Combined Field Service Management release notes for upgrades from Zurich to Australia

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated May 4, 2026
  • 12 minutes to read

    • Consolidated page of all release notes for Field Service Management from Zurich to Australia.

    How to use this page

    To help you prepare for your upgrade, we have combined the cross-family Field Service Management release notes onto one page. Read this summary of the new features, changes, and updated information for your product from Zurich to Australia.

    Tip:
    If there were no updates for a release notes section in a certain family release, we included a short note for your reference. For example, if a product did not have any updates in Tokyo, the row says "No updates for this release."

    Important information for upgrading Field Service Management to Australia

    Before you upgrade to Australia, review these pre- and post-upgrade tasks and complete the tasks as needed.

    Release Release notes

    Zurich

    Effective March 1, 2025, the Google Places API, Directions API, and Distance Matrix API have been designated as legacy services. The newer versions of these services are Places API (New) and Routes API. Google Maps APIs for Field Service capabilities uses the latest version of the APIs in the Zurich release and Dispatcher Workspace version 8.0. To help avoid issues with the Google Maps APIs, enable Places API (New) and Routes API from Google Cloud Platform Console.

    Australia

    		 No updates for this release.

    New features

    Between your current release family and Australia, new features were introduced for Field Service Management.

    Release Release notes

    Zurich
    Using Dispatcher Workspace
    Use Dispatcher Workspace to perform the following tasks:
    • Use the advanced resource filter to sort contractors and equipment.
    • Add agents to Dispatcher Workspace to see their schedules, or assign them tasks if you manage the assignment group or territory they're a part of. This action can be done without loading the entire assignment group or territory that the agent is a member of.
    • Set up the calendar to use multiple time zones at once. For more information, see Show multiple time zones.
    • Navigate from a work order task to a related list of smart assessments that are associated with that work order.
    Assigning WOTs manually
    Use the records page to perform the following tasks that was limited to Dispatcher Workspace before:
    • Flag a work order task.
    • Use assignment assistance.
    Schedule Optimization
    Use Schedule Optimization to do the following:
    • Initiate immediate optimization to adjust schedules and tasks when an in-day event occurs, like a new priority 1 task, a canceled task, an agent taking PTO, or an agent running late.
    • Assign the best agent for a work order task based on agent efficiency, which helps schedule and assign tasks more appropriately, using Field Service Agent Efficiency.

    • Define work, travel, and overtime penalty values for each agent so the optimization engine can either schedule a nearby agent with a higher penalty or a distant agent with a lower penalty.

    • Improve task scheduling by assigning dependent tasks to a single technician within the same shift.
    Workforce
    Enable managers to show or hide work order tasks from the Calendars tab in Workforce. When Workforce Optimization for Field Service is enabled, these tasks can also be viewed in Hybrid and Map views.
    Field Service Scheduling
    Manage resource attributes for any duration, whether a single day or multiple days.
    Appointment Booking
    Use Appointment Booking to do the following:
    • Enable better control over task sequencing using new dependency types, such as 'Finish to Start - Same Day' and 'Finish Together' with lag options, integrated with appointment booking for more precise scheduling. Enhance operational insight for all roles through improved visualizations including dependency trees, conflict alerts, and task indicators, which support dispatcher decisions and technician execution.
    • Optimize appointment recommendations by allowing radius configuration at the territory level, tailored to diverse areas, such as urban versus rural. This capability includes an extension point for customers to implement custom radius logic with default instance-level values if no specific configuration is set.
    • Enhance appointment recommendations by allowing grading against user-defined similar services rather than identical ones, resulting in more versatile scheduling options. This feature includes an extension point for customers to specify which services they consider similar, and the system defaults to same-catalog matching if no custom configuration is provided.
    • Increase scheduling flexibility with new features to support slot overlap and overrides. This capability enables territory-based customization of appointment windows, default schedules, and specific slot-level overrides, giving more control over availability.

    Australia
    Dispatcher Workspace
    Dispatcher Workspace now enables you to perform the following tasks:
    • Show multiple time zones on the map in Dispatcher Workspace with a segmented time indicator to see which time zone each Field Service technician is in. For more information, see Time zones.
    • Quickly see a work order task in the task panel and find it on the calendar rather than having to search through multiple days. For more information, see Open tasks from the task list.
    • See live traffic on the map in Dispatcher Workspace. For more information, see Show map overlays in Dispatcher Workspace.
    • Flag multiple tasks at once. For more information, see Flag or unflag tasks from the list.
    • Quickly find tasks in the calendar from the task list. For more information, see Flag or unflag tasks from the list.
    • View analytics, including the number of technicians without a work schedule or valid location. For more information, see Scheduling Health dashboard.
    • Show an overtime indicator on the calendar to visually see which technicians have overtime tasks. For more information, see Show overtime indicator.
    • Control the size of the cells on the calendar to see shorter tasks more easily. For more information, see Zoom in or out on the calendar.
    Field Service Manager Mobile
    Field Service Managers can do their work from anywhere on their mobile device, including the following tasks:
    Locations on personal events
    See locations for personal events regardless of where they're created in Field Service Management applications including Dispatcher Workspace and Field Service Manager Mobile.
    ServiceNow Agent mobile app
    • Generate work summary reports and capture signatures in them at the work order task level along with the existing work order level. Additionally, you can view responses and score information for the smart assessment questionnaires in the work summary report.
    • Perform asset audits for the technician's personal stockroom to verify and reconcile assets between a physical stockroom and the data on the ServiceNow instance.
    Respond to a reviewed work order task
    View and resubmit smart assessment questionnaire responses that need additional information, enabling more informed and timely corrections of responses from job sites.
    Schedule Optimization
    Enhance scheduling accuracy and performance with Schedule Optimization
    • View comprehensive details for all optimization runs to quickly identify issues. Access standardized information about run status, included tasks and qualifiers, unassigned tasks with explanations, and the objectives and constraints applied during each optimization.
    • Manage integrations more easily by configuring options to enable or disable third-party map providers beyond the default provider.
    • Leverage all available trainers to reduce processing time and accelerate end-to-end scheduling for high-volume scenarios by splitting qualifiers into non-overlapping sets and running multiple optimization jobs in parallel.
    • Improve scheduling accuracy by introducing a Window End Buffer Duration field on the Work Order task record that enables you to configure a buffer duration that extends optimization beyond the defined window end so tasks are retained in the schedule.
    • Ensure only relevant tasks are processed by removing intraday events that don't meet specified criteria from both scheduled and prioritized optimization runs.
    • Improve optimization control by applying matching rules to intraday events by accessing them in the Table field on Matching Rules.
    • Reduce processing time for high-volume scheduling by splitting qualifiers into non-overlapping groups to run multiple optimization jobs in parallel across available trainers. View how qualifiers are grouped using the Job Distribution column in both batch and intraday runs.
    Appointment Booking
    Use Appointment Booking to perform the following tasks:
    • Ensure better alignment with your operations by defining advanced lead time and cut-off logic through APIs or extension points. You can implement a custom script through an extension point based on job type, time of day, and day of week.
    • Accommodate emergencies or priorities even if the capacity or appointment slots are full by enabling overbooking of appointments.
    • Configure appointment slots to consider the holiday settings for a territory and display the available slots accordingly.
    • Ensure guaranteed appointment slots by configuring availability checks to be performed at the time of slot retrieval so that any slot displayed is assured to be bookable without needing further capacity validation during the appointment booking.
    • Ensure an accurate calculation of the duration for a task while booking an appointment by defining work and travel duration either in the appointment schedule configuration or in the schedule override configuration.
    • Determine appointment availability using territory and demand channel mapping when contact or location details are not provided.
    • Consider task dependencies while booking or rescheduling appointments and display the slots for the successor tasks after the estimated completion time including the defined lag time for the predecessor task.
    ServiceNow product tiers
    The ServiceNow AI Platform now brings you a new AI experience with three licensing tiers available:
    • Foundation: AI basics to deliver insights
    • Advanced: AI to boost productivity across relevant use cases
    • Prime: Act autonomously with all AI assets, and create your own

    Depending on your license, you will have access to certain application features, generative AI skills, agentic workflows, and AI agents.

    Changes

    Between your current release family and Australia, some changes were made to existing Field Service Management features.

    Release Release notes

    Zurich
    Capacity and Reservations Management

    Use the aggregated schedules of all agents of a territory to allocate resources until a specified cut-off date, after which predicted capacity can be used for bookings. This feature optimizes resource utilization and capacity management for a territory, which helps ensure that business services remain available without overburdening resources.

    Google Maps APIs for  Field Service  capabilities

    Effective March 1, 2025, Google has designated the Places API, Directions API, and Distance Matrix API as Legacy services. The newer versions of these services are Places API (New) and Routes API. You can’t generate new API keys for these legacy services. However, you can continue using these services with the existing API keys. If you create a Google API key after March 2025, you must upgrade to a supported ServiceNow release version to verify compatibility.

    Smart Assessment for Field Service
    Use Smart Assessment for Field Service to do the following:
    • Streamline asset identification and data entry by scanning and capturing barcode values directly within a work order questionnaire.
    • Configure a predefined range for numeric inputs to minimize errors and help ensure data accuracy.
    • View completed questionnaires in the workspace.
    • Create follow-up work order tasks from a work order questionnaire based on the responses.
    • Allow users to retry or replace an attachment if the upload is unsuccessful.
    Field Service Scheduling
    Migrates data from the Work Parameter table to the Resource Schedule Attribute table for each technician, confirming that work parameters align with the new schedule attributes.

    Australia
    https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=external.sn-app-store&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US
    The following plugins are planned for deprecation in the C release. Beginning with the Australia release this plugin will be migrated to a store application. Upgrade your instance to Australia or later release versions and the store applications will be automatically installed.
    Beginning with the Australia release, the following applications have been moved to the https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=external.sn-app-store&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US. Any application enhancements will be delivered through the related store app.
    Google maps ID
    The google.maps.map_id system property enables Field Service Management to use Google Maps for cloud-based map styling, vector mapping, and advanced markers. You must obtain your own map ID.

    Removed

    Between your current release family and Australia, some Field Service Management features or functionality were removed.

    Release Release notes

    Zurich

    		 No updates for this release.

    Australia

    		 No updates for this release.

    Deprecations

    Between your current release family and Australia, some Field Service Management features or functionality were deprecated.

    Release Release notes

    Zurich
    • Non-collapsed mode is being deprecated and removed from Dispatcher Workspace. Dispatchers must use collapsed mode to see available resources in Dispatcher Workspace.
    • Starting with the Zurich release, the Enable capacity constraint for Schedule Optimization is being deprecated. It will no longer be applied for Schedule Optimization. For details, see the Deprecation Process [KB0867184] article in the Now Support Knowledge Base.

    Australia

    		 No updates for this release.

    Activation information

    Review information on how to activate Field Service Management.

    Release Release notes

    Zurich

    Field Service Management is a ServiceNow AI Platform feature that is active by default.

    Australia

    Field Service Management is a ServiceNow AI Platform feature that is active by default.

    Additional requirements

    If any additional requirements were introduced or changed for Field Service Management we have noted them here.

    Release Release notes

    Zurich

    		 No updates for this release.

    Australia

    		 No updates for this release.

    Browser requirements

    If any specific browser requirements were introduced or changed for Field Service Management we have noted them here.

    Release Release notes

    Zurich

    		 No updates for this release.

    Australia

    		 No updates for this release.

    Accessibility information

    Review details on accessibility information for Field Service Management, such as specific requirements or compliance levels.

    Release Release notes

    Zurich

    		 No updates for this release.

    Australia

    		 No updates for this release.

    Localization information

    If there are specific localization considerations for Field Service Management we have noted them here.

    Release Release notes

    Zurich

    		 No updates for this release.

    Australia

    		 No updates for this release.

    Highlight information

    If there are specific highlight considerations for Field Service Management we have noted them here.

    Release Release notes

    Zurich
    • Use the aggregated agent schedule to optimize the allocation of resources for a territory up to the specified cut-off date.
    • Flag a task or use assignment assistance directly from the Work Order Task page to streamline task management.
    • Configure Schedule Optimization to instantly adjust technician schedules in response to real-time events, like new priority 1 tasks, task cancellations, paid time off requests, or delays.

    See Field Service Management for more information.

    Australia
    • Increase productivity by Field Service Managers, who can do their work from anywhere on their mobile device with Field Service Manager Mobile.
    • Allow overbooking in priority cases, consider holidays at the territory level, enable flexible sourcing for work and travel times, and consider task dependencies when scheduling or rescheduling appointments through advanced lead-time management.
    • Determine appointment availability without specific contact or location information by using territory and demand channel mapping through APIs.
    • View run summaries in Schedule Optimization to understand what was evaluated during scheduling, including objectives, constraints, travel mode, and assignment outcomes.
    • Review the Field Service Management features and activation plugins now available through the ServiceNow Store application. For more details, see the "Changed in the Release" section.

    See Field Service Management for more information.