How to automate the approval workflow

[vahini]

Hello all, 

Our current approval process is manual and time-consuming, leading to delays in service delivery. To enhance efficiency, we need to automate the approval workflow.

How would you design and implement an automated approval workflow in ServiceNow? What measures would you take to ensure the automated workflow is flexible enough to handle different approval scenarios?

Please provide your inputs, greatly appreciated for your time on this. Thank you so much.

[Mark Manders · Accepted solution]

First of all: define what needs to be approved and what not. Do you really need a managers approval for someone that has a broken mouse? Have them return the broken mouse when they get the new one and you don't need approval.

You don't describe your current process, but approvals will always be manual. Someone needs to email in the approval, click the approved button or set the state to approved. Automating that is not something you can do, because you can't let the system read someone's mind and act on it.

Adding reminders will help (by the way: use flow designer, not workflows) and also auto rejections if the approver doesn't respond in time. Make sure the requestor knows why his request/change was rejected, so he can take it up with the approver. 
Make it easy for people to approve. Make it possible to have everything in one overview and maybe even 'mass approve', although I would never ever implement that myself. It's a responsibility you shouldn't take lightly. But make it easy to access and easy to approve (email/button/records).