One form for all requests?

[DChandlerKy]

Hi everyone!

Recently, it was 'announced' that all IT requests for services will be entered and fulfilled through Service Now.   Yay!!

The fine print -- they want one form.   Zoiks!

Let me add a few numbers here... we have ... roughly 30 services that may receive a request at one point or another... and each of those services has a number of different requestables.   So you are looking at probably a minimum of about 150 different "items" that can be requested at any given point in time.   (Honestly, I think I am being conservative here.)

While all services have a small subset of data that they will all 'require'... one service will need to capture an additional data set, while the next service will have a different set of data, etc.

We have a pretty good start on a custom application for Voice and Data service requests.   While we can add additional fields to capture data needed for the other 130 requestables, I am not sure that's a good long term solution because let's face it - that's a LOT of fields!  

I am wondering how others are handling, or have handled a situation like this?   (Maybe we are on the right track here, maybe not.)

Are requests for (any/multiple) services handled via one form? (Think incident that is assigned/routed to one group or another - we can certainly have a workflow fire if/when needed)

How are you handling having certain fields available for certain requests? (I'm afraid that UI policies will only take us so far and things could not just get messy, but it will impact the experience our ITIL users and customers will have.   I am leaning towards views with minimized need for UI Policies.)

Any other tips, tricks, lessons learned that you can share?

We have made attempts at using catalog items - but reporting out of REQ/RITM, etc, is a big pain point along with the tiered set up is confusing.   There is also the desire to possibly have a way for the Service Desk to use the New Call form and then 'transfer' the request to an incident, or service request.

Thoughts? Comments? Lessons learned?

Thanks,

Diana

[Community Alums]

Have you looked at using an order guide? Items still exist in the catalogue, and you can create a single form a user can complete which 'walks' the user through the order process while choosing options. With regards to different fields for different items, you can group common options/questions in variable sets.

Not sure if I am providing any significant assistance here, I am pretty new at this! I am just in the process of building our Service Catalogue, and I have built a few order guides for hardware, software and access requests. It's not live yet, though, so I don't know how well it will be received in the user community.

[Uncle Rob]

The "1 form" rule sounds a little arbitrary.   Perhaps its based on a lack of familiarity on the catalog and its capabilities?

Is the party that's implementing the "1 form" policy also giving you the artillery support you need when it comes time to rethink all the existing catalog items?

I'd start by going on a big-time re-education / product demo campaign.

[Slava Savitsky]

Instead of catalog items, you could try using record producers, which are another type of service catalog forms. They have all the capabilities of the catalog items with the only difference that they generate a record in the table of your choice, not the service catalog request / requested item. Among other advantages, this approach allows for better reporting.

Record Producer - ServiceNow Wiki

Place all the variables that need to be shared by multiple record producers into a variable set. This way you will be able to reuse them quite easily. Other fields that are request-specific can be defined in each record producer as necessary.

Service Catalog Variable Sets - ServiceNow Wiki

If your catalog is structured in a user-friendly manner, people should be able to find what they need without much trouble. If in doubt, they can use catalog search to locate the right item. However, if there is a strict requirement to have a single entry point for all requests, consider using a wizard. By asking a few questions, you should be able to take your users to the relevant record producer based on their answers.

Wizards - ServiceNow Wiki

[Uncle Rob]

Hey Diana,

Hope you're keeping well.   I have another contact who's leadership has arbitrarily decided "all things = 1 form".

I'm wondering how far you guys actually got down this path, and if you'd be willing to share with the community what your experience has been.

RDF