The guidance in this article is for anyone managing queries within ServiceNow.

ServiceNow is the IT Service Management tool used for logging and tracking queries at the University.

Queries, or tickets, can be raised by staff, students and visitors in several ways:

• By using the self service portal
• By emailing an address that is ingested by ServiceNow (for example serviceline@soton.ac.uk)
• A ticket can be raised on your behalf (for example by a member of the Service Desk team)

Who uses ServiceNow?

The following departments currently use ServiceNow to manage queries/customer interactions:

• Communications and Marketing
• Finance
• Health and Safety
• HR
• iSolutions
• Library
• NETSCC
• Student and Academic Administration (SAA)
• Student Services
• Student Wellbeing

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ServiceNow Groups

Within each department (or tenancy) there will be at least one ServiceNow group. Each group has a manager, who is responsible for adding or removing staff to the group. This will often be the team's line manager. Speak with your line manager if you are unsure as they should know who the group manager is.

Group managers can find information on updating a group in the knowledge base articles:

How to make changes to the membership of a ServiceNow group

Update the manager or dispatchers of a group (ServiceNow)

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Key terminology

There are three types of ticket:

1. Incident
2. Request
3. Problem

An incident is an issue or unexpected disruption to a system or service, for example a user is unable to log in to a University system or their University laptop is not working.

A request relates to a requirement not related to a fault, for example a request for information or advice, or an update to a system, service or record.

A problem ticket is created when the cause of an incident is a known error, often affecting a number of users, and the root cause needs investigating. Usually a workaround will have been put in place until further investigation can begin. The problem ticket is used to record and track the resolution/fix.

ServiceNow groups will often have a dispatcher set up. A dispatcher receives an email notification each time a new ticket is assigned to the group. They can allocate the ticket to the individual who is best placed to process the query. A group can have one or many dispatchers (or none).

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How to log in

1. ServiceNow is accessed at https://sotonproduction.service-now.com
2. Log in with your University username and password

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Layout of main screen

The layout of the main screen can be personalised so it can vary from the example below:

1. The filter navigator. This can be used to find items within the menu you are currently in. On the right is the pin icon which can be used to pin the current menu to the sidebar as a default

2. The menu tabs. This is used to move between different menus (more information on these below)

3. The favorites links. With the favorites tab selected, any of the ServiceNow links you have added to favorites will appear here. This can be a useful way to easily access your most commonly used ServiceNow pages

If you wish to add an item to your Favorites, you can select the star alongside an item in the main menu:

Your current location within ServiceNow will display in the header of the screen. You can also select the star here to add this item/location to your Favorites.

4. The universal search bar. To search the entirety of ServiceNow for example using a ticket number, user or keyword. An exact match for a ticket number will go directly to the ticket, otherwise the results will be organised by type (incidents, requests etc.). On the right, the button with your initials contains menus such as Profile and Preferences

5. Team dashboard. When you first open ServiceNow you will be taken to your team's dashboard (if a dashboard has been set up for your team). This will vary between teams but can display information such as tickets assigned to the team. 

Guidance around editing and creating Dashboards is available on the ServiceNow help pages.

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Menu options

There are four menus at the top left of the screen:

1. Favorites: ServiceNow pages can be added to favorites and will appear in this menu. This can be used to group the pages you interact with most frequently

2. All: The main menu from which you can access ServiceNow functions

3. History: This acts like a browser history, showing recently visited pages

4. Workspaces: This menu contains workspaces available to your team. A workspace is a suite of tools that provides staff and managers with tools to help answer customer questions and resolve customer problems. At present the following workspaces are available:

1. Service Operations
2. CMDB
3. Platform Analytics

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Working with tickets

When you add a note to a ticket, you can use either a work note (private note) or a public note (customer visible). 

Work notes are internal notes added for the purposes of resolving the ticket, used by the staff working on the ticket. They do not require the customer’s involvement. Work notes are highlighted in yellow within the ticket.

Public notes represent the conversation between you (the fulfiller) and the customer. They can be viewed via the self service portal and the requester will be notified via email when a note has been added to the ticket. Public notes are used to update the customer on progress, ask questions or provide solutions. Public notes are highlighted in purple within the ticket.

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Reassigning tickets

Tickets can be transferred between individuals (assigned to) or groups (assignment group) if the initial assignee is not the correct person or team to resolve the ticket.

Guidance is available in the article How to reassign an incident or request item in ServiceNow.

Tasks

Within a ticket, tasks can be created so that another group can assist with resolving the ticket - an incident task or request task. Assigning an incident or request task does not give the recipient access to the parent incident.

All the information they require should therefore be provided as part of creating the task.

Any tasks created within a ticket must be resolved before the (parent) ticket can be resolved.

1. Scroll to the bottom of the ticket

2. For incidents, select the Incident Tasks tab and then New 

3. For requests, select the Catalog Tasks tab and then New

 

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Setting up a delegate in ServiceNow

If you are going to be absent from work, you can set up a Delegate to manage your approvals, tickets and other items within ServiceNow on your behalf. 

The article How to set up a delegate in ServiceNow provides guidance on this.

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Related content

How to reassign an incident or request item in ServiceNow

Prompt after instructions

How to create reports in ServiceNow (video tutorial)

How to create a problem ticket