Custom App

[Edward-Holder]

I am curious how many have a custom app within their instance? we have the usual custom tables as part of our subscription, but follow best practice and have not used any. But, I do see companies that build custom apps on their platform. Has anyone built and sustain a custom app in production? tks.

[Dr Atul G- LNG]

HI @Edward-Holder Not sure I understood your question fully or not but using the custom app or having custom is based on the use case. Big brands has build own apps and use them in SN. We have 2-3 custom apps which we are using in prod for our customer. 

[Steven Young]

I have built several custom scoped apps that are still in use in production after about 7ish years now.  
I'm not sure what you're referring to as best practice to not use any custom tables.  we have hundreds to support the business model and workflows we need.
They just charge you for them.  

i'm not sure of any business that doesn't use custom tables and is getting full benefit of ServiceNow.  That is the beauty of ServiceNow.  you can create your own processes that dont have to be approved by ServiceNow,  ie, use custom tables, workflows, business rules.

[DenokaA]

Hi Steven,

We don't have a separate app engine licenses but we got 50 custom tables with ITSM. Do you know if we can use those tables to build a custom app for our Health and Safety team (around 30 fulfiller users) without any additional cost?
If not, would you know how much is the app engine roughly for 30 fulfiller users (I know the licensing cost varied a lot for each organization but I'm just looking for a rough estimate)?

Thanks,

Denoka

[KevinBellardine]

Custom apps are not all created equally, and the need for them varies by use-case. In general these are the things I consider.

1. Am I customizing something OOB?

2. What is my deployment strategy? Will I benefit from the App Repo, Git, or CI/CD?

3. Do I want the admins for my app to be separate from the system admins?

In some apps, like CSM, creating a scoped app to house your customizations is considered best practice. In others, like ITSM you want to avoid using them like the plague. Unique customizations at global can be placed into globally scoped apps (global app bundle) but customizations to OOB components should never be placed into one. Each situation is different, and you really should understand what you're doing.

There's also the app engine, which is intended to farm out low code app creation to other teams. There just isn't a one sized fits all answer, but if you understand when and how to use them scoped apps are an invaluable tool to have in your belt.