So you're thinking about whether to build a custom business application on ServiceNow? 5/6

[Robert Maxwell]

This is the fifth article in the series. The previous article is here.

Look for opportunity in the data that now exists within your ServiceNow ecosystem for potential reuse across the business, whether that’s just at a reporting level or if there is indeed some potential for it to be shared or used in other processes in other business units - whether inside or outside of ServiceNow. Otherwise you may run the risk of effectively replacing one point solution with another. Even considering further process evolution with what has already been put in place will realise additional value.

One way of achieving that would be to unearth an opportunity for automation. This could be compartmented within one ServiceNow application, across different processes or business functions, or even kick off something outside ServiceNow . Flow Designer allows you to automate just about anything - within reason. And the flows defined here can even be invoked from Process Automation Designer which was described in the previous article. Simple concepts like creating and updating records in ServiceNow to orchestration of external applications and workflows can be built within Flow Designer flows.

Returning to the example from earlier articles in the series, if you now have a playbook guiding a structured way of receiving, managing and tracking invoices needing to be paid, once they are paid and you could investigate the possibility, viability and prospective value for an integration with a finance system - or even the goods receipting component of the organisation's asset management function (and hopefully that’s predominately in ServiceNow too!).

Embarking on an initiative such as this might even enrich processes on both sides of an integration. Note that while it's not likely that the citizen development team would take the reins on an integration, exposing them to the processes and procedures that make an integration possible will give them further context (and possibly more ideas) around the platform and its capabilities.

This would be where Integration Hub uses Flow Designer components to drive automation and orchestration. Dozens of out of the box Integration Hub Spokes are pre-built by ServiceNow and included out of the box (dependent on the license you have). If there isnt a spoke available, there's also the ServiceNow Store and the ability to build your own. Integration security mechanisms continue to evolve with every ServiceNow release too, so the cyber security and architecture practices within your organisation can have the confidence that any integrations into or out of the platform are designed and deployed in a secure manner.