ServiceNow provides workflow automation solutions for organizations to improve operational efficiency across departments, transform service delivery, enhance customer satisfaction, accelerate digital transformation, and stay competitive in the market.
To maintain its momentum and deliver maximum value to users, ServiceNow releases upgrades to its platform and applications with new updates, features, products, and bug fixes twice a year. These periodic releases are named after well-known cities in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. ServiceNow started this practice with “Aspen” in 2011. Before that, seasons and the relevant year were used to label the releases (For example, Spring 2009).
This article will give you an overview of all ServiceNow releases – the past, latest, and upcoming.
Table of Contents
ServiceNow Releases - A quick round-up
1) Upcoming Releases
a. Xanadu - Q4 2024
2) Latest Releases
a. Washington DC - Q1 2024
In the ServiceNow Washington DC release, several business-focused and developer applications, including the Generative AI solutions introduced in the Vancouver release, have been updated. ServiceNow’s standard practice in every release has been to enhance applications by adding new features and fixing existing issues, and this commitment is evident in the Washington DC release as well.
Read our blog posts on how ServiceNow has updated some common applications in the Washington DC release to streamline business operations and software development.
3) Past Releases
a. Vancouver - Q4 2023
In the Vancouver release, ServiceNow introduced significant features to its business-critical applications, including ServiceNow ITSM, CSM, HRSD, EAM, and Healthcare and Lifesciences Service Management, empowering organizations to redefine their business operations. The addition of Generative AI capabilities to the ServiceNow applications stood out as one of the key enhancements.
For the developers, ServiceNow updated tools such as App Engine, Automation Engine, Flow Designer, Process Automation Designer, and Decision Builder, among others.
Read our blog posts 1. For Business & 2. For Developers to learn more
b. Utah - Q2 2023
The ServiceNow Utah release placed great emphasis on enhancing its applications such as Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG), IT Operations Management (ITOM), Security Operations (SecOps), Employee Service Management, IT Service Management (ITSM), Customer Service Management (CSM), and so on that enable organizations to transform their workflows.
And the upgrades made to Flow Designer, Process Automation Designer, App Engine, Automation Engine, Next Experience UI Builder, and a few more can improve developers’ productivity.
Want to learn more about the upgrades made or new features added to different applications of ServiceNow? Read our blog posts–1) ServiceNow Utah Release For Streamlining Business Operations and 2) ServiceNow Utah Release – Benefiting Developers.
c. Tokyo - Q4, 2022
The ServiceNow Tokyo release mainly focused on helping organizations enhance employee experience (Manager hub, Admin center, etc.), manage Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) initiatives, handle supplier lifecycle processes (ServiceNow SLM), improve cloud security (ServiceNow Vault), and manage enterprise assets efficiently (ServiceNow EAM).
Furthermore, it brought in a lot of enhancements to support ServiceNow developers. App Engine, UI builder, and Flow Designer had some major enhancements. You can find more information on the ServiceNow Tokyo Release in our blog posts – 1. Business Benefits & 2. Developer Benefits
d. San Diego - Q2, 2022
The ServiceNow San Diego release leaned more towards improving platform user productivity. The Next Experience user interface and the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) hub, among other features, were integrated into the platform.
Also, the ServiceNow CSM, FSM, and ITSM solutions had some major enhancements. For instance, a profanity filtering feature was added to the ServiceNow CSM application to automatically detect offensive words used by agents while interacting with customers.
Want to know more about the ServiceNow San Diego release? Check out our blog post.
e. Rome - Q3, 2021
In the ServiceNow Rome release, improving employee experience was one of the major objectives. Employee Center and Employee Journey Management, a part of the HR Service Delivery application, were the two new significant capabilities that were brought in as part of this objective.
To learn more about the ServiceNow Rome release, read our two-series blog posts–1) Now platform enhancements and 2) Enhancements to ServiceNow VAM, CSM, FSM, & GRC
f. Quebec - Q1, 2021
In the ServiceNow Quebec release, low-code development was one of the areas that took center stage. The App Engine Studio application, a low-code tool that is a part of creator workflows, was introduced to enable citizen developers to build applications faster.
g. Paris - Q3, 2020
The HR Service Delivery (HRSD) module, which helps organizations cater to employee requirements, had new significant features and enhancements in the ServiceNow Paris release. The Agent Workspace was introduced to allow HR agents to interact with the employees through the dashboard, understand their requests, and solve them immediately with AI-powered recommendations.
h. Orlando - Q1, 2020
The ServiceNow Orlando release focused more on Automation, Analytics, Predictive Intelligence, and AI. It improved the automated incident or task grouping and classification capabilities across ServiceNow solutions.
Additionally, it rolled out Mobile Analytics (part of Now Intelligence products and later named “User Experience Analytics” in the Paris release -2020) to enable better management of mobile and web applications used within the organization.
i. New York - Q2, 2019
In the ServiceNow New York release, the ServiceNow IT Service Management (ITSM) application was one of the applications that had major enhancements like the Natural Language Understanding (NLU). The NLU capability was integrated with the ITSM Virtual Agent application to provide a human-like conversational experience for the users.
j. Madrid - Q1, 2019
The ServiceNow Madrid release rolled out exciting new features. One of the features was the ServiceNow Incident Management Mobile application. This allowed the resolution team in an organization to view, manage, and resolve incidents from anywhere and faster.
Also, the “Antivirus Scanning” feature was added to check for viruses and send alerts whenever a user uploads a file on the ServiceNow platform.
k. London - Q3, 2018
In the ServiceNow London release, one of the major enhancements was the new Configurable UI (User-friendly Interface) which was added to the ServiceNow Security Incident Response application, a part of ServiceNow Security Operations (SecOps). This enabled users to access critical security data easily on their dashboards.
l. Kingston - Q4, 2017
The ServiceNow Kingston release brought in Machine Learning capabilities, user experience, and no-code development.
As part of these focus areas, Agent Intelligence (later named “Predictive Intelligence” in the Madrid release – 2019) was one of the major applications to be introduced. The application uses supervised machine learning to automatically prioritize, categorize, and assign incidents to the relevant agent, thereby improving agent productivity and enhancing customer satisfaction.
m. Jakarta - Q2, 2017
The ServiceNow Jakarta release ensured better HR Service Management. The ServiceNow HR Service Management solution was renamed to HR Service Delivery (HRSD) and had new features in the Jakarta release.
“Enterprise Onboarding and Transitions” was a crucial feature that allowed the HR department to automate tedious procedures in the employee lifecycle management process.
n. Istanbul - Q1, 2017
The ServiceNow Istanbul release introduced the Automated Test Framework (ATF) to enable users to automatically test the functioning of their ServiceNow instance when they upgrade or customize the platform.
Furthermore, the ServiceNow platform’s performance and reporting capabilities were improved in this release.
o. Helsinki - Q2, 2016
Application development was made easy for citizen developers in the ServiceNow Helsinki release. The release introduced Flow Designer, which automates processes in a development environment.
Additionally, a new Customer Service Management portal which enables customer self-registration was introduced to improve agent productivity and customer experience. A modern HR portal was also brought in to streamline processes between HR and employees.
p. Geneva - Q4, 2015
The ServiceNow Geneva release introduced the UI 16, which includes new themes and a better navigation system to provide a seamless platform user experience.
Furthermore, the Studio Integrated Development Environment (IDE) was introduced to make developers’ lives easier. The IDE provides a variety of developer tools, such as text editors, compilers, debuggers, etc, in one development environment. This eliminates the need for developers to manually integrate each tool into their environment, saving them time and effort.
q. Fuji - Q1, 2015
The primary focus of the ServiceNow Fuji release was to enhance service management throughout an organization. For instance, the HR department in an organization was allowed to integrate the ServiceNow HR Service Automation application (provides self-service portals for employees and so on) with Workday–an HR management tool–to streamline HR workflows.
r. Eureka - Q2, 2014
The ServiceNow Eureka release centered around enhancing the platform user experience. As part of this objective, the ServiceNow Service Creator was introduced, featuring a drag-and-drop option to enable users with no programming background to effortlessly build or modify applications.
s. Dublin - Q4, 2013
One of the major features introduced in the ServiceNow Dublin release was the Vendor Performance Management application. The application enables organizations to monitor, analyze, and categorize vendors based on compliance, satisfaction, and reliability, thereby ensuring better vendor management.
The ServiceNow HR Service Automation application was also introduced in this release to help organizations automate a few of the tasks in the HR Service Management processes and enhance employee experience.
t. Calgary - Q2, 2013
In the Calgary release, ServiceNow introduced a new Collaborative Workspace UI and the Application Creator to improve collaboration across the organization and enable non-technical developers to build applications easily. The release also enabled users to customize or edit reports generated on their ServiceNow platform.
u. Berlin - Q3, 2012
The ServiceNow Berlin release concentrated more on users’ feedback in the ServiceNow community. Significant enhancements were made to the Software Asset Management (SAM) application and Field Service Management application (FSM) to help organizations ensure better software license and inventory management.
v. Aspen - Q4, 2011
The ServiceNow Aspen release, the first release named after a city, brought in advanced disaster recovery and IT security management capabilities on the platform.
A debugging assistant was also introduced in this release to help developers identify and resolve issues in their workflows automatically.
4) A List of First Few Releases Named After Seasons
a. Summer 2011
b. Winter 2011
c. Spring 2010
d. Fall 2009
e. Spring 2009
f. Winter 2009
g. Summer 2008
Wrapping Up
ServiceNow has revolutionized the way organizations operate. It strives to help organizations accelerate their digital transformation journeys with periodical upgrades to its enterprise-wide solutions and the introduction of new products. By regularly updating their ServiceNow platform and accessing the newest features and advancements introduced by ServiceNow, organizations can keep up with the changing market trends and requirements.
Stay tuned for more information on the upcoming ServiceNow releases. And know about how organizations can upgrade the ServiceNow platform in our next blog post.
KANINI is a ServiceNow Premier Partner and a Managed Service Provider (MSP), helping organizations upgrade and manage the ServiceNow platform effortlessly and make the best use of ServiceNow solutions. Reach out to our ServiceNow experts to know more.
Author
Yoganandh Mookkaiah
Yoganandh is the Head of Delivery & Customer Success – ServiceNow at KANINI. He has a successful track record of 18+ years of experience in spearheading diverse teams, streamlining day-to-day operations by effectively incorporating best practices, and championing new services & technologies. Yoga is heading the team of Project Managers, ServiceNow Consultants, and Customer Success Managers.
