What is Service Operations Workspace (SOW)?

Service Operations Workspace is a configurable workspace that was introduced in the San Diego release, that provides a unified experience for multiple IT Service Management and IT Operations Management workflows. SOW provides a single pane of glass for both Service Agents and Operators, enabling a seamless flow of incidents, problems, changes, alerts, and logs to predict and resolve service degradations.

Does Service Operations Workspace leverage ServiceNow’s latest Next Experience?

Service Operations Workspace is built by leveraging ServiceNow’s Next Experience. It utilizes the latest UI builder that allows end users to easily configure their workspace in a more effective and enjoyable way. Problem Managers, however, still need to manage the Problem Lifecycle outside of Service Operations Workspace (until that functionality has been added). Fortunately, it is simple to switch to the Platform UI in Next Experience from the Configurable Workspace and there is no need to open and work out of multiple browser tabs.

Check out more about Next Experience UI here.

Check out more about workspace resources here.

How will the launch of the Service Operations Workspace impact new and existing customers?

ServiceNow wants to bring the latest innovation to our customers and is constantly evolving our products to meet our customers’ needs. Service Operations Workspace has been introduced with the same thought. We recommend existing customers migrate from the Classic UI and/or Agent Workspace experience to SOW to take advantage of the latest capabilities and align themselves to benefit from ServiceNow’s future investments. That said, existing customers will be able to continue to use the Classic UI or Agent Workspace, although product updates and support will become more limited for those with time.

Note: Beginning in the Utah release, ITSM Agent Workspace is being prepared for future deprecation and will be hidden. For more information, please refer to the ITSM Agent Workspace product docs.

Check out upgrade to Utah docs for more information.

When does the support end for Agent Workspace?

We are no longer making investments in the Agent Workspace experience, and our product investments will be going into the Service Operations Workspace. As of Utah family release, we have begun the deprecation process for the classic ITSM Agent Workspace and ITOM Operator Workspace. We recommend that all new/existing customers looking to implement Agent or Operator Workspace start with Service Operations Workspace, as support for Agent Workspace and Operator Workspace will end by the Washington DC family release.

Is there a migration path from Agent Workspace to Service Operations Workspace?

Implementing the Service Operations Workspace will be a reimplementation effort from both the ITSM Agent Workspace as well as the ITOM Operator Workspace as some of the underlying technology stack has changed. Please view here for some of the differences between the classic workspace experience and the new configurable workspace experience.

Please view this article on Community for information on guidance for moving to a configurable workspace, which covers net new implementation best practices, as well as tips for migrating features. Once you are ready to begin your implementation, you can view this blog for additional information around planning and execution and our product documentation with instructions.

What will be the timeline for SOW releases and where can I check them?

Service Operations Workspace is updated quarterly, with major updates aligned to the Q1 and Q3 family releases and smaller updates during Q2 and Q4 store releases.

Please check on the ServiceNow Store to see the current compatibility with family release versions.

Where can I see the core capabilities available in SOW?

Check-out our individual guides for deep dive into all the capabilities available in-Service Operations Workspace:

Incident Management in SOW

Change Management in SOW

Alert Management in SOW

What are the licensing requirements for SOW?

Service Operations Workspace ITSM Applications is available to all ITSM SKUs (Std/Pro/Ent) including legacy SKUs such as ITSA Unlimited, SMS v1 & v2.

Service Operations Workspace ITOM Applications are available to ITOM SKUs that include Event Management.

Check out ServiceNow Store for the latest details: ServiceNow Store

Can ITSM customers with Std/Pro/Enterprise subscriptions access the ITOM Service Operations Workspace Applications?

ITSM customers with ITSM Std/Pro/Enterprise will not, by default, have the entitlement to Service Operations Workspace ITOM Applications via their ITSM licenses. They can access the full capabilities of ITSM Service Operations workspace with ITSM license. But they need to subscribe to ITOM licenses to have Service Operations Workspace ITOM Applications.

What if ITOM customers with ITOM Health/Pro/Enterprise want to have Service Operations Workspace ITSM Applications?

ITOM customers with ITOM Health/Pro/Enterprise will not, by default, have the entitlement to Service Operations Workspace ITSM Applications via their ITOM licenses. ITOM customers have Service Operations Workspace for ITOM. They separately need to purchase ITSM licenses to have Service Operations Workspace ITSM Applications.

What are the latest key features and enhancements?

Check out our release updates articles.

Are there release notes available?

Yes, they are located within our product documentation.

Are there any videos that I can watch about Service Operations Workspace?

We have few videos which demonstrate SOW capabilities from the Tokyo release.

Stay tuned for future demos and walkthrough videos.

Using Service Operations Workspace

How do I install Service Operations Workspace?

Service Operations Workspace ITSM Applications can be installed from ServiceNow Store.

Administrators have guided experience for initial configuration of Service Operations Workspace for ITSM. To open Service Operations Workspace for ITSM guided setup, navigate to All > Adoption Services > Guided Setup. For information about this installation, see Install Service Operations Workspace ITSM Applications.

From Vancouver release, Service Operations Admin Console will also be available to Admins to have a simplified and guided onboarding and configuration experience.

What plugins do I need to install for SOW?

The necessary plugins are packaged with the latest family release with the ITSM package of products. Several types of components are installed with the Service Operations Workspace ITSM Applications application (sn-sow-itsm-cont) installation, including user role, plugins, and ServiceNow Store applications.

Check out our ServiceNow Store for more details: ServiceNow Store

How can I access the Service Operations Workspace?

All logged-in users with the ITIL role can view key features to get started with Service Operations Workspace for ITSM. To access, click on the Workspaces menu and then select Service Operations Workspace.

Landing Page

How does the SOW landing page look for an agent in ITSM?

You can navigate through the Service Operations Workspace to get an overview of how an agent can prioritize tasks and provide resolution. An agent can analyze assignments and view announcements and upcoming tasks. Tier-1 agents can also analyze the performance and view the assigned courses. For information about the landing page, see Service Operations Workspace for ITSM landing page.

How does the SOW landing page look for an operator in ITOM?

You can navigate through the Service Operations Workspace to get an overview of how an operator can prioritize tasks and provide resolutions. You can analyze alerts and monitored services, view upcoming tasks, and access links to resources (such as KBs (Knowledge Base) and the service catalog). For information about the landing page, see Service Operations Workspace for ITOM.

How do I redirect an agent to the Service Operations workspace Landing page?

Enable an agent to quickly start prioritizing tasks by redirecting the agent to the Service Operations Workspace landing page after logging in to the ServiceNow instance. Ensure that Next Experience is enabled on your instance. For specific steps, please click here.

Can customers use UI Builder for Service Operations Workspace?

Yes, UI Builder can be used to configure individual components of the workspace.

For information on how to use UI Builder, please reference here.

Will customers be able to make changes to the visuals of the Workspace?

Yes, SOW has been designed to be highly configurable, where you can easily configure the visuals of the workspace as per your need.

What can I modify in the first-level cards in the Overview section?

You can customize the data displayed in the first-level cards in the Overview section as a admin. You can customize header label, data source, metric, group by field, and viewAllQuery for all cards, for example, Catalog tasks assigned to me card. Get detailed steps here.

Support

Can Agent Workspace continue to run as we begin to evaluate Service Operations Workspace?

Yes, Agent Workspace can continue to coexist with it until you are ready to switch over. We recommend that you begin testing SOW in a sub-prod or test environment as you begin adding additional features for testing.

I think I have a bug or defect with Service Operations Workspace, what do I do?

We have an active and supportive Service Now community site Forum, where you can post your questions, check existing articles and solutions. If you are unable to resolve the issue and believe you have a defect with SOW, log a case using the Now Support portal.

I want to see functionality in the Service Operations Workspace, where can I communicate this?

For functionality you wish to be implemented, log an idea on our Idea portal. We are open to all our customers’ ideas!

Where can I learn more about Service Operations?