Feature Demo
Academy Session
Introduction
The new Approvals Hub capability creates a unified approvals inbox that consolidates approvals from multiple external systems into the existing My Tasks view on Employee Center Pro. It follows an architectural framework that creates an omni-channel experience with the approvals being available through the portal view, Mobile, or as an actionable notification on email (i.e., Outlook) and Microsoft Teams (via Virtual Agent). It is also designed to be configurable so the admins can make the appropriate information and actions available for each approval type .
At an architectural level, the implementation has been segmented into four layers, as described below starting from the bottom layer: – 1) The integration, 2) the data model, 3) the configuration layer, and 4) the experience or UI layer.
- The integration layer - Approvals Hub leverages the integration hub and existing spokes to build the integration with external applications.
- The data model layer - This incudes custom flow that fetches data from the third-party system (like Concur) and inserts them in ServiceNow data tables.
- The configurations layer - This configuration layer is same as the configurable approvals experience we delivered as part of our August 2022 release for Employee Center. Admins can configure different sections on the to-dos or approvals page to display the request-specific information according to individual task type. In addition, admins can embed custom widget on these sections or even source this information from different data tables.
- The Experience or the UI layer - Finally, Approval hub is designed to provide an omnichannel experience to approvers across various channels like portal, mobile, Microsoft Teams, and email.
This framework for Approvals Hub will ensure to bring in approvals-related data from third-party systems like Concur, Workday or Ariba, complete the approvals within ServiceNow, and then update these third-party systems back with this record.
Refer to product documentation on Configurable Approvals Experience for additional details.
Concur Integration with Approvals Hub
With the June 2023 release, we launched pre-built integration with Concur that allows employees to review the full expense report and approve/send it back directly from ServiceNow, without having to log into Concur. They can approve or send back, after checking the expense line item and itemization, directly through their channel of choice and send remarks in case they are sending it back to requester.
Licence requirement for deploying the Concur integration for Approvals Hub:
The pre-built Concur integration requires Employee Center Pro License; no additional Integration Hub license is required.
Applications/Plug-ins requirement for deploying the Concur integration for Approvals Hub:
We have released a new ServiceNow store application called the Approvals Hub Integration with SAP Concur. Download this application to get above Concur integration for Employee Center Pro and Actionable Notifications for Microsoft Teams (via Virtual Agent). The original SAP concur spoke will be automatically downloaded with this new plugin. Refer to product docs for additional configuration details.
To get the mobile experience of the Concur Integration for Approval Hub, download the June 2023 release version of the Now Mobile Plugin (version 28.1.2) in addition to the store application Approvals Hub Integration with SAP Concur. Refer to product documentation for additional details on this.
For the actionable messages on Microsoft Outlook for the Concur Integration, download the June 2023 release version of the Outlook Actionable Messages Plugin (version 4.0.2) in addition to the store application Approvals Hub Integration with SAP Concur. Please note that for using approval hub capability with Microsoft Outlook, customer instance must be on Tokyo family release or a higher version.
Refer to product documentation on Approvals Hub integration with SAP Concur for additional details.
Workday integration with Approvals Hub
With our August 2023 release, we launched another pre-built integration of Approvals Hub with Workday that allows organizations to consolidate approval requests from Workday, including time off, leave of absence, timesheet approval, compensation change, job requisition approval, time off correction, termination-related approvals and spend authorization, into ServiceNow's Employee Center Pro’s Approval Hub, which is the same as “My tasks” page.
Applications/Plug-ins requirement for deploying the Workday integration for Approvals Hub:
This integration is built upon the existing HR Service Delivery Integration with Workday Spoke. Thus, organizations would need to download the 'HR Service Delivery Integration with Workday' (version 3.0) plugin along with the new Employee Center Pro (28.2.1) application to activate it. Since the Workday spoke is tied with HRSD license, organizations require HRSD Pro or Enterprise license to access this integration.
Refer to product documentation on Approvals Hub integration with Workday for additional details.
For other feature deep-dives, refer to other topics covered as part of Employee Center Academy series.
Approvals Hub Playbook
We’ve captured additional details around the technical framework of the functioning of Approval Hub and how you could integrate other external applications on similar lines as Concur or Workday here in Approvals Hub playbook.
FAQ's
Refer to Approvals Hub FAQ's here.
Does Concur and Workday syncs in real time? For example, When we open the "My Tasks" page, all of the Concur and Workday approvals are refreshed with the current status in real time.
