My ServiceNow Story: Travis Toulson, Senior ServiceNow Architect
Updated: Feb 1, 2021
The team at GlideFast Consulting is full of passionate, skilled, and enthusiastic developers and architects. If there is one thing that we all have in common, it is our love for the ServiceNow platform and community. “My ServiceNow Story” is a blog series that will give you an inside look of the work and lives of the consultants at GlideFast Consulting and how they started and built their careers in the industry. Our consultants will share their stories with you and will lead you down the path that brought them to where they are today.
Our first ServiceNow Story features Travis Toulson, a Senior ServiceNow Architect based in Daphne, Alabama.
How were you first introduced to ServiceNow? What was your first job using the platform?
Believe it or not, IT is my second career. I spent the first 7 years of my career working in equipment maintenance and manufacturing. And like most workers and supervisors, I hated the software I was forced to use every day. It was often slow, hard to navigate, and seemed designed for everything except the purposes for which I was instructed to use it. But instead of complaining, I learned how to code in order to become a part of the solution. Once I knew how to code, I started my first job in IT with ThyssenKrupp Steel USA working the night shift Ops Desk.
We were using ServiceNow but didn't have an admin or developer for the system so my boss came to me one evening and asked me to figure out how to add some fields to our Incident form with a few scripted behaviors. He handed me a list of resources to get me started and told me to see what I could come up with. Fortunately, the ServiceNow Wiki and ServiceNow Guru made administration and development easy to figure out, even for a mechanic like myself with little to no IT experience.
With each successful task I completed, I was given progressively more complicated enhancements. Eventually, I shifted off the Ops Desk and started working with the PMO team building out our Service Catalog as our full-time ServiceNow administrator. My journey in ServiceNow took off from there. From ThyssenKrupp Steel USA, I worked as the Senior Developer and Integrator at Covestic for 3 ½ years.
After that, I went on to work as an independent consultant and then as the Lead Product Engineer at MapAnything. In November 2017, I joined the GlideFast Consulting team as a Senior Architect. So many people helped get me to where I am today from those first experiences with ServiceNow and I can't thank them all enough.
What are your main ServiceNow skills?
Most folks know me for my work on Service Portal and Custom Applications. However, my main skills are process improvement, problem-solving, and reverse engineering. I don't consider myself a specialist in any particular application as much as I am a specialist in the platform. When I want to understand a new application on the platform, I go to a personal dev instance and take it apart. I blame the constant curiosity in me on my engineering background.
What are your plans for the future in your career and in the ServiceNow industry?
Honestly, I never thought I would make it this far. I’m extremely grateful for the opportunities I’ve received throughout my career. I’ve truly surpassed my every expectation in life. My plans for the future are to help as many people as I can in hopes that they can reach the same point in their life that I have reached. I’m excited to be a part of a company and community that supports this pay it forward mentality and look forward to meeting and helping as many ServiceNow developers as possible.
More About Travis!
Travis lives with his wife, son, and adorable Golden Retriever. In addition to being a Senior ServiceNow Architect, Travis is a team leader at GlideFast Consulting and manages and mentors a team of developers at the company. He’s also an active contributor to the ServiceNow Developer Community and has his own blog, Code Creative. Travis uses this platform to help other developers navigate their IT journey and to find creative business solutions. And if he doesn’t already have enough on his plate, Travis also loves to create custom applications for ServiceNow.
Most recently, Travis built and launched, IntelligentQueue, a seamless interface that simplifies task management by merging approvals, incidents, and other workable tasks into a single prioritized queue. And he is currently working on and building a custom training application.
Interested in working with experts like Travis on the GlideFast Consulting team? Reach out to us here. We would love to learn more about your ServiceNow challenges and how we can help your organization build better solutions.