Australia Service Management

• Service Management – Service Management (SM) refers to the ServiceNow service management applications you install, such as Facilities Service Management. Each of these applications allow you to manage business functions that require a request-type workflow where requests are approved, qualified, assigned, and completed.

• Activate Service Management – The Service Management Core plugin is activated automatically when you activate any service management application.

  • Activate other Service Management applications – After the Service Management Core plugin has been activated, you can activate other SM applications, such as Field Service management and facilities service management. You can also activate CMS portals for each of these SM applications to add them to the Service Management Portal.

• Service management states – From creation until closure, SM application requests for work (for example, work orders and facilities requests), and their respective tasks follow a life cycle tracked by the State field in Field Service Management and Facilities Service Management.

  • State flow customization – State flows control the sequence in which records transition between states in Service Management applications.

  • State flow dictionary overrides – A dictionary override in a state flow defines the starting state for all new records in a specific table. You set an override in tables that extend a base table only, so that your customizations are applied only to the extended table.

  • Work notes in state flows – Work notes are an important part of the state flow process and are used to communicate information about state transitions.

  • Field controls in state flows – You can define controls for individual fields that are enforced when a record transitions between states.

  • Trigger events on state changes – You can configure a state flow to trigger a registered system event when a task transitions from a starting state to a specified end state. For example, you can use events to trigger email notifications and create script actions.

  • Rebuild state flows – You can rebuild state flows when a mismatch between existing and new sys_ids occurs.

  • State flow cleanup – The business rules, client scripts, and UI actions that the system creates automatically to perform custom transitions exist only while the state flow records that use them are present.

  • State flow example – Your business processes might require work order tasks to be accepted automatically when dispatched to an agent.

  • Implications of disabling SM state flows – State flows are used by SM applications to control how a work order or request automatically transitions from one state to the next. When state flows are disabled, various aspects of the ServiceNow system are also changed, as described here.

  • Re-enable state flows – When service management state flows have been disabled, they cannot be re-enabled from the user interface.

• Service Management Core installation reference – Service Management Core includes several feature plugins. Each of these plugins installs several types of components in support of the service management process.

  • Installed with Service Management Core – Several types of components are installed with the Service Management Core plugin.

  • Tables installed with Service Management Core – Several types of components are installed with the Service Management Core plugin.

  • Properties installed with Service Management Core – Several types of components are installed with the Service Management Core plugin.

  • Roles installed with Service Management Core – Several types of components are installed with the Service Management Core plugin.

  • Script includes installed with Service Management Core – Several types of components are installed with the Service Management Core plugin.

  • Client script includes installed with Service Management Core – Several types of components are installed with the Service Management Core plugin.

  • Business rules installed with Service Management Core – Several types of components are installed with the Service Management Core plugin.

  • Email notifications installed with Service Management Core – Several types of components are installed with the Service Management Core plugin.

• Planned Maintenance – The Planned Maintenance application is not a Service Management application, but it works with Service Management applications to help organizations manage regular preventive maintenance of assets.

  • Activate Planned Maintenance – The SM Planned Maintenance plugin is available as a separate subscription.

  • Installed with SM Planned Maintenance – The SM Planned Maintenance core plugin also includes demo data.

  • Managing maintenance plans – Planned Maintenance allows you to create, maintain, and schedule maintenance for equipment that requires regular maintenance.

  • Create a maintenance plan – When creating a maintenance plan, options on the form help to determine how and when maintenance should be performed.

  • Property settings for Planned Maintenance – You configure Planned Maintenance properties at Planned Maintenance Properties .

  • Configure a maintenance schedule – After creating a maintenance plan, define specific criteria for determining when the plan should be executed.

    • Changes to maintenance schedules – If you make and save changes to an existing maintenance schedule, any previously associated records are updated accordingly.

  • Associate a maintenance plan to filtered records – You can configure a maintenance plan with filtering criteria. For example, you can apply a maintenance plan to all records containing computers that start with “apple”.

  • Associate a schedule template to matching records – The instance adds templates to a maintenance schedule so the appropriate requests and tasks, such as work orders and facilities requests, can be auto-generated when a maintenance schedule runs.

  • Run a scheduled job to execute a maintenance schedule – Maintenance schedules are executed whenever the meter, duration, script, or condition criteria is met. You can also use the Schedule ad-hoc feature to run a maintenance schedule manually.

  • Run a maintenance schedule on demand – Maintenance schedules are typically run using the scheduled job named Planned Maintenance Nightly Run. However, you may want to run the schedule immediately or change the date when a schedule runs.

  • View a maintenance log – You can view all maintenance performed on a particular CI, the next scheduled maintenance, and the last time maintenance was performed.

  • Maintenance plan examples – You can define maintenance plans using model-based, meter-based, or duration-based selection criteria.

  • Define a maintenance schedule for a computer reboot – You can define maintenance plans using model-based, meter-based, or duration-based selection criteria.

  • Define a maintenance schedule for an ink cartridge replacement – You can define maintenance plans using model-based, meter-based, or duration-based selection criteria.

  • Define a maintenance schedule to run antivirus software – You can define maintenance plans using model-based, meter-based, or duration-based selection criteria.

  • Domain separation and Planned Maintenance – Domain separation is supported in Planned Maintenance. Domain separation enables you to separate data, processes, and administrative tasks into logical groupings called domains. You can control several aspects of this separation, including which users can see and access data.

• Request Management in a Service Management application – Agents regularly access request records as they resolve requests and correspond with the submitters. They can also access built-in reports to see information like the number of active or unassigned requests for an SM application.

  • Request creation – Requests are created differently based on the role that has been granted to the user. Department administrators can create requests differently than an employee can.

  • Create a request through a catalog – The catalog provides several different categories so users can choose the one that closely relates to their request.

  • Request creation using inbound email actions – Requests can be automatically created or updated from the information in inbound emails as long as the functionality has been enabled on the configuration screen of SM application. The emails are also to be sent to a mailbox defined by criteria in the appropriate inbound email action.

    • Create a request from an inbound email – Requests can be automatically created from the information in inbound emails as long the functionality has been enabled on the configuration screen of SM application. The emails are also to be sent to a mailbox defined by criteria in the appropriate inbound email action.

    • Create a request from a forwarded inbound email – Requests can be automatically created from the information in forwarded inbound emails as long the functionality has been enabled on the configuration screen of SM application. The emails are also to be sent to a mailbox defined by criteria in the appropriate inbound email action.

    • Update a request from an inbound email – Requests can be automatically updated from the information in inbound email replies as long the functionality has been enabled on the SM application’s configuration screen. The emails must also be sent to a mailbox defined by criteria in the appropriate inbound email action.

  • Request states – Service Management requests follow a specific life cycle and move through a series of states, which are displayed in the State field on the request record.

  • Request approvals – Approving a request in an SM application means that the request is ready for task creation and assignment.

  • Agent assignment methods – Depending on your settings in the SM application’s configuration screen, you can assign agents manually or using auto-assignment.

  • Manually assign agents to active requests – Use this procedure to assign agents to active requests in service management (SM) applications.

  • Agent auto assignment – When auto assignment is enabled and a task is qualified or marked as Ready for Work, an appropriate agent is automatically assigned to the task and it is moved to the Assigned state. If the task cannot be auto-assigned, a user with the dispatcher role must adjust the values in the request or task form and then save the record.

    • Agent auto assignment using rating-based criteria – Rating-based methods, such as location, skills, and time zones, help to auto assign agents based on configuration settings and optional properties. The calculated ratings are used to determine the best agent to perform the task.

    • Agent auto assignment using location – Agents can be auto assigned based on the location defined in their user record and the location of the tasks.

    • Agent auto assignment using skills – Agents can be auto assigned based on the skills of an agent, and the skills required to perform the task. Assign skills to an agent user records using Skills Users .

    • Agent auto assignment using time zones – Agents can be auto assigned based on the time zone defined in their user records and the time zone of the tasks.

    • Agent auto assignment using time-based criteria – Time-based methods, such as schedules and priority assignment, help you auto assign agents based on configuration settings and optional properties. The calculated ratings are used to determine the best agent to perform the task.

    • Agent auto assignment using schedules – Agents can be auto assigned based on the agent or the task schedule.

    • Agent auto assignment using priority assignment – The priority assignment feature enables you to configure auto assignment so that agents can be assigned to perform tasks or provide services on a continual, 24x7x365 basis. Priority assignment is triggered when the priority of a task matches the priority set in the application configuration page.

    • Agent auto assignment using multiple selection criteria – At its simplest, auto assignment involves identifying a set of selection criteria and automatically assigning the task to the agent who most closely meets the criteria. You can, however, select multiple sets of criteria, including both rating-based and time-based criteria.

  • Collaborate on a request – Within a request, you can enter comments that are visible to the submitter, allowing for collaboration between the two of you. For collaboration with other agents, you can enter comments that are not visible to the submitter.

  • Close a request – When you close a request, you can add details that you want the submitter to be aware of.

  • Closed and completed requests – When the Request lifecycle option is set to request-driven, the assigned agent can complete and close the request once all the tasks in the request are complete.

  • Request task management – A request contains one or more tasks. These tasks allow qualifiers to define activities that must be done to complete a request.

  • Create request tasks – Tasks are created in support of requests.

  • Request task states – Like requests, the associated request tasks follow a specific life cycle and move through a series of states, which are displayed in the State field on the task record.

  • Task windows – A task window is the time period, bordered by start and end times, in which a task is performed.

  • Task template for common tasks – If you have tasks that are often repeated across multiple jobs, you can create and reuse a task template in multiple request templates. You can also use it on a Work order request to pull common and repeatable information into a request.

  • Clone a request task – Existing tasks can be cloned to create tasks with the same populated fields.

  • Request Management Platform Analytics Solutions – Platform Analytics Solutions contain preconfigured dashboards. These dashboards contain actionable data visualizations that help you improve your business processes and practices.

  • Legacy: Request Management - Requested Item dashboard – Track the progress of purchase orders, transfer orders, and software assignments.

  • Open Requested Item State Monitor dashboard – Use this dashboard when you wish to dive into open requests for items divided by State: Pending, Work in Progress, or all Open requests.

  • Open Requested Item Age Monitor dashboard – Use this dashboard when you wish to dive into open requests for items divided by Age.

  • Open Requested Item Reports dashboard – To view the current state of open item requests, see the Open Requested Item Reports.

  • Legacy: Request Management - Request dashboard – Track the progress of new requests through the time they are worked on until they are closed.

  • Open Requests State Monitor dashboard – Use this dashboard when you wish to dive into open requests divided by State: Pending Approval or Approved.

  • Open Requests Age Monitor dashboard – Use this dashboard when you wish to dive into open requests divided by Age.

  • Open Request Reports dashboard – To view the current state of open requests, see the Open Request Reports.