Streamlining healthcare to improve care and reduce costs is an almost infinitely complex problem. But with ServiceNow managers and developers like Nicole Tate and Van Tran, who work for a leading California-based healthcare provider, it’s possible to roll out major solutions very quickly. After all, in an industry where the “fire-fighting” mentality of urgency and immediacy often take precedence, implementing standardization can be revolutionary.

Streamlining complex processes

ServiceNow has the potential to simplify basic processes like placing orders and requesting maintenance, but it can also help solve bigger problems too, by collecting data on the frequency of accidents in the workplace, for example. In an interview with theCUBE at ServiceNow’s Knowledge15 event in Las Vegas, Tate said that based on her experience with ServiceNow, she sees it “as a platform that will be able to streamline a lot of these complex processes, put some automation behind [them] and really reduce some costs.”

Tate was one of the first business managers to explore applications of the ServiceNow platform beyond IT, rolling out 15 business apps with her team over the course of 18 months.

“It was really nice, because we had everybody using the same platform,” Tate said. “And once you get everybody using the same platform, then you can automate your enterprise processes. So the stuff that everybody has a piece of, that before you would have to take outside of a workflow …. now you just hit the ‘now’ button and it just goes. Everybody just got an automated task to do their piece.”

Speeding up development

Speaking from the perspective of a developer, Tran also sees the potential of the platform. “ServiceNow has a lot of tools that …. make it a little bit easier for people who don’t code very much, as well as those who do .… and it gives them shortcuts, and they don’t have to write everything themselves,” Tran stated. This speeds up development and allows coders of every experience level to brainstorm and provide solutions for their businesses, even with a small IT team.

But developing with ServiceNow is a little bit different than starting from scratch, he said. “A good ServiceNow developer will take into account the existing, out-of-box functionality, things that you configure and then you would code and help support that. So when you do changes and upgrades to that, your stuff wouldn’t break,” Tran explained. It requires an understanding of the platform and best practices that might not be necessary when programming everything independently.

Still, he says the platform offers a lot of unique opportunities, like the ability to manage social media without giving out passwords, as well as better partnerships across organizations. IT can do more than just put out technological fires during emergencies — it can begin to lead the charge for better processes and solutions.

Watch the full interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of ServiceNow Knowledge 15.