TPR's use of ServiceNow
FOI reference - FOI-343
Date - 24 November 2025
Request
I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act regarding your organisation’s use of ServiceNow. Specifically, I would appreciate responses to the following questions:
- How much do you spend on ServiceNow licences per annum?
- How many years have you been a ServiceNow customer?
- How many people are in your ServiceNow team?
- What is your average time to upgrade ServiceNow?
- Which ServiceNow modules are you currently running?
- What percentage of your upgrades do you test automatically?
- Which third parties do you use for ServiceNow support?
- What is your annual spend on third-party ServiceNow support?
- What are your top three ServiceNow projects planned for the next 12 months?
- Do you have business automation targets? If so, what are they?
- Do you have any plans to implement ServiceNow's Now Assist?
- How much do you spend on third parties overall?
Response
I confirm that we hold the information you have requested and provide the following:
How many years have you been a ServiceNow customer?
We have been a ServiceNow customer since 2016.
How many people are in your ServiceNow team?
We currently have 0 staff members who support ServiceNow as part of their role as this has been managed by a 3rd party Service Provider.
What is your average time to upgrade ServiceNow?
We do not hold that information as this is managed by a Service Provider.
Which ServiceNow modules are you currently running?
ITSM: Incident, Request, Problem, Release, Asset & Cost, Change, Service Catalogue, Major Incident, Walk-up Experience + Core Services.
What percentage of your upgrades do you test automatically?
We do not hold this information as managed by Service Provider.
Which third parties do you use for ServiceNow support?
We currently use Xcession for ServiceNow support.
What are your top three ServiceNow projects planned for the next 12 months?
We are currently transitioning away from ServiceNow to an alternative ITSM solution. Therefore, we do not have any major ServiceNow projects planned.
Do you have business automation targets? If so, what are they?
We do not have any targets for ServiceNow as we are in the process of changing ITSM tool.
Do you have any plans to implement ServiceNow's Now Assist?
We do not have any plans to implement NowAssist for ServiceNow as we are in the process of changing ITSM tool.
Information we are not able to supply:
Points 1,8 & 12
I am unable to provide the information in regard to these points as the information is exempt from disclosure under section 43(2) of the FOIA as disclosure would be likely to prejudice the commercial interests of suppliers tendering for contracts and TPR’s own commercial interests.
This exemption is subject to the public interest test.
Public Interest Test – Section 43(2)
We understand that there is a public interest in ensuring that there is openness and transparency in the spending of public money. Transparency is likely to increase confidence in the procurement procedures and purchasing decisions made by TPR. It will also enable the public to understand whether TPR is getting value for money from its purchasing decisions.
Having said that, disclosure of the requested information is likely to be prejudicial to the commercial interests of any future suppliers concerned in future procurement exercises. Revealing amounts of spend to procure future services for a new ITSM tool is likely to damage the competitiveness of the suppliers and, as a result, the market. Disclosure would therefore be counter to the public interest in having an efficient, competitive market for procuring public services.
It would also be likely to prejudice TPR’s own commercial interests as it would be likely to make it more difficult to ascertain the true value of the goods/services to be procured if they are simply being matched against what is known about budgets set aside internally for these services. This would run counter to TPR’s aim and obligation as a public sector organisation to ensure value for money and would be likely to prejudice our commercial interests as we could end up paying over the odds-on services and contracts we enter into. This would not be in the public interest nor fulfil our mandate to manage public money efficiently. We therefore consider there is an overriding public interest in ensuring TPR is able to effectively procure value for money goods and services in the commercial sphere, particularly as a public sector organisation.
Taking this into account, and on balance, on this occasion the public interest in maintaining the exemption under section 43(2) and enabling TPR to continue to obtain value for money in its procurement exercises outweighs that in disclosing the information.