Functionality enhancements for the entities
Summarize
Summary of Functionality Enhancements for the Entities
These functionality enhancements for entities within the GRC module focus on improving entity ownership management and form usability. The updates allow ServiceNow customers to automate ownership synchronization, receive notifications about ownership changes, and better manage entity details using improved forms and logging.
Show less
Key Features
- Email Notification: When an entity’s owner is updated or reassigned, an automatic email notification is sent to the new owner, ensuring timely communication of ownership changes.
- Auto-update Entity Owner: Customers can enable the Auto-update owner option to keep the entity owner aligned with the value from a reference (source) field. This option is available for entities created via entity filters with the Use owner field enabled. It also appears on the entity form in the workspace view.
- Form Design Enhancements:
- Mandatory fields such as Entity class and Default owner must be completed on entity and entity filter forms to ensure each entity has an assigned owner.
- The Department field is added to add contextual information alongside location and class.
- The form now displays the Auto-update owner option and the Source field for owner if auto-update is enabled.
- Activity Journal: Changes to entity fields are logged and visible through the Activity journal on the entity form, providing an audit trail of modifications.
- Sync Owner UI Action: A new related link, Sync owner with source field, appears on the entity form when the owner and source field values are out of sync. This enables manual synchronization of ownership.
- Batch Synchronization Job: Customers can activate a scheduled job to automatically synchronize entity owners with their source record values on a configurable frequency (daily, weekly, or monthly). Batch size for synchronization can also be set via GRC properties for optimal performance.
Key Outcomes
- Improved ownership accuracy by automatically synchronizing entity owners with source data, reducing manual errors.
- Enhanced communication through email notifications, keeping owners informed of changes promptly.
- Better entity data management and context by enforcing required fields and adding department details.
- Increased transparency and auditing capabilities via the Activity journal tracking field changes.
- Operational efficiency through scheduled synchronization jobs that maintain data consistency without manual intervention.
You can configure some functionality enhancements for the entities as part of the GRC updates.
- Email notification: When you update the entity owner value or when you assign a new owner to an entity, an email notification is sent to the entity owner about the assignment of the entity.
- Auto-update the entity owner: You can select the Auto-update owner
option to keep the entity owner in synchronization with the value from its reference (source)
field. See the following example.
Figure 1. Auto-update entity owner option The Auto-update owner option is visible only for those entities that you have created by using the entity filter and that you have enabled by using the Use owner field option in the filter.
You can also view the Auto-update owner option on the entity form in the workspace view. See the following example.
Figure 2. Entity form in the workspace view - Form design changes: The following form design changes are introduced in the entity and
entity filter forms.
- You must fill in the Entity class and Default
owner fields in the form as shown in the following example.
Figure 3. Class and owner fields in the entity form - You must fill in the Default owner field even if you have cleared
the Use owner field as shown in the following example. This update
ensures that every entity that has been created has an owner assigned to it.
Figure 4. Default owner field - The Department field is added to the entity form. You can add context to an entity by selecting the department, location, and class fields.
- The Auto-update owner and Source field for
owner fields are displayed in the form. The Source field for
owner is visible only if you have enabled the Auto-update
owner field as shown in the following example.
Figure 5. Auto-update owner and Source field for owner fields - The Activity journal displays the log of the changes that are made to the fields as shown
in the following example.
Figure 6. Activity journal on the entity form - The new Sync owner with source field related link is displayed in
the entity form as shown in the following example. It synchronizes the owner of an entity
with its source record's field value. It is visible on the form only if the value of the
source field and the owner of an entity are not in synchronization.
Figure 7. Sync owner with source field UI action Activate the job that synchronizes the entity owner before enabling the property. You can enable the Frequency of syncing the entity owner with the source record property under GRC properties to synchronize the entity owner with its source record on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.
Activate the job that synchronizes the entity owner before enabling the property. You can enable the Maximum batch size while syncing the entity owner with that of its source record property under GRC properties to set the maximum batch size to an integer value. By doing this action, you synchronize the entity owner with its source record value.
- You must fill in the Entity class and Default
owner fields in the form as shown in the following example.