Notification is critical for complete service delivery
Being able to reach the correct person at the right time is key when trying to quickly resolve an incident or provide a critical service. Prior to Geneva, ServiceNow includes helpful tools to achieve this, including On-Call Scheduling and Incident Alert Management. NotifyNow (called "Notify" starting with Geneva) provides SMS and Voice features to boost these tools' capabilities by leveraging Twilio, a cloud communications platform. With the Geneva release, Notify has been improved significantly. Here are some ways that Notify can help your organization provide better, timely notifications.
Notify on Task
In the past, Incident Alert Management allowed users to send an SMS message or spin up a conference call within the context of an incident as part of the resolution process. Starting in Geneva, those same capabilities have been enhanced and are now available for any type of task. This means that the power of Notify can be used to coordinate a Change, address a Security Incident, handle a Customer Service Case, etc.
Once Notify on Task has been configured, links will appear on the task forms you choose making it easy to send an SMS message or initiate a conference bridge.
Clicking the link will bring up the dialog that will let you send the SMS message.
Sending an SMS message is as easy as choosing which fields contain the recipients for the message, adding additional numbers, typing the content you wish to include, and clicking "Send".
Starting a conference call is just as easy.
In addition to calling the participants and allowing them to accept the conference call, Notify automatically sends them an SMS message so that they can easily rejoin the call.
Once the call has started, you can see it in the related list for that task.
You can go into the record and see who is on the call and even kick or mute callers.
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Another major enhancement to Notify is the capability to use the workflow engine. The "Send SMS" workflow activity allows you to incorporate an SMS message into any workflow. With the "Say" and "Input" workflow activities, you can control the flow of a phone call, regardless of whether the call is inbound to ServiceNow or outbound to someone.
These workflow activities let you customize and enhance the user experience.
Multiple Notify Numbers
Prior to Geneva, Notify was limited to using a single number to send SMS messages and for conferencing. This limitation has been removed. Now every phone number in your Twilio account or sub-account can be used with a ServiceNow instance. This is particularly helpful if you want to use different numbers for different functions, or if there are limitations around a single number. For example, in Australia, Twilio numbers can either send SMS messages or place voice calls, but not both. By being able to have two numbers, you can have one number for each communication channel.
When you enter your Twilio credentials, ServiceNow will reach out and retrieve all of the phone numbers associated with the account and automatically provision them to work with your instance.
Once the numbers have been retrieved, they can be added to a number group so that you don't have to manage each number individually. Number Groups are also where you can associate workflows with Notify. In the photo above, the system is configured to use the "Notify: (Re)join Conference Call" workflow for anyone who calls the numbers associated with this group.
So, as you can see, these new Notify capabilities give you more power for collaborating and sending the notifications that are critical for improved service delivery. If you have questions or comments about these new features, do let us know by commenting on this blog article.
