The HTML fields used in ServiceNow can use different editors depending on what is activated.

This article shows the different ways you can configure these HTML editors.

Learn about HTML Fields

There is a good wiki article about HTML fields in ServiceNow.  Modifying HTML Fields

There are two different types of editors.  htmlArea and TinyMCE.  You really want to use the TinyMCE editor, that has a lot more options than htmlArea.  

TinyMCE is open source editor, "the most advanced WYSWIYG HTML editor"" as their site indicates!

Switch to TinyMCE

In order to switch to TinyMCE, you adjust the Property, glide.ui.html.editor, and set to tinymce.  Be warned that you should try this in a development instance first.  Converting to TinyMCE from htmlArea may mean that you will need to redo images.  If you have a lot of KB articles with images that use htmlArea, this can be a lot of work.  

Add Buttons to TinyMCE

1. How to add addtional buttons to TinyMCE.
2. Type  sys_properties.list in the left navigator bar
3. Search for glide.ui.html.editor.toolbar.line
4. Adjust line1 and line2 as desired.  Here is my favorite setup (however it takes up more space in the editor)

glide.ui.html.editor.v4.toolbar.line1

bold,italic,underline,strikethrough,undo,redo,|,fontselect,fontsizeselect,formatselect,table,|,forecolor,backcolor,link,unlink,|,alignleft,aligncenter,alignright,|,outdent,indent,|,bullist,numlist,blockquote,hr,|,image,media,code,|,visualblocks,spellchecker,preview,fullscreen

Issues with HTML Fields

Why not just convert all the text areas in ServiceNow to HTML fields instead?  There are some obstacles.

• Activity Feed.  Activity feed doesn't render HTML changes correctly
• Email.  Email may not display html information correctly without configuration.
• More Space.  More space is need to store HTML data.  Although this is minor perhaps.
• Form Size.  Forms are bigger with HTML fields.

Good luck!
Mike

Using software like ServiceNow can bring great change to an organization.  If you are a person that helps bring that change to the company, you can become liked by many, but others definitely will not like you.

If you want to make enemies, try to change something. 
- Woodrow Wilson

Dealing with resistance and negative feedback is something I am not great at.  Often times I take offense to it. This article here talks about how I am trying to improve: Adapting to Disruptive Technology

Below are some situations that occur during ServiceNow implementations and the effect of change

We have always done it that way

This is the classic statement. When you hear it, you almost want to laugh.  However laughing would really derail your three day workshop.  Yes it is often easy to replicate the design and process of the old software.  However it is often not a good idea to do that.  If you can make those old processes better, that is the way to go.

It is this familiarity with user's old system that causes the most difficulty in the requirements gathering process. They may not care the new system is better or easier.  They know the system and are comfortable with it.    

I have been in hundreds of workshops.  Most workshops are boring, but sometimes they can get pretty exciting.  I have seen people insult each other, try to sabotage efforts, or storm out to sit in their cars.  In the end, often it is fond memory of a difficult time overcome.  Which is kind of funny, because during those situations it doesn't seem like a great time!

No time for new systems

Once I visited an office to help install some asset management client software on a woman's computer.  She was complaining about her back and I noticed she was sitting in a wooden chair with no padding.  I said I could get her a new chair.  I logged into their Self Service system and ordered a new chair.  She said she never used self service because she was too busy (or didn't want to). She couldn't figure out who to email, so kept using the wooden chair.

The chair was delivered in two hours.  She thanked me greatly for the help.  If she would have tried self service out earlier, it would have saved her a lot of misery.  I hope she started using self service more often after that situation, but no guarantees on that.  

Dollars Spent

We know that unstructured manual tools like email, spreadsheets, and walk-up visits are inefficient.  People have used these for years however and it is tough to make them change.

When I explain that ServiceNow can have a process, have workflow, approval, and task generation, with some people you can picture a light bulb over their head turn on.  They immediately have ideas on how they can better automate their work.

Others have have a stop sign up.  They don't care what you are saying or are resistant.

The truth is that you can continue using manual processes and they do work.  However if not automated, they often take extra time to complete.  When you start adding up that manual effort, it can cost thousands, millions, or even billions depending on the amount of manual effort done by employees.

Message in a bottle

Consider the audit aspect of these tasks.  With ServiceNow I can look up an old "ticket" and see what work was completed.  If that work was a few years old and done by email, likely it is lost and gone forever.  Especially with employee turnover in corporations.

A spreadsheet is a little better.  However that can easily have versioning issues or be difficult to find in sometimes if not used frequently.  You know what I mean, however it can be difficult to admit. 

Manual processes are often stored like a message in a bottle.  You may find one if you are looking for it, but it will take a lot of swimming and walks on the beach.  The beach is sharepoint, so it isn't that beautiful.

Let's have a meeting

How do managers really tell what employees are busy and others that are underutilized?  With email it is based on what they are cc'd on, meetings attended, and project results.  Some employees are emailed relentlessly, they often quit due to stress or not being acknowledged.  

At least with ServiceNow you can tell what they are working on and their current workload. Some people are resistant to allowing other see what they are doing.  However the results can really help with management.

Also people are also dissatisfied with the results of their requests.  With email they need to email or call them back to check the status.  It takes forever it seems at times, and if they can't check status, what is going on?  It is waiting on an approval?  Is it still being delivered?  Better call Bob, he might know.  Oh Bob is on vacation for a week.  Guess I am waiting until he gets back.

Oh No Moments

As processes become more complex, it becomes increasingly difficult to manage with manual effort.  You start making mistakes, and mistakes can lead to bad situations like outages.

When it becomes more difficult to suffer than to change... you will change. 
- Robert Anthony

Everyone can remember, "Oh no" moments in their career.  When you make a change that shuts down a network, or makes a system inoperable.  The key is minimize or eliminate those situations from happening and ServiceNow can help with that by using Request Management workflow, Change Management, etc.  However it does often take a remarkable disaster to make some companies and people change.

Doing Nothing is often worse

I am not perfect, I make many mistakes.  However I always try my best and make efforts to change companies for the better.  If it makes sense to improve something, I will do it, try to let everyone know it is coming, and hope I don't receive too many complaints or cause an issue.  

The path of least resistance is the path of the loser. 
- H. G. Wells

The truth is that if you do nothing it will likely cost you down the road.  Sometimes you don't have the time to change a process, and know it will cost you.  The trick is to picking the best projects to improve and pick the ones that cost you the least. 

People always complain, but compliments are often few.

Want more information?

Check out Frank Slootman's funny speech at K15 about email.

Download the "Today's State of Work: The Productivity Drain Report"

Also read this article: Adapting to Disruptive Technology

Here are some suggestions to help you upgrade or patch your ServiceNow instance.  Whether you are new to upgrades and patching, or want to know more about it, this article will help you get updated to the newest ServiceNow version.

ServiceNow Upgrades in Comparison to other vendors

ServiceNow's upgrade process is awesome.

I have prior experience upgrading other ITSM applications and it was a  difficult and stressful experience.  Some of my worst experiences in programming were during system upgrades of systems other than ServiceNow!  Please note that I haven't used those other systems since 2011, they may have improved.  Still, I still remember those weekends of hell,  hours on the support line, and the general anxiousness and trepidation of having to upgrade.  It was not fun, no way.

Not to worry however, ServiceNow is much, much easier in comparison.  If you are on ServiceNow, you can upgrade without fear!  Especially if you are prepared and ready for the upgrade.

Prepare for Upgrade

Learn about upgrades and upgrade preparation

Learn about upgrade best practices ServiceNow Wiki - Upgrade Best Practices

Determine your Current Release Version ServiceNow Wiki - Determine Current Release Version

Here is a good article about preparing for Geneva that can apply to other upgrades as well: Preparing for ServiceNow Geneva

Build an Upgrade Team

When I used to update HP Service Manager at clients, most often I would upgrade the system alone.  Some of the most stressful situations in my career were failed upgrades and backouts.  It was often because I was by myself and had little support to resolve the issue.

If you have the opportunity to bring a team together to assist on the upgrade this can greatly help.  Try to build an upgrade team that helps each other and each person provides value. People who only criticize issues, panic, and provide no assistance should not attend the upgrade.

Establish Production Verification Test

If you have testers, make sure their verification testing is documented beforehand and done in the test instance.  If not, they will be tempted to test things they have never tested before in production.  If they are doing that it is too late, they can only test in "Test".  Make sure they know this beforehand.

Read about the latest Patches and Upgrades

You can read release notes for all the latest patches and upgrades here.  ServiceNow Wiki - Versions

It is also a good idea to browse the ServiceNow Community to see user's opinions on the upgrade or patch you are interested in.

Note that for patches, ServiceNow is moving towards quarterly patching.  Being aware of upcoming patches will be more important in the near future.

Clone Back

You should always clone Production over Dev, Test, QA, Sandbox instances before you patch or upgrade.  That way you have accurate and most current data and code to test against during Testing.

You can Request a Clone in the Left Navigator of ServiceNow under System Clone > Request Clone

More information about System Clone: ServiceNow Wiki - System Clone

Remember in-flight update sets will be cloned over.  Back those up to xml before cloning.

Manage Upgrades

After all ServiceNow instances are cloned over (except Production of course), you are ready to organize an upgrade to a Development/Test Instance for testing.

How to request a upgrade/patch

1. Login into ServiceNow HI support
2. Click the "Manage Upgrades" box
3. Select the instance to upgrade and click schedule.  Pick a Dev/Test instance so you can test the upgrade/patch before going to production.

If you don't see the version, you might need to click the "Need a version not listed?" link.  When you click this, you can "Request a version entitlement" and ask for a new version.  ServiceNow will approve/reject the entitlement and if approved, you can go back to the Manage Upgrades box and request the version you want.  Sometimes versions are not available yet as ServiceNow only wants to deploy to a few customers at once, or other reasons they might have.

 I suggest upgrading in this order:

1. Upgrade Sandbox Instance(if available). Test Upgrade in Sandbox Instance
2. Upgrade Test  Instance (if available).  Test upgrade in Test Instance.
3. Upgrade QA  Instance (if available).  Test upgrade in QA Instance.
4. Upgrade Dev  Instance (if available).  Test upgrade in Dev Instance.
5. Upgrade Production

Another option is to wait to upgrade one of the instances for two weeks after going to Production.  That way you have an older version of ServiceNow in case you want to test a defect that you think the upgrade may have caused.

Confirm an Upgrade

After you schedule your upgrade.  You can check the upgrade status using upgrade status and see when it completed.

Review Upgrade History

Once the upgrade is completed,  review the upgrade history and revert certain customization to OOB as needed.  Sometimes you only made a slight change to some code, and you no longer need it.  Other times the ServiceNow code is more powerful or newer, and you may decide to use that code instead.

Here is a wiki article about reviewing upgrade history.  ServiceNow Wiki - Upgrade History

In most cases, you never need to adjust this.

Testing

After the instance is upgraded and you went through the upgrade history, you can begin testing.  

1. Create Test Plans for each ServiceNow application you use
2. Have selected users and testers test the upgraded/patched feature using the test plans you created.  
3. Test new or updated features as part of the upgrade
4. Test Inbound and Outbound Email
5. Test User Authentication (Logging in/out)
6. Test Full ServiceNow and CMS Sites for any potential UI issues
7. Important. Notify users that a upgrade is coming.  You can do this via email, corporate social network sites, or with Overview help or a header message.  It is important that you do this.  They may ignore your message, but you made an attempt and make sure to document that attempt to notify them.

Fix Issues

If an issue found is the result of a customization you created, you should attempt to fix it, recording your fix in an Upgrade Set.  If there is an issue that you think ServiceNow might have a fix for or didn't notice, create an incident at ServiceNow HI support.  They have been really helpful with upgrade issues I have had, often providing quick workarounds or are aware of the issue and will fix the issue on the next release.

Schedule and Upgrade Production

Once you have completed your testing and fixes, you are ready to go to Production.

Never Rollback

I suggest adopting a policy of never backing out or rolling back an upgrade or reverting to a backup.  If though ServiceNow can do this (maybe), it should never be done.  If you have to rollback, it is huge mistake and huge decision. Don't rollback unless it is only absolutely necessary.  Don't rollback for a minor reason.

It is important to have worst case scenarios and solutions available. However once an upgrade starts, it is difficult if not impossible to stop.  I am not even sure if rolling back is even possible anymore.  I have heard of people rolling back earlier upgrades like Aspen, but that did not go well for people who made that decision.

Going into an upgrade with a never rollback philosophy will insure you prepared enough before the upgrade and are willing to fix issues that occur as well.

Schedule during normal awake hours

Schedule the upgrade during hours you are normally awake.  Scheduling things at 2am on Saturday is not a great idea.  You will be tired, if you need assistance the best support will be offline, and so will other employees who could assist.  I have seen some great mistakes made at 2am, and sometimes even at work!

When they say you must upgrade at 2am, "discuss" that 6pm is a much better idea.  Say it is "ServiceNow's Best Practices".  You will be happy you did.  

Follow the Previous Upgrade Process

When you upgraded dev, test, qa, follow that process and repeat with Production.  Do not deviate from what you did previously on those upgrades.

TROUBLE DURING THE UPGRADE

Even with a lot of preparation and planning, an upgrade can go wrong.  The important thing is not to panic.  Do not start making changes in production as quick fixes.  Carefully think of solutions to the issue.

Geneva Node Upgrade Error Example

Node upgrade error - ServiceNow Geneva

Recently during a ServiceNow Geneva upgrade I attended, one of the production nodes failed to upgrade to Geneva.  The upgrade monitor stopped working properly (See Picture) and ServiceNow was not working correctly. This was because 2 of the nodes were Geneva and 1 of the nodes was Fuji yet due to an error in the upgrade process.

We can't fix node issues, so ServiceNow HI support was contacted.  They were very helpful and fixed the node issue, initiated upgrade on the database to Geneva version, and after completion, fully restored service.

It was stressful and took a while to fix, but it was important we did our preparation and upgrade testing beforehand.  That insured it wasn't our fault because we knew it was on ServiceNow side.

Wait, Wait, Celebrate

People like to celebrate immediately after the upgrade completes.  I like to wait a week later, get though any issues found, and celebrate!  Have a party, then back into it, continuing to do amazing things with ServiceNow.

Mike

In workflow on catalog task creation, you can always specify "Wait for completion" to have catalog tasks wait to close until moving on in the work.  You can also use a "Join Activity" to wait for tasks as well.

Sometimes you don't want to do that or it doesn't work for you.  Possibly you want to do other activities and wait at a later point in the workflow.  Here is a script useful for checking if catalog tasks are complete in a workflow.

Workflow Activity: Wait for Catalog Tasks to Complete
Condition Script:
checkCatalogTasks();
function checkCatalogTasks() {
var grTask = new GlideRecord('sc_task');
grTask.addQuery('request_item', current.sys_id);
grTask.addQuery('active', true);
grTask.query();
if(grTask.hasNext()){
answer = false;
}
else{
answer = true;
}
}

Add a button to resend approvals to an user or list of users.

This should be used with caution so that you don't annoy users with too many approval emails. If users overuse this functionality. you may want to add more restrictions.

Name: Resend Approval Email
Table: Approval [sysapproval_approver]
Show insert: true
Show update: true
Form Button: true
List Choice: true
Condition: current.state == 'requested' && gs.hasRole("itil") && current.approver != getMyApprovals()
Script:
gs.eventQueue("approval.inserted", current, gs.getUserID(), gs.getUserName());
gs.addInfoMessage("Approval email resent.");
action.setRedirectURL(current);

Here is a simple trick to help you build out your ServiceNow Service Catalog.  Sometimes it is nice to add external links to other sites in the Service Catalog.  You can build your Service Catalog be a "one-stop shop" to request items AND find sites at your company.

Step 1: Add new category

1. In the Left Navigator Bar > Go to Service Catalog > Maintain Categories
2. Click New
3. Add a new category

Step 2: Add Content Item

This is the trick.  Add a "Content Item", not a "Catalog Item".

1. In the Left Navigator Bar > Go to Service Catalog > Content Items
2. Click New
3. Add a new Content Item.  Make sure the Content Type is External Content, and Target is New Window/Tab

You can add any type of link.  Links to external sites, KB articles, etc.

Step 3: View Results!

New Catalog Category (ServiceNow Sites)

New External Links

Isn't that awesome?!  

Mike

This customization adds more functionality from the top menu in ServiceNow. You can add few buttons to help direct people to important ServiceNow applications.

Thanks to Russell Miller on the forums for helping get it working in Geneva.  I just added on to his idea and gave it a different design. I know, how original. :)

UI Script: Top Navigation
Global: true
Script:

document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function(event) {
 var theWindow = getTopWindow().window.location;
 var theURL = theWindow.href;
 if (theURL.indexOf('nav_to.do?') != -1 || theURL.indexOf('navpage.do') != -1 || theURL == baseURL) {
var theLinkElement = getTopWindow().document.querySelector("a[class~=headerlink]");
//Only insert if the user has roles and the links are not on the page already
if (g_user.hasRoles() && jQuery(theLinkElement).length == 0) {
 var theStyle = "float: right; padding:0px;font-size: 1.3rem; margin: 5px 0px 0px 0px;" +
"width: auto; height: 2px; text-align: center;" +
"color: white";

 //Common styling using div & spans
 var linkDivOpen = '<div><span style="' + theStyle + '">';
 var linkDivClose = "</span></div>";

 //Links
 var essLink = "<a target='_blank' href='/ess' id='essLink' class='headerlink' style='color: inherit;text-decoration: none;border: 2px solid white;border-radius: 3px;padding:8px;margin-right:10px'><span class='btn btn-icon icon-cart' style='font-size: 20px;' />Self Service</a>"; //);
 var sneLink = "<a target='_blank' href='http://www.servicenowelite.com' id='sneLink' class='headerlink' style='color: inherit;text-decoration: none;border: 2px solid white;border-radius: 3px;padding:8px;'><span class='btn btn-icon icon-lightbulb' style='font-size: 20px;' />ServiceNow Elite</a>"; //);

 var theHeaderElement = getTopWindow().document.querySelector(".nav.navbar-right");
 //Insert the links
 jQuery(linkDivOpen + essLink + linkDivClose).insertAfter(theHeaderElement);
 jQuery(linkDivOpen + sneLink + linkDivClose).insertAfter(theHeaderElement);
}
 }
});

Add a helpful catalog search box on your self service site.

Dynamic Content: Search Catalog
Category: General
Frame: None
Active: true

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<j:jelly trim="false" xmlns:j="jelly:core" xmlns:g="glide" xmlns:j2="null" xmlns:g2="null">
<div id="catalog_search_area" style="text-align:center;background-image:url('small-pills-3.gif');border-radius: 3px;height: 125px;margin:0px auto 10px auto;width:79%">
<form id="search_form" action="search_content.do" style="padding-top:20px;">
<span style="text-align: center;font-size: 23px;font-weight: bold;padding-bottom:20px;">How can we help?</span>
<div id="search_box" style="margin-top: 20px; border: 0px; display: block">
<input placeholder="" class="scSearchInput" autocomplete="off" size="50" function="$('search_form').submit()" id="sysparm_catalog_search" title="" alt="Search Catalog" name="sysparm_search" value="" data-original-title="Search catalog" />
<span class="input-group-addon-transparent icon-search" />
</div>
</form>
</div>
</j:jelly>

This is how I started using ServiceNow...

Prior to working with ServiceNow, I was an HP developer.  I worked on the whole HP suite of ITSM products such as HP Service Manager, HP Connect-IT, HP Asset Manager, and HP uCMDB. I had implemented HP products at large enterprise corporations, projects that took more than a year to complete.  Big projects, big expectations, lots of work.

I had all my HP certifications and was one of the best in the world with those products. Consulting was going great and was sought out by companies for my expertise.  Then I had an interesting call that changed my life.

The Sales Call

I was in a sales call on April 15, 2011.  The HP account manager was nervous that the client wouldn't buy HP.  He kept mentioning ServiceNow.  

Did the client mention ServiceNow?  
Do you think they might go to ServiceNow?

I had never heard of ServiceNow, and thought it was so strange the sales person was so concerned about it.  So after the call I got on the ServiceNow demo site.  I quickly realized that ServiceNow was just a better platform. 

Career Change

I had a choice. Either stay using HP or switch to ServiceNow.  I was making good money doing HP development and jobs were still coming in.  However just by seeing ServiceNow, I knew I just had to switch.

For hours every night after that sales call, I would build ServiceNow customizations on my own at home.  Customizations I used to build in HP Service Manager, I would build in ServiceNow. Before I took the ServiceNow admin class, I knew how to do most customizations and the class was just confirming what I was doing was correct.

I was excited to get that first project.  Would I be able to get one? I was really hoping so!

First Project

It didn't take too long, and I got on my first ServiceNow project.  I have to thank Kathee Douville and Chandra Masloski for giving me the chance. Kathee for convincing the first client to hire me, and Chandra for believing in my efforts. Chandra was a great person, she has since passed away.  She gave me a lot of great advice, and helped me believe in my potential.

After that first ServiceNow project, ServiceNow exploded in popularity.  I went on a crazy implementation spree of 30+ projects and eventually went to FICO as a manager.  None of which would have happened if I had stuck using HP.

When I look back at my old HP code, it is now like a foreign language.  It is amazing to me that I used to know that. So on this five year anniversary, I am reminiscing and appreciating that it was so awesome that ServiceNow found me.  It truly changed my life!

What is your "Switch to ServiceNow" story?

Mike

ServiceNow Helsinski was released in limited availability.  Here are some of the exciting new features that I am interested in for this new release. 

Please note I am only going to discuss the items I am interested in for the Helsinki release.  If I went into EVERY detail, this article would be zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz............

Let's keep this article to a limited number of zzz. :)

ServiceNow Helsinki Release Notes

You can view the release notes for Helsinki on docs.servicenow.com

After you click Helsinki, click release notes.  Click Features and changes by product to see the new features in this release.

Notable New Features

Here are some of the exciting features I am interested in for this new release.

Change Management

• Mass Update of CIs.  For example, a series of laptops require their domain to be changed. In this case, this can be included in the proposed change. When the proposed change is saved, an XML proposed update is added to the affected CIs. This can then be applied when the change is in the implement or review state.

This is something useful that I believe many companies will implement.  Probably should have been added a long time ago.

Service Catalog

• Order guide enhancements: Support for mapping order guide variables with items has been added. The two-step checkout process has been improved to order only items added by the order guide. A three-step order guide checkout process has also been added.
• Shopping cart improvements: The shopping cart has been enhanced to include a single consolidated order button instead of multiple order button options.
• Variable improvements: Support for a reference qualifier has been added to the List Collector variable to limit records. Support for glide list UI has also been added to the List Collector variable.

Anything to improve the Service Catalog helps.  I think they should work even more on this.

Cloud Management

• Amazon Web Services (AWS) Config Integration - Real-time events from cloud providers can be received so that changes are reflected immediately instead of waiting for the next discovery. Cloud users can view updates to cloud resources as they occur.
• Combined cost and usage reports - Cost and usage reports include all providers. Reports can also be enhanced with the Performance Analytics Content Pack for Cloud Management plugin.
• Addition of Microsoft Azure generic VM catalog item- A sample VM catalog item using the ARM template (Azure VM instance – Advanced) has been added.
• Discovery reconciliation - If a Microsoft Azure or AWS resource is removed outside of the instance and cannot be discovered, its state is marked empty. It is automatically filtered from the Virtual Asset portal and list view, and the relationship to the parent is removed.

For companies using cloud services like AWS or Azure, these are essential improvements to helping maintain them in ServiceNow.

Discovery

• Pattern designer for Discovery - The pattern designer creates sequences of commands that Discovery uses to discover devices and applications. The pattern designer replaces the probes and sensors of the current Discovery logic and includes a robust tool for debugging patterns. The Discovery application comes with a set of preconfigured patterns that cover most of the commonly used devices and applications.
• Discovery quick start - The Discovery quick start is an optional guided process for configuring the MID Server, creating credentials, and scheduling a simple discovery.

Discovery had a lot of improvements, but these are the two I am most interested in.  The pattern designer sounds interesting.  It should help with discovery configuration.  Not to mention the quick start, any way to make discovery easier is a good idea.

Event Management

• JavaScript replaces Apache Groovy - You can write connectors in JavaScript. Apache Groovy is supported for existing connectors but deprecated for new connectors.
• Alert correlation - You can configure correlation rules to determine which alerts are related, based on the CI that triggered the alert. The alert console displays only a designated primary alert among a set of correlated alerts, helping you locate the root of the problem that caused the alert.

Using Groovy was a bad decision.  I am glad they made this change.  Relating alerts is also a good idea.

Service Mapping

Replaces ServiceNow Service Watch.  A better name I think.

CMDB Health

• Tools and dashboards for monitoring and viewing CMDB health reports. CMDB health is monitored in these major categories:
• Completeness: Measures the percentage of required and recommended fields that are populated in CIs.
• Correctness: Measures the percentage of CIs that pass pre-defined data integrity rules such as identification rules, orphan CI rules, and stale CI rules.
• Compliance: Uses audit tests to measure the level that the CMDB data adheres to pre-defined certificates.
• Relationships: Measures the health of CI relationships in terms of indicators such as orphan and duplicate relationships.

I have been doing these steps as a manual process.  Glad to see them within the tool instead of my KB article I review bi-monthly.

Data import and export

• XLSX support - Import Sets and Export Sets support XLSX files in addition to XLS files. Use XLSX files in place of XLS whenever possible for optimal performance.

Better late than never!

Email and notifications

Notification preferences - User notification preferences have been redesigned to provide a better user experience. Users can more easily see which notifications they are receiving for each of their devices, based on the table that the notification is based on. Users can also see which subscribable notifications they have chosen to subscribe to. See Select notifications and Add personal subscriptions.

The personal subscriptions feature is interesting.  I think people already receive too many notifications, but would allow us to allow users to subscribe to critical items they are interested in.

User interface

Activity stream mentions - Get someone's attention on a record by mentioning them with the @ character in an activity stream. By default, users receive email notifications when they are mentioned. If Connect is enabled, users can receive additional notifications.

That will be very helpful to notify people on a ticket.

List v3 Split Mode. A better version of split window is back!

Mobile

Native tablet app - Access the platform UI from the native tablet app. The native tablet app has been designed with the same look and feel as the native phone app.
Mobile browser update - Select the option to use the new mobile browser UI. The new mobile browser UI mimics the native app for a similar user experience.

Service Portal

ServiceNow® Service Portal is a new application in the Helsinki release.

Create modern and engaging web interfaces for services and applications running on the ServiceNow platform. For details, see the Service Portal guide.

New Self Service Portal Functionality

Right Click Page Editor

Service Portal Designer

This will change the way we design CMS Sites.  Very exciting!

Web services

Web service API analytics - Track and analyze web service API usage, such as REST and SOAP web services.

Since ServiceNow can more readily used with web services now, this will be an important feature to monitor usage of API usage outside of ServiceNow.

Here are some instructional videos on the new ServiceNow Helsinki Service Portal.

See a preview of ServiceNow Helsinki with screenshots.  Some amazing work by ServiceNow in this release!

Upgrade Monitor

A better upgrade experience

Overview Help

New overview help screens that you can modify and use.

List v3

New List v3 Layouts

New List v3 Options

Visual Task UI Design

Improvements to visual task board design

Activity Stream Mentions

Get someone's attention on a record by mentioning them with the @ character in an activity stream

Service Portal

Also check out this post for videos on the Service Portal. 

Activation

Service Portal

View the epic new Service Portal. Wow!

Service Catalog

Take a look at the AWESOME new Service Catalog!

Knowledge Base

System Status

Customers have asked for this and ServiceNow has delivered.  So happy this was released!

Service Portal Editor

I have a feeling I might spend a few hours in here!

You want to become a ServiceNow developer?  No reason why not, so here are some tips to help you on this journey.

Motivation and Effort

When I was learning ServiceNow, I put in a lot of effort to teach myself.  For hours every night for months, I would build customizations on my own at home.  Customizations I used to build in HP Service Manager, I would build in ServiceNow.  I put in the effort so that I could look great on projects and get ahead.

Some people have the gift of learning things easily, for others it takes effort.  Just because it takes you a while, doesn't mean you are not worthwhile!

Get a Developer instance

You can register on the ServiceNow Developer site to get your own instance to practice on.  I am proud of ServiceNow for doing this.  It has helped thousands of wanna-be developers learn the platform and become experts...maybe even ServiceNow ELITE!

ServiceNow Training

ServiceNow is also kind enough to offer free courses to help you. ServiceNow Online Learning. Also get on YouTube and watch all the ServiceNow videos.  

After you take the free stuff, you can take some paid courses.  I think the Admin course is exceptionally helpful, however the other courses might help you too.  

I took the admin course, talked my way into my first ServiceNow job, and then with a lot of motivation and effort kept that job and got others afterwards.  

Wiki and Forums

Read that ServiceNow wiki like it is the novel of the century.  Jump on the forums and start asking questions about things that confuse you.  People are just waiting for your questions so they can get their virtual points, post away!

User Group

Join a local user group.  There are a listing somewhere on the community site.  Maybe you can make friends with an expert.  Having an expert to ask questions to is a huge benefit, although not 100% necessary.

Exam Practice

If you are taking the Admin or other exams, there is often a blueprint or preparation documents.  Read that thoroughly and make sure you know all the areas and questions.

No Exact Blueprint for Success

You don't have be a coding wizard with a photographic memory.  Follow these steps and then practice more than you think you need to.  You have a lot of potential, apply yourself to a goal.  See what happens, that trip might be even better than the destination.

Don't give up if you don't understand at first, it takes many attempts sometimes.

People often ask me what it is like to be a consultant compared to being an employee at a company.  What is the difference between the two careers?  That can vary drastically depending on the consulting company you work for.  However there are certain differences that you may want to consider when selecting your career.

Cost Center or Profit Center?

This is the biggest difference in my opinion.  Someone said this to me once, and it really hit home about the difference between consultant/employee.  I never really thought about it that way before.

• Cost Center.  When you are an employee, especially a ServiceNow developer, you are a cost center at the company.  You may help them conduct business, but what you are doing costs the company money.  
• Profit Center. When you are a consultant at a consulting company, a billable consultant, you bring in the company money.  

Notice how I highlighted billable consultant above?  Sure you as an employee you are kind of burden, a cost center. However as a consultant that is not billable...that can be a worse experience.  Even if it is not your fault, maybe due to sales or market conditions.

• Employee. Be cheap or useful.
• Consultant. Stay billable and you are great!

Advantage: Either. Both have advantages and disadvantages.  

Overhead Costs

• Employee: Every dollar saved lowers the cost of your department. This means as few wasted efforts as possible and maximization of employee throughput.   
• Consultant:  Billable hours are most important, so any time not billing is a negative in many cases.  Some exceptions exist, when you are helping make new sales, building infrastructure to handle sales, or training new consultants for more projects.

Advantage: Consultant.  When you are thought of as important to bring in profit, I believe you are treated better....as long as you stay billable!

WORK LOAD

• Employee: The more projects completed, means a better end-of-year report, and better reviews.
• Consultant: Billable hours are most important, so any time not billing is a negative in many cases.  Some exceptions exist, when you are helping make new sales, building infrastructure to handle sales, or training new consultants for more projects.

Advantage: Employee.  You cost money and also you require software that costs money.  Software isn't free so sometimes software purchases are restricted.  Your workload is limited to the software you support.

As a consultant you have the pressure to be as billable all the time.  Sure there are projects that have a deadline, but that pales in comparison to an active consulting workload.  Consultants are often tied to fixed bid contracts that really pressure you to finish projects on time.

Training

• Employee: Training is a great way to boost the skills of an existing employee without looking for new resource. 
• Consultant: Training takes time away from billable work. Unless you are at a conference making sales as well!

Advantage: Employee.  Often employees are given more opportunities for training than a consultant.

Benefits

• Employee: Benefits depend on the company.  
• Consultant: Benefits depend on the company.  However if you are 1099 consultant, you are on your own for benefits.

Advantage: Employee.  Most often employees have better benefits, because the they work for larger companies. They can have corporate cell phone plans, better 401K match, and better health plans.

Travel

• Employee: Travel depends on the company and role.
• Consultant: Travel depends on the company.  Larger consulting companies often have a significant amount of travel.

Advantage: Employee.  I often hear about employees that never travel.  Consulting companies are notorious for "road warriors".  However that is changing somewhat due to cloud computing.  Some people like travel however, so in that case, being a consultant might be for you.

Some additional advice.  If you are a consultant, limit your drinking when on the road.  It is easy to often have a drink at the bar with clients.  However you are alone a lot, maybe lonely, and bored away from home.  I have seen many consultants become alcoholics due to this lifestyle.  I am no angel, but I do limit my drinking while traveling as a consultant.  At least I have learned to do that from experience. :)

Company Friendships

• Employee: Depends on the size of the company and company culture.
• Consultant: You meet an incredible amount of people.

Advantage: Consultant. Although you can have longer friendships at a company, as a consultant you meet so many people.  You are going to make a friend or two just out of sheer numbers.

Personal Relationships

• Employee: You are at home every night.  If you can handle work/life balance at your company.
• Consultant: This depends on the amount of travel and being away from home.  Although you can make friends in different cities.

Advantage: Employee, although travelling has advantages for some.

Challenges

• Employee: You sometimes will be challenged to do things not in your skillset
• Consultant: You will be forced to do technical tasks you never thought possible

Advantage: Consultant. Want to wake up everyday with a mountain to climb?  Others might disagree with me on that one!

Recognition

• Employee: Sometimes your boss will recognize your importance.  
• Consultant: Billable hours and client reviews.  Clients will often take credit for your work.

Advantage: Consultant.  Billable hours are a great indicator of performance.  Just be aware that clients will often take credit for your work.  As a consultant, I have not been invited to project end celebrations, even though I built the program. I have seen companies present my work at conferences and said "they built it.".  Just take that as a compliment. :)

Vacation

Neither want you to take a vacation.

Advantage: Employee.  As a consultant, you often are working for multiple clients at once.  So you have to tell 4 or 5 bosses you have a vacation ahead.

Commission OR BONUS

• Employee: Sometimes your boss will recognize your importance.  
• Consultant: Utilization.  Individual or team based.  

Advantage: Consultant

What to choose?

As you can tell, both careers have advantages/disadvantages.  It depends a lot on the company you work for, how you are treated and a lot of other factors.  

Just do what makes you happy.

"Is this change a configuration or customization?"  This is one of the most popular questions during requirements gathering for a software implementation.

This is especially true when you are talking to someone familiar with older software.  In the "old days", a configuration could take minutes and a customization took hours.  It made a big difference in your decisions during requirements gathering.

I am from the old days, these young people have no idea how easy they have it now. :)

Low Code Development

Customizations are much easier to do than they were 10 years ago. This is due to advancements like drag-and-drop functionality, expression building, workflow, and other low-code/no code development.  When you can build an entire app in one hour without code...this means low code development has really changed the config or customize debate.

This doesn't mean life is easier for the development team, people have a lot more expectations than ever before. People believe software should be as easy at work as it is at home.  I mean if Facebook has it, ServiceNow should too!  

People will always ask to push software to the functionality limit.  Eventually you'll be writing Javascript, but the good news is you don't have to a Javascript expert on day one.

Personalization

Another advancement that has really changed is "Personalization".  It used to be that you only allowed people to change their list view.  Now they can change the form too, make reports, adjust their notification preferences, add themes, change how fields look, and all kinds of other features.  This "user enablement" along with Self Service, Service Catalog, and Knowledge Management have instilled a "DIY" approach to issue resolution at many companies.

How to Classify Code Changes

Customization, Configuration, and Personalization can be vague especially in flexible and customizable products like ServiceNow.  

This is my current breakdown:

ServiceNow Personalization

• Lists
• Accessibility and Themes
• UI Look and Functionality
• Date Time Look, Timezone, and Format
• Form Fields, Tabbed Forms, Related List Loading
• Notification Preferences
• Reports, Filters, Gauges, and Homepages
• Favorites and Tagged Records

ServiceNow Configuration

• Adding Data Elements like Groups, Users, Departments, Users to Groups
• Adjusting Properties Files
• Creation of Fields, Field Layout, List Layouts, Views
• Service Catalog Items
• Templates
• Home Page Changes
• Surveys
• Metrics and SLAs
• UI and Data Policies
• Style Sheets

ServiceNow Customization

• Anything with Javascript
  • Business Rules
  • Client Scripts
  • UI Actions
  • Script Includes
  • UI Macros
  • UI Scripts
• Major Data Changes
  • New Tables
  • New Applications
  • Integrations
• Complex Security
  • Access Controls
• Grey Areas (Kind of easy, but can be complex)
  • Workflow
  • Transform Maps
  • Email Notifications

Questions to help mark as a customization:

1. May affect future upgrades
2. Complex javascript needed
3. Maintenance requires experienced developer

Hope this helps,
Mike

When I say, "Preparing for ServiceNow Geneva", it sounds like I am talking about a hurricane. The truth is that Geneva is like a hurricane, it will change the way you do business at your company.  In a good way of course. I can't tell you how excited I am for this upcoming release.

The new UI is great as expected. However it was the "Connect Chat" that I didn't expect to so powerful.  

Being able to discuss all ServiceNow records in a conversation real-time, wow what a new experience.  I am used to putting in an additional comment/work note, then waiting for a response, then replying.  In ServiceNow Geneva, you can just chat about an incident or any ServiceNow record and that time delay is eliminated.  It is a lot more immersive and more collaborative experience.  I think people will really like that, I know I will.

There are also a lot of little improvements that will make a big difference.  Every effort that ServiceNow has made to improve the user experience with UI looks, speed, and functionality will improve user opinions of the product.  

How can you prepare for Geneva?

1. Fix your existing data issues.

Do a review of your current system and see if you have any issues today you can fix before the upgrade.  Here are some articles you can use to check.

• ServiceNow Performance Review
• Avoiding ServiceNow Pitfalls

2. Upgrade and Patch

Some of the upgrades and patches to get to ServiceNow Fuji Patch 9 are huge.  If you haven't patched, your upgrade to ServiceNow Geneva is going to take a long time.  Some of the upgrades, especially ServiceNow Fuji, had database changes that took hours to complete.  If you can't afford a significant downtime, it is a good idea in my opinion to patch now instead of waiting for the big Geneva release.  Here is an helpful article to help you patch ServiceNow:  Tips for Upgrading and Patching ServiceNow

Another good idea to to get your Knowledge Management upgraded

3. Learn new technologies

ServiceNow Geneva will feature new coding technologies you'll likely have to learn.  I would say you don't have to be an expert on them on day 1, but it doesn't hurt to read up on them ahead of time.

AngularJS - Apache Jelly is being replaced with AngularJS.   I was actually a good Jelly coder, however that skill will go away much like my KML-SA Script, HP SC RAD, HP Connect-IT, Tririga, and all the other code languages I no longer use.  A lot of people hated Jelly, but I didn't mind it.  AngularJS will introduce new speed and functionality that you'll likely want to use.  I expect there will be some examples on the ServiceNow Geneva release that we can use to build our own customizations.  

Bootstrap.  This will make ServiceNow mobile-first.  This will be new to me.  This site is built via SquareSpace.  It uses bootstrap I think, but I don't handle the technical aspects of that.

OpenFrame.  Openframe is mentioned many times in the Geneva code.  This will be new to me too.

4. Increase task.short_description to 160 characters

I noticed in ServiceNow Geneva that task.short_description is 160 characters.  People have asked me to change this for years.  I was always nervous to change that due to possible issues.

Since Geneva has it, now is a good time to change it and overcome any issues before the upgrade.

You just go into the dictionary for task.short_description and increase to 160.  Test in a development instance first.

5. Clean up the Activity field

The activities (filtered) field on incidents, changes, problems, etc can get really cluttered if you include a lot of things to be shown.  When ServiceNow Geneva is released, the activity section is more like a conversation and not a history area.  Might as well clean up the activity area now instead of waiting.

This is just my opinion here.  You don't have to do this, but I think it helps.

Activity field cleanup

1. On every form that uses the Activities (filtered) field.  Customize activities and only leave these fields:

• Assignment Group
• Assigned to
• State
• Additional Comments
• Work Notes

People can use the "History > List" functionality to view field history information.

Add an Emails Related list

1. Go to Relationships.  Add this relationship:

Relationships:
Name: Emails
Application: Global
Applies to table: Task [task]
Queries from table: Email [sys_email]
Query with:
current.addQuery("target_table", parent.sys_class_name);
current.addQuery("instance", parent.sys_id);

2. Adjust the Email default form.  (I personalized the default email form, because you can use the "inbox" view for more detailed email information)

Personalize Form Layout:

Email Default Form:
Type
Target
|-split-|
Created
|- end split-|
Recipients
Subject
Body

3.  Add the email related list to a form (incident, change, etc)

• Personalize > Related Lists > Emails

4. Add formatting to the list

• List Control: Omit new button
• List Layout: Subject, Recipients, Type, Created

6. Other

I am sure there are other things you can do too in order to prepare for Geneva.  I will add more to this post as I think of them.

Very exciting!
Mike

Here are themes you can download for your ServiceNow Geneva or Helsinki instance.  This includes 15 new themes created by me.

Blimey

Blues

Camouflage

Captain

Clean

Contrast UI

Dark NOW

Fab Five

Federal

Glamour

Flamingo Nights

Halloween

Hulk

Ironman

Ne

Rose

Seahorse

Spring

Terminal

Thor

Vikings

Vintage

WerkPress

Williamsberg

Download themes: sne_sys_ui_themes_v1.zip

After you pass this test, you can also take ServiceNow Practice Test 2!

After you pass this test, you can also take ServiceNow Practice Test 3!