Release 8.2.0 introduces new features, fixes, and updates to the campus instance of ServiceNow at UCSD and will be implemented on October 7th, 2020.
Standardization of Release Notes
- Release notes were formerly saved in an internal confluence site but will now appear in this public knowledge base. Now that our instance has evolved to include many organizations outside of just Information Technology Services, we want to make sure all ServiceNow users have access to this information.
- Release versioning will now follow the standard of x.x.x:
- The first digit reflects the major version of ServiceNow that we are using. Since this instance's implementation, the amount of major upgrades we have performed would place us at version 8 (what ServiceNow designates as the Orlando version).
- The second digit restarts at 0 for every major release and will increment every time we release a new feature or enhancement to our instance. This number can go into double digits (eg. 8.12.0).
- The third digit restarts at 0 for every minor release and will increment every time we release a fix to a bug or defect with no new feature or enhancements.
- With this new versioning standardization, you can easily see if we have upgraded, released new features, or fixed defects at a glance.
- We are committing to updating release notes for every update to our instance of ServiceNow with the exception of intentionally non-advertised releases that deal with security of the instance.
ServiceNow Release Notes
- The most recently published ServiceNow release notes will appear as a thumb-tack button in the banner in agent view, next to the "chat" icon. An exclamation point (!) will appear on the icon if there are new release notes in the past seven days that you have not viewed yet.
Case
- In order for agents to better report on certain metrics, first-response SLAs will no longer be attached to new cases. Instead, first response information is collected and is reportable through the following fields:
- First reply at - Date / Time of the first reply to the customer in a case
- First reply at duration - A real-time duration between the opening of the case and the first reply at date / time
- First reply at business duration - The duration between the opening of the case and the first reply at date / time against the standard university business schedule - 8:00 AM - 4:30 PM, Monday - Friday, excluding holidays
- In the last release, we provided a new feature for groups to be able to send out a regular notification to designated individuals if a group's ticket queue was past a certain threshold. We have updated the body of this email to include more information for the recipient: the current case count is now mentioned in the body instead of just in the subject.
Departments
- Official UCSD departments now reflect the UC San Diego Hierarchy. Departments are assigned a level, 1-5, and each department has a parent. VC areas are Level 2 departments. You can now report on all departments within a VC area. For more information, see https://ucsdcollab.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/SNOW/pages/96993812/Department+Table
Reports
- Previously, when reporting on task-extended tables, such as case, you would see the field "Customer (Non-AD)" despite it not longer being used nor populated in our system, causing confusion for some agents. This field will no longer be seen.
Request Items
- Previously, agents that accidentally cleared the "Item" field in Request Items would inadvertently cause the variables section of the Request Item to disappear. The field is no longer editable as intended.
- Request Items will now show up in the global search results.
- Business Office forms have received various updates and email notification modifications.
- In a previous release, we provided "duration" and "business duration" calculations once a record closed on a number of tables but skipped the request item table as its architecture was different. After this release, any request item that is closed will now have these calculations made upon close.
Knowledge Base
- In the agent view of ServiceNow, when viewing a knowledge article, agents have the access to a "View Article" link that lets the agent view the article as it would appear as it is meant to be consumed, but it would display the article in the agent view instead of in the portal, where knowledge base consumption is encouraged. In this release, we are providing a second link called "View Latest in Portal" which when clicked will prompt the agent to select a portal. After selection, the article's latest version will be displayed in the portal. Since this link brings you to the latest version, the URL can be shared immediately to customers (similar to the Copy Permalink button).
Release 8.2.1 introduced a fix to a form in the campus instance of ServiceNow at UCSD and was implemented on October 9th, 2020.
Work Health Management
- All staff at UCSD are being asked to fill out the Work Health Management form but UCSD Health System employees have recorded their flu attestations separately. We have updated the form so that health employees no longer see this question.