Service Model Foundation overview

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated August 1, 2024
  • 2 minutes to read
    • 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 Model Foundation overview

    Service Model Foundation provides a robust framework for ServiceNow customers to model and manage the operational hierarchy of entities involved in delivering CRM functions such as sales and customer service. It extends the Customer Service Management data model, including the install base, to support complex organizational structures with internal and external business locations, households, customers, and their interrelationships.

    Show full answer Show less

    This framework enables customers to accurately reflect their service organization’s structure, assign agents to business locations, and manage relationships between agents and customers or consumers effectively. It supports both business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) models, accommodating diverse business needs and improving access control and case management.

    Key Features

    • Service Organization Modeling: Define internal and external entities involved in service delivery, such as branches, franchises, dealerships, and government agencies, with the flexibility to extend these entities as needed.
    • Business Locations: Manage both internal locations (stores, branches, centers) and external locations (franchises, dealerships) within the service organization hierarchy.
    • Customer Entities: Support for B2B customers (accounts, contacts) and B2C customers (consumers, households) to reflect real-world customer relationships.
    • Employee and Staff Roles: Model employees, agents, and staff members who operate within the service organizations, assigning appropriate roles and responsibilities.
    • Responsibilities and Relationships: Define specific responsibilities agents or consumers hold, establishing relationships that provide tailored access to customer data and case management capabilities.
    • Plugin Activation: Enable core features by activating plugins such as Business Location for physical channel support and Customer Service Household for managing household relationships.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Accurately represent complex service organization structures including multiple locations and diverse customer types.
    • Assign agents to specific locations, ensuring they have appropriate access to customer cases and information within their hierarchy.
    • Establish clear relationships between agents and customers or between consumers, facilitating personalized service and efficient case management.
    • Improve security and data access control based on defined roles, responsibilities, and relationships.
    • Leverage pre-built plugins to quickly activate and extend the Service Model Foundation capabilities according to business needs.

    Service Model Foundation provides a framework enabling customers to model and manage their operational hierarchy of the entities involved in offering CRM functions likes sales and customer service in alignment with their business needs.

    The Service Model Foundation framework expands the Customer Service Management data model, including the install base model. It provides the flexibility and security needed to support business organizations with internal and external locations, households, customers and consumers, and the relationships that exist between these entities.

    Use the Service Model Foundation framework to model the service organization structure that is involved in supporting your end customers. With this framework, you can:
    • Create a service organization structure that includes both internal and external business locations.
    • Assign customer service agents to business locations and provide access to the cases and customer information in their business location hierarchy.
    • Establish relationships between agents and specific customers that enable agents to manage cases and information for those customers.
    • Establish relationships between consumers, including consumers who are members of the same household.

    Entities included with Service Model Foundation

    The Service Model Foundation feature includes the following entities.
    Table 1. Industry data models entities
    Entity Definition Examples
    Service organizations

    The internal and external entities that are involved in providing a service to customers.

    A service organization provides the base framework that supports the customer service value chain. This includes internal and external service organizations.

    You can extend the service organization to create new entities as needed.
    • Financial service organizations with multiple branches
    • Automobile manufacturers with multiple dealerships
    • Government agencies with multiple office locations
    Internal business locations The internal entities that belong to a service organization and are involved in providing goods and services.
    • Stores
    • Branches
    • Centers
    External business locations The external entities that belong to a service organization and are involved in providing goods and services.
    • Franchises
    • Dealerships
    Customers (B2B) The external customers in the business-to-business model who use goods and services.
    • Accounts
    • Contacts
    Customers (B2C) The external customers in the business-to-consumer model who use goods and services.
    • Consumers
    • Households
    Employees and staff members The people who work at internal and external service organizations and assist customers.
    • Internal employees
    • External agents
    • External staff
    Roles Job functions that are performed by various users in the service organization.
    • Location managers
    • Location agents
    • Location consumer agents
    • Location relationship managers
    • Location manager contributors
    Responsibility definitions Definitions of the responsibilities that an agent can perform for a customer or that a consumer can perform for another consumer. Use these responsibilities to create relationships between agents and customers or between consumers.
    • Location agents
    • Location consumer agents
    • Location contributors
    • Location manager contributors
    • Location manager fulfiller
    • Location relationship manager
    Relationships Relationships that are created between agents and customers or between two consumers, are based on specific responsibilities. Use these relationships to provide additional access to data.
    • Relationships between an employee or staff member and a customer
    • Relationships between two consumers

    Plugins for Service Model Foundation

    Users with the system administrator role can activate the following plugins to enable Service Model Foundation features.
    Business Location
    Activate the Business Location plugin (com.snc.business_location) to enable support for businesses that interact with customers through physical channels such as stores, branches, franchises, and dealerships. This plugin automatically activates the Service Organization plugin (com.snc.service_organization).
    Customer Service Household
    Activate the Customer Service Household plugin (com.snc.household) to manage customer service for households. This plugin enables you to create households, define the members of a household, and identify relationships between household members. This plugin automatically activates the Customer Service Base Extension Entities plugin (com.snc.cs_base_extension).