ServiceNow San Diego Upgrade Features

Grab Your Surfboards – ServiceNow San Diego is Here!

Twice a year, ServiceNow announces a new release. Last week, ServiceNow San Diego was officially announced. Each release is named after a city in alphabetical order (previous releases to ServiceNow San Diego being Rome, Quebec, Paris, etc.). For more information on previous releases all the way to Aspen (released 2011), read here.

ServiceNow | n-1 Compliance

Remember, with each release, your organization must comply with the n-1 model. n-1 requires companies to upgrade to either the newest version of the platform or the previous release, meaning ServiceNow users must now migrate off of the Quebec release to either Rome or San Diego (for the time-being). 

Needing Upgrade Help?

When it comes to upgrades, implementations, or anything ServiceNow-related, Elite Partner, Infocenter, can help. Infocenter can perform the entire ServiceNow upgrade for you and is available for post-upgrade support (DEVSHOP™) saving you time and resources, and the hiring of a part or full time ServiceNow admin. Contact us today for more information.

Read on to learn about ServiceNow San Diego’s new and enhanced features: 

1. IT Service Management (ITSM)
2. IT Operations Management (ITOM)
3. Employee Experience (HRSD)
4. Safe Workplace
5. Customer Service Management (CSM)
6. Strategic Portfolio Management (SPM) (Formerly ITBM)
7. Security Operations (SecOps)
8. Legal Service Delivery

ServiceNow IT Service Management (ITSM) Highlights:

Deliver resilient services that increase productivity and create amazing experiences wherever your employees work, with the most innovative ITSM solution. Future-proof your IT with a single cloud platform.

Deliver ITSM on a single platform:

• Use built-in best practices to rapidly consolidate disparate tools to a single system of engagement in the cloud. Harness your shared data and analytics with the most trusted IT service workflows.

 

 

ITSM – Release Highlights:

Net New Features

• Service Operations Workspace
• Digital Portfolio Management
• On-Call Scheduling integrations – MS Teams & Push
• Recommendation Framework
  

Improvements & Facelifts

• Incident Management Best Practice plugin
• Workforce Optimization for ITSM
• Vendor Management Workspace
• Walk-Up Experience

Modernization

• Next Experience UI
• Responsive Dashboards for all displays (desktop, tablet, phone) – Service Desk, INC, CHG
• Major Incident Workbench
• Improved color contrast in Workspace

Deprecation

• ITSM Mobile
• Legacy – Exploring Workforce Optimization for ITSM
• Vendor Manager Workspace

ITSM – Service Operations Workspace:

Landing Page

• Configurable workspace dedicated to ITSM & supporting features
• Assignment work/SLA breakdown
• Awareness of announcements
• Awareness of shifts and on-call commitments
• My performance
• Learning Tasks

Workspace

• Improved visual contrast
• Collaborate using Microsoft vTeams
• Modules:  IPC, Request, Interaction, On-Call Scheduling, 
• Recommendation Framework
• Walk-Up Experience, Workforce Optimization for ITSM
  

Recommendation Framework

• Uses Predictive Intelligence
• Displays tailored recommendations associated with recom. rules

Workforce Optimization for ITSM

• Predict & recommend skills; forecast staffing needs
• Monitor & measure team performance use assessments
• Create coaching opportunities
• Dedicated landing pages:  Manager, Channel, Coaching

ITSM – Digital Portfolio Management:

Lifecycle Management

• Plan-build-run model
• Organize portfolios, manage enterprise architecture, create demands/initiatives, affect projects in one view

ITSM – Walk-Up Experience:

• Enables you to create on-site support channel where issues/requests get resolved in person and real time
• New features include:
• Coordination with MS Teams
• For requester remote work, there’s a new remote appointment booking feature – single or multiple appointments
• Agents can book follow-up appointments on behalf of requesters
• Offer service efficiency by setting up multiple kiosks for types of issues to serve several requesters simultaneously
• Improved routing to skilled agent based on expertise levels

ITSM – Incident Management Best Practice:

• New resolution codes, including “Resolved by <task>”
• Create Incidents from alerts, MIs or Changes without requiring Company or Caller
• Assign to Me – selection prompt for multi-group affiliation
• Increased support from Problem & Knowledge:
• Applying a Known Error KBA auto-populates a related Problem
• Get prompted to select Known Error Article if selecting “Known error” resolution code
• Caller, assignee and work notes lists receives notifications with “Communication Workaround / Fix” actions.  Infocenter has created a tool called Gemini Document Generator that allows friendly template summary PDF to be attached.
• Business stakeholder role allows authorized users to approve, view, and read records and reports – this improvement allows role users to add comments

ITSM – Omni-Channel Enablement:

On-Call Scheduling

• On-call scheduling allows management of shifts, time off requests, and on-call status
• Existing omni-channel functions included SMS & Voice Call
• New omni-channel functions include  Microsoft Teams & Mobile Push Notifications
• e.g. Used for escalation at the user or shift manager level
• Service Owner Workspace now integrates to On-Call Scheduling

ServiceNow Voice applications

• Rebranded from <App Name> for Cloud Call Center
• Provide efficient inbound & outbound call experiences by integrating to third party phone systems
• Display relevant data to agent during customer interaction
• Analyze transcript, recording & call metrics of your agent & caller

ServiceNow IT Operations Management (ITOM) Highlights:

Get better visibility into your infrastructure and services, prevent service outages, and expand your organization’s operational agility with ServiceNow IT Operations Management.

Accelerate your cloud strategy and improve your organization’s cloud utilization, drive down costs, automate requests, and aid in approvals and governance of the infrastructure that supports native cloud environments.

ITOM Health – New Features:

• Event Management – Identify health issues across your organization’s IT infrastructure on a single management console. Get alert aggregations for discovered services, application services, and automated alert groups.
  
• Agent Client Collector Log Analytics – Predict IT issues before they impact users. Solve issues faster by ingesting, analyzing, and correlating machine-generated log data in real time.
  
• View which CIs have an ITOM license – ITOM enables you to view the total number of licenses assigned to your applications and CIs. This subscription provides the enhanced capability of viewing which specific CIs you have a license for. You can view the subscription breakdown for ITOM Health, ITOM Visibility, and ITOM Optimization.

ITOM Visibility – New Features:

• Discovering devices and applications using the new patterns – Use ITOM Visibility patterns that were previously available only on the ServiceNow Store. 
• Quick start tests for Service Mapping – After upgrades and deployments of new applications or integrations, run quick start tests to verify that Service Mapping still works. If you customized Service Mapping, copy the quick start tests and configure them for your customizations.

 

 

ServiceNow Employee Experience (HRSD) Highlights:

Empowers HR teams to efficiently capture HR intake, prioritize workload, and provide turnaround with greater speed and efficiency 

• Through self-service, employees can find the answers to their questions by searching the correct knowledge base, or submit a request to HR to fulfill. 
• With an easy to use case management tool, agents can respond and resolve cases and inquiries in an efficient and timely manner. 

Employee Experience – Key Features:

• Employee Center
• Knowledge Management
• Case Management – Allow agents to quickly identify and resolve requests in an efficient manner.
• Employee Onboarding & Transitions – Keep track and complex processes, such as onboarding, offboarding & Leave of Absence. 

Employee Experience – New in San Diego:

• Ad Hoc tasks can now be added to lifecycle events. 
• ER comes with new features, including the Anonymous Report Center, allowing employees to submit and track anonymous reports.  
• Employee Center Enhancements
• New Profile Page redesign
• Can now categorize topics per service catalogues and knowledge categories. 

 

ServiceNow Safe Workplace Highlights:

Safe Workplace applications help you reopen your workplaces and support the health and safety of your employees after emergencies and pandemics like COVID-19.

Workforce Readiness Applications

• Help employees return to the workplace when they’re healthy and ready.  

Workplace Readiness Applications

• Prepare your workplace for the safe return of employees.

Safe Workplace – Key Features:

Support Health & Safety Protocols

For the Employee

Self-Service Capabilities

• Self-report health status
• Self-report vaccinations
• Reserve an on-site workspace

For the Manager

• Dashboards providing visibility into their workforce to enable effective workforce planning

For the Health & Safety Administrator

• Manage and maintain a safe on-site work experience with Health Screening, Surveys, and Contact Tracing
• Manage the reservation and site cleaning schedules of hybrid workspaces
• Manage inventory, such as PPE and cleaning supplies  

Safe Workplace – New in San Diego:

Workplace Reservation Management

• Self-service enhancements for workspace reservations and service requests to book on behalf of teams and make space configuration requests. 

Workplace Service Mapping

• Set up interactive floor maps that employees can utilize while booking workspaces and making reservations for meeting rooms. 
• Proximity Booking enables reservation booking near colleagues. 
• Mobile way-finding and proximity booking throughout workplace locations​ available on the Safe Workspace for the NowMobile app.

ServiceNow Customer Service Management (CSM) Highlights:

Transform operations and empower employees to address customer needs quickly and proactively. Solve issues by connecting the entire organization.

Deliver a friction-free customer experience.

Make customer service flow

CSM – Release Highlights:

CSM – Next Experience UI:

• Unifies your instance apps and reduces clicks to access the items you need to get working
• Work easier and faster
• Build landing pages that display all a user needs in one pane of glass

CSM – Themes:

Apply to:

• Workspaces
• Forms and Lists
• Dashboards

Legacy Pages open in a new window and maintain their classic UI theme.

CSM – Language Detection:

Language Detection predicts the language of the originator of the case, assigns that language to the case as a required skill when can then be used to assign the case to the correct group or person to best address it using Advanced Work Assignment.

Language Detection uses the pre-trained language detection machine learning model to predict the language for the case.  For new cases this is accomplished by the Language Detection Service spoke the evaluates and predict the language based on the values in the Short Description and Description fields of the case. It returns the language with the highest confidence threshold.

There are 31 supported languages for language detection.

CSM – Profanity Filtering:

• Define Keyword Lists
• Block any profane language in real-time and  flag/highlight it for the agent
• Alert Supervisors

CSM – Survey Experience:

• The survey experience has been redesigned for the Portal and the Now Mobile App.
• These new feature is enabled by default when you upgrade to San Diego and utilize a new widget called My Assessments and Surveys to present surveys to users.
• Create your own templates for questions with the custom metric type.
• New redesigned email notification for surveys assigned to users.

ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management (SPM) Highlights (Formerly ITBM):

Align work with business goals to deliver products and services in a way that supports your strategic priorities. Strategic Portfolio Management (formerly IT Business Management) enables you to make the right decisions and leverage digital transformation, to drive more customer value faster. Plan, deliver, and track value across different methodologies.

• Strategize, Align, and Deliver
• Anticipate critical business requirements, allocate resources, and evaluate portfolio value
• Manage strategic and operational work in one place
• Reduce bottlenecks to get to market faster

 

SPM – Encompasses: 

• Project Portfolio Management (PPM)
• Application Portfolio Management (APM)

SPM – Key Features:

 Project Portfolio Management (PPM)

• Higher-level approach that links project management to enterprise management

Application Portfolio Management (APM)

• Visibility into all applications within the organization

Alignment Planner Workspace (APW)

• Project Workspace and Planning Console
• Financial Management
• Agile Development

SPM – New in San Diego: 

• ITBM renamed to Strategic Portfolio Management (SPM)
  
• Digital Portfolio Management (DPM) – View services, applications, and products across ITSM, SPM, and APM
• Alignment Planner Workspace (APW) – Enhanced planning & tracking capabilities
• Project Workspace – Next Experience UI – more intuitive, modern design
• Resource Management- Enabling a more iterative and agile approach
• CMDB Alignment – Enhanced visibility for all products

 

ServiceNow Security Operations (SecOps) (Highlights):

ServiceNow Security Operations brings incident data from your security tools into a structured response engine that uses intelligent workflows, automation, and a deep connection with IT to prioritize and resolve threats based on the impact they pose to your organization.

 

 

SecOps – Connect Security with IT

Using Security Operations, security analysts and vulnerability managers can seamlessly communicate with IT by working in a unified platform. 

Visually tracking your security

ServiceNow Legal Service Delivery (Highlights):

Empowers legal teams to efficiently structure legal intake, prioritize workload, and provide turnaround with greater speed and efficiency. 

• Through self-service, employees can request legal services that help drive operational efficiency, allowing the legal team to focus their efforts on higher priority work
• With structured legal intake, legal teams can educate and capture essential legal information upfront, minimizing the back & forth between employees and the legal team 

Legal Service Delivery – Key Features:

• Legal Counsel Center – provides a single workspace for legal teams to view and track legal requests and matters, enabling them to categorize, prioritize, and efficiently address legal issues, as well as providing practice specific tools to manage complex affairs
• Request Management – the gateway to legal workflow with a single, unified mechanism for employees to get all the information, services, and help that they need from the legal department
• Matter Management – provides support to complete legal requests that need cross-departmental tasking and workflow with a mechanism to store documents and track important milestones
• Virtual Agent – enables conversational interaction for employees to access legal knowledge base articles, submit legal requests, and check the status of requests
• Mobile App 

Legal Service Delivery – New in San Diego Release:

Legal Executive Dashboard – You can now use the Performance Analytics Legal Executive dashboard to gain insight into legal operations to plan resources, assess the effectiveness of legal services automation, and make decisions aligned with organizational objectives and business outcomes

Legal Counsel Center 

• If you are unavailable, you can delegate legal duties and approvals to other users. As a legal fulfiller, when you set the delegation, the delegate gets the same level of access as you.
• A new simple email acknowledgment feature that may be required for privacy guidelines with a full audit trail
• Availability of storage for legal disposition information

Simple Contract App

• Insert unique copy blocks into a contract for a given situation, making it easier to create a single template for the majority of your contract
• Extended e-signature capabilities to provide multiple options based on defined rules
• The same configurability can now define the cloud storage location of the contract to the preferred vendor