How Rentokil Initial leverages AutomatePro to stay on the cutting edge of ServiceNow Upgrades

Outcome Highlights

• 50% reduction in upgrade timeline
• Change freeze eliminated
• 95% reduction in testing effort ​​
• 60% reduction in Process owner effort during Upgrade time​

The Need

Rentokil embarked on an IT modernisation program. Following a thorough analysis process, they highlighted their ServiceNow upgrades and overall delivery speed as areas for improvement. Staying on the latest ServiceNow upgrade is essential to capitalise on the software’s full potential, such as improved security and stability, increased ‘out of the box’ functionality, greater performance, and return on investment. That being said, upgrading ServiceNow is rarely as easy as it seems, especially when relying on manual testing.

Manual testing is time-consuming, inconsistent, inaccurate and not as comprehensive when compared to automated alternatives. As a result, Rentokil had to adopt a risk-based testing approach rather than a comprehensive regression suite due to insufficient time and resources. However, involving each process owner in the testing schedule extended the testing window to a lengthy 12-week freeze period, stalling all development work on the platform and ultimately slowing Rentokil’s mission to increase ROI and productivity gains expected from the ServiceNow platform.

Notably, alternative Test Automation solutions were considered, including ServiceNow’s native Automated Testing Framework (“ATF”). Still, it was ruled out as a solution due to insufficient coverage and in-depth tests checking basic elements rather than business process testing.

The Solution

AutomatePro and Rentokil have worked together to streamline the upgrade process while increasing testing consistency, quality, and comprehensiveness through our scalable, ServiceNow-specific Test Automation module, AutoTest.

leveraging advanced features such as QuickStart AI and Model Blocks, Rentokil created comprehensive, end-to-end business process tests faster than manual testing or using ATF. Via QuickStart AI, an existing record built over 90% of tests adhering to Rentokil’s unique business processes and rules. Moreover, Model Blocks are AutomatePro’s answer to automation rot, they allow test steps to be grouped and re-used in other tests, accelerating test building and automatically updating test steps throughout the system.

Rentokil uses AutomatePro’s ‘Upgrade Comparison Report’ – a complete examination of the before and ‘as is’ situation. To review previously raised defects, functionality changes, and assess problems resolved by ServiceNow. To provide prioritisation guidance on where to focus development efforts.

The Results

AutomatePro’s scalable, parallel architecture allows Rentokil to schedule its regression pack weekly rather than the original ‘upgrade only risk-based’ approach, and has significantly reduced the execution time from 50 effort days to less than 2 hours. Also, it captures any defects immediately for the ServiceNow team to fix, accelerating the speed at which these issues are resolved.​

Since AutomatePro tests ‘how an end-user would’, Process Owners have peace of mind that their process is entered into the weekly regression suite, thus requiring no involvement from them at upgrade time. Offering them time-back to focus on important configuration and development work.

Whilst not in the original business case, AutomatePro’s ability to test against all ServiceNow Environments enables parallel testing and streamlines patch testing and upgrades. Significantly, these combined enhancements to the Rentokil upgrade process have reduced a 6-week code freeze period to zero.