ServiceNow is back with its new release–Vancouver! In this release, ServiceNow has put more emphasis on adding modern capabilities like Generative AI to its solutions to help organizations level up their operational efficiencies.
We know that going through ServiceNow’s detailed release notes to understand every new update can be a tedious task. This is why, in this blog post, we have listed down the notable features that have been added to some of the major ServiceNow applications. Read on to see what the ServiceNow Vancouver release has to offer.
Highlights of ServiceNow Vancouver Release – Business Advantages
From streamlining IT operations management and revolutionizing customer service workflows to enhancing employee experience, ServiceNow’s business-focused applications have been helping organizations redefine their operations. Some of the applications that have undergone significant updates in the ServiceNow Vancouver release include the following:
1. IT Service Management (ITSM)
The ServiceNow IT Service Management, an application that helps organizations manage IT service requests effectively, has some significant enhancements. These include:
• Now Assist for ITSM
The Now Assist, which leverages Generative AI, is a new capability added to the ITSM application to boost agent productivity and transform user experience. By automatically summarizing the incident data and users’ virtual agent conversations, Now Assist helps agents understand IT service issues easily and solve them faster. This eliminates the need to ask users to explain the problem and creates an exceptional user experience. Besides, Now Assist provides resolution notes to agents, helping them resolve similar service issues faster.
• Benchmarks
ServiceNow Benchmarks, an application part of ITSM that provides complete visibility into the main Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and enables organizations to improve IT services, has also been updated. A new function has been added to allow companies to compare their ITSM performance against the top-performing organizations. Also, the success dashboard in the Benchmarks application now comes with a wide array of KPIs to help process owners establish a more data-driven approach to IT service management.
• Vendor Management Workspace
The ServiceNow Vendor Management Workspace application which allows organizations to gain a consolidated view of vendor-related information and monitor their performance also has a new feature added to it. The latest enhancement in the application allows organizations to gain visibility into vendor processes and take steps to improve them.
2. Customer Service Management (CSM)
Next on the list is the ServiceNow CSM application, which empowers organizations to collaborate with customers and solve service issues effectively from a single platform. Here are some of the enhancements made to the CSM application in the ServiceNow Vancouver Release:
• Now Assist for CSM
The latest Generative AI capability of the Now Assist for CSM application that works similarly to the Now Assist for ITSM provides summaries of customer service requests or customer chats so that agents can solve issues faster. This helps organizations save time and money by automating manual tasks.
• Configurable Workspace Dashboard Landing Pages
Customer service agents can now view and customize dashboards on dedicated CSM Workspace webpages or landing pages. They can also view other dashboards easily, modify items on the dashboards, and share the dashboards with other relevant agents or users.
• Workforce Optimization for Customer Service
The Workforce Optimization for Customer Service application that allows organizations to assign tasks to support agents effectively, manage their schedules, and monitor their performance has also been updated. It now comes with a feature that enables organizations to schedule work shifts for agents and assign work for each of those shifts. Administrators can also verify user access and permissions.
3. HR Service Delivery (HRSD)
When it comes to improving the relationship between HR and employees, the ServiceNow HRSD module plays a pivotal role in automating and streamlining HR-related services. The Vancouver Release introduces the following features in the HRSD module:
• Now Assist for HRSD
Whether there are issues related to payroll or updating employee details, HR managers can swiftly address these problems with Now Assist. They can refer to automatically generated summaries of past chats or virtual agent interactions, gaining insights into previous solutions and ensuring quick resolution.
• Employee Relations
With the ServiceNow Employee Relations application, the HR team can safeguard sensitive information related to workplace disputes, disciplinary actions, harassment, and more. Starting from the ServiceNow Vancouver Release, they can also create summary reports for the employee relations cases, document them, and share them with others in a PDF format.
• Manager Hub
ServiceNow Manager Hub, a tool for managers to gain complete visibility into team journeys or learnings, now integrates with the Employee Growth and Development solution (ServiceNow’s AI-powered talent management solution). This integration enables managers to develop team members’ skills, assign learning courses, and track their progress from a single platform.
4. Enterprise Asset Management (EAM)
The ServiceNow EAM application makes it easy for organizations to monitor and manage the complete lifecycle of their physical business assets (machinery, tools, furniture, etc.). Some of the new features added to the EAM application in the ServiceNow Vancouver Release include:
• Asset Onboarding Playbook
An Asset Onboarding Playbook has been added to the EAM application to facilitate the setup of assets after procurement. The Playbook enables organizations to adopt a step-by-step approach to successfully onboarding assets by efficiently capturing the required information, such as maintenance contracts, warranty dates, and others.
• Asset Move Order Management
Asset managers can now initiate asset move orders on the EAM application, leading to the creation of a record for asset relocation. They can choose the method of asset relocation (through an external delivery service or internal resources), perform the necessary tasks to relocate the assets, track the movement, and update the status.
• Asset Tracking with Indoor Mapping
The latest Indoor Mapping feature enables asset managers to locate and track their assets in real-time within their buildings and floors. They can identify space through the EAM dashboard and manage assets effectively and efficiently.
5. IT Operations Management (ITOM)
ServiceNow ITOM suite of products, which enables organizations to manage and optimize their IT infrastructure and operations, has the following updates:
• ITOM Visibility
The ServiceNow ITOM Visibility module consists of applications such as ServiceNow Discovery, Service Mapping, Certificate Inventory & Management, and others. These tools help organizations maintain full control over their IT network and the services it supports. Here are some of the enhancements introduced in this application in the ServiceNow Vancouver release:
- ServiceNow Discovery now features a new capability that uses Azure change processing APIs. It collects information about the lifecycle or configuration changes made to an organization’s Azure resources and updates the data in the Configuration Management Database (CMDB).
- ServiceNow Service Mapping comes with a new homepage, which provides users with easy access to all the functions on their Service Mapping Workspace.
• ITOM Health
The ServiceNow ITOM Health module, which consists of Event Management, Health Log Analytics, and Agent Client Collector applications, empowers organizations to manage the health of their IT infrastructure and services. The features added to this module include:
- Event Management (helps detect health issues within the data center) now has an “Alert Clustering” feature which lets users use rules to classify event alerts as primary or secondary and group them, allowing them to easily see which alerts are connected. The application also comes with an “Agent Assist” feature that provides knowledge articles to operators, helping them perform their tasks effectively.
- Agent Client Collector (helps monitor IT service availability & performance and the condition of the IT infrastructure that supports the services) introduces a feature that allows users to set rules for prioritizing critical IT issues. Additionally, a “Monitoring Technology Dashboard” has been added to enable users to monitor and manage services from AWS, GCP, and VMware vSphere.
- Health Log Analytics (helps predict IT issues before they impact users) comes with an update that allows users to mute low-priority alerts.
6. Healthcare and Lifesciences Service Management
ServiceNow Healthcare and Lifesciences Service Management, which is a healthcare industry-focused module offered by ServiceNow, helps healthcare organizations streamline their operations and deliver high-quality patient care. This module comes with a new application called Clinical Device Management in the Vancouver Release. Here’s how healthcare organizations can benefit from this:
• Clinical Device Management
The ServiceNow Clinical Device Management application enables healthcare organizations to overcome the challenges related to the installation, management, and maintenance of clinical devices through the following:
- Proactive management of compliance of medical devices through intuitive dashboards.
- Adoption of a data-driven approach to equipment maintenance, reducing device downtime and ensuring effective resource utilization.
- Efficient management of medical devices across multiple locations from a single platform.
- Continuous tracking of all ongoing operations related to medical devices through a CMMS dashboard.
Final Note
ServiceNow is dedicated to delivering solutions that empower organizations to maintain agility, respond effectively to market changes, and stay ahead of the curve. Each release from ServiceNow is aligned with this vision.
While this blog post provides a glimpse of what ServiceNow’s latest Vancouver Release has to offer for businesses, for a more in-depth and comprehensive understanding of all new updates, we recommend reaching out to experienced ServiceNow partners. Also, if you would like to explore the enhancements made to the developer-focused tools of ServiceNow in the Vancouver release, read this blog post. KANINI is a ServiceNow Premier Partner, enabling organizations to seamlessly upgrade their ServiceNow platform and stay attuned to the latest releases to meet their unique business requirements. Get in touch with us for more information.
Author
Joshua Smith
Joshua is the ServiceNow Practice Director at KANINI. He is a process improvement thought leader and digital transformation expert. Over the past 15 years, Josh’s focus has always been on achieving organizational maturity and enhancing business processes through implementing tools and workflows to drive transformation initiatives. With experience in multiple verticals from – manufacturing to healthcare, Joshua brings a practitioner’s perspective when working on business solutions and goals to allow him to advise and guide on industry and process best practices.
