Embedded Collaboration in Service Operations Workspace

What is Collaboration in Service Operations Workspace?

Introduced in Vancouver, Collaboration in Service Operations Workspace provides a way to communicate and collaborate in real time to resolve incidents. You can initiate a chat or make conference calls using a service provider to communicate with stakeholders.

Check out our product docs and release updates for more information.

How does Collaboration in SOW help organizations?

For agents that are working on any task/ticket/incident, they may want or need to connect with the right stakeholders. These stakeholders can either be the requestor or the SMEs. Generally, this is done outside of ServiceNow and requires the agent to continually shuffle between the ServiceNow instance and the third-party platform. Collaboration in SOW helps bridge that gap and enables chats and communication from within Service Operations Workspace and should improve overall efficiency.

What features are available for Collaboration in SOW?

• Call, chat, and/or SMS with stakeholders from within SOW UI
• Integrations with Twilio, Webex, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams for telephony, conference call, chat, and SMS
• Manage (add, remove, mute, start, end, reinitiate) conference calls from SOW side panel
  
  • Note – what can be done differs slightly based on provider app
• Recommend conference call participants based on incident context
• View call details, including active and inactive participants
• Open calls directly from service provider application, if desired
• View, copy, and share meeting invite via links

Can I add additional participants into the call from within ServiceNow?

Yes, you can add participants from within SOW.

Is it possible to join multiple calls simultaneously?

Yes, to allow for agents to be able to speak to various stakeholders, this feature is enabled - however, it is advised to be on a single call to provide better support.

What can I check for the latest release updates for Collaboration?

Check out our product release updates article for more details*.*

What are some of the plugins and store applications I can download for Collaboration in SOW?

To get started with Collaboration in SOW you first need the Service Operations Workspace ITSM Applications application (sn-sow-itsm-cont) installed, which includes user roles, plugins, and ServiceNow Store applications. Additionally, for the service providers you’d like to integrate with the corresponding notify connector is required:

Are there any limitations of using Collaboration in SOW?

Collaboration in SOW with Sidebar requires the Vancouver family release and version 3.0.0 of Service Operations Workspace ITSM Applications (available as of August 2023).

What are the licensing requirements for using Collaboration in SOW?

You can access core Collaboration features with an ITSM Standard license. You will need additional licenses to third party integrations to be able to leverage specific connections.

3rd Party Provider Collaboration Integrations

What collaboration tool integrations are supported?

• Initiate and manage conference calls for Zoom, MS Teams, and Webex.
• Initiate and manage telephony calls with Twilio.

How do I integrate with a 3rd party collaboration tool?

Please see the links below:

Notify in Service Operations Workspace

ServiceNow for Microsoft Teams

ServiceNow for Zoom

General Questions & Troubleshooting

1. First thing to check if sidebar functionalities are not shown in the chat tab is if below plugin versions are installed.​
   
   • Omni Experience Standard feature set -> Aug 2023 release​
     
   • Service Operations Workspace ITSM Applications -> 3.0​
     
   • Family release -> Vancouver​
2. If only the chat section is not visible, a debug point can be added in SowCollabUtils script include, under canViewChats().
3. Microsoft Teams chat functionalities will work only if Teams is configured. You can cross check with classic to see if start teams chat button is visible to troubleshoot.​