Service Model Foundation personas

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated July 20, 2026
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of Service Model Foundation personas

    Service Model Foundation (SMF) facilitates collaboration among various user personas within service organizations to effectively manage, deliver, and consume services across business locations. These personas are role-based and responsibility-driven, enabling tailored access and functionality within the SMF framework. SMF’s personas are industry-agnostic and adaptable, allowing a single user to assume different roles and responsibilities at multiple business locations.

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    Key Personas and Their Roles

    SMF defines personas that align with the types of work users perform. Roles are assigned at the user level, while responsibilities are defined per business location, combining to control user capabilities within service organizations. Key personas include:

    • Service Organization Contributor: Assigned to specific service organizations, these users can submit requests and view cases for their location. Example: Bank branch tellers managing customer requests and reporting operational issues.
    • Location Agent: Works within a service organization to report issues and manage cases for both business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) customers. Example: Radiology operations associates handling patient and departmental requests.
    • Location Consumer Agent: Focuses on B2C customer interactions, managing cases and reporting issues at their location. Example: In-store customer care associates assisting retail shoppers.
    • Location Manager Contributor: Manages teams at a business location and submits requests for operational issues. Example: Hotel front desk managers overseeing daily operations and guest support.
    • Location Manager: Combines management of teams and active fulfillment of cases assigned to the location. Example: College supervisors managing student registration and support teams.
    • Location Support Agent: Supports other business locations by fulfilling their requests within a service organization and has visibility into the request details. Example: Public sector shared services staff assisting other departments.
    • Location Relationship Manager: Manages relationships with external business locations or third-party partners as a primary internal contact. Example: Dealership liaisons managing manufacturer’s external dealer networks.
    • Administrator: Configures service organizations, manages hierarchy, and assigns roles and responsibilities without directly interacting with service requests.

    Practical Application for ServiceNow Customers

    Understanding these personas helps ServiceNow administrators assign appropriate access levels, responsibilities, and tools within SMF to reflect organizational structures and workflows. This ensures efficient service delivery and accurate management of service operations across various industries such as banking, healthcare, retail, hospitality, higher education, public sector, and manufacturing. The flexible persona model supports users operating in multiple roles across different locations, enhancing scalability and operational clarity.

    Understand the key personas involved in managing and using Service Model Foundation and their responsibilities in supporting business locations and service operations.

    Understanding Service Model Foundation personas

    Service Model Foundation supports collaboration between multiple personas, each playing a distinct role in managing, delivering, and consuming services. Understanding these roles helps administrators assign the right access, responsibilities, and tools within the framework.

    Service Model Foundation (SMF) supports access based on predefined personas that reflect the type of work users perform within a service organization. Because SMF is industry-agnostic, these personas aren’t tied to specific job titles and can be tailored to match your organization’s needs.

    A single user can represent different personas across multiple business locations. For example, a user might act as a Location Manager at one branch and a Contributor at another. SMF models this flexibility through:
    • Roles – Defined at the user level.
    • Responsibilities – Defined according to business location.
    The combination of user roles and responsibilities determines what a user can do within each service organization.

    Service Model Foundation user personas and their interactions with different industry verticals

    Each following persona represents a different way users interact with business locations and service organizations.

    Table 1. Service Model Foundation user personas
    Persona Related role Description Industry vertical example
    Bank branch teller Service organization contributor A service organization contributor is assigned to a specific service organization and can make requests on behalf of their business location. They can also view any cases submitted by others for their location. Banking: At the local Solana Bank branch, tellers primarily handle customer requests in person that don’t require case filing. Occasionally, they report operational issues or request support for their branch. These team members are service organization contributors.
    Radiology operations associate Location agent A location agent works within a service organization to report issues and manage cases for both B2B and B2C customers at their business location. Healthcare: The operations associate in the radiology department submits requests for patients and the department overall. They also fulfill requests assigned to radiology.
    In-store customer care associate Location consumer agent A location consumer agent focuses specifically on B2C customers, reporting issues and managing cases assigned to their business location. Their role is similar to a location agent, but they're more centered on consumer interactions. Retail: Solana Grocery has an in-store customer care department to assist shoppers. These customer care agents primarily interact with customers rather than working on the shop floor and are modeled as location consumer agents.
    Hotel manager at a franchise location Location manager contributor A location manager contributor manages their business location teams while also submitting requests for issues that arise. Hospitality: The front desk manager oversees daily operations and submits requests for support on behalf of the front desk and guests when needed.
    College supervisor Location manager A location manager can contribute to their business locations, manage the team, and fulfill cases assigned to the location. This role combines the responsibilities of a location manager contributor with active case resolution. Higher Education: The registrar manages a team that assists students with registration. They occasionally request help from other departments and temporarily add student workers to their team. The registrar also fulfills requests from students, professors, and other departments such as financial aid.
    Inter-departmental support agent Location support agent A location support agent is assigned to a specific service organization and focuses on helping other business locations with their requests. They can view details about the organizations requesting support. Public Sector: The Solana City government’s shared services department fulfills requests from other departments, such as IT or purchasing. Staff serving other departments are modeled as location support agents.
    Regional dealership liaison Location relationship manager A location relationship manager is responsible for managing relationships with external business locations. This role is dedicated to supporting third-party locations through a primary internal contact. Manufacturing: Dealerships may be managed by external teams while representing the manufacturer. Solana Cars manufactures vehicles and sells them through a network of dealerships, some company-owned and others managed via dealer groups.
    Platform configuration admin Administrator An administrator doesn't use the application directly, but supports configuration of the service organization, hierarchy management, and assignment of member roles and responsibilities, including related-party configurations.