ServiceNow Fuji

ServiceNow Fuji was launched on March 2015. It brings some new and exciting features. One blog article is not enough to describe them all. But I’ll try to pick some changes and improvements that influence many users and of course basic information about new applications available in Fuji.

1 UI15 Enhancements

ServiceNow Fuji introduces new UI15 that is just slight enhancement of UI14 and further improves look and feel of ServiceNow’s interface. The basic design and functionality is still the same; there is just new set of icons that follow modern “flat” design. However inconsistency in design of some pages still disturbs user experience.

User account can be newly set to load related lists asynchronously. You can choose to load lists together with page just like in previous UIs, you can postpone them to load when base page is fully loaded or even set them to load on demand. This feature can significantly improve speed of the platform.

Forms can be enabled to allow user personalization. Each user can newly disable some fields to display and this configuration is just for the user with no effect on others.

[caption id="attachment_725" align="aligncenter" width="665"] Figure 1 List without and with Detail Row[/caption]

Lists are improved as well. Now you can open edit form in popup window without leaving the list. This form works just like common forms – with all active and passive elements.

Lists can be augmented with detail rows showing some complementary information just below field row. For example, the detail row can display the short description (see Figure 1) for each incident in a list. This doubles height of row but significantly enhances readability.

2 Application Model

The application model received huge upgrade. Applications in Fuji are much more than update sets. Each application has its own environment that can be separated from each other. That ensures that one application does not negatively impact another one. Developers can define public and private APIs that enable communication between applications. Each application has its own dependency list and version. Administrators are allowed to install and uninstall applications and even upgrade to latest versions.

The application security protection model allows advanced protection of script includes. Each script include can be specified as fully editable, as read-only, or as protected which allows using of the script while hiding and encrypting all script fields. This ensures developer’s intellectual property.

Later in 2015 you can look forward to launching brand new app store. Independent developers will be allowed to publish and sell their own applications to customers. This cool new share spot surely become the most popular site in the community of ServiceNow users and developers.

3 Knowledge Management

Knowledge management has been significantly improved. Administrators are allowed to create multiple knowledge bases. This provides better ability to separate information in logical way for different organizational units or types of knowledge.

The incident form is newly integrated with Knowledge Base and Service Catalog (see Figure 2). This significantly improves possibilities of self-solving of incidents. This “incident deflection” is recorded and can be further analyzed to improve the Knowledge Bases and/or Service Catalogs.

[caption id="attachment_726" align="aligncenter" width="622"] Figure 2 Incident form with Knowledge Base and Service Catalog search results[/caption]

4 Service Catalog

In Fuji’s Service Catalog are administrators allowed to use User Criteria instead of legacy Entitlements. They can define precise conditions based on users, groups, roles, departments, locations etc. These conditions can be applied to catalog items or categories enabling/disabling them for some set of users. This allows better control over what catalog items or categories and to whom are displayed with no scripting.

Administrators and developers have now better ways to enhance order status and cart pages. They can precisely define what parts of page is displayed and customize its layout to match all the needs without jeopardizing future upgrades.

5 New Applications

There are new applications emerging with Fuji, just like in previous releases of ServiceNow.

5.1 Financial Management

Fuji’s Financial Management application enables CIOs to plan, analyze, direct and control costs. The goal is to have an accurate account of what an organization is spending in order to optimize resources and control spending.

Financial Management combines real usage data gathered from various parts of ServiceNow platform (how many incidents? how many servers?) and give them in correlation with budgets. This allows CIOs to weigh operational performance against cost and adjust investments accordingly.

5.2 Test Management

ServiceNow Test Management is a new user acceptance testing module that aligns project teams and business users to a common outcome in the delivery of business services. Quality teams can develop and manage test plans according to requirements gathered during the life of the project without leaving the context of the project. This creates a more seamless and collaborative environment that brings more effective testing processes and can help remove friction between quality teams and business.

6 Conclusion

ServiceNow Fuji further enhances the whole platform. The most important change comes with application separation and upcoming app store that will enable better cooperation between independent developers and ServiceNow users.