What did the Romans do for us? In the new Rome version of ServiceNow, it replaces the intranet • The Register

ServiceNow has released a new “Rome” version of its SaaS workflow platform in the waiting world.

To a large extent, this is a “do it like the Romans when in Rome” because it is not significantly different from ServiceNow’s current strategy of providing a platform for creating and coordinating workflows. But there is also a taste of “all roads lead to Rome”, if you use “Rome” instead of apps that try to run businesses when people no longer come to the office every day.

In ServiceNow’s view of the “new normal”, mixed work is entirely possible, but in its view, some additional tools are needed to replicate the office experience.

“We have lost the tribal knowledge of talking to people in the hallway to learn how to get work done,” ServiceNow Chief Innovation Officer Dave Wright told Register.

Unable to ask colleagues where they can find staple food or how to complete specific housework, ServiceNow recommends using its new “employee center” to connect people with important business processes during their workday.

Wright is keen not to describe the employee center as a post-COVID intranet on the grounds that it can initiate workflows and track their progress-so not only are they told how to apply for staples, but they also have to stay there before they are loaded. The top of the process is in your stapler.

The employee center can also be embedded in Microsoft Teams, which is the result of an expanded strategic relationship between ServiceNow and The Beast Of Redmond.

For the IT department, the home of ServiceNow, Rome added AI-infused log file analysis, which it claims will enhance IT operations management (ITOM) capabilities.

Another new AI-driven inclusion is “automated discovery”, which observes how ServiceNow is used and suggests automation opportunities.

Wright said the tool is designed to detect, for example, whether the service desk regularly receives specific tasks and responds to them with the same output. This situation suggests that investment in automation may be appropriate.

Sharp-eyed readers may have noticed that we describe automated discovery as “contained” rather than appended. That’s because it has been a component of the ServiceNow store for some time. Rome made it part of the platform.

Another Rome feature, the mobile application generator, is also built on top of the existing ServiceNow product. Now that it is integrated into the platform, the tool adds the ability to build applications based on user-created custom workflows, while its predecessor is only applicable to ServiceNow pre-built workflows.

ServiceNow is unusual among SaaS providers. Not only does it deliver all the features of its new platform to each customer, but it also introduces a dedicated platform instance to each user. Upgrade is an opt-in thing. ®