Service Exchange (formerly Service Bridge) release notes
Summarize
Summarized using AI
This content was generated using new OpenAI-powered functionality. Results are provided on an as is basis and are not guaranteed to be accurate or complete.
Summary of Service Exchange (formerly Service Bridge) Release Notes
The ServiceNow Service Exchange application, previously known as Service Bridge, enables seamless connection and tracking of services between provider and consumer instances without the need for custom integrations. The Australia release introduces significant enhancements to streamline connection management, improve onboarding, and enhance data synchronization capabilities.
Show less
Key Features
- Unified Connections Management: Manage, create, view, request, and offboard provider and consumer connections from a single Connections tab within the Service Exchange Center, simplifying navigation and administration.
- Improved Consumer Onboarding: A guided, step-by-step registration workflow accelerates onboarding with clear progress indicators and actionable messaging for failures, reducing dependency on support.
- Enhanced Foundation Data Sync (FDS): Synchronize Knowledge Base articles, maintain CMDB sysids for new Configuration Items (CIs), and replicate CI dependency relationships, reducing data inconsistencies across instances.
- Journal Field Framework Enhancements: Map multiple journal fields to a single target field and support synchronization of journalinput type fields to preserve all journal entries.
- Simplified Persona Management: Assign Remote Catalog personas via user groups or roles to automate access management aligned with enterprise IAM standards, minimizing manual work.
- Australia Early Availability Features: Consumer outbound FDS enables scheduled sharing of foundational data from consumer to provider, supporting operational workflows. The Service Exchange center provides real-time visibility into connection health and issues. Auto-onboarding automates connection setup and monitoring with minimal manual effort.
- User Interface Updates: The Health dashboard is now part of the Service Exchange Center, offering centralized, holistic views of system health, connection statuses, and faster issue resolution.
Important Upgrade and Activation Information
- Do not upgrade to the Australia release if you depend on Service Exchange until Australia Patch 1 is available due to a known RPS issue affecting functionality.
- Migration from legacy Service Exchange versions requires following documented migration utilities and upgrade guides to preserve configuration data and ensure compatibility.
- When using both Service Exchange for Providers and Consumers in one instance, upgrade both applications simultaneously to maintain version compatibility and prevent scan check errors.
- Post-upgrade, run the scan suite to identify and resolve any issues promptly.
- Installation and activation of Service Exchange require requesting the application from the ServiceNow Store.
Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers
With these updates, customers can expect:
- Consolidated management of service connections, reducing administrative overhead.
- Faster, more reliable onboarding experiences for consumer instances, minimizing friction and support dependency.
- Improved data integrity and synchronization across connected instances, ensuring consistent operational data.
- Automated persona and access management aligned with enterprise identity standards, enhancing security and compliance.
- Greater visibility into connection health and proactive issue detection for smoother integrations.
- Streamlined data sharing workflows supporting the full service life cycle between consumers and providers.
These improvements collectively facilitate more efficient, secure, and manageable cross-instance service integration, helping ServiceNow customers optimize their service delivery networks.
The ServiceNow® Service Exchange application, formerly known as Service Bridge, enables providers and consumers to connect and track services directly between instances without having to configure and maintain custom integrations. Service Exchange was enhanced and updated in the Australia release.
Service Exchange highlights for the Australia release
Australia Early Availability
- Service Bridge has been renamed Service Exchange.
- Streamline data replication from consumer to provider instances with consumer outbound foundation data sync.
- Get enhanced visibility into your instances with the Service Exchange center.
- Reduce onboarding complexity for consumers with auto-onboarding.
See Service Exchange for more information.
Important:
Service Exchange is available in the ServiceNow Store. For details, see the "Activation information" section of these release notes.
Service Exchange features
Australia Early Availability
- Consumer outbound FDS
- Reduce manual effort and eliminate the need to share data externally by sharing selected foundational data types with your provider on a scheduled cadence. This data transfer supports the service life cycle by providing foundational data context for operational workflows.
- Service Exchange center
- Detect problems early, understand connection status, and resolve issues efficiently with the Service Exchange center, a centralized interface that provides real-time visibility into scan check issues, connection health and statuses, and access to all Service Exchange scan suites. Service Exchange admins can access their respective centers through the Provider and Consumer center links in the navigation menu.
- Auto-onboarding
- Reduce onboarding complexity for consumers with automated onboarding. This feature autonomously manages onboarding workflows, establishes secure connections, synchronizes settings, and continuously monitors for errors to ensure reliable, efficient integrations with minimal manual effort.
UI changes
- Health dashboard
- The Health dashboard has been relocated to the Service Exchange Center. Access a more holistic view of system health that includes a resolution center, connection health, and built-in scan suites providing centralized visibility and faster troubleshooting of integration issues.
Important upgrade information for Service Exchange
Important:
Do not upgrade your ServiceNow® instance to the Australia release if you rely on Service Exchange. A known RPS issue prevents Service Exchange from functioning correctly. Proceed with the upgrade only after Australia Patch 1 becomes available.
- Service Exchange version 2.x.x, which was first released with the Xanadu release, doesn’t support migration of Service Exchange (Legacy) versions.
Service Exchange (Legacy) version: Before you upgrade to the Australia release, consult the Service Exchange for Providers (Legacy) - Migration Utility [KB1499823] article in the Now Support Knowledge Base to find out how to migrate your configuration data.
- Service Exchange version 1.x.x: When upgrading, consult the Upgrade Guide - Service Exchange for Providers and Consumers application (v2.x.x release) [KB1700387] article in the Now Support Knowledge Base to find out how to migrate your Service Exchange applications.
- Service Exchange version 2.x.x: New entitlements that require the latest compatibility version cannot be activated until both consumers and providers upgrade to Service Exchange version 2.x.x. New entitlements configured with a lower compatibility version can be activated. Older active entitlements continue to work but new ones can’t be activated.
- When using Service Exchange for Providers and Service Exchange for Consumers in a single instance, you must upgrade both applications simultaneously to the same version to maintain compatibility. If the versions diverge, a scan check will report version mismatches and the Health Dashboard will show a version mismatch issue. After upgrading, run and validate the post‑upgrade scan suite to identify and resolve any post‑upgrade issues.
- If you have upgraded to Service Exchange version 2.0.55 before upgrading the platform to the Australia release and your instance has Sales Customer Relationship Management plug-in version 1.0.4 installed, the new Deny ACLs aren't installed. After upgrading to the Australia release, select Repair to reinstall the Service Exchange application to ensure Deny ACLs are installed.
- When you install the Service Exchange application, the Service Exchange Global script include is automatically installed or updated on the following platform versions:
- Yokohama
- Zurich
- Australia
Activation information
Install Service Exchange by requesting it from the ServiceNow Store. Visit the ServiceNow Store 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.