Exploring Service Operations Workspace for ITSM

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 4 minutes to read
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    Summary of Exploring Service Operations Workspace for ITSM

    Service Operations Workspace (SOW) for ITSM offers a unified, configurable workspace designed to streamline the management of IT Service Management tasks such as incidents, requests, and walk-ups. It provides a seamless agent experience with easy navigation and supports both ITSM and IT Operations Management workflows, enabling improved prioritization and faster resolution of tasks.

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    Key Features

    • Configurable Landing Page: Tailored views for Tier 1 and Tier 2 agents include overviews of outages, service announcements, assignments, and personal performance tasks.
    • Incident Management: Agents manage incidents efficiently with contextual details, targeted actions, and metrics from Agent Client Collector to accelerate resolutions.
    • Recommended Actions for ITSM: Provides real-time, actionable recommendations using information from similar incidents and knowledge articles to expedite triage and resolution.
    • On-Call Scheduling: Facilitates setting up on-call schedules, roster rotations, and escalation policies to ensure timely expert support for high-priority tasks.
    • Microsoft Teams Integration: Enables collaboration with requesters and peers directly from tasks through Teams chat.
    • Request and Walk-up Management: Supports creation and lifecycle management of requests and provides features to manage walk-up interactions, appointments, stockrooms, and kiosks.
    • Guided Setup and Tours: Administrators can configure SOW for ITSM through a guided setup interface, and agents can use interactive guided tours to learn workspace functionalities.
    • Integration with ITOM Workspace: Enables a unified experience for managing IT services and operations on a single platform, enhancing automation and optimization.

    User Roles and Experiences

    • Tier 1 Agents: Focus on handling interactions, incidents, and requests; use tailored landing pages to manage assignments and performance tasks.
    • Tier 2 Agents: Handle incidents, requests, changes, problems, and major incidents with access to advanced tools and recommendations.
    • Administrators: Responsible for implementing and configuring the workspace using guided setup and managing ongoing administration.

    Typical Agent Workflow

    An agent begins by reviewing the prioritized overview of assignments, outages, and service announcements. They can create and resolve incidents quickly using related records and recommendations, contact on-call experts for critical issues, collaborate with peers via Teams, and initiate change requests to address underlying problems.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Streamlines task management for service desk agents, improving response times and resolution quality.
    • Enhances collaboration and expert engagement through integrated communication tools and on-call scheduling.
    • Provides administrators with guided tools for efficient setup and customization of the workspace.
    • Supports continuous learning and adoption via guided tours, reducing training time for new agents.
    • Offers a consolidated platform bridging ITSM and ITOM, enabling holistic management of IT services and operations.

    You can have a unified and seamless experience when managing the life cycle of task records such as incidents, requests, and walk-ups in IT Service Management workflows using Service Operations Workspace (SOW) for ITSM.

    Service Operations Workspace for ITSM overview

    Service Operations Workspace for ITSM is a configurable workspace that provides a unified experience for multiple IT Service Management and IT Operations Management workflows. Configure your agent experience using the easy-to-navigate interface of Service Operations Workspace for ITSM.

    Accessing Service Operations Workspace for ITSM

    For information about accessing Service Operations Workspace for ITSM, see Access Service Operations Workspace for ITSM.

    Service Operations Workspace for ITSM users

    User Description
    Tier 1 agent User who has the itil or sn_sow.sow_home role and belongs to a service desk group.
    Primarily focused on the life cycle of the following records:
    • Interaction
    • Incident
    • Request
    Tier 2 agent User with the itil role.
    Primarily focused on the life cycle of the following records:
    • Incident
    • Request
    • Change
    • Problem
    • Major incident
    Administrator User who implements and sets up Service Operations Workspace for ITSM.

    Service Operations Workspace for ITSM benefits

    Benefit Feature Users
    Tailored landing page for tier 1 and tier 2 agents. It provides an overview of outages, service announcements, and assignments to efficiently prioritize the work. Tier 1 agents can view and manage their performance and learning tasks assigned by their manager.  Service Operations Workspace for ITSM landing page Tier 1 and Tier 2 agents
    Agents can manage incidents effectively with contextual information and targeted actions. Streamline investigations and accelerate incident resolution with the metrics data collected from Agent Client Collector (ACC). Incident Management in Service Operations Workspace Tier 1 and Tier 2 agents
    Agents can use information from similar incidents and knowledge articles to accelerate incident resolution. Recommended Actions for ITSM in Service Operations Workspace Tier 1 and Tier 2 agents
    Agents can reach out to experts on-call for high-priority tasks.  On-Call Scheduling in Service Operations Workspace Tier 1 and Tier 2 agents
    Agents can collaborate with the requester and peers from the task using Microsoft Teams chat.  ServiceNow integrations with Microsoft Teams in Service Operations Workspace Tier 1 and Tier 2 agents
     Agents can create requests from incidents and interactions. Agents can also manage the entire life cycle of requests.  Request Management in Service Operations Workspace Tier 1 and Tier 2 agents
    Agents and administrators can review and manage walk-up interactions, appointments, stockrooms, and kiosks at the walk-up service location.   Walk-up Experience management in Service Operations Workspace Tier 1 and Tier 2 agents
    All logged-in users can view key features to get started with Service Operations Workspace for ITSM. Service Operations Workspace for ITSM landing page Tier 1 and Tier 2 agents
    Administrators can have a guided experience for initial configuration of Service Operations Workspace for ITSM. Using guided setup Administrator
    Agents can have a unified experience for services and operations on a single platform by integrating with Service Operations Workspace for ITOM. Automating and optimizing your services and operations using Service Operations Workspace Tier 1 agent, Tier 2 agent, and IT operator

    For information about key features in Service Operations Workspace for ITOM, see Exploring Service Operations Workspace for ITOM.

    Service Operations Workspace for ITSM workflow for an agent

    SOW workflow

    • An agent can start the day by looking at an overview of assignments, outages, service announcements, and assignments in Service Operations Workspace to prioritize work based on service level agreements (SLAs), priority level, and urgency​.
    • The agent can create an incident based on the issue reported. Since the agent has access to related incidents and recent interactions, better and faster support can be provided. Agent also has access to all related information from the incident record page.
    • The agent can resolve the incident faster by using tailored recommendations.
    • The agent can reach out to experts on-call for high-priority tasks.​
    • The agent can collaborate easily with the requester and peers right from the task.
    • The agent can create a change request to fix the issue.

    Using guided tours to learn about Service Operations Workspace for ITSM

    Use a guided tour that is sequence of interactive steps to guide an agent through a specific process or task within Service Operations Workspace for ITSM. To access guided tours, select the Show help icon in the navigation bar and scroll down to find the Take a Tour or Select a Tour option. For more information about playing a guided tour, see Play a guided tour in Service Operations Workspace.

    Important:
    • A guided tour might break if you customize any of its associated UI elements in your instance, so ensure that you update your guided tours as well accordingly. For information on how to update guided tours, see Edit Guided Tours.
    • The Take a Tour or Select a Tour option is available only when a guided tour is available for that UI page.

    Using guided setup to implement Service Operations Workspace for ITSM

    Service Operations Workspace for ITSM guided setup provides a sequence of tasks that help an administrator configure Service Operations Workspace for ITSM on your ServiceNow instance. To open Service Operations Workspace for ITSM guided setup, navigate to All > Adoption Services > Guided Setup. For more information about using the guided setup interface, see Using guided setup.

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