Using Social Benefits Playbook

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of Using Social Benefits Playbook

    The Social Benefits Playbook for Public Sector Digital Services is designed for social benefits case agents and managers to efficiently manage and resolve social benefits requests. It automatically appears in the Playbook tab when a social benefits request case is created using the CSM Configurable Workspace. The playbook breaks down the workflow into multiple stages and activities, guiding users step-by-step to complete tasks and resolve cases.

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    Key Features

    • Playbook Stages: The playbook includes four main stages—Intake, Review, Process, and Decision—each with specific activities:
      • Intake: Captures request details and assigns the case to the appropriate agent.
      • Review: Verifies eligibility and reviews case details.
      • Process: Guides fulfillment activities for the social benefits request.
      • Decision: Records and communicates decisions and next steps to constituents and stakeholders.
    • Playbook Layout: The workspace is organized into distinct areas for ease of use:
      • Playbook header: Displays the playbook title, stage progress, activity filters, and action menus.
      • Playbook Life-cycle: Shows a list of activities per stage, allowing expansion or collapse.
      • Playbook work area: Displays the current activity card for task completion.
      • Contextual side panel: Provides case activity streams, overview details, SLAs, and dynamic related records.
      • Case Information Contact Card: Shows constituent contact details and preferred communication methods; enables starting email drafts directly from the playbook.
      • Items Received Card: Displays status of licenses or permits relevant to the case.
      • PaCE Policy Card: Available during decision activities to provide eligibility policy insights via linked knowledge base articles.
    • Automation Support: Supports automated activities such as auto-sending emails when stages or activities are completed, helping streamline communication.

    What You Can Expect

    By using the Social Benefits Playbook, ServiceNow customers can visualize and manage the complete lifecycle of social benefits requests, ensuring consistent processing and improved case resolution efficiency. The structured stages and activities help agents track progress clearly, perform required tasks systematically, and communicate decisions effectively to constituents and involved parties. Additionally, the configurable workflow allows administrators to tailor the playbook to specific social benefits use cases, enhancing flexibility and relevance.

    If you're a social benefits case agent or manager, you can use the Social Benefits Playbook for Public Sector Digital Services to manage and resolve requests for social benefits.

    The Social Benefits Playbook automatically appears in the Playbook tab when you create a social benefits request case by using the CSM Configurable Workspace. A playbook takes a workflow and breaks it into multiple stages or lanes. Each stage in a playbook includes one or more activities, or steps, for you to complete. Stages can also include automated activities, such as auto-sending an email to a customer when a stage or activity is complete. When using a playbook, you can:
    • View the playbook stages and activities.
    • Select an activity and perform the work to complete that activity.
    • Mark an activity as complete and move to the next activity or stage.
    • Complete the stages and activities to resolve the case.

    The workflows for a type of case and the activities that you need to resolve these cases are in the playbook. By using a playbook, you can visualize the entire life cycle of the information request workflow.

    Playbook stages

    Like other Public Sector Digital Services playbooks, this playbook contains four stages (Intake, Review, Process, and Decision) and several activities in each stage. Below is a diagram illustrating the base Social Benefits Playbook workflow. This workflow can be modified by an admin to match a specific social benefits use case.

    The Social Benefits Playbook stages are listed in the following table.
    Table 1. Playbook stages
    Task Description
    Intake Guides you through the record creation process by capturing the details of the social benefits request and assigning it to the right agent.
    Review Acts as a checkpoint for eligibility verification and provides you with an opportunity to review the case details.
    Process Guides you through the activities for social benefits request fulfillment.
    Decision Captures and communicates the decision and next steps to the constituent and any other agents or involved parties.

    Playbook layout

    The following figure shows the components that you can see in the Social Benefits Playbook workspace.
    Figure 1. Playbook layout with the Process-based Experience view
    Agent workspace view of the Social Benefits Playbook life cycle, case record information, and license request details, shown in the Process-based experience view.
    Table 2. Playbook components
    Playbook area Description
    Playbook header
    • Appears at the top of the playbook.
    • Shows the title of the playbook and a horizontal stage picker that displays progress through the playbook stages.
    • Includes a filter that you can use to filter the activities by the assigned user or the activity status.
    • Includes the Playbook Actions menu that you can use to select the playbook-level and activity-level actions.
    Playbook Life-cycle
    • Appears in a panel on the left side of the playbook.
    • Displays a list of the activities for each stage.

    • With the horizontal stage layout, you can expand or collapse the entire list of activities for the current stage.
    Playbook work area
    • Appears in the middle of the playbook.
    • Displays the card for the current activity.
    Contextual side panel
    • Appears on the right side of the playbook.
    • Includes the tabs that you can use to display the following types of information:
      • Case or case task activity stream.
      • Ribbon information such as the case overview, customer details, timeline, and service level agreements (SLAs).
      • Dynamic related records. For more information, see Dynamic related records.
    Case Information Contact Card
    • Contact information for the constituent or business that submitted the request.
    • Appears in a panel on the left side of the playbook.
    • Displays the preferred communication method indicated by the applicant.
    • Allows an agent to start an email draft directly from the playbook workspace by selecting the applicant's email address.
    • Displays the identity type provided by the applicant, either SSN, Driver's License, Medicare, or State Identification number.
    Items Received Card
    • Appears on the left side of the playbook.
    • Shows licenses/permits that are active, expired, and expiring soon, and the time remaining on each one.
    PaCE policy card
    • Appears in the contextual side panel during the Propose decision activity of Process stage.
    • Provides agents additional insight into eligibility criteria via a link to a corresponding KB article containing the full text of the policy.