, so it remained upgradeable.
• Integrating single sign-on through ADFS so users signed in seamlessly with existing corporate credentials.
• Connecting infrastructure monitoring so that alerts created and updated incidents automatically, with nothing falling through the gaps.

The approach

Hikon ran the work as a structured implementation, moving from discovery and design through build, walkthrough and handover, keeping the platform configuration-led rather than customisation-heavy.

Discovery and design captured support processes, category model, catalogue items and portal requirements. The foundation build covered core platform configuration, roles and groups, and ADFS single sign-on. The ITSM and catalogue stage delivered incident and change handling, service catalogue and order guides. The portal was built using widgets and theme aligned to the client's identity. Integration connected infrastructure monitoring to ServiceNow incident creation, and a structured walkthrough and handover completed the engagement.

The solution

The delivered platform gave the client a modern ServiceNow instance with IT Service Management processes, a categorised catalogue with order guides for common requests, and a branded Service Portal for self-service. Single sign-on through ADFS removed separate logins, and a monitoring integration created and resolved incidents automatically as infrastructure events occurred — so nothing was lost between the monitoring tool and the service desk.

Outcomes

• A single, branded self-service front door for all IT requests and incidents.
• Standardised categorisation and request fulfilment through the catalogue and order guides.
• Seamless sign-on for users through ADFS.
• Automated, tracked incidents from monitoring, reducing the risk of missed issues.
• A platform delivered in weeks, not months, with the team capable of running and extending it from day one.

Why it matters

This engagement reflects the pattern Hikon delivers for mid-market organisations: a clean, right-sized ServiceNow implementation that replaces fragmented legacy tooling with a platform the business can actually use, maintain and grow. The combination of branded self-service, structured catalogue, seamless authentication and automated monitoring coverage is achievable in a single, focused implementation when scope is managed well and the build stays close to platform standards.