User case for custom application

[Mihir Patel]

Hello,

I am new to ServiceNow and will be taking on a new project for my client (who is a government agency) and have sort of a "different" use case that I am sure you all have come across before, but I am unable to find any decent guide or document reference for what I am trying to achieve. Here is my use case:

My client has recently switched to ServiceNow for their ITSM (and I believe ITAM) needs. They are also exploring path of citizen development but for now their in-house custom app development will be handled by the IT department (my department). Another group/department has expressed need and interest into creating a low-code based application using ServiceNow which will automate a funding request form which is currently being filled out by various people/groups manually in PDF. Here is how the process works:

• A group or department has a need to acquire goods or services (say license for Adobe)
• The requesting group (or someone from that group) fills out part of the above mentioned PDF and digitally signs it
• Then they route this PDF to IT department and IT department fill out their portion and digitally signs the PDF
• Then it goes to the finance team so they can add accounting information such as which account to use to pay for it. The finance department then digitally signs the PDF
• The finance department then routes this back to the requesting person/group for review
• After review the requesting person/group routes it to the final approver who reviews and signs the PDF
• Once this final approval happens, the PDF is locked, goes back to the original creator for processing and is stored or archived

I have tried playing around in my PDI (San Diego) and was able to create custom tables (one main parent and another child via reference). I also created forms and designed it the way I want it and was able to add related links to child table. This is still work in progress, but all of this was done in Service Management using Custom Application. I then started playing around in AES but was having lot of trouble and had some questions like below:

• My assumption is here (due to not have licensing information) is that the requesting department would not have access to Service Management so they will not be able to use My Company Application part hence there is a need to create some what of a "public/external" facing UI so the requesting organization resources can login and generate this funding request
• The same thing would be true for finance and approver or at least the expectation is that they just go to a URL, login, and fill out their portion, sign and done
• I tried creating Record Producer experience as well as Portal and Workspace experiences in AES but none of them are helping
• Ideally, I would like to design this in a way where anyone requesting funding would go to a webpage and login. They would be presented with a home page (similar to dashboard) where they see their work and anything that is pending or assigned to them. They can also create new funding requests from here. 
• The closest I got was by using Workspace experience, but I cannot figure out ways to edit other tabs and header that is part of the app shell such as "New Interaction" or "New Incident". I would like to replace them with "New Funding Request" that then pulls up the form I created for funding table (main table) and allows them to fill out this request
• I also did not figure out how to connect the record producer experience with workspace experience or tie in the portal experience with record producer. 

Note that, this probably needs to be 100% custom approach and extending existing Task or Incident tables is probably not going to happen. I appreciate any guidance someone can provide on this.

I know this is a long a post, so I apologize and thanks in advance!

[Ravi9]

Well it's hard to provide the details here without knowing the environment you are in but typically we group and allocate catalogs to a category and select an existing or a new one for a catch all kind of thing. E.g. I have a category say household items where one or more catalogs individually represents specific items such as chair or table and then we can have a default one which might say something like "anything else". This could a choice in a catalog or an item on its own. Obviously this is a simplification but I hope you get the idea. Once your process matures over time and you take a look at your past data and see what all OTHER items are being asked you create dedicated catalogs for refining the process and improving overall experience one day at a time. Just my opinion.

[Mihir Patel]

Appreciate it. I will definitely play around with this approach in PDI and see how it goes. 

[Ravi9]

fantastic ! let the community know how you bring your problem to a solution and what path you take !

cheers

[Mihir Patel]

Just wanted to come back and let the community know that I have managed to make the Workspace work as I needed it. I was able to find and figure out headers and tabs and customize them as I needed. I am at a different crossroads regarding dynamic assignment and history of those dynamic assignment but will post another question here. Thanks for the support!

[Ravi9]

thank u for sharing mihir !