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ServiceNow

What this guide covers

How to actually buy ServiceNow for a Maryland agency — which statewide vehicle you ride, which reseller fulfills the order, the FedRAMP/ATO path, and the functionality gates to clear before you sign.

Who it’s for

Engineering leads, program staff, and procurement officers at a Maryland State agency or education entity who have decided they need ServiceNow — ITSM, ITOM, or workflow automation — and need the path from “we want it” to “it’s authorized and on contract.”

Part of the SaaS Catalog. For the vehicles themselves, see Maryland Master Contracts; for the process and thresholds, see Maryland Procurement.

Disclaimer. Not legal or procurement advice. FedRAMP authorizations, contract catalogs, and BPO numbers change as awards are renewed and authorizations are re-baselined. Verify every figure below against the FedRAMP Marketplace, the Carahsoft Maryland State Contracts page, and the DoIT Statewide Contracts hub before relying on it. Whether ServiceNow is on the current Maryland COTS catalog is unverified below — confirm it directly.

TL;DR

  • Category: IT service management — ITSM / ITOM / workflow platform.
  • Maryland vehicle: likely COTS 2012, BPO 060B2490021, via Carahsoft — unverified; ServiceNow is not on the partial publisher list reproduced in Maryland Master Contracts, so confirm the current COTS catalog with Carahsoft/DoIT.
  • Reseller: Carahsoft is the primary public-sector distributor; SHI also resells.
  • Authorization: ServiceNow’s Government Community Cloud (GCC) is FedRAMP High (JAB P-ATO originally granted September 2019 — among the first SaaS to reach FedRAMP High).
  • The ATO trap: Only the GCC environment carries FedRAMP High — commercial ServiceNow instances do not. The order must specify GCC.

What This Tool Is

ServiceNow is a SaaS IT service management and workflow platform — incident, problem, and change management (ITSM), IT operations management (ITOM), and low-code workflow apps built on a shared platform. Agencies reach for it when they want a single managed system of record for service requests and operational workflows instead of stitching together ticketing, CMDB, and automation tools themselves. There is no honest drop-in open-source swap for an ITSM platform at this scale — the OSS service-desk tools do not match ServiceNow’s platform breadth or its managed-ATO story, so this is a buy decision, and this page is the buy.

Which Maryland Vehicle

VehicleBPOHow ServiceNow rides it
COTS 2012 (unverified)060B2490021The likely path. Research indicates ServiceNow is reachable on Carahsoft’s Maryland COTS catalog and that DoIT assists with ServiceNow procurement — but ServiceNow is not on the partial publisher list reproduced in Maryland Master Contracts.

Confirm before relying on this. ServiceNow does not appear on the publisher list reproduced in Maryland Master Contracts → Software Publishers Under Carahsoft’s MD COTS — but that reproduced list may be partial. Confirm the current COTS catalog directly with Carahsoft/DoIT. ServiceNow is not on the Maryland NASPO ValuePoint addendum. For how Carahsoft holds awards across vehicles, see Maryland Master Contracts → Where Carahsoft Fits.

Resellers and Pricing Path

Carahsoft is ServiceNow’s primary public-sector distributor and the likely reseller for a Maryland COTS order; SHI also resells ServiceNow. You do not buy a “Carahsoft contract” — the reseller fulfills your order against the COTS master contract. Request a quote referencing the Maryland COTS BPO 060B2490021 so the order is priced against the statewide ceiling rather than commercial list price — and confirm in the same request that ServiceNow is currently reachable on that vehicle. ServiceNow is licensed by subscription per product line and fulfillment-user/requester counts, so size both before you ask.

Authorization and ATO

AttributeValue
Authorized offeringServiceNow Government Community Cloud (GCC)
FedRAMP statusHigh (JAB P-ATO originally granted September 2019 — among the first SaaS to reach FedRAMP High)
Marketplace IDF1305072116
GovRAMP (StateRAMP)Not confirmed — verify on the GovRAMP product list
Commercial instances in scope?No — only the GCC environment carries the authorization

The single thing to get right for the ATO: provision the Government Community Cloud (GCC) environment, not a commercial ServiceNow instance. The FedRAMP High authorization attaches only to GCC; a commercial instance gives you nothing to inherit, and the gap will surface late in your security review. The order must explicitly specify the GCC environment.

Functionality Gates to Verify

Clear these before price comparison — any one can disqualify the buy regardless of cost. See the canonical list in Tools and Software → Enterprise Functionality.

GateServiceNow-specific note
SSO (SAML/OIDC) + SCIMSupported; confirm SCIM de-provisioning is included at your plan, not gated to a higher tier.
Audit logsPlatform audit and logging available; confirm retention meets your records policy.
RBACRole- and ACL-based access control; map to least-privilege before rollout.
Data residency / FedRAMP boundaryThe GCC environment is the residency answer — see above.
Accessibility (VPAT/ACR)Request ServiceNow’s current VPAT; Maryland’s Nonvisual Access (NVA) requirement applies to the procurement.
BAA / DPARequired if any workflow data could carry PII/PHI; confirm availability for the GCC environment.

Procurement Steps

  1. Confirm the platform need. ITSM at this scale has no drop-in OSS swap; document why managed ServiceNow is worth the spend — that rationale is the core of the budget justification.
  2. Register / confirm eMMA. Your agency and the reseller must be set up in eMMA.
  3. Confirm the vehicle. Default to COTS 060B2490021 via Carahsoft, but first confirm ServiceNow is currently on that catalog with Carahsoft/DoIT — it is not on the partial reproduced publisher list.
  4. Get a Carahsoft (or SHI) quote referencing the BPO, sized to your user counts and product lines, for the GCC environment.
  5. Check the threshold. The order’s dollar value drives the method — purchasing card, small procurement, or BPW review. See Maryland Procurement → how the value picks the path. Do not split a buy to dodge a threshold.
  6. Run the ATO package. Inherit the FedRAMP High controls for the GCC boundary; document the rest.
  7. Issue the order against the vehicle once approvals clear.

Sources

ClaimSource
ServiceNow GCC FedRAMP High listingFedRAMP Marketplace — F1305072116
ServiceNow secured FedRAMP High (Sept 2019)ServiceNow — FedRAMP High authorization announcement
Carahsoft public-sector reseller path / MD COTS catalogCarahsoft — Maryland State Contracts

Whether ServiceNow is on the current Maryland COTS catalog is unverified — it does not appear on the partial publisher list reproduced in Maryland Master Contracts. Confirm the current catalog with Carahsoft/DoIT and re-verify the FedRAMP baseline against the Marketplace before relying on any figure here.