If you are going to Knowledge16, be prepared to see a lot of Helsinki's capabilities and updates showcased for you on-screen in your sessions. For those of you that can't make it, here's a quick rundown of some of my favorite features that are coming to Helsinki.
5 features in Helsinki to check out:
- Service Portal
- Customer Service Management (CSM)
- Portfolio workbench
- List v3
- Guided Setup
Service Portal
The Service Portal is brand spanking new in the Helsinki release. You probably have seen references to it across the community as SNUG event attendees got a sneak peak before anyone else. With the Service Portal in Helsinki you can create engaging user interfaces to allow users quick access to services and applications in ServiceNow. In Helsinki, the Service Portal is activated by default. If you have a customized CMS portal you are using and upgrade to Helsinki, your two portals will live in harmony until you take the steps to migrate and establish a redirect. Keep in mind that highly customized widgets may have some issues migrating to the Service portal. I would suggest that you test, before implementing.
For users that are not super accustomed to creating your own CMS sites, the Service Portal is a great alternative. It is a user friendly interface that an organization can easily drag-n-drop widgets to customize their portal.
For a video demo on how to install the Service Portal if it isn't turned on automatically see Activating the Service Portal. Thank you omid.borjian for showing us how to do this.
Customer Service Management
The Customer Service Management application in Helsinki has some shiny new features that are going to help you provide better service and support for your external customers. CSM offers a variety of communication channels that allow organizations to work with customers to ask and resolve questions. Using CSM you can utilize chat, web, email, and telephone to provide a better customer service experience.
In Helsinki you can look forward to a few new enhancements to the Customer Service Management app including...
- Contact relationships - which will allow you to establish a relationship in ServiceNow between a contact and a different account
- Account teams - hold teams responsible and communicate case assignments
- Special handling notes - allows you to embed messages in lists or a pop-up when accessing a form
- Target communication lists - add users to special lists to control who gets what communication when
- Knowledge product entitlements - designate knowledge bases and articles for customers to view from the customer service portal
and more! See Customer Service Management in Helsinki to see the full list of application enhancements and updates.
Portfolio Workbench
Portfolio Workbench in the Project Portfolio Suite allows you to view and monitor the progress of projects and demands that are a part of a portfolio in Helsinki. This feature also allows you to set targets, select projects, demands and allocation of budgets for financial planning. When accessing the portfolio workbench, the dashboard will list all of your portfolios for easy access.
List v3
List v3 is an optional feature that admins can activate in Helsinki. In Helsinki, we aimed to improve your productivity and make your job easier by upgrading our lists. With List v3, you will be provided with more context within a list to prevent the number of clicks, new pages you have to open etc.
Some enhancements to lists in v3 include...
- The ability to see who is online when you open a list so you can chat and collaborate via Connect
- The ability to view lists and forms in split mode to see things side-by-side
- An easier way to filter lists with enhanced Dot-walking and multiple sorting capabilities
- Compare and visualized data by grouping lists by state, priority and more.
- Reorganized menus with Personalize List columns to select columns YOU want to see in your list
- The ability to preview list calculations instantly and configure calculations for columns all at once
There are a few features available in List v2 that are not compatible in List v3 and is supported on specific browsers. If these are deal breakers for you, you can disable List v3 globally. You can also check out these enhancements in action with our Helsinki List v3 demo.
Guided Setup
Guided setup is available in certain applications starting in Helsinki. This feature will guide users through activity to set up applications and show progress through contextual embedded help, tours and contextual documentation. When upgrading you will need to enable the ITSM Guided Setup plugin in order to get started. Keep in mind that Guided Setup is not supported on mobile.
Before upgrading to Helsinki, be sure to review the release notes to see what has been fixed in this release and follow the upgrades best practices to ensure a happy transition. You can also bookmark the Helsinki changes resource page for a quick reference to the content we have available.
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