ServiceNow Service Catalog Configuration for a Logistics Enterprise

Summary

A large international logistics enterprise had outgrown its existing ServiceNow setup and needed to replace the vendor handling its Service Catalog. INNERLUXES reconfigured the Service Catalog so employees could request equipment, access rights, and financial-operations services far more conveniently than by email, with each request routed through workflows that match the enterprise's internal business processes. A custom multilevel service request feature now files and processes all the suborders behind a complex order automatically, so employees no longer need to know every category and item their request involves.

About the Customer

The Customer is a large international logistics enterprise that ships parcels across more than 200 countries and territories around the world.

An Outgrown ServiceNow Setup and a Vendor to Replace

The Customer had been using ServiceNow for a couple of years and found that its existing functionality no longer met requirements as the business changed, while it also planned to move more business processes onto ServiceNow. The Customer actively outsourced ServiceNow configuration and needed to replace one of the vendors covering Service Catalog configuration. The required work meant letting employees request services related to financial operations, employee equipment, and access rights to needed hardware, software, and information resources more conveniently than via email, fully in line with the Customer's internal business processes — plus custom functionality for submitting complex service orders.

Three New Catalog Categories Wired to Business-Process Workflows

To make requesting services easier, INNERLUXES's ServiceNow implementation specialists added new catalog items across three categories, each with its own supporting items:

• Employee equipment — lets employees contact the IT department about equipment such as computers, tablets, keyboards, and headphones, with dependent items for requesting equipment, filing handover forms, calling for faulty-equipment repair, and asking for performance tests with follow-up repairs if necessary.
• Access rights — facilitates granting employees the access they need, with supporting items reflecting access to tools, information resources, and equipment.
• Financial operations — simplifies requesting services from the financial department, with items for an invoice request, an invoice annulment, a purchase order, and a refund request.

To ensure every request is handled according to the Customer's business processes, the team built a ServiceNow workflow for each item. While the workflows defined different specific processes, most followed a similar sequence, chosen to keep approvals valid and fulfillment automatic:

• Automatic approval routing — most requests first need approval from an automatically determined authority to confirm the request is valid and that the employee genuinely needs and is entitled to the service. The Customer's complex organizational structure called for a comprehensive, flexible set of rules to automatically identify who is authorized to approve each type of request.
• Automated task generation — once approved, ServiceNow examines the factors defining the request and generates a system of tasks to fulfill it, automatically assigning them to the relevant specialists to be completed within preset time frames.

The Customer also commissioned a custom feature for multilevel service requests, letting employees order multiple catalog items in a single request. ServiceNow offers order guides out of the box, but the Customer wanted a custom-made version. The feature presents a set of possible service orders that each encompass multiple catalog items — for example, workplace creation involves booking equipment, preparing documentation, creating user accounts, and granting access rights; all of these suborders are filed automatically and then processed according to the pre-established workflows.

Convenient Requests and Effortless Complex Orders

• Employees can now conveniently request services related to employee equipment, financial operations, and access rights.
• Submitted requests are handled according to the Customer's business processes, supported by the matching ServiceNow workflows.
• With the custom multilevel service request feature, employees no longer need a full understanding of every category and item their order requires — the system associates order types with all the necessary activities automatically, significantly easing the submission and fulfillment of complex orders.

Technologies and Tools

ServiceNow: Service Catalog, Workflow, Request Fulfillment, Macros, Approval Engine.