Why implement a ServiceNow external integration?
Companies implement ServiceNow external integrations in order to more tightly couple the Now platform with other systems. In most cases, enterprise customers do this to fulfill multiple use cases, such as:
- Change management & modeling
- Configuration management
- IT financial management
- IT asset ownership reporting
- Resource chargeback reporting
- Asset consumption tracking and reporting
- Incident Management
- Impact Analysis
- Request & Provisioning Automation
Types of ServiceNow external integrations
ServiceNow external integrations can fall into several categories, depending on the direction of data flow and the types of data involved.
Adding IT asset data to ServiceNow
Sometimes IT asset data in ServiceNow created by the native discovery process has gaps. Adding data from an external source can enhance or augment the asset data in ServiceNow. Generally this involves developing an automated import process to pull in asset data from an external tool with asset discovery capabilities such as VMware vCenter, NetApp Cloud Insights, or Data Dog. This can either take the place of ServiceNow native discovery, or simply be used to augment it.
When pulling data into ServiceNow from an external system, asset data must be defined and normalized. Additionally the ServiceNow schema may need to be altered to receive this data (and create desired asset relationships).
Using events to trigger ServiceNow workflows
For example, an IT service event from an external system can trigger creation of a support incident within ServiceNow. External tools such as Splunk, or LogicMonitor are potential sources for this type of data. Service tickets can be automatically assigned and routed to appropriate teams, or specific team members, as well as being automatically populated with relevant data based on the event from the external system.
Using ServiceNow workflows to trigger external actions
This can also work in reverse. ServiceNow workflows can be used to trigger an external action. A common example is an IT resource request workflow that triggers actions in tools like Ansible or Terraform to provision IT resources.
Extracting data from ServiceNow
There are also use cases for extracting data from ServiceNow, in order to populate it in downstream systems. One example of this is extracting asset metadata (ex: owner, department, location, etc.) from ServiceNow in order to enable reporting in a downstream system such as Apptio.
Considerations
General
One of the greatest features of ServiceNow is that it is somewhat infinitely customizable. However, this also adds complexity when dealing with integrations. No two ServiceNow implementations look exactly alike. Companies always have some level of customization, and this is important to take into account when designing an integration.
External Data
In most cases importing data into ServiceNow requires custom schema modifications within ServiceNow. We find that when dealing with detailed logical and physical structures for assets that are not natively supported by ServiceNow’s discovery capability, custom schema modifications are unavoidable.
Alerting & Monitoring
Take time to consider how you’ll monitor your integration to ensure it’s operating successfully and as expected. You will need a way to generate alerts based on execution events, either within ServiceNow, or another management system.
Performance
Depending on the size of your environment, ServiceNow data sets can be large. It’s better to try and focus on a narrow dataset that enables your core use cases, rather than trying to boil the ocean. Focus on what you really need, and only push changes into or out of the system. Do not refresh the entire data set every time.
Testing
Test, test and re-test. Separate production, development, and test environments are crucial. Additionally, user-acceptance testing by end users who understand the business outcome(s) is essential. In most cases, this will involve ServiceNow users, ServiceNow administrators/developers, as well as business users.
Conclusion
There are several different popular methods of integrating ServiceNow with external systems. Each require planning, as well as expertise in available Now platform interfaces, as well as external system interfaces. Most integrations can be achieved via custom scripting using REST APIs, and/or web hooks. Occasionally, in order to support specific IT assets, some legacy APIs may require a less graceful approach. Regardless, ServiceNow external integrations can enable companies to unlock tremendous value in the Now platform. This requires careful planning, design and specific expertise, but it allows companies to customize ServiceNow workflows and services according to their specific business needs. Contact our ServiceNow Practice Team to discuss your ServiceNow integration requirements and how we can help you achieve your desired business outcome.