Benefits of using Knowledge in ServiceNow

Do your employees and contractors have to search for knowledge content (i.e., FAQs, How-to-guides, policies, procedures) across multiple platforms?  How can you maximize user experience, reduce overall maintenance, and pull content from sources such as Workday, SharePoint, Confluence, ServiceNow, and benefits provider sites into a single search?

To make the best informed decision, let’s start by considering the following:

1. Who is the audience for the knowledge content? Most commonly, audiences would include employees, contractors, new hires, and/or alumni.

2. When will they need this content? (e.g., prior to start date, after termination, and/or throughout the lifecycle of employment)

   1. Do your current licensing and compliance/policies allow for access at the given times for the right audience in the system? (e.g., O365 license, identity & access management policy for access)

3. Who is responsible for managing the content? (e.g., 3rd party vendor, internal subject matter experts, dedicated knowledge team)

4. How frequently does your knowledge content change?

5. Where is all the content currently located? (e.g., Oracle HCM, Greenhouse ATS, SharePoint, Coveo, MetLife, ServiceNow)

ServiceNow can elevate your user experience by providing a single search interface that quickly finds content across both internal and external sources.  Users are provided with a self-service capability in the same place they would go for service delivery/support, which encourages Tier 0 (i.e., self-service) support. 

Creating and maintaining all knowledge directly in ServiceNow provides even more advantages for the organization.  In addition to less maintenance across multiple sources:

1. Security – secure permissions based on any data element in ServiceNow (e.g., position, location)

   1. Who can read, create, and maintain knowledge articles (KA)

   2. Internal (i.e., IT or HR only) and external (i.e., employee facing) knowledge

2. Knowledge blocks 

   1. Ability to have a section of KA secured differently (e.g., Travel policy visible to all employees, but one section is only for executives)

   2. Ability to have section on many KA, and can update once and all uses are updated (e.g., disclaimer statement on legal KA that needs updating every year)

3. Version control

   1. Ability to dynamically link to the most recent version of KA in ServiceNow and share in other systems/sites

   2. SharePoint can create dynamic links to most recent version also

   3. Workday has new URL for each version

4. Workflows (e.g., approvals for publishing and/or retiring KA)

5. Connect/relate KA to other KA, catalog items (i.e., services) and/or topics (i.e., microsites; e.g., Benefits, Software).  This allows for continual self-service, revealing relevant content when users search and/or navigate.

   1. From KA, you can show related services and/or KA to the right

b. From services, you can see related KA

c. From topic pages, you can see related KA

6. Helpful widgets/metrics on KA

a. Other KA in same category

b. Most helpful KAs

c. Most read KAs

d. Comments, helpful, and rating that can later be used for continual improvements

7. Search – find quick answers in Employee Center, Now Mobile, and Virtual Agent

•  Ability to establish external search sources (e.g., SharePoint)

• Security considerations come into play with external search sources

8. Access – ServiceNow can allow local users and/or system access to content during pre-boarding, to contractors and deskless users, as well as alumni, where other systems may have more restrictions.