Public Sector Digital Services release notes
Summarize
Summary of Public Sector Digital Services Release Notes - Washington DC
The ServiceNow® Public Sector Digital Services application has been enhanced in the Washington DC release, allowing government agencies to better serve citizens and businesses with essential services such as public records, licenses, and social benefits. Key improvements facilitate application submissions, eligibility calculations, and document verification for social benefits and permits.
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Key Features
- Social Benefits Playbook: Enables constituents to submit requests for social benefits and renew existing benefits via the Government Service Portal.
- Eligibility Framework Engine: Provides auto-calculated eligibility for social benefits programs with customizable rules and policies.
- Document Verification: Automatically verifies uploaded documents associated with social benefits applications.
- Application Proxy: Allows constituents to submit applications on behalf of others for licenses and permits.
- License and Permit Playbook Enhancements: Streamlined approval workflows and the ability to request additional inspections during the application process.
- UI Improvements: Enhanced widgets for viewing benefits and fees, along with updates to document upload and fee review activities.
Key Outcomes
With the Washington DC release, agencies can expect improved efficiency in managing social benefits and permit applications, providing a more intuitive experience for both constituents and agents. The enhancements lead to faster processing times, better eligibility management, and increased transparency in fee structures.
Important Information for Upgrading
Upon upgrading, public sector menus may revert to original labels in the CSM Configurable Workspace. Agencies should relabel these items for public sector use through the UX List Categories. Detailed instructions for relabeling can be found in the administration section of the application.
Activation Information
Public Sector Digital Services applications can be installed from the ServiceNow Store. For more information on installation and configuration, customers should refer to the relevant documentation provided in the release notes.
The ServiceNow® Public Sector Digital Services application enables government agencies to provide citizens, businesses, and other agencies with important services such as public records, licenses, permits, and social services. Public Sector Digital Services was enhanced and updated in the Washington DC release.
Public Sector Digital Services highlights for the Washington DC release
- Enable constituents to submit requests for social benefits with the Social Benefits Playbook.
- Provide auto-calculated eligibility for social benefits programs using the Social Benefits Eligibility Framework engine
- Add additional beneficiaries to a Social Benefits application by adding additional contacts to a request.
- Enable constituents to prepare public service applications on behalf of others by using an application proxy in the Government Service Portal and the License and Permit Playbook.
- Request additional inspections directly from the playbook so that applicants can make the required changes to pass an inspection.
See Public Sector Digital Services for more information.
Important information for upgrading Public Sector Digital Services to Washington DC
After the upgrade, certain public sector menus and menu items in the CSM Configurable Workspace revert to their original CSM label names. You can relabel these items for public sector use by updating the UX List Categories for Customer and Service Organizations. For more details on relabeling, navigate to , and select .
New in the Washington DC release
- Submit requests for social benefits with the Social Benefits Playbook
- Enable constituents to submit requests for one or more social benefits offered by their local, state, or federal government agency, and guide government workers through the process of approving and delivering financial and social assistance to constituents. Constituents can also request to renew an existing benefit through the Government Service Portal.
- Provide auto-calculated eligibility using the Social Benefits Eligibility Framework engine
- Design a custom, auto-calculated eligibility system for approving and delivering social benefits, and for authoring, updating, and incorporating eligibility rules into workflows using the Social Benefits Eligibility Framework engine. Government agencies can institute updates to this system as laws and regulations change.
- Manage Eligibility Criteria Policies using the Social Benefits Eligibility Framework engine
- Enable agency administrators and process owners to define and manage the eligibility rules and policies that drive benefit determination and calculation. Administrators and process owners can define, test, and publish eligibility framework policies, associate published eligibility policies to one or more benefit types, and update policies as regulations change, all through the eligibility framework engine.
- Create relationship records between applicants and beneficiaries
- Auto-populate forms that are based on existing relationships (constituent) or constituent records (agent), and create relationships between authorized users and cases by using related parties. Constituents and agents can edit or remove person and relationship records, or create relationships if a relationship between applicant and beneficiary doesn’t exist.
- Upload and verify documents attached to a social benefits application
- Automatically verify the validity of documents that are uploaded to a social benefits request application by using the Grouped Document Verification Tasks (GDVTs) component of the Document Processor Plugin.
- Request interviews with constituents through the Conduct Interview modal in Social Benefits Playbook
- Enable the case agent to initiate an application interview with the constituent to determine social benefit eligibility and gather additional case details. Agents can recommend specific dates and times directly from the playbook.
- Apply for additional Social Benefits programs by using data from the primary case
- Enable constituents to apply for additional social benefits in addition to the primary benefit being requested. A child Social Benefits case is appended to the case of the original benefit.
- View benefits summary card in Government Service Portal and Social Benefits Playbook
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Enable constituents to view a running summary and value of all requested benefits through the benefits summary widget in the Government Service Portal. The benefits summary widget displays the benefit and the estimated benefit amount that is determined by the eligibility criteria. Agents can also use the benefit summary widget to view the benefit breakdown when fulfilling social benefit requests in the Social Benefits Playbook workspace.
- Submit a license and permit application on behalf of someone else
- Prepare license and permit applications on behalf of others with the application proxy feature. Constituents or business contacts can act as authorized representatives to look up beneficiaries or other related parties (registered users only) and link them to the application in progress. Agents can create and process applications that were initiated by authorized representatives and can also link other registered users to the case.
- Create a digital copy of a license and permit in License and Permit Playbook
- Create a digital copy of an issued license or permit directly in the License and Permit Playbook and attach it to an item received record so that it can be printed, emailed, and shared with the requester.
- Submit license and permit requests using Virtual Agent
- Enable constituents and business owners to submit license and permit requests by using a prebuilt Virtual Agent License or Permit Request conversation topic that runs in supported chat and messaging channels, including Engagement Messenger.
- Request additional inspections needed for a license or permit request in License and Permit Playbook
- Enable agents to request additional inspections after reviewing the findings of an initial inspection so that the applicant can make any changes that are required to pass the inspection and receive a license or permit. Agents can record the findings for each round of inspections with a Record Findings activity in the License and Permit Playbook.
UI changes
- Add additional beneficiaries to a Social Benefits application
- Constituents or their representatives can add additional beneficiaries to a social benefits application via the Government Service Portal. Agents can add additional beneficiaries to an application via the Social Benefits Playbook.
- Associate multiple parties to a single application in License and Permit Playbook
- Constituents can add multiple business contacts to a license or permit case by using the Additional related parties field in the Government Service Portal. Agents can add multiple business contacts to a license or permit case directly from the License and Permit Playbook workspace with the Add Related Parties playbook activity in the Intake stage.
- UI Improvements to the approval workflow in License and Permit Playbook
- The Propose Decision activity workflow in License and Permit Playbook is streamlined to enable better agent collaboration and provide a more intuitive experience for agents who are deciding whether to grant a license or permit.
- Enhanced fee summary widget in Government Service Portal and License and Permit Playbook
Enable constituents to view the running totals of all the fee line items with the updated fee summary widget in the Government Service Portal. The fee summary widget outlines the base fee, any itemized additional costs that depend on the options selected, and the total fee for a license or permit request. Agents can also use the enhanced fee summary widget to view the fee breakdown when proposing a fee in the License and Permit Playbook workspace.
- Design Enhancements to the Upload Docs and Review Fee activities in License and Permit Playbook
- The Upload Docs and Review Fee activities in License and Permit Playbook are updated to notify agents when their case is blocked by pending constituent action on a case task, such as uploading a file with more information or reviewing proposed fees. Case tasks are displayed as a read-only card rather than a field.
Activation information
Install Public Sector Digital Services applications by requesting them from the ServiceNow Store. For details on installing the applications, see Configuring Public Sector Digital Services. Visit the ServiceNow Store website to view all the available apps and for information about submitting requests to the store. For cumulative release notes information for all released apps, see the ServiceNow Store version history release notes.