Leverage self-configured approach to integrate all your staging, QA, and production ServiceNow instances with a single Microsoft 365 tenant. Begin with integration by testing and validating configurations in your lower environments, then replicate them to production environment.
Already running the integration? You don’t need to interrupt your production environment just to try those new features or updates from ServiceNow. With all environments linked to the same Microsoft tenant, you get a realistic setup without touching your live system. Validate changes, confirm everything works as expected, and roll them out confidently, minimising downtime and reducing risk while keeping operations running smoothly.
Sounds valuable? Let’s learn more about this integration!
ServiceNow instance and Microsoft tenant can be integrated with each other using two integration approaches:
i. Pre-published approach: This integration method supports only a One-to-One mapping—one ServiceNow instance connected to one Microsoft 365 tenant. You cannot have all your ServiceNow instances connected to one Microsoft 365 tenant at once. We will not cover this approach in this article, you can read more about pre-published approach and how to integrate using this approach on “Integrate ServiceNow with Microsoft 365 : A step by step guide!”
ii. Self-configured approach: This integration method supports Many-to-One mappings, allowing you to connect all your ServiceNow instances to a single Microsoft tenant. In this article, we’ll guide you through setting up the integration, giving you the flexibility to test in lower environments first—without breaking your production setup, and ensuring risk-free rollouts.
Table of content
- Integrating ServiceNow Instances with Microsoft 365 Tenants: Supported and Unsupported Combinations
- What is self-configured integration approach and when should you use it?
- Capabilities within the ServiceNow for Microsoft 365 ecosystem and how to configure them using self...
- Employee experience using Self-configured approach
- Agent experience using Self-configured approach
Integrating ServiceNow Instances with Microsoft 365 Tenants: Supported and Unsupported Combinations
Before diving into the setup, it’s important to know what’s possible and what’s not! When integrating ServiceNow instances with Microsoft 365 tenants. Depending on your environment, there are four potential combinations you may encounter:
i. Multiple ServiceNow Instances with One Microsoft Tenant using Pre-published or OOTB Virtual Agent Bot (Partially Supported)
This scenario is only partially supported. The pre-published approach allows one active integration between a single ServiceNow instance and one Microsoft tenant using the out-of-the-box (OOTB) Now Virtual Agent bot. If a second instance attempts to integrate with the same tenant using the same bot, the integration will fail unless you override the previous configuration.
Learn more about overriding ServiceNow instance: Change tenant to configure pre-published apps
ii. One ServiceNow Instance with One Microsoft Tenant using Two or More Bots (Not Supported)
Connecting one ServiceNow instance to one Microsoft tenant with multiple bots—whether self-configured or OOTB Now Virtual Agent bot—is not supported.
iii. One ServiceNow Instance with Multiple Microsoft Tenants using Multiple Bots (Supported)
This scenario is fully supported. You can integrate one ServiceNow instance with multiple Microsoft tenants by using a separate bot (OOTB Now Virtual Agent or self-configured) for each tenant.
iv. Multiple ServiceNow Instances with Multiple Microsoft Tenants using Multiple Bots (Supported)
This scenario is also fully supported. Each ServiceNow instance can integrate with one or more Microsoft tenants using individual bots (OOTB or self-configured), providing maximum flexibility for complex enterprise environments.
What is the Self-Configured integration approach and when should you use it?
When integrating ServiceNow with Microsoft 365, self-configured integration approach is one of the two available approaches. While the pre-published method uses a collaboration proxy and supports only a 1:1 mapping (one ServiceNow instance integrated to one Microsoft 365 tenant), the self-configured approach offers far greater flexibility by allowing Many-to-One mapping(multiple ServiceNow instances integrated to one Microsoft tenant)
What Makes the Self-Configured Approach Different?
With this method, your ServiceNow environment connects directly to Microsoft Azure, enabling you to link multiple ServiceNow instances to a single Microsoft 365 tenant. This capability is a game-changer for organisations that need scalability and control.
Why Choose Self-Configured?
i. Flexibility for testing
You can test workflows and configurations in lower environments (development or testing) before rolling them out to production. This reduces risk and ensures smoother deployments.
ii. No disruption to production environment
Keep your production environment running while experimenting with new features in a safe sandbox. Since, both environments connect to the same Microsoft tenant, you get a realistic setup without touching your live system. Once validated, replicate confidently to production.
iii. Cost efficiency
Avoid investing in multiple Microsoft tenants for each ServiceNow instance. Instead, integrate all instances into one tenant using self-configured integration approach
Use Cases:
i. Organisations requiring multi-instance integration (staging, QA, and production ServiceNow instances with a single Microsoft 365 tenant), where they want to first test their initial configurations in lower environment and then roll out to the production.
ii. Ability to test updates and new features for employee experience or agent experience within the lower environments, without breaking production.
iii. Regulated markets like GCC-H (Government Community Cloud – High) or DoD (Department of Defense), where Microsoft policies prohibit the proxy-based pre-published approach.
If you operate in GCC-H (Government Community Cloud – High) or DoD (Department of Defense) environments, this approach is not optional. It bypasses the ServiceNow collaboration proxy, ensuring compliance with Microsoft’s policies for regulated markets. Read more here: Integrating ServiceNow with Microsoft Teams for GCC-H or DoD product documentation guide.
Security and Control
With self-configured integration, you manage API permissions for the Azure application you create. This means:
i. Grant only permissions that comply with your organisation’s security policies.
ii. Understand the impact of each permission before enabling or disabling it, as changes may affect core functionality. Refer to the “Spoke actions” documentation for details on Permissions required (from least to most privileged) for the integration.
Things to Keep in Mind Before Choosing Self-Configured Integration
While the self-configured approach offers flexibility and compliance, it’s not without challenges. Here are a few important considerations:
i. Manual setup required
You’ll need to create and configure Azure applications for each ServiceNow instance and every use case—whether it’s Employee Center in Teams, agent-to-employee chat, conference calling, sidebar integration, and more.
ii. High level of Microsoft Azure expertise needed
This integration demands strong knowledge of Microsoft Azure, as multiple Azure apps must be created for all capabilities and for each ServiceNow instance.
iii. Time-consuming and error-prone
The process can be complex and time consuming, requiring troubleshooting and careful configuration to avoid errors.
In short: If you need flexibility, scalability, and compliance, the self-configured approach is for you. It gives you control, reduces risk, and supports complex enterprise scenarios—all while keeping production stable.
Within the ServiceNow for Microsoft 365 ecosystem you get capabilities focusing on both employee self-service and productivity and capabilities focusing on agents to be more productive and foster collaboration.
Capabilities that help drive employee self-service and productivity:
i. Embed Employee Center in Microsoft Teams
ii. Engage employee with Employee Communication on Microsoft Teams
iii. Enable ServiceNow’s Virtual Agent and Now Assist in Microsoft Teams
iv. Live Agent Chat
v. Microsoft Outlook Integration
vi.Microsoft Viva Integration* - only available with pre-published approach
Capabilities that help agents to be more productive and foster collaboration:
i. Request based agent to employee Microsoft Teams chat
ii. Agent to employee Microsoft Teams conferencing call.
iii. Sidebar Integration* - only available with self-published approach
To read more about these individual capabilities, follow our “Introduction to ServiceNow for Microsoft 365” guide.
Employee experience using Self-configured approach
In this article, we’ll focus only on the capabilities that require you to create an Azure application when using the self-configured approach:
i. Getting started with the ServiceNow and Microsoft 365 integration using a self-configured Virtual Agent (VA) bot
ii. Embedding Employee Center using a self-configured VA bot in Microsoft Teams
For the rest of the employee experience capabilities, you don’t need to create any Azure application. Once your ServiceNow instance and Microsoft tenant are actively integrated, those capabilities can be set up easily by following the official product documentation linked below.
- Product documentation for Employee Communication on Microsoft Teams
- Product documentation for Live Agent Chat
- Product documentation for Microsoft Outlook Integration
- Product documentation for Microsoft Viva Integration* - only available with pre-published approach
Getting started with the ServiceNow and Microsoft 365 integration with a self-configured VA bot :
ServiceNow’s Virtual Agent provides employees with a conversational interface to quickly access help, find information, and complete tasks. By integrating ServiceNow with Microsoft 365, these capabilities can be accessed directly within Microsoft Teams.
To enable Virtual Agent functionality through a self-configured approach, you’ll need to build your own self-configured bot. This bot will have the same features as the out-of-the-box (OOTB) Now Virtual Agent and can be integrated with LLM-powered Now Assist to deliver an enhanced, AI-driven experience.
Want to learn more about connecting Now Assist with your self-configured bot? Check out the detailed steps in our Enable Now Assist with self-configured bot product documentation.
To integrate ServiceNow and Microsoft using a self-configured VA bot follow the steps below:
- Create a self-configured bot in MS Teams developer portal
- Integrate your self-configured bot with Microsoft Teams tenant under channels and integrations in yo...
- Download the auto-generated manifest file of your bot.
- Upload the manifest in MS Teams and link it with ServiceNow account.
Refer to Integrating Virtual Agent with Microsoft Teams using the self-configured bot product documentation for detailed step wise implementation.
If you already have the default Now Virtual Agent chat bot app installed, it’s best to disable it to avoid duplicate notifications and having two chatbots in MS Teams. You can follow the steps in the product documentation for disabling Now virtual agent.
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How to get access?
License Required – To integrate full Virtual Agent in Teams if you are an HRSD customer you will need HRSD Pro or above, or if you are an ITSM customer you will need ITSM Pro or above. Only Virtual Agent Lite is available with ITSM Standard. For Now Assist, you will need an ITSM Pro Plus or HRSD Pro Plus License and depending on ITSM or HRSD specific use case you will need the specific SKU for e.g.: Now Assist for ITSM or Now Asist for HRSD
Plugins required – Install Conversational Integration with Microsoft Teams (sn_va_teams) application from ServiceNow store and Glide Virtual Agent [com.glide.cs.chatbot]. For Now assist capabilities install Now Assist Core (com.now_assist_core) plugin, Now Assist In Virtual Agent (sn_nowassist_va) All the dependent plugins will be auto installed, please remember to select demo data checkbox, while you install these applications.
Read more about Virtual agent and its capabilities on Virtual agent community hub page |
Embedding Employee Center using a self-configured VA bot in Microsoft Teams
Employee Center is ServiceNow’s actionable, digital front-end for all employee needs: access to enterprise services, information, tasks, and communications.
Using self-configured approach, you can embed the entire Employee Center portal within Microsoft Teams. Employees will be able to perform all their tasks and access all the portal pages within Microsoft Teams itself.
To get ServiceNow for Microsoft 365 app using self-configured approach you have to follow the steps below:
This same application will be used to embed the Employee Center portal (or any custom portal you currently use) and authenticate users. Since multiple applications will be created for different capabilities during integration, it is recommended to name each app according to its purpose. For example: ServiceNow for Microsoft 365 Auth App (This will not be the name your employees will see in their MS Teams, you can give a different name to that app in step 5 below).
You will need a self-configured bot for the ServiceNow for Microsoft 365 app. Follow the steps outlined earlier in this article to create the bot and integrate it with the ServiceNow instance you want to connect to your Microsoft tenant. Create an OAuth application registry for this app, and create the application manifest.
Download the manifest and upload it to Microsoft Teams. Link it with an active ServiceNow account to start using the ServiceNow for Microsoft 365 app.
You should now see: A Chat tab for the self-configured bot and a Portal tab for your portal in the application.
Finally, update the sn_now_azure.teams_installed_app_id system property with the App ID of the manifest you uploaded.
Refer to Setup for integrating self-configured apps with Microsoft Teams for Employee Experience product documentation for detailed step wise implementation.
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How to get access?
License Required – To get ServiceNow for Microsoft 365 app in Teams, you will need HRSD or above, or you will need ITSM Std or above. To embed Employee Center Pro and send employee communications , you will need either HRSD Pro OR EC Pro stand-alone SKU
Plugins required – You will need at least either one of the two mentioned below applications: i. IT Service Management for Microsoft 365 (App id: sn_now_teams_i) i. HR Service Delivery for Microsoft 365 (App id: sn_now_teams_hr) All the dependent plugins will be auto installed, please remember to select demo data checkbox, while you install these applications. |
Agent experience using Self-configured approach
Similar to employee experience you get all the capabilities focussing on agents to be more productive and foster collaboration using self-configured approach as well. For agent experience you’ll have to create Azure apps for all of the following:
i. Initiate Agent to Employee chat via self-configured approach
ii. Initiate Agent to Employee conference call via self-configured approach
iii. Sidebar Integration
Initiate Agent to Employee chat via self-configured approach:
With request based chat feature, agents can initiate real-time chats with employees/requestors and other SMEs by creating a Microsoft Teams group chat that streamlines communication.
Agents can then import relevant chat conversations into the ticket, selecting specific messages they want to include. This imported chat will be available as work notes* under ‘Activity’ and will serve as a valuable reference point for future conversations, fostering seamless collaboration and boosting productivity. You can choose to do this manually or automate the process using a scheduled job that runs every 30 minutes, ensuring all agent-initiated chats are captured without effort.
*For both pre-published and self-configured approach, only chats that are manually imported will appear in the work notes of the ticket for which your agent initiated the MS Teams chat. For chats imported through an automated scheduled job, you will get a table link to access them as a work note. All imported chats are stored in the sn_tcm_collab_hook_ms_teams_chat table
To get Request based chat app using self-configured approach you have to follow the steps below:
- Create Microsoft Azure application to enable agent to employee chat and give it the name of your cho...
- Assign permissions to users to enable them to start chat and import chat conversations
- Register the Request-based chat app in your ServiceNow instance and Authenticate user by initiating agent to employee chat from SOW.
As soon as your agent will initiate the MS Teams chat from SOW for the first time, they will be prompted for authentication based on the ‘re-direct’ URL you will provide in step 3
Once you have followed the steps above, your agents should see options to ‘Start Microsoft Teams chat’ and ‘Import Microsoft Teams chat’ inside ‘Collaborate” on their Service Operations Workspace (refer to the image below)
Refer to Setup for integrating self-configured apps with Microsoft Teams for Request Based chat product documentation for detailed step wise implementation.
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How to get access?
License Required – Request based chat is available is available with all ServiceNow products.
Plugins required – You do need a separate plugin for request based chat, it comes as a part of both: i. IT Service Management for Microsoft 365 (App id: sn_now_teams_i) ii. HR Service Delivery for Microsoft 365 (App id: sn_now_teams_hr) Please remember to select demo data checkbox, while you install these applications.
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Initiate Agent to Employee conference call via self-configured approach:
Agents can initiate Microsoft Teams conference calls directly from their workspace, collaborating with employees/requestors and other agents in real-time, enabling seamless collaboration and faster issue resolution. This capability, will be powered by the app you’ll create for conference calling in Azure portal.
To get conference calling capability in agent workspace using self-configured approach you have to follow the steps below:
- Create Microsoft Azure application to make outbound calls and give it a name of your choice like: Se...
- Manage permissions and authenticate the app created to enable users to start MS Teams call.
- Create a user to initiate conference calls from the agent workspace.
- Register your MS Teams conference calling application with your ServiceNow instance for OAuth author...
- Create connection and credentials alias for Microsoft Teams to complete application registration
- Update the created record in MS Teams under Notify in your ServiceNow instance.
- Verify the OIDC application registry record is created for your application.
- Configure Notify connector for MS Teams to create a communication channel and enable audio conferenc...
Refer to Setup for integrating self-configured apps with Microsoft Teams for conference calling product documentation for step wise implementation.
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How to get access?
License Required – MS Teams conference calling from SOW is available with all ServiceNow products.
Plugins required – Notify connector for Microsoft Teams App id: sn_notify_msteams Please remember to select demo data checkbox, while you install these applications.
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iii. Sidebar Integration
Sidebar a real-time messaging application in ServiceNow workspaces, which connects co-workers to collaborate in real-time. With this integration not only agents will be able to have a real-time collaboration with other agents, but also with employees. While employees remain in MS Teams and agent will remain in their agent workspace.
Simultaneously they can also collaborate with other agents/SMEs to get help and resolve the requestor query faster. Sidebar is supported in all the workspaces available in ServiceNow.
Please note, Sidebar integration is available only with self-configured approach.
Refer to Sidebar Product Documentation for more details
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How to get access?
License- Sidebar is available with all the ServiceNow products.
Plugins required – omni-experience standard feature set App (sn_oe_sfs) Please remember to select demo data checkbox, while you install these applications.
Curious to know more about Sidebar? Watch this video Getting started with Sidebar Look at the Sidebar and Teams integration demo for more information: Sidebar Demo |
