Foundation System Setup (Core)

Implementation Workshop

Hafid Ahannay
Principal Technical Consultant

Ref: 0001599
Agenda

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 Day 1

Topics to cover during implementation workshops Day 2

Access & MID Servers Foundation Users, Groups &

Authentication (Discovery) Data Roles

HAM Schedules Security Email

Branding & Other

Usability
Style Considerations

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Today’s Workshop Objective and Approach

Define a set of stories, that capture the requirements for core platform configurations
and data, in order to allow EU Commission to go live.

Walk through of the core configuration options and data requirements within
ServiceNow

Agree configuration decisions to suit EU Commission needs

Identify and agree on any additional functionality required not available out of the
box

After this workshop we will start writing stories for implementation

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Introductions

Name Experience Role Expectations

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Foundation Data
Including Users, Groups and Roles

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Defining “Foundation Data”
We define “Foundation Data” as:

Data that is:

• Essential for effectively using the NOW Platform
• Common to all product suites
• Has attributes that change rarely or slowly

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Core ”Foundation Data” terms in the NOW Platform
Listed below are the core “foundation data” terms and their definitions
Term Definition Why is it needed (examples)
User A user represent an individual that can access and perform • Log into the instance
(sys_user) work in a ServiceNow instance • Perform work on tasks

Location A physical place where users and resources are present and • Tell where each user is located
perform work • Tell where a task is to be performed
(cmn_location)
• Tell where an asset is located

Company Legal entities which represent vendors, manufacturers, or • Identify which business units, departments and
users are part of the same organization (useful
(core_company) customers with whom you do business. Companies provide a for service provider or customer support
way to organize users. Companies typically comprise business organizations
units and departments.

Business Unit Business units are parts of your organization and in charge of • Group departments to reflect an organization
structure within the same organization
(business_unit) certain operations (such as Finance, HR, IT, …)
Business units typically comprise departments and are
associated with a company.

Department Departments provide a way to group users within a Business • Group users to reflect an organization structure
within the same organization
(cmn_department) Unit or within a Company.

Cost Center A Cost Center typically represents a business entity that incurs • Link expenses and costs to a business entity
(cmn_cost_center) costs

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Taxonomy Map
Show the foundation
data entities and their relationships

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“Foundation Data” Entity-Relationship Diagram
Color indicates where to concentrate first

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Typical Foundation Data
Requirements
Summarize what is needed in every project

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 User (sys_user) table key fields
Below are some key attributes* of a User in ServiceNow and why they are needed
Attribute Description Why is it needed (examples) Recommendation
User ID Unique identifier of the user record Uniquely identify the user (for SSO for example) Mandatory

First Name The first name of the user To properly identify who is the requestor of a ticket or who is assigned to a ticket Mandatory

Last Name The family name of the user To properly identify who is the requestor of a ticket or who is assigned to a ticket Mandatory

Email The email address of the user The platform sends emails to the users regarding their tickets/tasks Mandatory

Business Phone Their office phone number The support teams may need to call the user to handle their request Strongly Recommended

Mobile Phone Their mobile phone number The support teams may need to call the user to handle their request Optional

Home Phone Their home phone number The support teams may need to call the user to handle their request Optional

Company The company they belong to Support may be different per customer company (or internal entity) Strongly Recommended

Department The company department they are in Support may be different per department Recommended

Location Their usual company location Identify local support teams that can help the user Strongly Recommended

Country Code The identifier of the country they are in Support may be different per country (is deduced from location) Recommended

City The city they are in Support may be different per city (is deduced from location) Recommended

Building The building within the location Support may be different per building (at the same location) Strongly Recommended

Gender The gender of the user Useful when talking or writing to the user to know their gender Recommended

Title The job title of the user Optional

Language The preferred language of the user Allows adapting the tool GUI and localize content Recommended

Time zone The time zone the user is in Allows displaying correct
12 date/time fields to the user ©Recommended
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* For a list of all attributes please check the « Dictionary » in the platform
 Company (core_company) table key fields
Below are some key attributes* of a Company in ServiceNow and why they are needed
Attribute Description Why is it needed (examples) Recommendation
Name The descriptive name of the company Display field for company record on forms and in lists Mandatory

Country Country where the company is located Needed for contact information Optional

City City where the company is located Needed for contact information Optional

State / Province State where the company is located Needed for contact information Optional

Street Street address of the company Needed for contact information Optional

Phone Phone number of the company Needed for contact information Optional

Contact Users that serve as internal and external Needed for contact information Optional
Primary External Contact contacts for this company
Secondary Internal Contacts
Secondary External Contacts

Customer Indicates if this is a customer company Needed in Customer Service Management Optional

Manufacturer Indicates of this a manufacturer Needed in the product catalog Optional

Vendor Indicates if this is a vendor company Needed in Vendor Management Optional

Status Indicates if a company is active or not Allows indicating which companies are active or inactive Recommended

Primary Indicates if this the primary company in The logo and banner text of the primary company is displayed in the backend UI of Strongly Recommended
the platform the platform

Parent Parent company Companies can be related in a parent-child relationship Optional

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* For a list of all attributes please check the « Dictionary » in the platform
 Location (cmn_location) table key fields
Below are some key attributes* of a Location in ServiceNow and why they are needed

Attribute Description Why is it needed (examples) Recommendation

Full Name Computed from other fields. Useful for displaying the whole location immediately. <Readonly computed>

Name The name of the location Meaningful name for your organization. Used to locate users and assets. Mandatory

Country The country of the location Needed for contact information Recommended

State / Province The state/province within the country Needed for contact information Optional

City The city of the location Needed for contact information Recommended

Zip / Postal Code The postal code Needed for contact information Optional

Street The street name and number Needed for contact information Optional

Parent Parent location Geographical linking of locations (Region/Country/City/Site) Strongly Recommended

Company The company this location is linked to A location may belong to a specific company Optional

Best practice: stop at the site level when modeling locations in ServiceNow.
If it is required to indicate in which building the user is located use the « Building » (cmn_building) table.
If is is required to indicate Floor, Office and Desk number of user then it is better to add those fields on the User table

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* For a list of all attributes please check the « Dictionary » in the platform
 Department (cmn_department) table key fields
Below are some key attributes* of a Department in ServiceNow and why they are
needed

Attribute Description Why is it needed (examples) Recommendation

Name Descriptive name Display field for department record on forms and in lists Mandatory

ID Unique identifier of the department Each department must have a unique identifier Strongly Recommended

Code A second field of identification A second way of identifying (or abbreviating the name) Optional

Company A department is part of a company A department should be part of a company Recommended

Business Unit A department might be part of a BU A department can be part of of business unit Optional

Cost Center Expense lines & costs of the department can be associated with a cost center Optional

Department Head A person is the head of the department Approvals & notifications can be sent to this user Strongly Recommended

Description Description of the department What do the people in the department work on Recommended

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* For a list of all attributes please check the « Dictionary » in the platform
Importing Foundation Data
Foundation data can be imported in the platform through Data Sources of types:
• File:
– Either as attachment, FTP, FTPS, SFTP, HTTP, HTTPS, SCP.
– Formats: XLS/XLSX, CSV, XML, JSON, Custom (parse by script)
– XML
– Json

• JDBC: Oracle, MySQL, Sybase, DB2 Universal, and MS SQL Server drivers
• LDAP
• REST (through IntegrationHub)
– Formats: JSON, XML, Parse By Script

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Loading Users & Groups
• Data Population. Bring across the info you need
• Authentication. Either local repository, via the
Directory, or SSO

Best Practices:
• Only bring across attributes that you need to improve
performance
• Clean up your User data to improve accuracy and
completeness
– Ensure Users have Managers for e.g. Approvals.
– Don’t bring across non-user data such as rooms and printers. (filter
with Transform Maps if needed)
• Schedule synchronization once a day during off-peak
hours, only decrease intervals when necessary
– Make sure to also synchronize deactivated users.
• For partial organizations, only bring across the required
regions.

Note: Plan for additional integration efforts if user data can be

augmented for additional value from other systems than LDAP.

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Loading Users & Group –
Manual Import
Manually load data using Import
Functionality
Activities for manual importing:
• Use the provided templates for
importing user and group data
• Cleanse the data so it is accurate,
consistent, and complete.
• Ensure the right fields are completed
• Review data completion after import
Data Import
Importing Foundational Data into ServiceNow

Best Practices for loading data:

• Understand what data you are bringing in. Don’t load data you do not need.
• What are the dependencies and coalesce settings.
• Correct/Clean inaccurate data before its loaded if it’s a one-time import.
• Import data should be normalized.
– Example: Customer data may have the same Manufacturer listed differently, (HP, Hewlett Packard,
Hewlett-Packard). This should be normalized to one version before data load.
• For repeat data imports use delta imports where possible.
• Import data during off-peak hours where possible.

Departments
Common Import Data: Locations
Cost Centers
Companies
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Access

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Login Options – SSO – Auth0 - IDP(OIDC)
Use your company login portal for Authentication
Advantages of SSO:
• SSO enables a user to login once and gain access to other systems without being
challenged.
• An IDP authenticates the user and then when logging into ServiceNow a NameID token
is used to login without being asked to authenticate again.
• Enable SSO if you want to use your internal company portal rather than the ServiceNow
login page.
• When the user logs out of ServiceNow the user can be redirected to a specific internal
page.
Requirements:
• Activate the plugin ‘Integration - Multiple Provider Single Sign-On Installer’
• Setup the IDP(s)
• Import the X.509 certificate(s)

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Login Options – SSO cont.
SSO Logic

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Multifactor Authentication
Recommended additional security for logging in users

Multifactor Authentication (MFA) à Also known as two-step verification, is a security

requirement that asserts a user to enter more than one set of credentials to authenticate
to an instance.

You can use multifactor authentication in combination with the following authentication
methods:
• Local Database Authentication (native ServiceNow authentication)
• SSO with LDAP Integration

Activities to setup MFA:

• Enable plugin - com.snc.integration.multifactor.authentication
• Configure the properties as per ServiceNow Docs

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POC Identity Provider Example

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Users, Groups & Roles

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Users, Groups & Roles Best Practices
Best Practices for Users & Groups
• Users that are assigned to a group inherited the access rights of that group
• Identify the authorization groups required for your processes
• Map Roles to Groups to allow those Groups privileges
• Add Users to Groups to allow the users to have privileges
• Do not map roles directly to users
• Import Users-to-Group Assignments using data import if not covered by the integration
• Set up data certification audits for your user and groups records
• Monitor and Review role license impact and usage.
• Ensure that Inactive Users are Deactived in ServiceNow as Active user records can
have license implications!

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User,Groups and Roles
Group in ServiceNow is a central master data piece that can among other:
– Help organizing the operational work by grouping a set of users who share a common purpose such as
approving or performing tasks
– But also used for configuration activities such as propagating roles to users.
– Groups work in tight connection with Users and Roles

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Core ”Foundation Data” terms in the NOW Platform
Listed below are the core “foundation data” terms and their definitions

Term Definition Why is it needed (examples)

User A user represent an individual that can access and perform • Log into the instance
(sys_user) work in a ServiceNow instance • Perform work on tasks

Group A group is a set of users who share a common purpose and • Group users in the same team
perform activities and tasks. • Assign tasks to teams
(sys_user_group)
• Assign roles to users

Roles Roles grant access to base system platform features and • Admin assign roles to group or user to grant
access to available features and data privileges
(sys_user_role) applications.

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 Group (sys_user_group) table key fields
Below are some key attributes* of a Group in ServiceNow and why they are needed
Attribute Description Why is it needed (examples) Recommendation
Name The name of the group Tasks are assigned to group that are searchable by name Mandatory

Manager The manager of the group The manager can manage who is in the group and receive special notifications Recommended

Group Email The email mailbox of the group When a group has an email, notifications are to it instead of members emails Recommended

Description Clear description of the group’s purpose Ease the management of the groups over time Optional

Parent The parent group Groups can be modeled in a hierarchical structure if needed Optional

Type A group can have multiple types Giving groups specific “Types” eases the filtering of groups lists in the tool Strongly Recommended

Cost center The cost center linked to this group Useful when doing IT Cost Management Optional

Vendors A group can represent an external Useful if groups needs to be tagged as being external vendors/contractors Optional
vendor

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* For a list of all attributes please check the « Dictionary » in the platform
Groups

– Always Fill the important attributes on the group table

– Name, Description, Manager.
– Define and Use group types
– If another information is structuring in processes lifecycle it
can be added on the group table.
– Use Simple nomenclature

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Groups Types

• Groups are not only used for operational

work but also to help in the system
configuration. For this reason at least two
groups types should be defined:
– Security groups: to propagate roles
– Assignment/Operational: that can group users that
perform tasks, approvals or any other activity

• Other groups types could be : approval

groups

• Group types and rules should be well

documented in the organization to ensure
a consistent usage of groups

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Groups – Naming convention and structure
• Use a consistent way for naming groups. Each organization has its own specifics so
no magic rules can apply on all industries.
• The recommendation is to reflect the main organization structure easily, current
implementations for major customers show us some common patterns:
– Reflect what the groups grants or does in its name
– Use a short word(s) to describe the group activity : Windows, ServiceDesk
– Reflect the geographical information in the group (region or country): EN-Windows, CH-Windows, CH-
ServiceDesk
– Have a breakdown by one or two dimensions. As an example Dimension can be process (Incident, Request) or
a Service/Business Application info : EN-Req-Windows, FR-Inc-Windows, EN-Inc-Email
– Group level can be reflected in the name or via a new field

• Build reports to regularly check if groups best practice is respected

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Groups naming conventions
• It is good practice to define a simple but meaningful (to your organization)
naming convention for groups and follow it strictly.
• A typical naming convention usually consists of group names decomposed in
three of four parts separated by a special character.
– Example of name decomposition for assignment groups:
• Group Type/Region/Technical Area/Support Level
• AG-UK-WINDOWS-L1
– Example of name decomposition for security groups:
• Group Type/Process/Role
• SG-INC-MGR

• There are no hard and fast rules to creation of naming conventions as every
organization is unique.
• It is recommended to enforce the naming convention in the ServiceNow platform
by automating controls and name checks upon group creation or name
modification.

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“Security” groups best practices
• Good practice is to configure each Application visible only to
incident_support, incident_manager
ServiceNow application according to the and incident_admin roles
following concepts:
• Roles: User ; Manager ; Administrator
• Example: incident_support ; incident_manager ; Incident Application
incident_admin
• Access controls: make some of the application’s Modules available only to
modules visible to the “User” profile while other incident_support
modules visible only to the “Manager” profile and the
remaining modules visible only to the “Administrator”
profile. Modules available only to
• Example: “Create New Incident” => visible to “User” incident_manager
• Example: “My Teams Dashboard” => visible to “Manager”
• Example: “Incident Assignment Lookup” => visible to
“Admin” Modules available only to
incident_admin

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“Security” groups best practices
• For each Application’s role configure a Example:
corresponding “Security” group.
• Grant that group the role in question (and only Role Security Group
this role ; this facilitates removing a role from a incident_support SG-INC-USR
user more easily).
incident_manager SG-INC-MGR
• When a user of the ServiceNow platform
requires a specific role add them to the Incident_admin SG-INC-ADM
corresponding “ Security” group.
• Have a formally validated document describing
all the “Security” groups that currently exist in
the platform and the roles that each has.
– This document will serve as an important reference for users
requesting to grant specific access rights to users of the
system.
– Add this document to the appropriate Knowledge Base in
ServiceNow.

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Groups Types

• Avoid long group names (keep number of dimensions reasonable)

• When searching for a group additional attributes can be displayed in addition
to the name such as such as Tier or group type

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Groups management
• In small organization groups can be managed centrally to ensure best
practices are followed
• In larger organization centralized team to manage groups can be
challenging, thus a mixed approach is sometimes used:
– “Operational” groups
• Few decentralized teams can also create groups
• One central team validate the group creation/modification
– “Security” groups
• Managed centrally since it has an impact on license and configuration

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Initial load of groups best practices
• If migrating groups from a previous system, consider cleaning groups
data before importing into ServiceNow:
– Remap old groups names to the new naming convention.
– Do not import inactive groups.
– Review and validate each group’s list of members before importing.
• Have a formally validated document describing all the ServiceNow data
sources and transform maps that are to be used in the initial loading of
groups into ServiceNow.
– Steps to run each data source.
– Where to load data from (file path).
– Order of execution of data sources.

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Best practice approach to managing groups
• Consider restraining the creation / modification of sys_user_group records
to either the out of the box user_admin (by default, users with itil role can
create/modify sys_user_group records; But this is not recommended).
• Consider limiting the population of users who can create/modify groups
and group memberships:
– Group Administration Team
– Groups Managers

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Best practice approach to managing groups
• Avoid submitting such requests informally (phone calls, walk-ins) or by
email.
• Use a ServiceNow catalog item to submit and fulfill those requests.
– Design those catalog items forms to be very structured (choice lists, checkboxes, ) to
avoid confusion and reword
• Initially, manually fulfill those requests and automate only if justified (large
volumes).
ServiceNow
• Use a mixed approach to groups management: Groups Management Catalog
– Centralized administration for “security” groups. Items
Requester

– Decentralized administration for “assignment/approval” groups.

Group Manager Group Admin Automation

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Best practice approach to managing groups
• At a minimum consider providing three catalog items:
– Create new assignment/approval group
– Add/Remove users to/from an assignment/approval group
– Add/Remove users to/from a security group
• Consider providing the following additional catalog items:
– Deactivate an assignment/approval group
• Have a documented process for regular review of groups:
– Example: on a quarterly basis each group manager reviews their groups and their
members

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 Create new assignment/approval group
Requester

Request creation of new

assignment/approval
group
Administration
Management
Group

Approve/Reject
Administrator
Groups

e.g. : Offshore
team

Create group

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 Add/Remove users to/from an assignment/approval
group
Requester

Request
adding/removing
users from group
Manager
Group

Approve/Reject
Administrator
Groups

e.g. : Offshore Another possibility: Consider delegating this task to the Group
team Manager

Add/Remove users

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 Add/Remove users to/from a security group
Requester

Typically the group

manager
Request
adding/removing
users from group
Administration
Management
Group

Approve/Reject
Administrator
Groups

e.g. : Offshore
team

Add/Remove users

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Groups movement across instances
• Group in ServiceNow platform is data
• Moving groups across instances can be done by exporting the groups
created on PROD and importing them as XML files (to keep the same
system identifier “sys_id”)
• Instance Data Replication feature can be used to replicate the data and
should be the preferred option to move the groups.

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MID Servers

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MID Server
Enable indirect access between ServiceNow and your company network

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MID Server cont.

Limitations:
• A MID server can communicate with only one instance.
• An instance can run without a MID Server.
• Port 443 needs to be enabled to connect to your instances

Recommendations:
• Set up a MID server even if there is no immediate need. You likely need one for integrations.
• Depending on expected traffic, additional MID servers can be setup for a single instance (production)
• Set up a MID servers for at least your Dev, Test, and Production environments

Additional Considerations & Actions

• Check the minimal requirements and follow installation instructions on the docs pages.
• Physical or VM server
• Proxy required or not
• Clustered or Failovers required

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POC MID Server Examples

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Hardware Asset
Management (HAM)
Considerations for Wave 2

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What is IT Asset Management?
Plan

End of Life Acquire

IT Asset Management (ITAM) is a set of business
practices that join financial, contractual and
inventory functions to supports the lifecycle
System of
management and strategic decision making for Action
an IT environment. Retire Receive

Goals of Hardware Asset Management:

Single System
• Control inventory that is purchased and used.
of Record
• Reduce the cost of purchasing and managing assets. Maintain Inventory
• Manage the asset life cycle from planning to disposal
• Achieve compliance with relevant standards and Deploy
regulations.
• Improve service to end users.
• Create standards and processes for managing assets
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Definition of an Asset:

Any resource or capability, including anything that could contribute to the

delivery of a service.

Assets Include:
• Hardware
• Software Licenses
• Buildings
• Consumables
• Equipment – especially in Data Centers

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Asset and CI: Two sides of a coin

Asset Configuration Item

• You care about tracking the item’s • You monitor and track technical
purchase, cost, depreciation, etc. specifications
• Documenting the service status, end-of-life • It may be associated with an Incident,
and/or destruction is required Problem or Change record
• There are associated contracts; • You need to know the item’s relationship to
maintenance, warranty, license, etc. other items
• Inventory tracking is expected

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Lifecycles: Asset vs. Configuration item (CI)

IT asset management is not

configuration management

Configuration management
focuses on operational usage
and logical relationships.

Asset management focuses on the

financial & contractual aspect of a
physical IT component throughout its
entire life cycle.

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Asset Management roles
care about…

• Lifecycle of the individual piece of

hardware: procurement, inventory
management, disposal
• Financial aspects including but not
limited to:
- License and support management
- Contracts and leases
- Cost of software and hardware, and direct
maintenance expenses

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Configuration
Management roles care
about…

• Operational management of services

comprised of hardware and software
• Individual operational tasks related to
a CI – e.g., Incidents and Change
Management
• Logical relationships between items
that comprise services

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Leading Practice - Asset vs. CMDB

• Keep non-asset CIs out of Asset Software

Management Licenses
– Ports
– IP addresses
– Patches
– Circuits(?) Servers
– VLANs(?)
Consumables
• Asset and CI records should stay in sync Routers
– E.g., Assigned To, Location, etc.
Switches
• Make sure any supportable asset is a CI
– Need to create Incidents off the CI
Enterprise Virtual
Storage Items
• The Asset data should support Operation
– Repair under warranty, leveraging support and
maintenance contracts

Services

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Asset asynchronous creation for CI

Scheduled Job

CMDB CI Asset

Asset Creation Queue

CI 1 CI 1 Ref Asset 1
Every 15 mins
Business Rule

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ServiceNow – Where data lives
CMDB Operational Data Asset Repository - Ownership
Location Location

Assigned To Assigned To

CI Installed Status State / Sub-State

Operational Status Contracts such as:

Configuration of the devices • Maintenance
such as: • Lease
• Operating System • Warranties
• CPU Financial data
• Installed Software • PO
• IP Address • Contracts
Support data • Warranty
• Support Group Model details – linked to
• SLA • Manufacturer / Name /
Model details – linked to Specifications
• Manufacturer / Name /
Specifications

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Hardware
Model Normalization

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 • Provide clean and reliable normalized hardware data for
accurate planning and strategic decision making.
• Many organizations rely on multiple discovery tools to
identify and track hardware that is installed across the
network. The result is multiple variations or duplicate
results that can represent a single manufacturer and
model of an IT asset.
• Overlapping or duplicate data affect the business’s ability
to accurately report on assets.

Use • ServiceNow’s Hardware Normalization includes

standardizing of IT asset data in the customer environment

Cases
for:
– Manufacturer name
– Model name
– Model number
– Lifecycle details

• The normalized hardware model content automatically

populates the IT asset inventory with asset metadata that
can’t be discovered such as:
– End of sale
– End of support date
– End of extended support date
– End-of-life date
61 © 2020 ServiceNow, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Confidential.
 • ServiceNow’s Hardware Normalization includes
standardizing of IT asset data in the customer
environment for manufacturer name, model name,
model number and lifecycle details.

How Does • The normalized hardware model content

automatically populates the IT asset inventory with
asset metadata that can’t be discovered such as:
This Feature end of support, end of extended support and end-of-
life dates.

Work? • How does it get invoked/enabled

• Hardware Asset Management Professional plugin
must be installed/active.
• Customer must have purchased licenses for
Hardware Asset Management Professional product
SKU.

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Asset population

Product Model

Discovery
Service Mapping

Configuration Item Assets

Procurement
ITOM System

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Schedules

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Schedules
Setup Schedules for your business hours for accurate SLA calculation

Each customer (region) will have their own working hours and national holidays (bank
holidays). These are captured in Schedules. These need tailored.

Mon-Fri 8-6
Weekdays 24X7

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Security

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Common Security Configuration
Common security settings to configure for your ServiceNow instance

Setting Description
Maximum Attachment Size Definition of the max. attachment size and allowed file types
(default 1024 MB)
Session Time Out Default session time out for ServiceNow is 30 Minutes
Remove ´Remember Me´ Disable the Remember Me check. Applicable for non-SSO only
Change Default Passwords Change default passwords for accounts such as admin, ITIL and
employee, which are provisioned with default passwords.
High Security Settings Go through the High-Security Settings page
SNC Access Control Enables customers to control which ServiceNow employees may
access their instance, and when.
Email Filters When email integration is used, activate and configure Email Filters

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IP Access Control
Control the IP ranges that can access your instance

• Allow access or Block access by specifying an IP Address or a range of IP addresses.

• For example use this to prevent users from logging in directly from home unless they are
connected to the company network via VPN

Discuss: Is this a requirement and are there any restrictions?

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Security Dashboard
Use the Instance Security dashboard to gain awareness of security level controls

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Email

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Email & Notifications

ServiceNow offers the following email configuration options:

• Standard email configuration
• Standard email configuration using your own address or domain
• Advanced email configuration using your own SMTP server
• Advanced email configuration using your own POP3 or IMAP client/servers
• Advanced email configuration using your own SMTP and POP3 servers
– Setting up your own email environment can be useful if you want to use existing filtering, retention, or
compliance aspects of your internal email architecture.

Review the email integration options on the Docs page for details

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Branding & Style

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Design and Branding Activities - Backend
Overview of the Branding and Design Activities for the Backend of the Now Platform

Branding Activities:
• Add Company Logo
• Configure basic color scheme or create a Theme
– If a theme is created, add a system user preference to default the theme

• Configure and Design Landing Dashboard à Backend first page

Separate Workshop to design a dashboard is recommended, use OOTB without PA!
– Setup the right dashboard for the right users as landing page using pre-setup preferences
• Pre-Set User Preferences with System User Preferences
– Tabbed Form
– Compact User Interface

Expert Tip: Only brand the production instance according to the company guidelines. Color Test and Dev
environments with significant different colors will help them stand out and reduce risk of mistakes.

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Design and Branding Activities – Front End
Overview of the Branding and Design Activities for the Backend of the Now Platform

Banding Activities:
• Login/Logout pages à Only if login is not done through an IDP
• Service Portal à Set the primary lading page for all end users
– Separate Workshop to style and brand the Service Portal is recommended due to impact!
• Notifications à Brand your outgoing notifications using notification templates (HTML)

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Other Branding and Style Options
The following options can be considered for additional personalization:

Custom URL Enable a custom URL to direct to the instance (instead of company.service-
now.com)
Portal Redirect Select the primary Service Portal a user is directed to. Differentiation is possible

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Usability Optimization

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Surveys, Assessments &
Quizzes

Enable the measurement of NPS, User

Satisfaction, User Competence and
much more valuable insights with Surveys
& Assessments

Design great surveys, assessments, and

quizzes using the Survey Designer

Assigning Surveys to users/groups:

• Manual Assignment
• Scheduled distribution
• Triggered by Events/Actions
Languages & Internationalization
ServiceNow offers several language packs out of the box
When a user logs in, the language for the instance
Common Language Activities: session is determined by the following logic:
1. If the language selection at login is enabled, that language is
• Activitate the language plugins. used.
2. If not, the language preference selected using the language
– Activate the language helper plugin early picker in the header bar is used.
to ensure untranslated text is captured for 3. If not, the language setting in the User [sys_user] table is used.
4. If none of the above are true, the system default language is
easy translation used.
– Develop using gs.getMessage() instead of
hardcoding phrases in code and
notifications POC Example
• Add testing activities to verify
translation completeness
• Create a system user preference for
the default language if required

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Time

• Determine the date & time and system

time properties

• Note: Personal Timezones can be

overridden by the users if they change
their preferences.
Other Considerations

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Platform Upgrades
Pre-Upgrade During Upgrade Post-Upgrade

Upgrade Test and Upgrade

Prepare Monitor
Sub-Prod Remediate Prod

Best Practices for Upgrades:

• Create an upgrade plan, test plan, and communication plan for the upgrade, including a development
freeze if applicable.
• Upgrade Sub-Prod first to identify potential issues.
• Review Release Notes for new versions to account for changing functionality and new features
• Accurately document customizations to better assess impact on upgrade
• Create ATF tests to shorten upgrade timeframe and ensure intended functionality keeps working

Customer Success Center

Useful Resources: (playbooks, checklists, training)
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Archiving
Archive historical data
Table that get a lot of data (e.g. task tables) should have Archiving Rules to improve
performance.
Note: We will work with you to Estimate which tables are most used in your instance

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Thank you!