by Phil Swainson | 21 January, 2026
Across large enterprises and telcos, ServiceNow has become a central part of how services are managed and assured. Platforms such as ServiceNow TSOM are increasingly used to model services, coordinate workflows, and provide a consistent operational view across complex environments.
For many organisations, this represents a sensible consolidation. ServiceNow brings structure, visibility, and a common language to service management.
At the same time, it also brings some practical challenges that are easy to overlook.
Where Complexity Still Creeps In
Even in a ServiceNow-first model, the underlying operational estate remains diverse. Network management platforms, discovery tools, legacy databases, and static data sets all continue to exist and evolve independently.
In practice, this means ServiceNow is dependent on a wide range of upstream data sources — not all of which are consistent, complete, or aligned.
Over time, organisations often encounter:
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Differences between what operational tools report and what appears in ServiceNow
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Duplication or inconsistency across inventory and configuration records
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Manual correction becoming part of day-to-day CMDB operations
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A gradual loss of confidence in service and dependency views
None of this is a failure of ServiceNow. It’s simply the reality of operating at scale.
The Role of Data Integrity
One pattern we see repeatedly is that teams end up using ServiceNow to compensate for data issues that originate elsewhere.
A more sustainable approach is to introduce a dedicated focus on data integrity, sitting alongside ServiceNow rather than inside it. This allows ServiceNow to do what it does best — orchestration, workflow, and service modelling — without being burdened with constant data correction.
This is where Totuus tends to be used.
How Totuus Fits Alongside ServiceNow
Totuus is designed to operate quietly in the background, helping teams improve the quality and consistency of the data that flows into and out of ServiceNow.
In practical terms, this typically involves:
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Validating and normalising network and configuration data from multiple sources
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Preparing and commissioning data before it is introduced into ServiceNow
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Comparing ServiceNow records with operational systems to highlight drift
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Acting as a mediation layer for automation triggers between ServiceNow and network platforms
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Providing operational views and reporting for engineering and CMDB teams
ServiceNow remains the primary platform. Totuus supports it by reducing friction and uncertainty around data.
Clear Boundaries Matter
Totuus is not intended to replace ServiceNow capabilities, and it deliberately avoids areas where ServiceNow is already strong.
It does not aim to:
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Define services or service catalogues
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Own workflows or orchestration logic
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Provide customer-facing portals
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Act as a replacement CMDB
Those responsibilities sit firmly with ServiceNow.
What This Enables
By separating data integrity concerns from orchestration and workflow, organisations often find that:
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TSOM deployments progress with fewer delays
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CMDB accuracy improves over time rather than degrading
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Engineering teams spend less time correcting data manually
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Confidence in service views and dependencies increases
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New data sources can be onboarded more quickly and safely
The overall result is a ServiceNow environment that behaves more predictably and delivers value more consistently.
A Pragmatic Supporting Role
In a ServiceNow-first strategy, the goal isn’t to introduce more platforms — it’s to make the chosen platform work well in the real world.
Totuus plays a supporting role in that model, focusing on data integrity and operational assurance so that ServiceNow can operate on information teams actually trust.
