Flow Designer Automate any process by easily connecting digital workflows The business challenge Business leaders are struggling to digitally transform, but to do so they need to understand how work flows across their business – which is often at a very granular level. Work is complicated, and the processes and flows that define individual tasks are the building blocks of efficiency. In the past, building automation was a highly technical task, requiring teams of developers writing complex code. But as processes themselves continue to become more and more intricate, it is critical to have non-technical process owners involved in the creation and maintenance of activities, so that work can run effectively, smoothly, and intelligently wherever it needs to get done. The ServiceNow solution The Now Platform lets you automate the enterprise at scale. It breaks down barriers between processes and systems, letting you easily create connected digital workflows across the enterprise. Flow Designer is a platform capability that lets you automate business processes in a single drag-and-drop design environment without the need for any complex code. It has an automated sequence of actions that runs each trigger whenever conditions are met. Uses simple, natural language to automate approvals, tasks, notifications, and record operations, you can configure automation across your business at an enterprise scale. With the addition of Automation Engine, you can also connect your ServiceNow workflows to third-party systems and quickly build RPA-powered automations with no coding required. Benefits Automate repetitive work to improve efficiency and experiences Describe workflows in natural language to help non-technical users understand what it does Displays flows as diagrams to help builders see available paths and connections Create and test workflows from a single interface to ensure it works as expected Promote process automation by enabling subject matter experts to develop and share reusable actions with flow authors Reduce upgrade costs with upgrade-safe Now Platform logic replacing complex custom script Reduce development costs by providing a library of reusable actions Scale with separate subscriptions for integrations and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) functionality Automate any process, from simple productivity to complex transformation, in a no-code environment. © 2023 ServiceNow, Inc. All rights reserved. ServiceNow, the ServiceNow logo, Now, Now Platform, and other ServiceNow marks are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of ServiceNow, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated. Let your flows work for you Flow Designer gives you rich capabilities for automating processes to reduce repetitive tasks, allowing you to focus on high value work. Empower business users to automate approvals, tasks, notifications, and record operations without writing a single line of code. Benefits • Extend ServiceNow workflows and create new workflows with a library of reusable actions for ServiceNow applications • Build digital workflows and automate processes in a no-code design environment • Increase speed and productivity with reusable flows, subflows, and components • Integrate third party services for more comprehensive workflows and automation How it works Flow Designer consists of five major content types: flows, subflows, triggers, actions, and conditions. Using these components, both non-technical and technical users can build powerful and reusable flows that automate business processes such as vacation approvals, facility requests, IT incidents, and more. Flow – A flow is an automated process consisting of a composite set of actions and subflows triggered by an event and resulting in the automation of business logic for an application or process. Subflow – A subflow is a sequence of reusable actions and data inputs that can be started from a flow, subflow, or script. Examples of subflows include: iterate on related records; add a comment; or notify users of record changes. Trigger – A trigger is an activity that, once specified, automatically initiates a flow. Example: create a record in a specified table or a scheduled job. Action – An action is a single reusable operation executed by the system. Examples: create a REST integration to a third party service; update field value; request approval; or log value. Condition – A condition is a statement that determines when or how an action runs. Example: run an action only if a field is over a certain specified value. A flow is triggered by a person or an event in the system If the manager approves, the subflow records the output in the system and takes the appropriate actions Ex: Employee requests vacation time on Workday Ex: Employee’s vacation request is approved and a record is updated in Workday A condition determines how the action runs The flow or automated process is completed Ex: Manager approves or rejects the request in Slack Ex: Employee is notified about the outcome of their request A reusable action is triggered by the system If the manager rejects, the subflow records the output in the system Ex: Manager is notified of the new request Ex: The employee’s vacation request is not approved