ServiceNow releases are announced two times every year. And it’s that time of the year again! ServiceNow recently launched its latest version, called ServiceNow Tokyo Release. In this release, like in every release, ServiceNow has put emphasis on enhancing developer productivity and rolled out a few upgrades/new solutions that can benefit front-end business operations. Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG), Enterprise Asset Management (EAM), and Supplier Lifecycle Management (SLM) are also some of the significant focus areas of the ServiceNow Tokyo Release.
Read this blog post to understand some of the business-oriented enhancements of the ServiceNow Tokyo release.
What’s New in the Tokyo Release
Here are four new solutions in the ServiceNow Tokyo Release:
1) ServiceNow Enterprise Asset Management (EAM)
Businesses should maintain accurate asset records to ensure regulatory compliance and build investor trust. Although we have ServiceNow IT Asset Management (ITAM), which has been helping companies manage their assets, it is primarily confined to the IT space and does not concentrate on assets across departments.
So, to ensure that organizations can streamline their asset management lifecycle, from the deployment stage to the disposal stage, across the enterprise from a centralized platform, a new solution – ServiceNow EAM has been launched in the Tokyo release. With ServiceNow EAM, the management team can check the status of their assets from their mobile phones. They can access dashboards that bring up asset spending reports and optimize resource allocation accordingly.
Identifying and prioritizing critical business assets based on scores depicted through heatmaps and managing replacements based on the warranty becomes far easier with ServiceNow EAM.
2) ServiceNow Vault
Another new solution featured in the Tokyo release is the ServiceNow Vault. Organizations are bound to safeguard confidential data in the cloud, whether it is their customers’ or employees’, as per legal rules and regulations. Non-compliance with data laws will impose penalties, legal action, and reputational damage to the business.
ServiceNow Vault enables business leaders to build a multi-layered security system in addition to the previous capabilities of ServiceNow’s Security Solutions. Here are the five capabilities of ServiceNow Vault:
- Platform Encryption: Protects sensitive data–Medical records, Personal Identifiable Information (PII), and more; and enables organizations to comply with laws such as HIPAA, GDPR, and so on. These encryption capabilities are developed in line with the NIST policies and guidelines.
- Data Anonymization: Classifies sensitive data and anonymizes it as per the relevant regulations.
- Code Signing: Validates and secures code/scripts of software/applications.
- Secret Management: Protects digital credentials such as passwords, keys, tokens, and so on, across the applications used in the organization.
- Log Export Service: Exports system logs/records seamlessly to analytical tools for security monitoring.
3) ServiceNow Supplier Lifecycle Management (SLM)
Communicating with suppliers and getting things done can be a daunting task for companies. With ServiceNow SLM, enterprises can streamline the processes between suppliers and their management teams. Organizations can onboard their suppliers quickly and easily.
The Supplier Management Workspace enables the management teams to view complete information about their suppliers and eliminates the traditional email or phone call processes. Suppliers get access to intuitive portals where they can self-register and collaborate with buyers/organizations seamlessly.
4) Admin Center
Admin Center is another new feature in the Tokyo release. Admin Center, activated in the upgraded version, provides ServiceNow administrators with smart recommendations on implementing the right applications and improving their platform capabilities to achieve business objectives. It also helps administrators install and configure applications easily through comprehensive guidelines.
Now that we’ve understood some of the new additions in the ServiceNow Tokyo release, let’s look at what has changed or has been added to the existing ServiceNow modules.
What got Upgraded in the Tokyo Release
1) Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG)
ESG reporting has become an essential part of business today to attract potential investors. ServiceNow introduced the ESG management and reporting solution in the Rome release to help customers manage their ESG initiatives through an easy-to-use cloud platform. In the Tokyo release, ServiceNow has integrated a new capability–Carbon Accounting–into the ESG management tool to help companies manage and report their carbon or greenhouse gas emission status to investors and regulators. With this solution in place, companies can forgo their manual processes of calculating carbon emissions.
2) HR Service Delivery (HRSD)
ServiceNow HRSD enables organizations to cater to their employees’ needs quickly and provide them with the required services or answers to their queries. Here are two of the significant additions to the ServiceNow HRSD application in the Tokyo release:
- Manager Hub: This new addition is primarily to help Managers collaborate and interact with their team members and meet their requirements while achieving organizational objectives. Managers can access employee information and manage their lifecycle on their instance/dashboard and increase overall productivity.
- Issue Auto Resolution: Employees can now solve their common workplace queries themselves in real time through issue auto resolution. It also redirects complicated employee queries to agents and helps companies reduce costs with the AI-powered feature.
3) IT Operations Management (ITOM)
With ServiceNow ITOM, enterprises can control their IT resources/components and manage their functionalities to ensure that they work in line with business requirements. In the Tokyo release, customers get access to a new addition–ITOM Governance. It provides advanced management capabilities for companies to streamline their cloud migration process. With ITOM Governance, companies can easily remediate cloud misconfigurations and incorrect resource tags.
4) Customer Service Management (CSM)
ServiceNow CSM helps companies build strong customer relationships by enabling them to respond to customers’ requests promptly. A significant addition to ServiceNow CSM in the Tokyo release is Task Intelligence. This new update enables agents to understand 20 different customer languages. The AI capability, integrated with the CSM tool, helps agents understand customer sentiment by analyzing case descriptions or requests.
What got Decommissioned in the Tokyo Release
With any update comes the features that are replaced or missing as well. A few significant features in a couple of solutions have been decommissioned in the Tokyo release of ServiceNow and this needs your attention for a smooth transition. Here are the two important solutions in which some elements got removed or replaced:
- Platform Analytics Workspace: Users no longer have access to dashboard builder, which previously helped them create workspace dashboards. They can create or edit dashboards with the new editor feature. That said, dashboards that were previously created with the builder will be moved to a new page.
- Knowledge Management: The Knowledge Management application, which helps users with informative articles on troubleshooting and so on, no longer supports My Knowledge and Knowledge Management Overview. Instead, users now have access to the Knowledge Manager Overview Dashboard.
Wrapping Up
Through these periodic releases, ServiceNow aims to consistently enhance its platform’s capabilities and fix any existing issues to help companies operate more efficiently. What is essential though is to have an appropriate team or expert guidance while upgrading ServiceNow to avoid any complications. In this post, we’ve captured some of the most significant updates of the Tokyo release that can benefit business leaders and other stakeholders.
If you are looking for an expert to ensure smooth implementation, management, or upgrade of ServiceNow for your company, reach out to us. As a Premier Partner of ServiceNow and a Managed Services Provider, KANINI has been helping companies in their ServiceNow journeys, planning the upgrades strategically to achieve the highest level of maturity and maximize ServiceNow ROI.
Author
Manpreet Chadha
Manpreet Chadha is a ServiceNow Chief Solutions Architect at KANINI. She is passionate about aligning ITIL process efforts from design to implementation, operations, and service improvement. As a tech enthusiast, Manpreet utilizes IT Service Management best practices, tools, and methodologies to develop cost-effective solutions that satisfy business requirements.
