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Vancouver is already the 43rd ServiceNow major release since 2004. We have analyzed the pre-release version and the extensive release notes and present our top 7 highlights of the platform and application updates below.
New admin UI for installing apps and plugins: This first highlight makes it easier to manage plugins and ServiceNow Store apps on the platform and replaces the classic plugin list. The new interface provides significantly more information about installable Store apps, plugins and ServiceNow products as well as the components that have already been installed, which significantly improves the management of updates — independent of ServiceNow major releases. We like the fact that this gives us a lot more overview and information than before. We are pleased with the improved management and updates of all apps.
ServiceNow IT Operations Management offers various functionalities for managing the firewall inventory, policies, and life cycle. In addition to registering changes, the process of regular recertification of firewall rules and policies is an important part of security compliance. With the new Firewall Admin Workspace in Vancouver, the security team has a central work interface for managing the firewall, which combines all aspects of firewall management (changes, firewall inventory, life cycle...). This innovation completes the ITOM Firewall Management features, provides the security team with a clearer view of the CMDB and enables simplified monitoring and tracking of recertification processes.
Personal or security-relevant data can be collected in various processes (for example: ITSM, CSM, HR) by users in portals or processors in tickets. The new data discovery and data classification functionality helps to ensure that such data is identified and, if necessary, deleted or made unrecognizable for audits.
This functionality searches defined tables for personal data, for example, classifies the results found and enables defined actions with regard to these results.
With the Data Discovery function, search patterns (which are configured using regular expressions) and a definition of the platform tables to be scanned can be used to narrow down the data to be searched for. The actual search is then carried out via scheduled jobs, which carry out the searches on weekends, for example.
The data found according to the definitions is classified using the Data Classification function, can be analyzed using a dashboard and, based on the classification, workflows with corresponding actions can also be defined.
We like the proactive protection of critical data and information that this ensures. There are various standard dashboards available, and it is easy to expand for further use cases.
The ServiceNow platform access rights are configured for all tables and fields based on Access Controls. Access controls can be extensive, as a large number of different roles are usually active per data object.
With the new Access Analyzer, developers, testers and the security team can now directly check the access of users, groups, or roles to resources. The simple interface makes it possible to check access down to field level.
A clear list of results for all categories of access is displayed. This is a significant improvement over the previously used debug functionality. We like the fact that a simple way to ensure data security has been created here and that a very clear analysis of the complex access controls is now available.
The use of ServiceNow platform features for conversation with service management and workflow users can be viewed from a new perspective with Issue Auto Resolution. With this feature, incidents can be analyzed and resolved by starting a conversation with the affected user via the virtual agent. We can find good examples of this in IT: printer problems or password resets in applications. There are also possible applications for HR cases.
The analysis of incidents that are eligible for IAR is ensured by a trained machine learning model and the NLU (Natural Language Understanding) functionality. For the defined use case, the corresponding models are therefore trained for the relevant languages. Based on the virtual agent conversations available in the ServiceNow instance (for example ITSM or HRSD standard conversations), the ticket is then assigned in dialogue with the user and — according to the plan — resolved.
In our opinion, the new admin frontend and dashboard summarizes the topics of setup, training, settings, simulation of results and also monitoring; i.e. all aspects that are required to use IAR. Centralized setup, administration, and monitoring is now possible.
Overall, the use of Issue Auto Resolution is significantly simplified through the supported configuration and monitoring of the results and the hurdle to successful rollout in the areas of IT and HR services is significantly reduced. We like how much easier it is now to set up the IAR functionality and that all functions, including simulation, are centrally accessible.
ServiceNow has announced 23 extensive AI/Generative AI functions at Knowledge. We'll go into that in the summary below.
A first approach to integrating assistance functions — “Now Assist” in ServiceNow — into the platform is an interesting addition to Flow Designer. Suggestions for the next useful actions based on a special Flow Designer AI model are displayed here. A first Now Assist feature to support developers!
It remains to be seen in practice whether developers or even business users (according to the “Citizen Developer” concept) benefit from this.
Another tip for use: The functionality must be activated via a new plugin (com.glide.hub.now_assist_recommendations_flow_designer) and is then displayed in the flow settings.
Machine learning functionalities, such as automatic categorization, have been available since the ServiceNow Madrid and London releases. With Vancouver, all AI functionalities for more efficient ticket and workflow processing have been renamed “Task Intelligence.” With the “Task Intelligence for ITSM” feature, an admin interface is now available as a central dashboard for configuration, overview, analysis of benefits and monitoring. With this functionality, very interesting analyses and monitoring are possible.
The analysis functions for Task Intelligence make it possible, among other things, to measure the use of AI suggestions by ticket processors. This provides a realistic insight into the benefits of AI models and training with your own data.
Overall, the development of machine learning (ML) functions towards significantly simplified administration and handling is very positive! We expect this to further spread among organizations that have the functionality available with ServiceNow ITSM Professional, for example.
As mentioned above with the Flow Designer extension, Knowledge 23 was dominated by Generative AI, including the appearance of the CEO of Nvidia. ServiceNow therefore intends to expand its own platform with dedicated LLM (Large Language Models) in various areas.
The new ServiceNow Store apps with the Generative AI Controller as a basic connection to OpenAI or Microsoft Azure OpenAI and the Now Assist apps listed here will soon be available in Europe - that's when our test of the Vancouver release and especially the Now Assist functions for developers and users will continue straight away!
Due to the great interest in Generative AI in the ServiceNow platform and the question of which aspects of Now Assist bring the greatest benefit, one of our next ServiceNow platform webinars will focus specifically on these topics.
The date will follow, we will keep you up to date!
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