Month: August 2022

How do I get started with Predictive Intelligence?

Posted on by Malwina

You have probably heard about machine learning possibilities and how artificial intelligence can make your work easier within the ServiceNow platform. Perhaps you are a step away from deciding that you want your agents to get all the AI benefits like automatic categorization, assignments, and automatic recommendations. Predictive Intelligence and Predictive Analytics also bring many possibilities and functionalities to predict actions, make decisions, and plan the next steps based on analyzed historical data. Take a look at our summary of what Predictive Intelligence can do for you and your organization.

Predictive Intelligence as an operational brain

Predictive Intelligence covers three capabilities around AI technology – machine learning, natural language, and search and automation. Machine learning is a set of algorithms that, through historical data analysis, can make predictions, while natural language processing focuses on analyzing users’ language allowing more ‘human’ ways of communication. AI search delivers highly relevant results based on user context and natural language. Algorithms get information through deep learning, mimicking how our brains work, continuously learning and improving their ways.

By using predictive intelligence and predictive analytics, you can manage a higher volume of tasks and tickets while lowering costs. Automation, as well as AI and improved categorization, reduce:
* Task resolution times.
* The number of interactions required to resolve tasks.
* The error rates of categorizing and assigning work.

Predictive Analytics
Source: ServiceNow

Predictive Analytics is all about making intelligent predictions to improve efficiency and deliver better results on your platform. Classification and similarity framework allows searching through knowledge articles, open/closed incidents, problems, and changes. All of it is to give a ready solution to the agents as soon as they get their tickets assigned. Also, your agents have a single point of information in the Agent Workspace. The clustering framework helps them discover patterns and group tickets and lets them see the hotspots. The purpose is one – let your employees focus on more advanced tasks by powering workflows with machine learning.

Predictive Intelligence
Source: ServiceNow

Predictive Intelligence – similarity and clustering frameworks

The Predictive Intelligence similarity frameworks allow an instance to identify existing records to add new ones, thanks to the fact that they have similar values. It’s all based on building a corpus of words within a certain framework. A corpus of words is a collection of vocabulary that has been predetermined and trained, which the system relies on to find textual similarities. By reusing similar closed incidents that have a proven resolution, you can help agents and fulfillers quickly provide the best resolution for an incoming incident. It is necessary to keep the corpus of words up to date. For this purpose, from time to time, you should refresh and retrain solutions.

How can you use the clustering framework? It is very simple – just group similar records into clusters. Thanks to this function, you can deal with incidents collectively or identify patterns. For example, you can group recent incidents into a cluster to identify a serious incident. Examples of grouping into cluster frameworks are shown in the graphic below.

Source: ServiceNow
Source: ServiceNow

Why are AI and machine learning worth it?

Using Predictive Intelligence in the ServiceNow platform gives your agents advanced AI tools without data science expertise. Getting suggestions from the AI tool makes the work fast and smart and allows a quick response as well as spotting major incidents in the ServiceNow instance. Resolution times are shorter, the manual errors decrease, and the tickets are assigned to the right people at the right time. That naturally leads to better efficiency, increased customer satisfaction, and fast improvements.

Predictive Intelligence
Source: ServiceNow

Additionally, you get regression analysis to predict the time to resolution of a task. Connecting AI to analytics for real-time insights is a great advantage. You can surely count on data security, as you use your data, which means they never leave ServiceNow data centers. You also can measure and refine machine learning models thanks to Predictive Intelligence Workbench. The Predictive Intelligence tool provides your agents with recommendations in 6 languages (English, Japanese, French, German, Spanish, and Dutch) and does not require coding skills as you can use out-of-the-box templates. You can also connect it with the Virtual Agent to use the automation to assist users quickly and effortlessly.

Here you can learn how to choose the right Virtual Agent for your platform

Machine learning success story

Implementation of any new technology may become difficult. You must educate your teams on machine learning benefits, find the best ways to collaborate and improve incident and case management performance, and build expertise and enthusiasm around AI. And this is how the University of Maryland has transformed its IT service delivery with Now Intelligence. To deliver a great experience to university staff and students, the IT department chose intuitive self-service to report issues, access services, find solutions and share questions and answers with other community members.

Thanks to AI technology, users can now automatically create a website for a new research project or schedule delivery of equipment for specific classes. Since the adaptation of Virtual Agent and Predictive Intelligence, the staff noted a huge increase in correct incident routing. It went from 56% to 85%, helping the IT team to get the right work faster. The incident resolution time was reduced by 75% because of more accurate incident routing and thanks to the ITSM Agent Workspace, which is intuitive and easily managed by IT support.

Predictive Intelligence
Source: ServiceNow

ServiceNow’s predictive intelligence and machine learning improve productivity and work experiences. You deliver better self-service, detect major incidents, discover hidden patterns and optimize knowledge bases. Agents’ work gets easier with automatic recommendations for actions and answers, while users are empowered with accurate and relevant search results.

Remember that adopting a new feature is an essential step for your ITSM maturity. We encourage always searching for professional support to ensure you get 100% out of your ServiceNow instance. Contact us if you are interested in more and want to know how you can adjust the AI processes to your needs.

Busting the 6 myths around ServiceNow Predictive Intelligence

Posted on by Malwina

Artificial intelligence, machine learning, and predictive intelligence have been hot topics for many years, and the presumptions around new technologies still bring mixed feelings in the business area. You might have heard some of these before, or perhaps you are still very cautious regarding machine learning. We are here to debunk these beliefs and set the record straight about what embracing predictive intelligence can bring to your organization and the ServiceNow platform.

MYTH #1   Using AI and predictive intelligence is not safe

Using the ServiceNow Predictive Intelligence function is as safe as having ServiceNow. The infrastructure and data security are highly resilient with its cloud-based services. Predictive Intelligence, formerly known as Agent Intelligence before the New York release, works on dedicated servers, which are as safe as the instance itself. Of course, cybersecurity requires regular checks. That is why ServiceNow enables you to access dashboards, which are crucial to the security and give the proper insight into what is happening with your data. 

Source: ServiceNow

Additionally, by using performance analytics, you can foresee any safety threats. Since the decisions are based on data, the risk of errors is lower with artificial intelligence. Analyzing data through AI tools, you are less likely to commit any bias – the machine is objective and does not choose one data over the other.

MYTH #2   Giving space to AI makes me lose control

Concerns about losing control of the technology are standard. Fortunately, ServiceNow gives you complete power over the AI function. You are the one who determines how to configure the Predictive Intelligence and when the algorithm should be decisive.  

Source: ServiceNow

For example, using Virtual Agent Professional, you can set an 85% accuracy threshold to automatically assign incoming requests from your users. This allows for the agents’ last word on giving less straightforward cases. At the same time, the most apparent tickets get posted automatically, improving the response time and customer satisfaction.  

By choosing the correct parameters, you check random cases occasionally to verify the predictive intelligence correctness. Thanks to the generated reports, you see the comparison between the agent and machine decisions and have the proper insight to take further actions in customer service management. So, long story short – you are in charge.

Source: ServiceNow

MYTH #3   My ServiceNow platform doesn’t need AI

What is wrong with service desk manual work? The agents have managed it until now, so they can go on without artificial intelligence. Indeed, they can. But isn’t it worth using predictive intelligence to make things quicker, more convenient, and more accurate? Wouldn’t automatic ticket assignment or predicting possible problems make your agents more effective? Also, what about the user experience? Nobody wants a separate channel just for sending requests.  

Virtual Agent lets your users contact the agents through their channel of choice, with integration in Microsoft Teams, Slack or Messenger, and many others. That leads to customer satisfaction and less frustration when the bot guides the user, resulting in fewer mistakes. So you get improved workflows, smooth and fast user experience, resources for more complicated tasks, fewer human errors, and predictive capabilities based on raw data. It’s a win-win.  

Source: ServiceNow

MYTH #4   Predictive intelligence is too expensive

Applying tools like Virtual Agent Professional or Performance Analytics might not be the cheapest solution, but it depends on how you look at it. AI in ServiceNow brings pretty fast ROI, not only improving the work but also letting you rearrange the assignments to your resources. It is more of an investment.  

The agents get time for other, more complicated tasks while machine learning solutions are doing repetitive jobs. In the long run, it should result in time and money savings. Obviously, every company has different needs, so machine learning capabilities should be adjusted to these specific requirements. By knowing how to optimize the ServiceNow paid solutions, you can get a pretty good deal.  

Source: ServiceNow

MYTH #5   Introducing AI solution is too confusing and complex

Every new implementation takes a little effort. If you look at the outcomes, though, there is no confusion or complexity. On the user end, it gets easier. They receive the right help and instructions straight away, through the communication channel of their personal preference. It becomes a streamlined path leading to a resolution. 

Source: SPOC

Conversely, agents have access to everything in their Agent Workspace, which is very convenient. Predictive intelligence is there to get all the information and displays it in a user-friendly way through the dashboards. All the historical data is in one place, and the overview is straightforward. Your agents do not need to know how to code due to the simplicity of the Predictive Intelligence feature.

MYTH #6   ServiceNow Predictive Intelligence is designed for simple tasks

The functionality is expected to affect the automation of repetitive tasks, solving issues faster, based on machine learning. All this is true. But Predictive Intelligence is a more advanced solution.

Predictive Intelligence ServiceNow is just opening the door to the world of AI capabilities. And what is behind those doors? Machine learning, automation, ticket rewriting, ticket clustering, performance analytics, event prediction, and response planning, Classification Framework Dashboards – and still only a part of the possibilities that ServiceNow Predictive Intelligence provides. You will be able to get acquainted with the description of all the possibilities and functionalities in the next article dedicated only to ServiceNow Predictive Intelligence. Stay tuned!

Source: ServiceNow

Maximized ServiceNow or the basic ITSM version? 

Adopting predictive intelligence is a great way to take your ITSM process maturity to the next level. But since it’s an important step, we always advise our clients to analyze their needs and see how such a solution might streamline processes and workflows.

With your implementation partner or even alone, you should be able to determine the most critical areas – sometimes the essential solutions can address your needs, e.g., when users mainly send requests about resetting passwords or ordering equipment. It can be easily handled by the Virtual Agent Lite solution and does not require a high investment or a long time. On the other hand, an experienced implementation partner can help you with more advanced needs and get the best value for the chosen solution. 

Sylwester Jassa, ServiceNow Presales Manager & Business Solutions Consultant at SPOC

Machine learning solutions are great tools, ensuring a better work experience and more satisfied agents and users. There are many scenarios in which the Predictive Intelligence feature makes sense, e.g., you want to cut time spent on resolving tickets, improve customer experience or know about possible issues through predictive models. Different frameworks, like classification or similarity frameworks, can be used to fulfill these various goals.  

Indeed, deciding to maximize your ITSM instance with predictive intelligence is not easy, especially when you consider that you need historical data in significant volumes to benefit from it fully. If you are interested in more and want to know how you can adjust the AI processes to your needs, contact us. 

How to choose the right Virtual Agent for your platform?

Posted on by Malwina

Every business can take advantage of an automated tool to assist its users quickly and efficiently. The question is, which type of Virtual Agent is the right choice for your company to enable a better user experience on your ServiceNow platform? We are here to help you find the right solution!  

The power of ServiceNow Virtual Agent

To make it simple, a Virtual Agent is a sort of chatbot that uses Artificial Intelligence to take communication to the next, more sophisticated level.

With Virtual Agent, you can create tickets, manage them, respond to questions, and fulfill user requests. If it is needed, it transfers the user to the live agent. Thanks to the natural language processing engine, the tool does not only analyze the keywords but also takes into consideration the context of a conversation. Smooth integration with all communication channels like Slack or Microsoft Teams makes it easy for the user who doesn’t need to login into the ServiceNow portal.  

ServiceNow Virtual Agent is proven to help organizations in achieving better results in a number of areas, including ITSM, HR, and CSM, while constantly improving user experience and satisfaction.

Axel Starosta – SericeNow Developer at SPOC
Source: ServiceNow

The idea behind Virtual Agent is to save users’ and agents’ time and lower the effort and the mistakes in the process. Faster, easier, and more pleasant. And greater customer satisfaction with the use of the chatbot. And it learns over time! The Virtual Agent technology is constantly improving through data analysis to give your users the best conversation path. The more data, the better results. Analyzing the user’s request helps the Virtual Agent to become a well-oiled machine, better understanding the user’s communication patterns and guiding the user through the process. The Virtual Agent currently supports 8 languages, but as every organization uses its own, ‘inside language’, the tool’s learning skill is priceless. Preparing a chatbot for work is very simple. It is based on the popular no-code or low-code platform model. As shown in the graphic, an example conversation just needs to be prepared in a drag-and-drop interface.

Source: SPOC

Building a chatbot in Servicenow via Virtual Agent is as easy as doing it on different competitive cloud solutions like Google Dialogflow or AWS Chatbot!

Adam Goździewski – ServiceNow Developer at SPOC

Empower your users by finding the best match 

Respond to a few questions to determine which type of Virtual Agent fits you the most. Choose your answer and check which kind of Virtual Agent you need.

1. What processes do you wish to make self-serviceable? 

a) basic ITSM actions like checking ticket status or reporting an issue – A 

b) more advanced ITSM actions like password reset, run knowledge base search or transform a caller to the Live Agent aid queue – B 

c) my own, custom, not necessarily ITSM processes – C 

2. What languages should your chatbot be able to understand? 

a) English – A 

b) any of the following: – B 

Italian, Norwegian, Japanese, Canadian French, Finnish, Polish, Korean, Danish, Swedish, Brazilian Portuguese, Portuguese, French, Spanish, Dutch, Chinese, German 

c) other

3. Is there a need for Teams/Slack Integration with your system? 

a) yes – B 

b) no – A 

5. Should a chatbot have access to a knowledge base to suggest helpful articles? 

a) yes – B 

b) no – A 

6. Are their surveys required to gather user feedback to supervise virtual agent activity? 

a) yes – B 

b) no – A 

Basic needs for self-service
– Virtual Agent Lite 

Your answers indicate that the lite tool is probably enough for your needs. The limited version of Virtual Agent gives you access to the keyword-based conversation in web chat and other messaging apps like Slack, Microsoft Teams, or Messenger. It has an introductory collection of topics for your IT support. Virtual Agent Lite can improve your ITSM system self-service experience, giving you a primary conversational interface. Your users can check their ticket status or report an issue. It is a stiff path, but if you want to improve the response time and do not have many complicated tickets, then go for it.  

This version is free for ServiceNow license owners, so it is the most economical option. Keep in mind that the lite version does not allow any modifications to topics in Designer, like creating new topics, topic blocks, or custom controls. You will not have access to Virtual Agent Analytics Dashboard or Natural Language Understanding support either. The two available paths let the user check the ticket status or report an issue.  

Source: SPOC

Extended support with natural language
– Virtual Agent Professional 

Virtual Agent Professional might be a perfect choice for you. The extended version of the tool offers all core functionalities plus customization and NLU. What does it mean for you? The tool improves over time and can give a better, more personalized customer experience by applying the information from previous conversations. With NLU, your Virtual Agent understands, processes, and responds in an improved way to the users’ needs. Thanks to access to Virtual Agent Designer, you are free to develop, test and deploy tailored automated conversations. It allows you also to build new topics and topic blocks that can perform certain functions or custom controls during the interactions with your users. 

Virtual Agent Professional covers different communication channels and third-party messaging apps, making it more convenient and easier for users to resolve their issues. The available channels are broader than in the Lite version, thanks to conversational custom chat integrations. Your users can choose a channel familiar to them, making the whole user journey smoother. The technology in the full version of the tool supports also: 

  • answering FAQs; 
  • providing tutorial (“how to”) information; 
  • querying or updating records, e.g., to get status on cases or incidents; 
  • gathering data, such as attachments, for the live agent; 
  • capabilities performing diagnostics; 
  • resolving multi-step problems. 
Source: ServiceNow

Specific needs for improved customer satisfaction
– a dedicated solution 

Sometimes even the extended version does not meet the company’s needs. You might as well need a customized AI bot for your ServiceNow, written accordingly to your specific requests. Perhaps you have different communication channels that need to be covered, or you want to automatically assign tickets to a particular person. You might also want to take a step further and make your Virtual Agent more fun, enabling it to chat about the weather or the latest news. The sky is the limit thanks to unlimited integration possibilities with NLU engines like IBM, Watson, Microsoft LUIS, or external APIs. Your Virtual Agent solution can be anything you want and need. 

Read about the 6 most common myths around ServiceNow Predictive Intelligence.

We helped AMS to build a customised chatbot with the app engine. With 400K recruitment interviews organised each year, the custom solution was a perfect choice. It allowed AMS to automate and coordinate the interview process at every step of the way – from the first online to the last face-to-face meeting. Results?

Using ServiceNow, and its elite partner SPOC based in Poland, AMS Interview Scheduling automates and co-ordinates every aspect of the process, enabling everyone involved to focus on getting the maximum value from the interview.

Natalia Mikrut, Head of Digital Automation at AMS

Read more about this success story. And find out more about our experience in developing custom applications. 

Source: ServiceNow

How to get better business outcomes with Virtual Agent? 

Based on 10 years of experience and extensive ServiceNow knowledge, we believe that choosing the right version of the tool is critical. First, consider your company’s needs and how this tool can improve the user experience. Do you need more advanced help, or is it just a question of a basic solution to improve the response time from your agents?  

So our tip is to go for adjusting the tools towards the needs, keeping in mind that any automation will be positive for your agents to free them from repetitive tasks and let them focus on more complex user needs. When we analyze our clients’ instances and provide them with a health check, we usually come up with a reasonable solution that will be both appreciated by the agents and end-users.  

Please tell us more about what you want to achieve, and what are you prerequisites or expectations – contact us.

How to improve the work-from-home experience with ServiceNow?

Posted on by Malwina

The last three years and the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the way we work. Despite the vaccinations, the World Health Organization has said that Europe will experience a challenging autumn and winter of 2022/23 with the new infection wave. How can your company be prepared for another potential work-from-home season? What are the best practices to improve self-service?  

Hybrid is the new normal

The digitization of the workplace has been one of the most impactful trends of the last decade. In 2021 Okta pointed out in their report that the average amount of apps at organizations has increased by 22% in the past four years. Many of these solutions were introduced to provide easy self-service to employees. More apps mean more problems and increased work for service desks. But the higher number of tickets hasn’t been the only challenge during the pandemic.  

Source: https://www.okta.com/businesses-at-work/2021/

Most companies addressed arising issues with data security, time tracking, and workplace safety by creating work-from-home policies. ServiceNow platform did everything to ensure employees’ flexibility and safety, having a home office or hybrid work environment. For example, a ServiceNow plug return-to-work product has been widely used by companies like Uber or Bank United, allowing them to shift from 100% remote working to hybrid mode safely.  

Predictive Inteligance
Source: ServiceNow
Predictive Intelligance

More than that, ServiceNow offers automation systems, workflow handling, and new ways to digitize processes usually done in person before. From an IT perspective, the most important elements to address are IT support and service desk team agility, making work from home much easier for the employees. Ensuring a business continuity plan for remote work scenarios is a safe way of facing the possible new COVID-19 waves.

Service management at its best with an office-in-a-box solution 

Different pandemic restrictions forced the business world to introduce change and remote work quickly. Facing this challenge, one of our clients reached out to create a tailored home office solution for the company employees. This leading supply chain solution company utilizes high-quality infrastructure, modern facilities, and proven IT systems like ServiceNow to meet and exceed the expectations of its customers.  

During several lockdowns, the company employees had to perform their duties from home. The managers saw how important it was to provide employees with a working environment and to keep efficiency levels high. That’s when the idea of creating a dedicated platform to order home office supplies was born.  

The collaboration with our client on this project has been very enjoyable. Responsiveness and knowledge from customer side part allowed us to create a novel solution fit for our times.

Magdalena Kurzymska, Project Manager at SPOC

We approached this idea with an MVP solution, choosing CSM customization to ensure high speed to market. CSM is a great choice to support several external users and company clients. The solution allowed people to order all the equipment needed for their remote work environment and resulted in quick service delivery. It made the process smooth and effortless without losing any additional time, improving both service desk staff work and employee experience.  

Automation, artificial intelligence & self-service 

As mentioned before, remote or hybrid work setup results in many IT tickets from the users. Usage of new software, VPN, and connection poor quality create an accumulation of cases that service desks need to cope with. How to handle the ticket pile-ups in the most effective way? Technology can help overworked service desks by automatically resolving common service desk questions and 24/7 availability for all users.  

Source: ServiceNow

With ServiceNow Virtual Agent, these numbers can significantly go down. Self-service solutions like chatbots responding to users’ questions and assigning tickets automatically save time on both service desks and users’ sides. A faster, easier, and more pleasant way to provide FAQs, give status on cases or incidents and resolve multi-step problems. All of it is in one channel of the user’s choice – without logging into the service desk portal.  

Read more about the Virtual Agent portal

Source: ServiceNow

With predictive intelligence as an additional tool, you can do even more. It helps you foresee what problems might arise, allowing your service management a better and quicker response. Machine learning is a great solution, ensuring a great work experience and more satisfied agents and users. 

Discover the most common myths around ServiceNow Predictive Intelligence

Source: ServiceNow

Go hybrid with ServiceNow 

Whether there is another COVID-19 wave or you plan to switch from remote work to hybrid, you need to improve the user experience on your ServiceNow platform constantly. The reason is simple – with well-working service desks, automation, self-service, artificial intelligence, and other solutions improving the ways of working, your employees will be more pleased. And it will have an impact on their work, meaning improved efficiency. Let’s talk about how we can help you to adjust the platform to your users’ needs. 

SPOC S.A.
ul. Szyperska 14
61-754 Poznań, Poland
ul. Grzybowska 43
00-855 Warszawa, Poland
sales@spoc.eu +48 614 152 903

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