Category: ServiceNow

Taking the ServiceNow User Experience from OK to Outstanding (Part 2)

As the digital backbone of numerous large enterprises and a pivotal tool for IT services, ServiceNow not only boosts operational efficiency but significantly enhances how users interact with technology on a daily basis. However, creating an optimal user experience (UX) goes beyond just using the software out-of-the-box. It involves thoughtful consideration and understanding of user needs and business processes. Whether you’re a ServiceNow administrator, or a business manager, enhancing UX can lead to better job performance, higher satisfaction, and ultimately, a smoother interaction with your digital tools.

There are a variety of challenges that ServiceNow users may encounter that can hinder their interaction with the platform. 
Complexity: ServiceNow offers an array of functionalities that, while powerful, can be overwhelming for some users. 
Personalisation: Out-of-the-box solutions may not align effectively with specific organisational processes or individual user preferences.
Training: Users with insufficient training may struggle to utilise ServiceNow’s full capabilities.

The repercussions of these common pain points are far-reaching.

Poor UX can result in decreased productivity. If users can’t find what they need or are bogged down by inefficient processes, tasks take longer, and frustration mounts. Faced with a tool that is hard to navigate, or unintuitive, users may try to find workarounds that avoid using it altogether, which leads to inconsistent data or traceability and accountability issues. For the full value of a platform like ServiceNow to be realised by an organisation, its employees must feel confident and empowered when navigating and using the platform.

By applying strategic enhancements that transform the ServiceNow platform into a more user-friendly environment, and focusing on the user’s interactions, needs, and feedback, the platform can be transformed into an even more user-friendly environment, resulting in enhanced productivity and a satisfied workforce. This involves a multi-faceted approach that goes beyond mere cosmetic tweaks, and implements strategies that make ServiceNow not just usable, but a pleasure to use.

The following are just a handful of initiatives that can ensure your ServiceNow platform not only meets the functional needs of users, but also engages them with its intuitiveness and efficiency. 

Tailoring Interfaces and Workflows:
One of the most direct ways to enhance UX is to ensure the interface and workflows best fit the specific needs of users. This means decluttering the interface, removing unnecessary fields, and ensuring that the user journey through a task is logical and minimalistic. For instance, creating simplified forms for commonly repeated tasks can significantly reduce the time and effort users spend on data entry.

Personalising Dashboards and Views:
Every user has different needs based on their role within the organisation. Personalising dashboards so that they display the most relevant information to each user not only speeds up their workflow but also makes the experience more engaging. Utilising ServiceNow’s powerful tools for dashboard customisation enables users to see a snapshot of what matters most to them at a glance.

Simplifying Forms and Data Entry: 
Complex forms are a common barrier in enterprise applications. By simplifying these, perhaps by automating certain inputs or reducing the number of steps in a multi-stage process, you can significantly enhance the user experience. This might include setting default values, auto-filling fields based on previous inputs, or eliminating redundant fields.

Integration with Collaboration Tools:
Integrating the ServiceNow platform with popular collaboration tools such as Slack or Microsoft Teams can enhance communication and collaboration within the platform. This reduces context switching for users and improves efficiency.

Performance Optimisation:
Optimise the ServiceNow instance performance by minimising script execution times, reducing unnecessary database queries, and leveraging client-side caching where appropriate. A snappy and responsive interface contributes significantly to a positive user experience.

Contextual Help and Guidance: 
Implement contextual help features, such as tooltips or inline guidance, to provide users with immediate assistance where they need it. This can help users understand complex fields or processes without having to leave the page.

Ensuring that any enhancements made to improve the user experience are sustained over time also requires a strategic approach. Organisations should be proactively and regularly reassessing user needs, staying informed of platform updates and new features, fostering an internal culture of collaboration, and monitoring user experience metrics to gauge the impact of implemented strategies to make informed decisions for ongoing optimisation. Together, these practices create a cycle of continuous improvement, where user feedback informs iterative refinements, ultimately leading to a ServiceNow environment that is tailored to meet the needs of its users and drive business success.

It’s clear that UX will continue to play a central role in the success of ServiceNow implementations and adoption. By embracing a culture of user-centric design and collaboration, organisations can unlock the full potential of ServiceNow as a platform for delivering exceptional digital experiences.

JDS’s ‘User Experience Review & Analysis’ is specifically designed to help identify and implement the most effective enhancements to your unique ServiceNow platform. We conduct a comprehensive review, analysing your current setup to pinpoint areas where UX can be optimised for maximum efficiency and satisfaction, focusing on the three main principles of Available Products and Features, Standards and Governance, and Technology and Security. The end result is a clear and actionable strategy to adapt and modernise the platform, ensuring that ServiceNow remains not ‘just a tool’, but a valuable ally in achieving your organisational goals.

Taking the ServiceNow User Experience from OK to Outstanding (Part 1)

With more and more time spent online, our expectations for a slick and intuitive experience have increased.  This has extended beyond our day-to-day personal activities, to include our online interactions in the workplace. By not providing user-friendly interfaces to their employees, organisations risk disengagement and diminished productivity levels.

What is UX?

When we talk about UX in the context of ServiceNow, we’re referring to how users perceive and interact with the platform. A good UX means that ServiceNow is not only functional, but also intuitive, efficient, and tailored to assist users in performing their tasks with minimal friction and maximum satisfaction.

Why UX Matters?

Potential outcomes of a overall negative user experience are:

The relationship between users and technology is tangible, and has a direct impact on their output and satisfaction when using a platform. For most users, this connection is solidified through their interactions with outward-facing interfaces such as a self-service portal or chatbot. For the full value of a platform like ServiceNow to be realised by an organisation, its employees must feel confident and empowered when navigating and using the platform.

Without this level of trust between user and technology, an organisation will find it more difficult to drive adoption of the platform and improve their ways of working. Frustrated users may be prone to reverting back to old ways of getting things done, like emailing someone directly. This can lead to the resurfacing of issues of traceability and accountability that ServiceNow was intended to solve.

Creating A Positive UX In ServiceNow

To keep up with user expectations, you need a platform that has its finger on the pulse of modern ways of working. The ServiceNow ecosystem is constantly evolving to meet the changing needs of a modern workplace, with updates providing new interfaces that are focussed on providing engaging experiences to drive productivity with employees and enhance user satisfaction. Updates have previously included:

  • Self-Service with Service Portal
  • Instant Assistance with Virtual Agent
  • Mobile Accessibility with NOW Mobile
  • Modern Design with UI Builder
  • Personalised Experiences with Configurable Workspaces and Employee Center
  • Real-time Collaboration with Sidebar
  • Generative AI Assistance with NOW Assist

How To Keep Up

With trends and expectations evolving so rapidly, it can be hard for organisations to keep up. This can be especially true with regards to user interfaces and experiences, where the benefits may not be easily measurable.

JDS offers a comprehensive package to help organisations uplift their user experiences in ServiceNow to ensure they are getting the most out of the platform. This User Experience Review & Analysis evaluates an organisation’s readiness to improve their user experience in the ServiceNow platform by assessing the current state of the platform against three main principles:

  • Available Products and Features
  • Standards and Governance
  • Technology and Security

The end result is a clear and actionable strategy to adapt and modernise interfaces through which users engage with the ServiceNow platform to improve the overall experience and increase productivity.

Part Three: ServiceNow Hyperautomation – Process Mining

ServiceNow, a leading platform for process mining and automation, recently launched its Utah release with several new features and enhancements, including multidimensional mining.

Part Three of this blog series will explore how you can analyse and improve your IT service management (ITSM) workflows using process mining and automation.

What is Process Mining?

Process mining is a technique that applies data science to discover, validate and improve workflows based on event logs from information systems. It uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to automatically extract process models from your ServiceNow data and visualise them in an interactive dashboard. You can then use the dashboard to identify bottlenecks, inefficiencies, deviations and best practices in your ITSM processes, and take action to optimise them with automation solutions.

How can ServiceNow Process Mining help you to enhance your organisation’s incident management process?

ServiceNow Process Mining can help your organisation enhance your incident management process by providing you with valuable insights into how your process is actually performed, how it deviates from the expected or desired behavior, and how it can be improved.

Process overview shows you the key metrics and statistics of your process, such as the number of cases, the average duration, the throughput time or the compliance rate. You can also filter and segment your data by various criteria, such as category, urgency, assignment group or resolution code.

Process Map provides your organisation with a graphical representation of your process model, which is automatically generated using your data. You can see the flow of cases from start to end, the frequency and duration of each activity, and the variants and deviations of your process. You can also drill down into specific cases or activities to see more details.

Process Analysis presents you the results of various analyses that are performed on your organisation’s process model, such as bottleneck analysis, root cause analysis, conformance analysis and best practice analysis. You can use these to identify and understand the causes and effects of problems and opportunities in your process.

Using these three capabilities, you can gain a comprehensive understanding of your organisation’s incident management process and discover ways to optimise it through elimination of unnecessary steps or automation of repetitive tasks.

Final Thought

As an Elite ServiceNow Partner, JDS can help you navigate the complex and fast-changing world of hyper-automation. We have the expertise, experience and passion to support your organisation’s digital transformation journey. Whether you need to automate your business processes, optimise your IT operations, or leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning, we can guide you every step of the way.

Part Two: ServiceNow Hyperautomation – Proactive Automation Resilience

What is Automation Resilience?

In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, automation is becoming increasingly vital for businesses. However, as with any technology, it’s important to be prepared for unexpected disruptions and failures. This is where automation resilience comes in.

Automation resilience is the ability of an organisation’s automation solutions to withstand unexpected interruptions and recover quickly from failures. Without automation resilience, any downtime or disruptions can lead to significant financial losses and negatively impact the customer experience.

ServiceNow understands the importance of automation resilience, which is why capabilities to enable proactive monitoring and management of automation solutions have been developed. Configuration Management Database (CMDB) is a crucial tool that allows your organisation to track automation solutions and dependencies in the same way you track other facets of your tech stack.

With ServiceNow’s automation resilience capabilities and CMDB, businesses can operate their automation solutions with confidence, knowing that they are prepared for any unexpected disruptions. There is no need for downtime or interruptions to negatively impact your business.

Establishing Proactive Automation Resilience with ServiceNow

Disruptions are inevitable in the fast-paced digitalised business environment, that’s why it’s crucial to have the right tools in place to anticipate, prevent, respond, and adapt to them. ServiceNow’s hyperautomation technologies and capabilities enable organisations to do just that, by leveraging multitudes of technologies.

Intelligence (AI) and data insights are examples of such technology, enabling ServiceNow’s hyperautomation to assist your business with predicting issues, reducing user impact, and streamlining resolutions. It also involves automating the right processes in ServiceNow to improve efficiency, productivity, and customer satisfaction. With ServiceNow, your organisation can serve customers more efficiently, deliver products faster, and protect its workforce more effectively.

ServiceNow’s automation center allows your organisation to assess every aspect of relevant change management details, not just the execution details of your RPA bots. By viewing a graphic depiction of their bot’s process infrastructure dependencies, organisations can identify potential disruptions such as maintenance windows or unexpected configuration errors.

Moreover, ServiceNow’s AI-powered root cause analysis and automated remediation actions enable your business to effectively reduce mean time to resolution (MTTR). This means that your data can be analysed from various sources, such as logs, metrics, traces, and events, and identify the source of problems in your IT operations. It can also trigger automated workflows and actions to fix issues faster and prevent them from recurring. By doing so, ServiceNow helps your organisation to improve service quality and performance, while shortening the time it takes to resolve incidents.

ServiceNow’s innovative solution empowers your business to gain a competitive advantage by providing exceptional customer experiences and satisfaction. By using insights gained from service quality data, your organisation can proactively communicate with your customers, addressing pain points before they become a problem. With the ability to map out the entire customer journey, your business can tailor your customer service strategy to meet their needs. With ServiceNow’s hyperautomation, you don’t have to wait for disruptions to occur.


Watch: Establish Proactive Automation Resilience | ServiceNow

Part One: ServiceNow Hyperautomation – Process Optimisation

Improvement Initiatives

As businesses grow, IT processes become increasingly complex and difficult to manage. This is where Process Optimisation comes in, providing a way to evaluate and enhance the performance of your IT processes using data from your systems. In other words, it’s a method of making sure that your IT processes are running as smoothly and efficiently as possible.

One of the key components of Process Optimisation is ‘Improvement Initiatives’, also known as ‘Continuous Improvement’. This approach involves using data-driven insights and best practices to identify opportunities for enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of your IT service management processes. By continually refining and improving these processes, you can ensure that your organisation is operating at peak performance, and delivering the best possible outcomes for your customers.

Whether you’re looking to get started quickly with API-driven processes or planning for the future with Robotic Process Automation (RPA), the ServiceNow platform can help you achieve your goals. If you’re already using ServiceNow, the leading platform for digital workflows, Process Optimisation and Improvement Initiatives are built right in.
Read on to learn more about ‘Improvement Initiatives’ and explore RPA and API in more detail.

Understanding APIs

In the world of software development, an Application Programming Interface (API) is an essential building block that enables different applications to communicate with each other. APIs are like the ‘bridges’ that connect different software components, allowing them to share data and functionality seamlessly. Without APIs, software applications would have to be built from scratch every time, making the development process much more time-consuming and resource-intensive.

An API typically consists of a set of rules and protocols that govern how software applications should interact with each other. These rules and protocols define the methods that can be used to retrieve, update, or delete data, as well as the format of the data that is exchanged. APIs enable developers to create complex systems that can be easily integrated with other applications.

APIs are used in a variety of settings, from web and mobile applications to enterprise software systems. Many popular web services, such as Google Maps, Twitter, and Facebook, provide APIs that developers can use to access their data and functionality. In addition, many enterprise software systems, such as customer relationship management (CRM) software and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, offer APIs that enable developers to integrate their applications with these systems.

APIs are critical components of modern software development, enabling applications to communicate and share data with one another. By providing a standardised way to interact with software systems, APIs simplify the development process and make it easier to create powerful, integrated software solutions.

Understanding RPA

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is a revolutionary technology that promises to transform the way we work. Essentially, RPA involves using software robots (or bots) to automate repetitive, rule-based tasks that are typically performed by humans. This means that employees can be freed up to focus on higher-value tasks that require creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills.

RPA tools are designed to mimic the actions of a human worker. For example, they can log into applications, copy and paste data between systems, and enter information into forms. By automating these tasks, RPA can help organisations to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and increase accuracy.

One of the key benefits of RPA is that it can be used to automate a wide range of processes across different departments and industries. For example, RPA can be used to automate invoice processing in finance, customer service inquiries in retail, and claims processing in insurance.

RPA is an exciting technology that has the potential to revolutionise the way we work. As businesses look to stay competitive in an increasingly digital world, RPA is set to play a key role in driving productivity, reducing costs, and improving customer satisfaction.

API vs RPA: Understanding the Difference

In today’s world of increasing digitalisation, businesses are always looking for ways to improve efficiency and reduce costs. Two technologies that are often mentioned in this context are RPA and API. Both technologies can help businesses automate processes, but they have different approaches and capabilities. It is a common misconception in the IT industry that RPA is only used when API is not available. In fact, RPA and API have their own strengths and limitations.

The key difference between RPA and API is their approach to automation. RPA is focused on automating specific tasks or processes, while API is focused on enabling different systems to work together. RPA is typically used to automate repetitive and manual tasks that are prone to errors, while API is used to integrate systems and data sources and enable real-time communication and data exchange.

RPA and API are two very different technologies that can help businesses automate processes and improve efficiency. Depending on the needs of your business, one or both of these technologies may be useful in achieving your automation goals.

Unify your Hyperautomation Landscape with ServiceNow (Automation Center)

ServiceNow Automation Center is a cutting-edge platform that offers a centralised solution for managing and executing Hyperautomation strategies. By utilising powerful features such as workplace, dashboard, executive dashboard and RPA vendor integration, businesses can streamline their automation landscape, making it easier than ever before to implement a comprehensive automation strategy that can improve efficiency and reduce costs.

One of the key benefits of ServiceNow Automation Center is the ability to integrate disparate automation solutions across different third-party vendors. This can help to maximise the business impact of automation initiatives, as well as consolidate automation opportunities across the entire enterprise. With ServiceNow Automation Center, businesses can manage the entire automation lifecycle from intake through to execution, providing a holistic view of automation activity across the organisation.

In addition, ServiceNow Automation Center provides a powerful visualisation tool, allowing businesses to view benchmarks for automation business goals and activity in one centralised location. This feature makes it easier to track the progress of automation initiatives and make data-driven decisions to optimise their impact.

ServiceNow Automation Center also provides a comprehensive solution for monitoring and managing robotic process automation (RPA) jobs in CMDB. This means that businesses can keep automation activities active, with full visibility of their status and performance.

ServiceNow Automation Center is a powerful platform that enables businesses to achieve their automation goals through centralised management, seamless integration, and comprehensive automation monitoring and reporting.

Stay tuned for Part Two: Proactive Automation Resilience


Watch: Unify Your Hyperautomation Landscape | ServiceNow

Introduction to ServiceNow Hyperautomation

Imagine this…

You’re at work, and suddenly an application you’re using stops working. You’re in a rush and can’t afford to spend hours on the phone with technical support. But what if there was a way to get your problem solved quickly and efficiently, without ever having to speak to a human being?

The ServiceNow Virtual Agent is an AI-driven conversational chatbot that is equipped to efficiently tackle your IT issues. With just a few clicks, you can explain your problem and get instant assistance. Using a combination of ServiceNow Automation Center and Flow Designer, the ServiceNow Virtual Agent will quickly identify the submitted query and proactively initiate a conversation for resolution, without the need for human intervention.

In our initial scenario, the ServiceNow Virtual Agent would have promptly diagnosed the problem and triggered the ServiceNow Automation Center bots to restart the application service through the use of Robot Process Automation. Simultaneously, a ServiceNow incident ticket is created through the ServiceNow Flow Designer, allowing your IT department to track the issue and ensure it doesn’t happen again. All of this happens in a matter of minutes, ensuring that you can get back to work without any further interruptions, and with minimal human interference.

This is a practical example of Hyperautomation in action.

Automation vs Hyperautomation

Automation has become a buzzword in the world of technology and business, but what exactly does it mean? Simply put, automation refers to the use of technology to perform tasks or processes that would typically be performed manually by humans. This can include everything from using software bots to handle repetitive tasks, to using machine learning algorithms to make decisions based on data.

However, automation is no longer limited to simple, repetitive tasks. With the emergence of advanced technologies such as RPA (Robotic Process Automation), AI (Artificial Intelligence), and ML (Machine Learning), we have entered a new era of automation known as Hyperautomation. Hyperautomation involves using these advanced technologies to automate more complex and sophisticated tasks, such as decision-making, data analysis, and even creative work.

The goal of Hyperautomation is to create a fully automated end-to-end workflow that can deliver business value by improving efficiency, reducing errors, and increasing productivity. By leveraging the power of automation, organizations can streamline their operations, reduce costs, and free up their employees to focus on more strategic tasks.

ServiceNow Hyperautomation

ServiceNow offers a platform that combines several automation technologies, including Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Hub, Process Automation Designer (PAD), Automation Center (AC) and Integration Hub (IH), enabling organisations to automate complex, end-to-end processes.

With ServiceNow Hyperautomation, organisations can improve their overall processes, efficiency and productivity. This is achieved through the use of workflows, bots, and other automation tools that can automate everything from simple, repetitive tasks to more complex decision-making and data analysis processes. ServiceNow Hyperautomation has become an increasingly popular solution for businesses looking to stay competitive in today’s fast-paced, digital world.

Up Next…ServiceNow Hyperautomation: Part One will look at Process Optimisation, API vs RPA

Read Next…Part One: Process Optimisation

Watch: Hyperautomation and Low-Code | Knowledge 2022

JDS and the GO Foundation

The Go Foundation is an inspiring organisation empowering young Indigenous Australians by providing scholarships from primary school through to University.

Co-founded by Adam Goodes and Michael O’Loughlin in 2009, the foundation offers mentoring, leadership, networks and support to GO students on their journey to employment.

JDS is immensely proud to have committed to donating $30k to the GO Foundation over the next three years.

It is an organisation that really resonates, as we recognise the vital importance of ensuring that all Australians have equal opportunity to participate socially, culturally and economically.

Extensive research has revealed that the completion of further education by Indigenous Australians can lead to increased earning capacity, greater employment opportunities, improved health and wellbeing outcomes, and reduced interaction with the justice system. The benefits that can come from Indigenous Australians going further beyond high school with their education can stretch beyond improving and enriching the lives of Indigenous communities – they can benefit everyone.

Positive enabling factors that are likely to increase Indigenous participation in further education include enhancing the quality of school experience for Indigenous students to ensure that culture is recognised, and the aspirations of each student is developed. Additionally, providing access to career advice and guidance, and information on the various choices and pathways available for Indigenous students is linked to increasing the quality of the school experience for Indigenous Australians.

The GO Foundation’s scholarship program provides financial assistance, tools and resources for Indigenous students to ensure their journey through school is rich and rewarding, and a broad range of career options, work experience and paid internships ensures the assistance continues well after the scholarship has ended.    

We hope that by dedicating our long-term support, we are contributing to generational change and opportunities for many students for many years to come.

Mastering Modal Dialog Boxes

Modal Dialog boxes are a great way to enhance the user experience and provide more detailed feedback to users than a default browser popup.

Recently, we had a challenging set of requirements from a customer. They needed a bunch of mandatory fields (easy enough with UI Policies) but there was a twist—they needed:

  • Fields that were mandatory ONLY if the person wanted to send the record for approval
  • Four fields but ONLY one of the four is mandatory (ie, put data in any one field and all four are good to go)
  • There had to be at least one record in a related list

Modal dialogs are awesome!

We developed a simple approval dialog box for a UI action to cater to these requirements. It’s a good example of how complex requirements can be distilled into a simple solution.

Have fun and happy coding!

Virtual Agent: Understanding The Limitations Of LITE

Understanding the difference between Virtual Agent LITE and the full Virtual Agent offering is a must when planning your organisation’s Virtual Agent journey.

The following matrix will help you to understand the benefits of the Virtual Agent LITE product as a starting point, whilst clearly highlighting the immense value that can be realised in proceeding with the full Virtual Agent offering.

Want to know more? We’d love to hear from you via [email protected] or 1300 780 432.

ServiceNow & ReactJS

Technology Background

Like any enterprise platform, ServiceNow has a complex relationship with its underlying architecture. Originally, ServiceNow was built on Java using Jelly XML for server-side component rendering. For its time, this approach was cutting edge.

As the Internet matured and social media ramped up, Google developed a clever client/server binding language called AngularJS that allowed for dynamic HTML pages to be rendered. ServiceNow adopted this only to have Google discontinue AngularJS in its original form. ServiceNow’s implementation of AngularJS as found in the Service Portal is world-class, but unfortunately, the underlying technology is no longer actively supported.

At this point, the architects at ServiceNow sat back and took a long hard look at emerging technologies and trends among the tech giants. It would be fair to say they were once bitten, twice shy. In developing their Agent Workspace UI, ServiceNow settled on using ReactJS (with GraphQL for data management) because of its broad scale adoption across the industry.

ReactJS is used by Facebook, Instagram, Netflix, WhatsApp and Dropbox to name a few, so ServiceNow are on safe ground with this technology.

Implementing ReactJS In ServiceNow

Whereas with AngularJS, ServiceNow provided an online IDE for widget development, at the moment the only way to build a ReactJS application for ServiceNow is to work offline. Once built, your ReactJS file can be deployed to ServiceNow as a packaged application.

There are pros and cons to this approach. On the positive side, ReactJS applications can be deployed with little to no overhead from ServiceNow, making them astonishingly fast and scalable. The only con is you need your own Node JS environment and ReactJS development platform.

Why Use ReactJS?

Why would anyone develop a ServiceNow application with ReactJS?

The answer is:

• ReactJS is an industry standard and so there is a vast pool of experienced web developers to draw upon
• ServiceNow provides a highly-scalable platform for ReactJS
• ServiceNow has built-in granular data security and APIs to manage data access
• ServiceNow is extremely efficient at workflow management and integration supporting ReactJS

Rather than building and managing a full-stack service platform for a ReactJS app, your app can be deployed quickly and easily through ServiceNow. Given the amount of effort and due-diligence required to operate a full-stack service at an enterprise level, ServiceNow provides a convenient shortcut.

When it comes to ReactJS, ServiceNow is effectively operating as PaaS (Platform as a Service). Think of your ReactJS app as a beautifully designed architectural home. ServiceNow allows you to position it as a penthouse suite without the need to worry about the rest of the building beneath it.

Creating A ReactJS Application

We’re going to create a nice simple ReactJS application listing contact details.

I recommend using the Code Sandbox for ReactJS applications as it is easy to use and provides an instant preview of your work.

To keep things simple, I’m going to use the ServiceNow REST API for Tables as my data access point.

Once you’ve signed into the Code Sandbox you’ll be assigned to one of their temporary virtual servers. The first time you run the code below it will fail because of cross-origin resource sharing restrictions (CORS).

If you look at the console log, you’ll find your temporary virtual server name. From there, you can set up a CORS exception that will allow access to your instance. Once that is in place, the application will work properly.

Without getting into too much detail, about how ReactJS works, we’re going to set up two files, our core Apps.js and contacts.js. We’re going to create a new folder called components to hold our contacts.js template.

Notice how when I hover over the line src folder in the Code Sandbox I get options for a new directory and a new file. This is how I added /components/contacts.js

Let’s look at the code used to retrieve contacts from ServiceNow and display them using ReactJS.

App.js

import React, { Component } from "react";
import Contacts from "./components/contacts";

class App extends Component {
  render() {
    return <Contacts contacts={this.state.contacts} />;
  }

  state = {
    contacts: []
  };

  componentDidMount() {   
    //this is a sample web service you can test with
    //fetch('https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/users',{
    fetch(
      "https://{your-instance}.service-now.com/api/now/table/sys_user?sysparm_query=emailENDSWITH{your-email-suffix}",
      {
        withCredentials: true,
        credentials: "include"
      }
    )
      .then((res) => res.json())
      .then((data) => {
        console.log(data);
        this.setState({ contacts: data.result });
      })
      .catch(console.log);
  }
}

export default App;

As you can see, our Apps.js file refers to /components/contacts to get an HTML/ReactJS template. It also includes a simple REST call (fetch) that uses the ServiceNow Table API to retrieve information from ServiceNow.

To get this example to work, you’ll have to replace…

  • {your-instance} with your ServiceNow instance name
  • {your-email-suffix} with your organisation’s email suffix (ie, gmail.com, etc)


contact.js is our HTML/ReactJS template. It takes the data retrieved from the fetch and formats it for display. It’s pretty straight-forward and intuitive to read.

contact.js

import React from "react";

const Contacts = ({ contacts }) => {
  return (
    <div>
      <center>
        <h1>Contact List</h1>
      </center>
      {contacts.map((contact) => (
        <div class="card">
          <div class="card-body">
            <h4 class="card-title">{contact.name}</h4>
            <h5 class="card-subtitle mb-2 text-muted">
              Email: {contact.email}
            </h5>
            <h6 class="card-text">UserID: {contact.user_name}</h6>
          </div>
        </div>
      ))}
    </div>
  );
};

export default Contacts;

That’s it.

That’s a ReactJS application.

At this point, your ReactJS application should work. If it doesn’t, look carefully at the console log in your browser and check you’ve completed the steps listed above.

Deploying A ReactJS Application

ReactJS applications need to be packaged and deployed.

Code Sandbox integrates with Netlify to provide online packaging and deployment.

The deployment may take a few minutes.

Make sure you have a Netlify account (I use my GitHub account for all of these services so everything is centralized)

Once you’ve signed into Netlify, Click on the little download arrow to get your package ready for deployment to ServiceNow.

Deploying on ServiceNow is simple enough, but it is a little bit of a hack.

This advice may change over time as ServiceNow develops its offering further, but the sanctioned approach at the moment is to deploy ReactJS as stylesheets.

The reason for this is style sheets are resources that can be accessed without authentication. In essence, you separate your JS and CSS into different stylesheets and then reference them from an HTML page (such as a UI page or a portal widget). So long as ReactJS is listed as a dependency for that page, it’ll load in the background, recognize your React JS in the stylesheet and run accordingly.

For more detail on ReactJS deployment in ServiceNow, please refer to:


Have fun and happy coding!

Working With ACLs In ServiceNow

 

ACLs or Access Control Lists are the process by which ServiceNow provides granular security for its data and can be applied to individual records, as well as fields within those records.

When working with ACLs, it is extremely important to note that the order in which an ACL definition is evaluated has performance implications.

These are:

  1. Roles
  2. Criteria
  3. Script

 

ROLES: FASTEST

Roles will evaluate extremely fast as they are cached in server memory, so using roles is always highly recommended.

CRITERIA: FAST

Conditions are based on values in the current record and will evaluate quickly, but only after the role has been checked.

Although you can have complex criteria using dot-walking (“Show related records”) these will incur a performance overhead as ServiceNow needs to load the related records.

In this example, the criteria is based on the company of the assigned person for that record, requiring ServiceNow to load TWO additional records to evaluate.

Remember, performance does not scale in a linear fashion.

Although criteria like this may seem blisteringly fast when looking at a single record in a development environment, it will be much slower in production as lots of people access records—and particularly if it is applied to a READ rule in a list view as the criteria has to evaluate for each and every individual row being displayed (multiplying the performance overhead).


SCRIPT: SLOWEST

Although slowest here is a relative term, ACL scripts will evaluate at least slightly slower than ACL roles and ACL criteria for a number of reasons.

Scripts are often needed in ACLs, but they should always be carefully considered for performance implications.

The best practice with scripts is to have them shielded by roles and criteria. In this way, the script won’t even run unless the ACL first matches the role and then matches the criteria, potentially sidestepping a performance overhead before it occurs.

Consider the following two ACLs. Technically, they’re identical, but one will run considerably faster than the other.

Even though they’re technically identical, the second ACL will be slower because:

  • The script will be run for ALL users and not just those that have the ITIL role
  • The script will run on ALL records not just those that are active
  • ServiceNow’s JAVA layer has to invoke a Rhino Javascript engine to evaluate this script

Ideally, scripts should only be used on ACLs that already have roles and criteria to ensure they’re only running when absolutely necessary.

ServiceNow is optimised to run ACLs extremely fast, but they can introduce a performance overhead on large instances with millions of records.

JDS is experienced in optimizing ACLs and can use a variety of methods to drastically improve ACL performance. For more information, reach out to the JDS ServiceNow team.

To learn more, contact our team today on 1300 780 432, or email [email protected].

How ServiceNow’s ‘Virtual Agent’ can assist your organisation: Part 4

This blog entry is part of a four-part blog series on how ServiceNow’s Virtual Agent can assist your organisation.

See Part 1 HERE

See Part 2 HERE

See Part 3 HERE

Part 4: Experiences Matter

Through this blog series I have spoken about, through Virtual Agent, it is easier to empower users, create more opportunities for contactless resolution and create better operational insights and accuracy.

This is to achieve an end goal.

This end goal is to achieve a better service experience for users and customers. Virtual Agent really drives this home by focusing on the elements mentioned throughout this blog series. This is largely due to the Virtual Agent’s ability to evolve as your employees and organisation does. It allows a user’s or customer’s experience to be front and centre, as it provides the opportunity to improve consistently, even if there is staff turnover.

This is done by bringing across the knowledge from previous employees to the current and future employees as a sort of synthetic genetic history (through the Virtual Agent's flows). Although in theory, staff turnover should happen less as agents can refocus on more engaging work due to the virtual agent taking over most of the daily mundane work. These blog entries have largely been focused on positives and the next point has only been touched upon previously, but a Virtual Agent is there to offer another option, not replace completely, for users to interact with the service desk. The key point there is that it is an option.

Offering Options

These articles have been centred around the reasons why Virtual Agent is a useful addition to your organisation and how it can dramatically improve the service experience, but Virtual Agent should never replace all other avenues that users can use to access the information or raise issues.

Some users know where to look, so forcing them to use the Virtual Agent would frustrate them. Not only that, sometimes it is an emergency, so being forced to go down the Virtual Agent path will just delay something that should not be delayed.

It is important not to forget the fact that accessibility is also important, so offering a phone helpline may also be helpful for users with poor eyesight or bad internet connections. In addition to this, there are some queries that are just so specific that doing anything other than chatting to a person will not be efficient or beneficial.

As a result, a Virtual Agent should not replace all other options as an attempted cost cutting measure or in an attempt to be “cutting edge”.

It may be tempting thought as your Virtual Agent matures that you consider outright replace certain options, but this should not be done without ensuring there are other clear options for your user base and that the service experience is not negatively impacted as a result.

Evolving Your Business

When you begin your Virtual Agent journey though, it may not solve the issue alone, but can gather more information before handing it off to a person via web chat or otherwise, which ensures the service desk can focus their efforts on more complex issues or necessary contact.

An example of this is serving the users better who need to user a different resolution method, such as a phone call. When a Virtual Agent becomes a more prominent element within you organisation however, there will be time for people to work on other more, previous considered “only if time persists” projects.

This is important for several reasons, but largely because it opens agent’s time to be able to work on a variety of other initiatives in the organisation. They can up-skill and learn skills to provide newer and more useful services to their customers. Service agents can strive to become more user experience focused and become experts in understanding how to help customers, as opposed to regurgitating the same information day in and day out.

Your business will be able to review new initiatives to either become more profitable, by being able to focus on what you currently offer or expanding and investigating options that previously seemed untenable due to resourcing constraints. Chat bots and Virtual Agents tend to be over-hyped, but using it correctly can be a huge benefit to your organisation.

Even if the Virtual Agent only helps in evolving your business only slightly, some of that hype is warranted as that may be enough to bring your organisation to the next level.

Summary

Over the past couple of months, this blog series has largely been focused on positives, but with every positive and idealistic plan in mind, it is important to have a dose of realism, which this blog entry focused on.

That’s not to say Virtual Agent is not a worthwhile endeavor, quite the contrary, but starting a journey with only the positives in mind can be potentially damaging to your organisation. In summary, in the first blog entry we focused on the concept of empowerment. Not only empowering users, but also service agents and the organisation as a whole.

This was further highlighted in the second entry when we focused on the user and service agent level by discussing the concept of contactless resolution. From a user perspective, this was being able to raise issues out of hours and solve it on their own when is convenient for them, without staying on hold whilst they are asked to turn their machine off and on again.

From an agent’s perspective, contactless resolution allowing service agents to work on different projects and stop working on mundane tasks day in and day out and now being able to focus on service experience. Then focusing on empowerment on an organisational level, as discussed in the third blog entry as a virtual agent assists with improving operational insights and accuracy. This meant using newly gathered and accurate data to improve the experience even further and potentially solve more issues proactively.

Finally, this article highlighted the fact that even though Virtual Agent has all these benefits, this is a journey that needs to properly be planned for and not used as the singular point of entry for a user or customer. This journey can be made easier by people who have helped other organisations down this journey, as they can bring their experiences and suggestions in the best way to introduce it slowly and effectively.

Without making this sound like a sales pitch, this is often where consultants come in to play and can recommend a good starting point to start this journey and equip your service agents for the future. Regardless however, I hope this blog series has been informative and has ensured that your customers and users are more a focal point than ever. Thanks for reading!

 

Thank you for taking the time to read this four-part series. If you have not already, take a read of the earlier parts and see what you missed!

If not, reach out to us at JDS Australia if you want to begin your virtual agent journey. In doing so, we hope that we can assist in empowering your people, allowing a higher rate of contactless resolution, improving operational insights and accuracy and ensuring that that experience of your users, matter.