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.