What’s New in the ServiceNow Vancouver Release?
Written by Vaibhav Singh
ServiceNow Practice Lead at Royal Cyber
October 5, 2023
ServiceNow is known for its bi-annual upgrades, each with a unique name inspired by a city. The latest release, ServiceNow Vancouver, which is set to be generally available in Q3 of 2023, brings a range of new applications, features, and bug fixes. This blog aims to provide valuable tips on how to stay updated about the upgrade, prepare for it effectively, and implement it successfully within your ServiceNow instance.
Want to refresh your memory on the last ServiceNow Release? Read our blog about the ServiceNow Utah release.
With the ServiceNow Vancouver release, sweeping changes across the Now platform have occurred. The changes are too comprehensive for one blog, from introducing various AI features, including the Generative AI Controller from App Engine, upgrades in ServiceNow Automation Engine products, and security updates. For details, we recommend you read the ServiceNow Vancouver release notes detailing the ServiceNow platform changes from other release versions. Here are some of the critical changes one can expect from upgrading to ServiceNow Vancouver:
ServiceNow Vancouver AI Updates
In line with the explosion of generative AI worldwide, ServiceNow has identified the need for AI to create a seamless integration process. Thus, many product releases and upgrades have reflected the future of AI-driven technology for the Vancouver release.
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Generative AI Controller
The Generative AI Controller is now generally available with the ServiceNow Vancouver platform release. With this tool, organizations can build and modify AI models to meet business use cases by connecting their instances to third-party generative AI providers- Azure OpenAI and OpenAI (for now!) and generate new capabilities with the help of ServiceNow’s large language model (LLM). The controller has several capabilities: content summarization, content generation, generic prompts, and Q&A capability for AI search. With an in-built moderation check, end-users can no longer turn off API keys. It can be utilized across several areas of the ServiceNow platform, such as scripting, flow designer, RPA, and Workspaces.
For instance, besides revamping the Flow Designer home page, which organizes the workflow into a dashboard view for improved visibility and accessibility, with ServiceNow Vancouver, developers can now access the Now Assist recommendation feature, where developers can get guidance on what action to take next.
Now Assist
ServiceNow Now Assist is a virtual assistant (VA) that provides users with real-time personalized and context-sensitive assistance. It is designed to help users quickly and efficiently resolve issues by providing the correct information at the right time. The latest updates of Now Assist for ServiceNow Vancouver release include improvements in the Virtual Agent Interface by integrating the Generative AI Module features into its user interface. The ability to quickly summarize content such as knowledge articles is a valuable tool for agents. It enables them to provide users with clear and accurate information and create fresh content from previously used materials. This feature benefits virtual agents and human representatives, optimizing interactions and ensuring a seamless user experience. Users can now easily drag and incorporate functions into their Virtual Agent workflows, making them more user-friendly while enriching their capabilities. Now Assist capabilities include:
- Case Summarization and Incident Record Summaries
- Engaging and Independent Conversational Exchanges
- Generate General and Domain Specific Content
- Seamless, In-Platform Text to Code Experience
Now Assist for ServiceNow Vancouver release includes Now Assist for Virtual Agent and Now Assist for Search. These updates are currently available for a limited set of customers.
Updates to ServiceNow Automation Engine Products
The ServiceNow Automation Engine allows businesses to connect their workflows to various third-party systems without coding easily. This enables swift automation building and eliminates time-consuming UI tasks. Automation Engine includes several services, including RPA Hub, Integration Hub, Stream Connect, and Document Intelligence. Here are some of the upcoming changes in these products:
Integration Hub
- Spoke Generator: Spokes is a pre-built integration that allows you to connect ServiceNow to other systems without needing custom code. With the introduction of Spoke Generator, developers can save time and speed up the development process by allowing developers to generate spokes with the help of OpenAI technology rather than manually creating spokes.
- External Triggers: In an event-driven approach, trigger workflows from external sources like Jira and GitHub. Over time, ServiceNow will allow developers to create custom triggers.
- Integration Hub Import Enhancements: Updates include the ability for multiple target tables to be mapped, a checkmark indicator for source fields being mapped, and access sheet names from the dropdown list instead of manually input, which created room for errors.
Stream Connect
ServiceNow Stream Connect is a cloud-based data ingestion and transformation service that allows you to integrate data from multiple sources into ServiceNow easily. In the latest Vancouver release, developers can create and delete topics from ServiceNow instances and prioritize data streams.
RPA Hub
Several AI-driven enhancements for accelerating RPA deployments exist in the ServiceNow Vancouver release. ServiceNow RPA Hub can now access additional RPA templates and the ServiceNow AI framework, which includes invoking cognitive capabilities like sentiment analysis, image classification, and dynamic translation. Developers can access pre-built capabilities or build their own with the ServiceNow AI framework. Furthermore, with Code Assist, RPA developers can use AI to generate code, while Code Quality Checker ensures uniform coding standards.
Document Intelligence
With Document Intelligence, organizations could use AI to automate extracting data from documents. With the ServiceNow Vancouver release, developers can enjoy new features such as data normalization post-extraction, enhanced invoice and purchase orders with improved AI suggestion feature, and the latest application- Document Classification, which allows end-to-end automated document classification.
Security Features in ServiceNow Vancouver: What You Need to Know
The latest ServiceNow Vancouver release enhances the platform’s security with more robust products and adaptive authentication for simplified administration. Here are some of the latest products and upgrades:
Vault Suite
The Vault suite has grown since the ServiceNow Tokyo release, with six products: platform encryption, anonymization, code signing, secrets management, log export, and data discovery. Vancouver release has added log export, data discovery, and Zero Trust Access for better protection.
Zero Trust Access
This Now Platform premium product offers granular access control by selectively removing roles based on specific conditions, enhancing security without disrupting users. With Zero Trust Access, organizations can strengthen protection.
Access Analyzer
With Access Analyzer, developers can troubleshoot access issues related to data filtration, ACLs, and business rules. Ensure proper user access with ease using the Access Analyzer.
Column-Level Encryption
The column-level encryption feature now has a better user interface that displays all access policies on one page. It’s more efficient and streamlined than the previous interface.
Additional updates include time-based one-time passwords for email and SMS, more granular adaptive authentication rules, and an upgraded Security Center with custom rules and checks. These updates provide multifactor authentication, enhanced risk-based access control, and tailored security monitoring.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the ServiceNow Vancouver release has ushered in several changes to the functioning of the ServiceNow platform. With more generative AI-driven features, ServiceNow is committing to building a platform that delivers efficiency, accuracy, and innovation.
There are several steps to the upgrade process from earlier ServiceNow platform versions. The three main steps for upgrading instances include continuous planning, testing, and validation. Whether you are still in the Tokyo release version or Utah, there are several steps to keep in mind when upgrading:
Conducting the upgrade process alone can lead to inefficiencies and excess costs; to avoid that, you need a partner with expertise- that’s where Royal Cyber can help. From learning how to upgrade instances to meet the new release version configurations to upgrading in a production environment, Royal Cyber is the right IT solutions and services provider for ensuring a smooth transition. We aim to provide support and training throughout all stages of the upgrade.
Royal Cyber, as a premier partner to ServiceNow, provides a team of dedicated consultants who can assist you throughout every stage of the upgrade process. Our consultants will guide you from the initial assessment and planning phase to the implementation and post-upgrade support phase. We aim to deliver a seamless upgrade experience that maximizes your organization’s advantages of the latest ServiceNow version.
Thus, Royal Cyber specializes in leveraging the ServiceNow platform to optimize IT service management, automate business processes, and improve customer and employee experiences. For more information, please email us at info@royalcyber.com or visit Royal Cyber.
Author
Priya George
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