BCM Configurable Workspace

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of BCM Configurable Workspace

    The BCM Configurable Workspace, introduced in the Business Continuity Management (BCM) application starting with version 5.x.x, provides an enhanced, intuitive, and role-driven user interface for managing business continuity tasks. Replacing the classic BCM Workspace, this configurable workspace offers a streamlined experience tailored to different user roles within your organization, enabling effective crisis, planning, and recovery management.

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    Key Features

    • Interactive Dashboard: The Home page centralizes crisis events, business impact analysis (BIA), planning, and exercises for easy management.
    • Task Monitoring: The My tasks page allows users to quickly view and act on their individual and team-assigned tasks.
    • Crisis Map: Visualizes real-time threat alerts geographically, facilitating prompt response and recovery task management.
    • 360-Degree Relationship Visualization: Offers comprehensive views of dependencies across BIAs, plans, exercises, and crisis events for informed decision-making.
    • Role-Driven Access: Workspace views and functionalities adjust automatically based on the user’s role, such as BCM administrators, managers, planners, contributors, viewers, business users, and IT application owners.
    • Seamless Transition: The classic BCM Workspace is automatically updated to the Configurable Workspace, which supports the latest BCM features and improvements.

    Key Outcomes

    • Improved User Experience: The configurable and interactive interface simplifies managing business continuity activities, improving efficiency and situational awareness.
    • Enhanced Crisis and Recovery Management: Real-time alerts and task tracking help reduce operational impacts during disruptions.
    • Consistent and Supported Platform: Transitioning to the BCM Configurable Workspace ensures compatibility with new features and avoids issues linked to the obsolete classic workspace.
    • Comprehensive Functional Coverage: Supports critical BCM activities including business impact analysis, continuity planning, exercise management, and crisis management within a single workspace.

    Using the BCM Configurable Workspace

    ServiceNow customers can access the BCM Configurable Workspace via the application navigator by selecting either Workspaces > Business Continuity Workspace or All > Business Continuity > Business Continuity Workspace. The workspace sidebar provides easy navigation between the Home page, Tasks, Lists, and Crisis map views, helping users manage and respond to business continuity needs effectively.

    Important Considerations

    The classic BCM Workspace is deprecated and incompatible with recent BCM enhancements. ServiceNow strongly recommends migrating to the BCM Configurable Workspace before or immediately after the Xanadu release to ensure uninterrupted access to the latest capabilities and support.

    Starting with version 5.x.x, the Business Continuity Management application supports BCM Configurable Workspace. You can perform your business continuity tasks with an intuitive functionality in BCM Configurable Workspace.

    Enhancements in the BCM Configurable Workspace

    BCM Configurable Workspace (also known as Business Continuity Workspace) offers an enhanced and simplified user experience for its users. The BCM application users can take advantage of the enhancements in BCM Configurable Workspace over BCM classic Workspace:
    1. Manage the crisis events, business impact analysis, planning, and exercises from an interactive dashboard in the Home page.
    2. Monitor your individual and team tasks in the My tasks page and act on your pending tasks quickly.
    3. Respond to the alerts in Crisis map and manage the recovery tasks effectively.
    4. Visualize 360-degree relationship data for your business impact analysis, planning, exercises, and crisis events records and get a complete overview of all dependencies.

    The Business Continuity Workspace in the classic Workspace is automatically updated to move to BCM Configurable Workspace. For information on BCM classic Workspace, see Using BCM Classic Workspace.

    Configurable and role-driven Workspace

    The BCM Configurable Workspace is configurable and role-driven, offering a unique experience tailored to each user or role in your organization. Logging in with specific user roles provides access to different functions and corresponding user interface views.

    For more information on the user roles in the BCM application, see Components installed with Business Continuity Management.

    For more information on the store apps, see Business Continuity Management and ServiceNow Store.

    Support for the BCM Classic Workspace

    Starting with the Vancouver release, the BCM Configurable Workspace provides the latest user experience.

    The BCM Classic Workspace is an obsolete user interface that is not compatible with the new features and enhancements introduced with the Xanadu release. If you continue to use the BCM Classic Workspace after the upgrade, you may encounter issues and errors that will not be supported by ServiceNow®.

    To avoid any disruptions, transitioning to the BCM Configurable Workspace before or immediately following the Xanadu release offers the latest functionality and the best user experience.

    Users of the BCM application

    The BCM application is the central workbench for these types of users:
    • BCM administrators
    • BCM managers
    • BCM planners
    • BCM contributors
    • BCM viewers
    • Business users
    • IT application owners

    Navigating to the BCM Configurable Workspace

    When you log in to the Business Continuity Management application with a specific user role, you can open the Business Continuity Workspace using one of these options:
    • First option: Navigate to Workspaces > Business Continuity Workspace in the application instance as shown in the example.

      Workspaces menu for Business Continuity Workspace.

    • Second option: Navigate to All > Business Continuity > Business Continuity Workspace in the application instance as shown in the example.

      Application navigator menu for Business Continuity Workspace.

    Note:
    The Business Continuity Workspace in the classic Workspace view is automatically updated to navigate to BCM Configurable Workspace.

    Icons in the Business Continuity Workspace

    When you launch Business Continuity Workspace, the Workspace sidebar includes icons for these components.
    • Home page: Displays key continuity tasks in a single-pane view.
    • Tasks page: Displays assigned tasks for the logged‑in user. For more information, see My tasks page view.
    • Lists: Displays counts and statuses for BIA, planning, exercise, and crisis event records. For more information, see List view.
    • Crisis map: Displays real-time threat alerts from different locations in a map view. For more information, see Crisis map view.

    Managing functional components

    Manage the functional components of the BCM application in the BCM Configurable Workspace:

    Business impact analysis
    A business impact analysis helps you identify high‑risk assets and measure the consequences of disruptions. You can estimate recovery time, evaluate dependencies, and assess business and technical impacts. For details on creating and managing BIAs, see Business impact analysis and Structured workflows for BIAs.
    Business continuity planning
    Continuity planning enables you to prepare recovery strategies, documentation, and loss scenarios. You can also define recovery teams and associate related plans. For more information, see Business continuity planning and Structured workflows for BCPs.
    Exercise management
    Exercises simulate crisis conditions and help validate continuity plans. You can manage events, review outcomes, and refine plans for future scenarios. For more information, see Structured workflows for exercises.
    Crisis management
    Crisis management enables you to respond to actual disruptions, prioritize activities, and manage actions that reduce operational impact. For details, see Crisis events and Structured workflows for crisis events.
    Note:
    For setting up Business Continuity Management, see General administration setup for BCM.