Getting started with ServiceNow - best practices

Welcome to using ServiceNow at UC Berkeley!

1. ServiceNow is a shared environment and consequently is standardized and administered centrally.
2. ServiceNow is a shared environment, encouraging transparency and collaboration. For teams with genuine data privacy issues, extra steps are necessary to restrict the incidents and the information they contain.
3. Though attachments from email are supported at this time, it is best practice to log in and upload attachments within ServiceNow to minimize insecure methods of attachment sharing via email.
4. Categories are standardized in ServiceNow and are not customized for any individual service group. The categories are consistent with the ITIL framework.
5. There are limited options for customizing email templates for a given service team. The advantage is that the customers of multiple services have a more consistent experience.
6. Anyone with a CalNet ID can submit an incident to ServiceNow without a ServiceNow license. They can also view any incident they have submitted, i.e., they can see only their own incidents. NOTE: if the end user is also a licensed user of ServiceNow, they can see all incidents within ServiceNow.
7. Incident assignment is to one group and one individual within that group at a time. Simultaneous assignment to different groups/individuals is not supported. This avoids confusion on who owns the incident.
8. The platform does support different assignment rules for different service teams, but at this time customized SLAs are out of scope for the IST-supported instance of ServiceNow.
9. An incident’s status is shared across the teams between which it is passed. Accurate status state is maintained when incidents are escalated or handed off to other teams. The status is for the incident, not the work of a particular group.
10. Incidents are viewable across the platform by anyone who has a license, with the exception of incidents that have been marked restricted.
11. Because ServiceNow is open to multiple teams in different departments, incidents with cross-team impact can be easily viewed, worked on, and monitored.
12. The shared platform is a great benefit of the system as it should increase efficiencies and transparency.

1. PL2 Data – Don’t put legally protected information in unrestricted incidents, e.g., social security or student ID numbers. See Data Classification Table.
2. System Compromise Potential – Don’t put technical information in the system that would open it up to compromise, e.g., passwords, API keys, private encryption keys, etc. See Data Classification Table.
3. If you absolutely must have information in the incident that meets the criteria above, please mark the incident as restricted.
4. Please remember that other than embarrassment to the University or yourself, misuse of UC Berkeley systems or data can result in employment termination or a student suspension. The Electronic Communications Policy (ECP) governs how people with privileged access may access data. See Electronic Communications Policy.​

To understand how to protect the privacy of student records, take a course in  Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). A course is available in LMS.  

ServiceNow Additional Orientation Materials

1. Learm more about ServiceNow at UC Berkeley.
2. Explore the ServiceNow Training Environment [NOTE: you must first request access at servicenow-support@berkeley.edu)
3. ServiceNow Documentation