How to Create ServiceNow Dashboards

 

Organizations can create ServiceNow dashboards to support them in visualizing data and trends. 

This post highlights the notable features of ServiceNow Dashboards, how they are created, and the alternatives available for data-driven organizations with more extensive requirements than ServiceNow can offer. 

Table of Contents:

• What are ServiceNow Dashboards?
• How to Create ServiceNow Dashboards
• Why Third-party Dashboards May Be Better for Your Organization
• How To Integrate ServiceNow Data with Third-party Dashboards

What are ServiceNow Dashboards?

ServiceNow Dashboards are a user interface for displaying data and metrics regularly used by an organization in a single location. Users create ServiceNow dashboards to convey meaningful information in an easily digestible format to users.

Customizing ServiceNow Dashboards

ServiceNow dashboards provide an interface for visualizing reports, analytics, and multiple widgets on one screen. 

These customizable dashboards allow users to highlight crucial business information tailored for specific roles, such as IT help desk agents, or to track vital performance metrics like service level compliance.

Responsive Dashboards and Interactive Filters

ServiceNow users can leverage its inbuilt Responsive Dashboards to share a variety of widgets, including reports and Performance Analytics visuals. 

They highlight business-critical information tailored for specific roles, such as IT help desk agents, or to track vital performance metrics like service level compliance. 

One of its most beneficial features is the ability to apply interactive filters. When adjusting a specific report or chart on a dashboard, it can automatically refine other related widgets. 

Multi-tabbed Display

Another notable feature of ServiceNow Dashboards is the multi-tabbed display. These dashboard tabs function similarly to web browser tabs, allowing users to effortlessly switch between tabs and dive into different content layers without reopening the dashboard.

For ServiceNow users, dashboards and the multi-tabbed display help streamline operations and deliver business-ready insights at a glance. 

ServiceNow Dashboards Are for ServiceNow Data Only

ServiceNow Dashboards centralize fragmented data within the platform, presenting a coherent visual narrative of organizational workflows and processes. 

By consolidating crucial metrics and information, they help users identify trends, address potential issues, and make data-driven decisions.

However, unlike many third-party solutions supporting dashboards, ServiceNow dashboards are limited to utilizing ServiceNow data only. 

This limitation is particularly undesirable for data-driven organizations that wish to benefit from a holistic view of their enterprise data, and combine data from multiple sources.

How to Create ServiceNow Dashboards?

Users can create ServiceNow Dashboards and edit them via the user-friendly drag-and-drop canvas, arrange content into their preferred layout, and share it with other stakeholders for collaboration.

Users can access dashboards from the Application Navigator. Typically, users will see their last viewed dashboard on the display. For organizations using multiple dashboards, users can select which one they wish to view from the menu. 

Here’s a simplified step-by-step guide to the dashboard creation process in ServiceNow:

• Preview & Add Widget: The first step involves choosing the category of widget the users wish to add.
  
  For example, if a user wants to add a Performance Analytics widget, they need to choose that category and populate the desired widget on the dashboard. 

• Adjust Widget Size & Placement: Widgets can be resized effortlessly by dragging the corners. Moreover, repositioning them is as simple as moving them by their headers.
  
  As one widget is adjusted, the surrounding widgets will automatically reconfigure to accommodate the change, ensuring a cohesive look.
  
• Customize Widget Appearance: Each widget comes with customization options. Users can decide whether to show or hide its border, toggle the display of the widget’s title, and align the title to their preference.
  
  Once customizations are finalized, changes can be applied, giving the dashboard a personalized touch.
  
• Add Dashboard Tabs: Tabs help organize content on the dashboard in a logical sequence. Creating a new tab is very easy — users can do it through the context menu or the configuration panel. They must name each tab for easy identification.

Other Useful ServiceNow Dashboard Tips

• Sharing Dashboards: Dashboards are designed for collaborative work. They serve as a single source of truth, reducing potential confusion and errors. Dashboard owners can share them with specific users, groups, or even by role.
  
  For instance, granting access to a user X can be accompanied by a personalized message, ensuring clear communication. However, dashboards shared with non-ServiceNow users are static and lose their interactive functionality.
  
  Improving the scope for collaboration when using dashboards requires ServiceNow to be integrated with third-party dashboards.
  
  This allows organizations to make the information conveyed in dashboards more available around the enterprise, without purchasing additional ServiceNow licenses.
  
• Converting Home Pages to Dashboards: Even though home pages are prevalent, the transition to dashboards can enhance user experience owing to their superior features.
  
  To achieve this transition, users can visit their preferred homepage and opt to create a dashboard version if none exists. They can either create an entirely new dashboard or integrate it with an existing one.
  
  After converting a homepage into a dashboard, users can set it as the ServiceNow Home for easy access by choosing ‘Dashboards’ as ‘Home’ from the settings.
  
• Inform & Share: Once a new dashboard is set up or a homepage is converted, users should inform colleagues or other relevant parties.
  
  This ensures everyone is aligned and can access the newly available resources for better collaborative efforts.

Why Organizations Integrate ServiceNow Data with Third-Party Dashboards 

While the inbuilt ServiceNow Dashboards can be helpful, they come with certain limitations. 

• First, ServiceNow Dashboards are designed to display only ServiceNow data. This limits the full scope of visibility, and the dashboards do not reflect the insights of the wider enterprise. 
  
• Second, only users possessing a ServiceNow license can manage the Dashboards. This increases the TCO with the added burden of acquiring the right licenses for data access. 
  
• Third, ServiceNow Dashboards containing large data volumes (multiple variables)can negatively impact the solution’s performance. Data-heavy dashboards and reports slow down instances and queries, defeating the efficiency goals and degrading the scope of real-time intelligence.

Third-party dashboards typically provide all of the key functionality available in ServiceNow dashboards, including sharing dashboards and customization.

However, they also provide the following features and functionality:

Combine Data Sources, Improve Self-service Access and Democratize Data Across the Enterprise

Integrating ServiceNow with an external repository and third-party dashboard helps organizations eliminate these challenges and promote data democratization and self-service access. 

Organizations where stakeholders without ServiceNow licenses regularly require visibility into ServiceNow data benefit significantly from this. Rather than requiring additional ServiceNow licenses, an organization can extend access to ServiceNow data via systems that data stakeholders already have controlled access to. 

This also provides the added benefit of combining data sources for more in-depth analysis. 

Improve ServiceNow’s Performance

Leveraging third-party dashboards is also far more efficient than relying on ServiceNow Dashboards only. ServiceNow’s multifaceted solution has many business-critical functions that go beyond simply displaying data. 

These functions are impeded by dashboards that contain and display a high-volume of ServiceNow data. As the volume of data increases, dashboards take longer to populate and performance of the whole instance is degraded, impacting query speeds and usability of the whole platform.

By leveraging third-party dashboards, organizations can remove this burden from ServiceNow and improve the platform’s performance. 

How to Integrate ServiceNow Data with Third-Party Dashboards

Integrating ServiceNow data with third-party dynamic dashboards delivers real-time visibility into data across the organization – not just ServiceNow – and does so without impacting ServiceNow’s performance.

Organizations can integrate ServiceNow with third-party dashboards using DataSync, by Perspectium – trusted and official ServiceNow partners.

A ServiceNow-native application, DataSync supports massive throughput in extracting data from ServiceNow (over 1 billion records per month), making the application highly scalable for the end-user. 

The application provides complete control over how data is extracted from ServiceNow and replicated. Both manual and dynamic-based sharing options are available, allowing users to populate dashboards automatically and in real-time to ensure up-to-date insights are available.

Perspectium DataSync: Overview

DataSync’s integration use cases include extracting ServiceNow Data and replicating it within solutions for Analytics, Reporting, Business Intelligence, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and more.

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Integrate ServiceNow Data with Third-Party Dashboards, with DataSync

DataSync is a no-code, integration-as-a-service solution, meaning unlike traditional integration approaches, implementation and maintenance by internal staff is not a requirement. 

The end-user interacts with the integration through the ServiceNow interface with which they are already familiar.

Perspectium ensures that the integration stays functional through new versions of ServiceNow, meaning updates won’t break the integration and impede business-critical functions.

Speaking to the pedigree of the technology, ServiceNow themselves are DataSync users, preferring the Perspectium integration method, to their own Rest-API enabled integrations.

Internally, the organization uses DataSync to extract data out of 10 ServiceNow production instances and replicate it into Snowflake data-stores for use and analysis by teams including HR, Marketing, Sales and more. 

ServiceNow users that also wish to enjoy the benefits of DataSync can request a demo today, or simply talk to us about your integration requirements.

Speak with an Integration Expert

Want to learn more about Perspectium’s no-code integrations-as-a-service and applications?

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ServiceNow Data Archiving Best Practices

 

Following ServiceNow data archiving best practices is fundamental for ServiceNow data management. A healthy archiving policy creates a systematic approach for moving inactive data into archives for future use. 

Over time, the data volumes in ServiceNow tables grow, leading to slow queries, difficulties in compliance and data management, and a less-than-optimal user experience. 

Thus, users must archive inactive data to overcome these issues and maintain a healthy ServiceNow instance. 

In this blog, we’ll explore the benefits of, and best practices for efficiently archiving inactive ServiceNow data and optimally leverage its various benefits. 

• See also: What Is Data Archiving?: A Guide for ServiceNow Users

Table of Contents:

• Best Practices for Data Archiving in ServiceNow
• Benefits of Off-platform Data Archiving
• How to Archive ServiceNow Data Off-platform

ServiceNow Data Archiving Best Practices

Following these best practices helps organizations implement a healthy archival process:

Consider archiving off-platform

By archiving data off-platform, organizations can avoid additional storage fees, support fast retrieval of archived data, and improve platform performance significantly.

Off-platform archiving is the recommended approach for organizations that generate lots of ServiceNow data and/or organizations with extensive analytics, reporting and other data-driven requirements. 

ServiceNow’s default archiving features only permits organizations to archive data within archive tables hosted within their ServiceNow platform.

Archiving off-platform means archived records can be stored within an organization’s preferred repository, that can be easily integrated with third party solutions. 

This benefits organizations by limiting the amount of data stored within the ServiceNow platform, helping them to avoid incurring additional storage fees that exceed that of purpose-built storage solutions.

It also means that archived records can easily be fed into solutions for analytics, reporting, business intelligence, artificial intelligence and machine learning, to support any use cases that leverage historical data.

This helps ServiceNow users overcome commonly faced difficulties in getting data out of the platform.

Perspectium is an excellent solution that supports off-platform, condition-based archiving for ServiceNow data.

Webinar: Data Archive for Service

Learn how to archive ServiceNow data off-platform to improve system performance and avoid additional storage fees.

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Develop an archiving policy & sync it to data lifecycle management

It’s essential to create a comprehensive archiving policy that outlines the archiving criteria, processes, roles, and access conditions. 

Since data archiving impacts the data’s lifecycle, users must synchronize it with their data lifecycle management strategy. They must consider how long they wish to retain the archived data and when it should be deleted.

Identify and sort the tables where archiving is required

It’s best to start by reviewing the tables, their data and creating an inventory. By sorting data into categories, users can decide which data is essential for current operations and what can be archived. 

The Incident table is a good choice for archiving because it stores a continuous stream of new records. Other notable archiving candidates include Problem, Change, Knowledge and CMDB tables. 

Determine when to archive a record

Requirements as to when a record should be archived will vary from organization to organization, so organizations should consider the context in which a record is deemed suitable for archiving. 

For example, closed cases over 3 months old may have no immediate value in one organization. Whereas in another, periodic analysis of closed cases may mean the organization wants to retain such records in active tables for a longer period. 

Some archiving solutions archive ServiceNow data off-platform, in their preferred repository – however this is not available in ServiceNow’s default archiving feature. In this case, archived records can be easily fed into purpose-built solutions for analytics, reporting, etc.

This allows organizations to archive more frequently, as the data can be made available to relevant solutions more easily.

Once the conditions in which records should be archived, organizations can use archive rules – or condition-based logic – to dynamically archive records that are considered inactive. 

• See also: ServiceNow Archive Rules Explained

Capture performance metrics before and after archiving

Understanding how the volumes of data in active tables affects performance can better inform an organization’s archiving strategy. 

By capturing performance metrics before and after an archiving event, organizations can use this information to iterate their archival policy, determine when archiving is necessary and prevent performance degradation in future.

What Are the Benefits of Archiving ServiceNow Data Off-platform?

Organizations can archive their mission-critical data off-platform, for future use with secure and automated data archiving solutions like Perspectium’s Data Archive for ServiceNow.  

The most notable benefits of archiving ServiceNow data off-platform are:

• Increased storage capacity and reduced costs – ServiceNow’s default archiving feature only moves data to archive tables existing within the platform.
  As such, it is not a solution for managing storage capacity and/or avoiding incurring additional storage fees.
  With off-platform archiving, the data is moved out of ServiceNow, and into purpose-built repositories where storage is cheaper.

• Faster, more efficient backups – Data archiving improves the Platform’s backup and recovery capabilities.
  By removing inactive/stale data from the platform, the size of newly created backups is smaller and the process can be completed more quickly whilst consuming fewer resources.  

• Improved system performance – By reducing the amount of data stored on the platform, performance is improved as there is less load on the system.
  Queries can be completed more quickly and efficiently, benefiting system performance. 

• Improved data security – When data remains within active circulation, it remains vulnerable to unauthorized access, cyberattacks, and inadvertent data breaches.
  Archiving older, less frequently accessed data isolates it from the day-to-day operations of your organization, creating an additional layer of protection.

How to Archive ServiceNow Data Off-Platform

For ServiceNow users that wish to enjoy the benefits of off-platform archiving, ServiceNow partners Perspectium provide the solution – Data Archive for ServiceNow. 

Data Archive for ServiceNow upgrades the platform’s archival capabilities via a ServiceNow-native app, permitting users to archive data within their preferred repository. 

• See also: Free Infographic – What is Data Archive for ServiceNow?

As a native-application, ServiceNow users enjoy a fast time-to-value, as the app is embedded within the UI that users are already familiar with, drastically flattening the learning curve. 

With Data Archive for ServiceNow, users benefit from:

• High-throughput archival
• Archiving ServiceNow data off-platform, in their preferred data repository 
• Secure archiving with encryption 
• Condition-based logic enabling dynamic archival events
• The ability to archive records multiple times
• The ability to archive attachments
• A ServiceNow-native dashboard for viewing and monitoring archived data

As with Perspectium’s other ServiceNow applications, Data Archive for ServiceNow is implemented and maintained as-a-service.

This helps ensure users get maximum value from the product and service, without having to compromise internal developers time.

Perspectium was created by the founding developer of ServiceNow, David Loo, who used his intimate understanding of the platform to create a performance-impact free means of extracting data from ServiceNow, and connecting it to third-party solutions. 

It is this technology that underpins Data Archive for ServiceNow and enables massive amounts of ServiceNow data to be transferred (over 1 billion records per month) without impacting performance.

To understand more about our off-platform archiving features, contact us today!

Request a Demo: Data Archive for ServiceNow

Data Archive for ServiceNow upgrades ServiceNow’s archiving capabilities, enabling off-platform archiving and more!
Get a free demo, or simply talk to us about your ServiceNow archiving requirements.

What Is Data Archiving?: A Guide for ServiceNow Users

 

Data archiving is a core practice in enterprise data management. It involves identifying data that is not in active use and transferring it into repositories for long-term storage. 

Data archiving also serves organizations’ efforts to achieve and maintain compliance with data regulations. 

As the value of data to business has increased, data archives have become reservoirs of knowledge and insight.

Archiving in ServiceNow

ServiceNow provides an archiving feature, although some organizations may find its capabilities limiting.

It’s capabilities include:

• Rules-based archiving allowing archive and destroy events to be triggered when certain conditions – such as the date of creation – are met. 
• Archive management capabilties such as changing the archive schedule, and viewing & restoring archived records

Often, archiving is undertaken to relieve storage constraints in actively used systems and solutions. 

However, in ServiceNow, users archive inactive data from primary tables to a set of archive tables to manage table size growth. 

Since ServiceNow’s archive tables reside within the user’s ServiceNow platform, this example of archiving does not help relieve storage constraints.

The archive tables also have limitations in terms of table size:

Table Attribute	Size
Single table static size limit	65535 bytes
Row size limit	8126 bytes
Columns	1000 for Oracle 1011 for others

Why is Data Archiving Essential for ServiceNow Users?

The longer a ServiceNow instance runs, the more likely it will accumulate data. This data can often become obsolete and/or stale. It may also have value, or regulatory mandates for retention, but not required for the day-to-day operations of the organization. 

For example, task records from two years ago may not hold much relevance to the organization today, and so can be considered “stale”. 

Retaining too much stale and obsolete data can cause performance degradation by unnecessarily consuming system resources when querying the database. 

This means efforts to retrieve data for use cases such as reporting, analytics, business intelligence (BI) and artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) initiatives are adversely affected. 

What Is a “Good” Archive Strategy for ServiceNow Users?

A well-executed data archiving strategy optimizes resource performance in active systems for quick and cost-effective data retrieval while offering a structured approach to data transfer in compliance with regulations and laws. 

The following capabilities highlight the core functions of a good data archiving strategy:

• Data discovery – Data archiving enables both admins and end-users to find business-critical records (such as spreadsheets, PPTs, etc.) quickly, and enhance self-access and data democratization. 
• Data management – Data archiving solutions improve data management by removing obsolete or dated records from the platform. This keeps the data growth in check, facilitating quick access to active, business-critical data.
• Data availability and visibility – Well-built data archiving solutions analyze, classify, and index records when moving it from in-use platforms. Thanks to proper classification and indexing, it’s easier for users to search for relevant information in archived data to gain insights.
• Data compliance – Data archiving best practices ensure an organization adheres to the relevant compliance regulations and laws. Many modern archiving solutions can automatically prepare compliance audits and respond to business queries.

Why Organizations Should Consider Archiving ServiceNow Data Off-platform

A recurring issue facing ServiceNow users, is the difficulty in getting data out of the platform. 

This applies to archiving, and various other use cases including transferring data into third-party, purpose-built solutions for analysis, BI, AI, ML and more.

With ServiceNow’s default archiving feature, users are limited to archiving ServiceNow data within “archive tables” that exist within the user’s ServiceNow instance. 

This prevents users from using archive data in analysis, BI, AI, ML and other solutions. 

It also prevents users from reducing the amount of data stored within ServiceNow, leaving organizations at risk of incurring additional storage fees. 

Archiving off-platform addresses these two common issues, by allowing users to archive data within repositories where storage is cheaper – local or cloud-based – and allow that data to be easily retrieved and fed into complementary solutions as and when required.

Archive ServiceNow Data Off-platform with Perspectium

While ServiceNow’s default archiving feature does not allow organizations to archive data off-platform, users are able to upgrade ServiceNow via a native-application and enable this feature. 

The native-application in question is Data Archive for ServiceNow, from ServiceNow partners, Perspectium. 

Data Archive for ServiceNow extends the following benefits to ServiceNow users: 

• Archive ServiceNow data off-platform – avoid incurring additional storage fees and improve ServiceNow instance performance
• Maintain total control while archiving data through condition-based filtering
• Archive data securely with encryption, protecting data at-rest and in-transit
• Support and improve data compliance

Perspectium’s services and ServiceNow-native applications were created by David Loo – the founding developer of ServiceNow. 

Perspectium’s archiving solution – as well as Perspectium’s other data integration and management applications – was specifically architected to avoid impacting ServiceNow’s performance. 

Thanks to this, archiving and retrieval with Perspectium is fast, and supports massive throughput. 

Archiving and transferring data with Perspectium solutions is secure, with data encrypted both at-rest and in-transit, providing organizations with confidence that their data is safe. 

To start archiving off-platform with Perspectium, contact us to arrange a demo.

Webinar: Data Archive for Service

Learn how to archive ServiceNow data off-platform to improve system performance and avoid additional storage fees.

Register now