So you're thinking about whether to build a custom business application on ServiceNow? 4/6

[Robert Maxwell]

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

Throughout the first few articles in this series I've covered an approach to moving away from email inbox management to a system with basic workflow and an uplifted user experience, for the both the business area and the customer. But now what? Whilst there is tangible value in developing and implementing this type of low level transformation, there is still opportunity to further advance and evolve the start that’s been made.

In the last article, I brought up the example of accounts payable. Hopefully you'd already have quite a mature process for managing this type of work, so you could look to building out a guided, on-screen, structured view of the end to end process - a playbook. Process Automation Designer gives you the ability to build this directly into your application. Once designed in the simple drag and drop interface, it provides what is effectively a task-driven template to fulfill the process.

Some benefits to using this feature are the potential for reduced workload on training for your team, the confidence in knowing that the process is followed to the letter every time and greater visibility on exactly where a single work item might be up to as the playbook will walk the user through the exact steps that they need to follow for completion of a task and this is easily monitored.

To build out your process, all you need is to define a starting point - a trigger, and then using the Kanban style interface define the activities that make up the process flow. These could range from manual tasks, to automations, and even placeholders if the process is still maturing or a change is in the wind. If there is some complexity in the process, or the requirement for pre-requisite activities or tasks to be completed in sequence before others, you can even build lanes with their own activities into the process, each with their own triggers, all part of the end to end process definition.