This article is based on a case study originally reported by Computerworld and sourced via channelasia.tech. Quotes are attributed to Thames Water CIO Tony McCandless.
The Problem: Complete Loss of IT Visibility
Thames Water, the utility responsible for supplying water to approximately 27 percent of the UK population — including the majority of London — spent years operating under a heavily outsourced IT model. When CIO Tony McCandless joined the organisation, he inherited what he described as a “pretty disastrous period for technology at the organisation.”
At the heart of the problem was the Technology and Transformation Alliance (TTA), a multi-vendor outsourcing agreement that had been in place before McCandless arrived.
“It became very apparent very quickly that the TTA agreement was not fit for purpose in its current incarnation. In addition, Thames Water had outsourced all of its IT, and I mean all of it.”
Tony McCandless, CIO, Thames Water
The consequence was stark: the internal IT team — numbering around a dozen people at the time — had no access to incident management data, change records, or event monitoring. All of that operational intelligence was held by the alliance partners, not by Thames Water itself. Leadership had no way to answer basic questions about service health without going through a third party.
The Approach: Nine Months to Bring IT Back In-House
McCandless and his team spent nine months renegotiating and restructuring the alliance agreement, with a parallel workstream to implement a new tooling strategy. The chosen platform was ServiceNow’s Now Platform (SaaS), used to establish a Service Integration and Management (SIAM) model.
SIAM is a management approach designed to coordinate multiple external service providers while maintaining a single, internally owned view of service performance. By mandating that all partners use Thames Water’s own toolset rather than their proprietary systems, McCandless effectively shifted the balance of power back to the organisation.
“We developed a set of tools that are Thames owned. All of our partners that come in here now are mandated to use our tools. From now on, any IT supplier coming into Thames Water uses our system, not the other way around.”
Tony McCandless, CIO, Thames Water
Go-Live: Night and Day
The platform went live on 1 July 2018. McCandless described the transition in stark terms:
“On 30 June, we couldn’t see anything in our live environment without going through one of the partners. From the 1 July, the system was ours and we could begin to collect data and better respond to the needs of our internal and external customers.”
Tony McCandless, CIO, Thames Water
This kind of hard cutover — where visibility changes literally overnight — illustrates a common risk in heavily outsourced IT models: when the tooling lives with the supplier, so does the institutional knowledge. Thames Water’s case is a useful example of why retaining ownership of ITSM tooling matters, even when services themselves are outsourced.
Early Results: Reduced Outage Duration, Better Reporting
At the time the original article was published (approximately 14 months post-launch), McCandless reported measurable operational improvements, while being careful to attribute success to the combination of people, process, and technology — not the platform alone.
- Faster incident response: Before the transition, outages on core contact platforms could last for days, forcing staff back to paper-based processes. Post-implementation, response times improved significantly.
- Restored executive reporting: McCandless was able to present detailed service metrics — covering incidents, problems, changes, and major programmes — to the leadership team for the first time.
- Supplier accountability: All incoming IT partners are now required to operate within Thames Water’s tooling and reporting framework.
“I had a meeting with the leadership team and I was finally able to talk in detail about what’s happening with our services, with incident problem changes, with our major programmes and projects. Last year, we had nothing to share and now we do.”
Tony McCandless, CIO, Thames Water
McCandless on ServiceNow: Honest Praise and Pointed Criticism
McCandless is candid about both the strengths and weaknesses of ServiceNow as a platform and vendor.
What Works
- Flexibility: The platform adapts to business needs, provided teams resist the urge to over-customise. McCandless specifically warned against getting caught in the “customisation rabbit hole” — a common pitfall with configurable ITSM platforms that leads to upgrade pain and technical debt.
- Integrations: ServiceNow integrates well with tools used by Level 2 and Level 3 support teams, fitting into Thames Water’s broader tooling ecosystem.
- Expandability: The platform’s modular approach means capabilities not needed today can be added as the organisation matures.
- Reliability: McCandless described the service as “solid and reliable” — not necessarily cutting-edge, but dependable for operational use.
Where ServiceNow Needs to Improve
McCandless reserved his sharpest comments for ServiceNow’s licensing model, drawing a direct comparison with competitor Cherwell (now acquired by Ivanti):
“Something ServiceNow needs to do is sort out its licensing model, because it’s being beaten to death by Cherwell in coming up with a far more pertinent licensing model. If it doesn’t do something about it soon, I think it will lose business.”
Tony McCandless, CIO, Thames Water
He also noted that ServiceNow itself faces growing competitive pressure from vendors that once sat in its shadow — the same way ServiceNow disrupted legacy players like BMC:
“ServiceNow has got to keep itself sharp, or it will find someone else coming up to take its lunch, the same way that it went after BMC and other companies.”
Tony McCandless, CIO, Thames Water
Key Takeaways for IT and DevOps Leaders
The Thames Water case surfaces several lessons relevant to any organisation managing complex outsourced IT or multi-vendor environments:
- Own your tooling, even when you outsource services. Allowing vendors to control ITSM data creates a dangerous dependency. When the relationship sours or ends, you lose visibility along with the contract.
- SIAM requires enforced standards. The mandated use of Thames Water’s own platform by all incoming suppliers was critical. Voluntary adoption rarely works at scale.
- Avoid over-customisation. ServiceNow (and platforms like it) offer significant configuration flexibility. Preserving the ability to upgrade cleanly means drawing a hard line between configuration and customisation.
- People and process matter as much as platform. McCandless explicitly credited the improvement to a combination of factors, not the technology alone. Tooling without process change delivers limited value.
- Evaluate total cost of ownership, including licensing. Licensing complexity and cost can erode the business case for a platform over time — particularly as user counts and module usage grow.
Original reporting by Computerworld UK, sourced via channelasia.tech (2019). Quotes attributed to Tony McCandless, CIO, Thames Water.