Guidance 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

---

Back to the top

 

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)

---

Back to the top

 

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. Incidents are also created when an email is received by an ingested email account.

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. Requests are created when a customer submits a ServiceNow form.

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).

---

Back to the top

 

How to log in

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

---

Back to the top

 

Layout of main screen

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

1. Filter navigator: To search within the selected, pinned Menu (see Menu tabs below). To the right of the search field is a pin icon, used for pinning the selected menu to the sidebar

2. Menu tabs: To move between different menus, for example All and Favorites (see Favorites links below)

3. Favorites links: With the Favorites tab selected, any ServiceNow links you have added to your Favorites will appear here. This can make it easier to access your most commonly used ServiceNow pages

To add an item to your Favorites, 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. Universal search bar: To search within 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 and in the following knowledge base article: How to create reports and dashboards in ServiceNow.

---

Back to the top

 

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

---

Back to the top

 

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.

---

Back to the top

 

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

---

Back to the top

 

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.

---

Back to the top

 

Related content

How to reassign an incident or request item in ServiceNow

Prompt after instructions

How to create reports and dashboards in ServiceNow

How to create a problem ticket