How do you use business services and categories within ServiceNow (Incident)

[Dustin M]

We are rolling out ServiceNow and are using a business and IT Service structure. There is a category field but it is very generic (unable to connect, receive error message).The problem I have is I think of IT service are too generic so I can do not how to pull a report detailing specific software that are affected as the services are defined in a way that allows both hardware/software issues to be used.

I created a dev instance and saw that out of the box, there is a category, subcategory, and business service view. Can anyone provide me information on how they classify incidents and still receive enough information to make informed decisions. Preferably anyone that does not have a CMDB yet.

I appreciate your time and look forwarded to connecting!

[Ankit P · Accepted solution]

Hi Dustin,

The OOB Category and Subcategory is sufficient only for small organisations. Larger organisations always have a wider categorization of their tickets and this is fulfilled by Business Service.

Business Services are every entity which is required for a Business to run. e.g. An application or a device.

To use it, first we need to setup and import data into cmdb_ci_service table. Without this we wont be able to use Business Service field efficiently.

Please mark correct or helpful if it does. 

[Dustin M]

Hi Ankit,

Thank you for the information. Would you recommend labeling an IT service that supports a business based off an application or should it be more generic. For example - do you think it be better to label an IT service for ServiceNow support 'ServiceNow Application Service' or would a more generic 'ITSM suite service' fit better. 

Would it make a difference if we assume the CMDB would have software applications such as ServiceNow  listed? 

Any thoughts/feedback is appreciated!

[Ankit P]

'ServiceNow Application Service' seems perfect to me. And I would also recommend that all the applications being supported should be listed in CMDB. In that way, future categorization and reporting will become much more efficient and precise.