The ServiceNow Utah Release is here, and it is packed with exciting new features and enhancements, designed to help organizations further automate processes, simplify user experiences, and more.
Let’s have a look at the 5 highlights from the ServiceNow Utah Early Availability Release worth talking about.

1. Enhanced Virtual Agent with Higher Efficiency & Accuracy

• Automated testing for Virtual Agent topics

This feature allows developers to create and run automated tests to validate the behavior of their Virtual Agent topics, ensuring that they are working as intended. The feature offers clear benefits like thoroughly tested Virtual Agent Topics that are free of errors or bugs, faster development cycles, and greater confidence in deployments.

• Enhanced Slot-Filling Capability for NLU Discovery

The enhanced slot-filling capability in the ServiceNow Utah Release uses machine learning to improve the accuracy and efficiency of slot-filling. Specifically, it allows developers to train the NLU model to recognize and extract custom slot values that are specific to their use case or organization. Developers can provide examples of user inputs that contain the desired slot values, along with other examples that do not contain them. The machine learning model then learns to identify the specific slot values, allowing the Virtual Agent to accurately extract the information it needs from user inputs.

An important benefit of the feature is the improved accuracy of the Virtual Agent in extracting the specific information it needs from user inputs. Next, developers can tailor the Virtual Agent to the specific needs of their use case or organization, making it more effective and useful for their users.

2. Improved Branding & UX with Unified Theming for Mobile

With unified theming, administrators can define a set of branding elements, such as colors, logos, and fonts, that will be applied across the entire ServiceNow mobile application. This ensures a consistent look and feel across all screens and modules, providing a more cohesive and polished experience for users. This includes setting custom logos, colors, fonts, and navigation elements for the entire platform.

The three important benefits of this enhancement are improved brand recognition, user experience, and overall efficiency in the mobile environment.

3. Improved User Experience for Assessments and Surveys

• There is a fresh look and feel for Assessments and Surveys card with an innovative design in the My Assessments and Surveys list screen. You can now view Assessments and Surveys (initiated in the service workspace portal) in dark theme.
• Administrators can now benefit from the Next Experience feature in the mobile version of Assessments and Surveys.
• Administrators can run quick start tests to check that Assessments and Surveys work properly after the upgrades and deployments of new applications or integrations.

4. Customization of Notification Preferences for Optimal Productivity

• Enable or disable all notifications with ease with a global switch.
• Set global preferences for notifications to avoid unwanted distractions.
• Choose the specific channels for receiving notifications and turn them on or off as needed.
• Create, edit, or delete notification devices for email, SMS, voice, and instant messages to stay informed on-the-go.
• Customize your notifications by creating custom notifications and subscribing to important notifications, ensuring that you stay up to date on critical updates.

Users can now control notifications at a more granular level which reduces notification fatigue and improves overall user experience. Also, the customizable notification delivery methods help specify the frequency and urgency of the notifications which ensures that users receive the information they need in a timely and efficient manner.

5. Efficient Handling of Large Volumes of Messages with the Scalable Hermes Messaging Service

The Hermes Messaging Service is a new messaging feature in the ServiceNow Utah Release that provides a reliable and scalable communication channel between different components of the ServiceNow platform and with external systems.

This new messaging service is built on top of the Apache Kafka open-source distributed messaging platform and is designed to provide real-time message delivery, fault tolerance, and high scalability to support the communication needs of large-scale ServiceNow environments.

An important benefit of Hermes Messaging Service is the simplification and standardization of asynchronous data transport between your Kafka environment and your ServiceNow instance. Next, it provides users with a highly scalable distributed messaging system that can handle large volumes of messages and provide near-real-time processing.

So, these were five important enhancements among many brought by the ServiceNow Utah Release, augmenting ServiceNow Platform’s capabilities and offering amazing benefits to the users.

Stay tuned to ADVANCE, an expert ServiceNow implementation partner to learn about exciting features and capabilities to be brought by ServiceNow Utah Release General Availability by the end of Q1, 2023.

ADVANCE is an Elite ServiceNow Partner and a leading ServiceNow Managed Service provider across the entire ServiceNow landscape, with over 15 years of experience and 1000+ successful implementations. With our comprehensive portfolio of services and expertise, we are well-equipped to provide the right solutions for our customers.
If you are looking to maximize the value of your ServiceNow investment, let’s connect.