An Overview ServiceNow workflow models

Enterprises operate with tens, hundreds, or even thousands of apps that need to be accessed by workers and clients. Such applications process information and provide overviews that are required for company activities. A business only has one application in an ideal environment that includes the entire scope of operations. Since each application has its niche and functions that are not easy to substitute, this will be a utopian scenario. Office 365, Salesforce, and Workday, for instance, all are very distinct software with specialized features. Performance improves and data can be combined by collaborating with workflow and implementing process automation. In the end, ServiceNow's performance depends on its ability to communicate between all applications used by businesses.

Examples of ServiceNow Workflow

One of the best examples we came across was that for the onboard process, ServiceNow has a comprehensive out-of-the-box template. This enables HR to rapidly integrate new workers into the appropriate systems. However, ServiceNow doesn't yet have an out-of-the-box template when we asked for an offboarding process. They do have one which was custom-built for the ServiceNow organization itself but they do not have a template for other organizations yet. However, in the coming months, it will be available somewhere.

We may assume, based on discussions with partners and clients, that there are some comparable examples. ServiceNow does its best to make more out-of-the-box solutions possible; out-of-the-box workflows are also provided by partners. While the range is growing, the reality is that every organization is distinct and most businesses have to build tens to hundreds of workflows on their own, since many variants are not out-of-the-box available.

IT Workflows, recording, ticketing, properties, and security

The IT department is also the department within organizations where ServiceNow is used most. In the first few years, in particular, they specialized in this field. Normally, most companies use an app that tracks their infrastructure. Furthermore, they probably will use an endpoint, a network, and maybe even a solution for cloud security. There are all other sorts of software that need to run properly on top of that. Log and tracking information emerges from all this and with the IT Operations Management solution, ServiceNow can bring these data together and make them transparent. It is also possible to incorporate ticketing and project management into ServiceNow. For this reason, ServiceNow has created its software. In the case of any monitoring events, it will then be necessary to send a ticket to the correct department immediately and with the right priority. This means that logs no longer need to be viewed and evaluated, but that it is possible to take immediate action.

Now, ServiceNow can also chart the public cloud accounts of a company and provide insight into costs. It also offers better visibility into projects in general, what the exact costs are at a given time, where potential savings can be made, or where more money needs to be put aside for that purpose.

Employer Workflows improve the productivity of HR

ServiceNow, as stated before, began automating IT workflows. As more and more customers started using these, workflows for customers outside the IT domain were also added. This has culminated in a package of Employer Workflows, designed for HR workers. The most widely used example of how this happens, when several precautions have to be taken, is the introduction of a new employee. Accounts for purposes such as Salesforce, Office 365, Workday, SAP, Oracle, etc. must be built. It is important to arrange a single sign-on. Buying a mobile or laptop or applying for a credit card might also be appropriate. 

HR would have to do all this manually, or partially outsource it to the IT department, without any automation, which will take a lot of time. It can take hours or even days to do this whole operation. With Employer Workflows, all this can be accomplished within 10 minutes by an HR employee. An onboarding workflow that automates the process can be generated with ServiceNow. As the integration of all known solutions is provided by ServiceNow, only one form needs to be filled out. Then the data is passed on to all applications.

ServiceNow also provides the option of involving new workers in the onboarding process. Before beginning at the company, a new employee may log in and read through and agree to certain company rules. For example, they will learn about the procedures for customer and colleague interaction, the company handbook, working hours, guidelines for declarations, etc. Images, with a welcoming message from management or an introductory description of the company's operations, may also be offered. Whatever is possible.

Customer Workflows: more self-service, fewer requests for customer service

Companies are increasingly aware of the fact that with digital transformation, they can make their company more successful and achieve substantial cost savings. This implies higher profits for the customer, but perhaps also lower and more competitive costs.

Workflow Automation

The automation of so-called customer workflows offers a clear example of this improved productivity. Companies with a heavy customer service staff also have to contend with a lot of calls without phone conversations that can be handled. Self-service is becoming more and more popular, making sure the customer can ask their questions online and get a response instantly. This can be done through so-called self-service portals where you have to log in, such as uploading an invoice or changing data. When it comes to generic queries, often logging in is not even required. His social media account could also already recognize a client. To provide this sort of information, a growing number of businesses use chatbots or automated personal assistants.

If you could ask Google or Siri what your excess health insurance is, or to know if you are on a budget for your energy bill, or to rebook your flight ticket because an appointment is delayed, how helpful will it be? All the structures for these kinds of acts exist, but they still don't interact very effectively with each other. The customer support department is also included in this. Through connecting these types of systems, ServiceNow aims to make a difference, and by investing in emerging technologies such as chatbots and digital personal assistants, this can be achieved even easier.

What are the out-of-the-box pieces, and what must be manually constructed?

If you ask ServiceNow which workflows can be automated and which can not they will say that it's all possible. This response is unsatisfactory, in our view. ServiceNow can, potentially interact with any API and automate any operation. Companies, however, want to know how much work and time this is going to take. There are no straightforward and transparent responses to this query yet from ServiceNow. Some workflows are simply out-of-the-box accessible and can be configured with three clicks. At the IT level, this is the case and has recently become relevant for employer workflows and consumer workflows as well. The question is, however, what the limits of Service Now are. 

ServiceNow box models

It is of course true that when designing out-of-the-box models, it is difficult to think of any possible workflow. Also, many businesses don't mind making their models. Not enough information is provided by their website and the Awareness ‘19 conference. If ServiceNow can better describe what they have to sell, they can certainly draw more clients, not just from the field of IT.

However, when it comes to designing your workflows, an excellent approach is the new Flow designer. Anyone can use it with some basic preparation, even workers without a background in IT. This is a no-code editor, in principle, although you can write code (Javascript) with it as well.

A big challenge is going from self-made to out-of-the-box

Customers and partners claim that Service Now looks at what kind of customer workflows are being developed. A consequence of this is that the company has consistently produced out-of-the-box solutions for which customers have designed components themselves in the past. An out-of-the-box workflow is based on fit-to-standard, although it is entirely customized to self-build. Partners let us know that this often makes it hard to persuade clients to let go of their workflow, instead of using out-of-the-box workflow. This is because the conversion is incredibly complicated, and clients sometimes believe that the out-of-the-box solution for their needs is of poorer quality. Even if ServiceNow fully performs the management of workflows.

The full API-driven ServiceNow

Such activities may need to be incorporated into existing systems when creating a workflow. A business may choose to incorporate such customer workflows into an existing mobile app or website to demonstrate this. They may also opt to use a Webhook to enable a certain workflow for a certain service. 

Conclusion

At ServiceNow, all workflows are API-driven. So that you can always access them via an API. It can be incorporated into anything this way. However, this involves the necessary knowledge of programming. You can learn more about these workflows and other topics through ServiceNow online training.