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Why Upgrade to Paris Immediately: The Most Exciting Features from the ServiceNow Paris Release

Writer's picture: David SmethyDavid Smethy


Another release means another set of exciting new features and enhancements to ServiceNow! Of course, we’d be remiss to not continue stressing the importance of upgrades in ServiceNow, as regularly performing them will maintain the health of your instance and ensure you are staying in proximity to the security and quality standards that ServiceNow regulates.


In addition to some of the housekeeping type features that go into a new ServiceNow upgrade, the community always has new features to look forward to unwrapping and extracting value from. In the spirit of that, the ServiceNow experts here at Bravium want to share some of the features that get them most excited about upgrading to Paris:


1 - Change Success Score


Known to be one of the primary value driving apps of ServiceNow, IT Service Management (ITSM) receives a few modifications and additions in the Paris release. Notably, Change Management, as a part of ITSM, will gain a new Change Success Score system which will use a “...team's historical data to provide insight to the performance to make informed decisions.” (ServiceNow). This score is calculated based on the previous success of a team’s change request management, which provides clarity of how a team will avoid issues in processing a request.


Why get excited? For a someone like one of our Senior ServiceNow Developers, Stephen Sturdevant, this feature would have been a game changer:


“For more than a decade of my career, I was a change manager. This new feature would have been a life and time saver!”


With this feature also comes a Change Success Score Dashboard, which offers a visual way to easily identify and monitor trends in the way your team efficiently resolves changes.


2 - Email Client Template


Exciting for Admins is the new ability to create an Email Client Template. As an update to the Now Platform Core functionality, this feature will simplify work for users in the instance who want to leverage email templates better customized toward the work they conduct.

“The templates will help to quickly form and send emails that consist of common responses straight from the Now Platform.” says Stephen Sturdevant. “Additionally, users can add attachments to emails directly from records, no download required. Last but not least, users can save email drafts for later.”


Why get excited? These templates act nicely as an addition to the platform which hits on the mission that currently drives ServiceNow: to improve the employee experience by making work flow. It’s more than just a company mantra, as with this feature it’s tangibly put to action. Though a possibly simple addition from afar, the email client template will improve the way users work by accelerating their efficiency in reducing time spent on repetitive tasks.


3 - Portal Analyzer


This feature is a nice addition to the benefit of the user experience on the ServiceNow platform when dealing with the construction and maintenance of a portal. The Portal Analyzer will offer on-demand scans of a portal to assess the number and quality of widgets connected to a given portal. Yielding from this scheduled job is a list of all the widgets and the page they are on.


The list produced from the scan will also share information such as:

  • Level of customization of each widget

  • Number of views on each page

  • Number of user visits on each page (ServiceNow)

Why get excited? Perhaps our Chief ServiceNow Architect, Michael Hade, put it best: “This information could help determine if you’re getting the most out of your portal. Adjusting the layout could make all the difference for your end user experience.” Using the information provided by this new feature helps you improve the end user experience, again driving the mission of ServiceNow to improve the world of work.


4 - Change Management Integration with Hardware Asset Management


Circling back toward the Change Management (CM) realm, another exciting new development involving CM is the integration now offered with Hardware Asset Management (HAM). Using this integration, a change implementer can now update asset records right from change using the “Related Configuration Items (CI)” related list. On the other side, Asset Managers are able to see the current state of assets as part of the alteration made from the change implementer’s action.


There are three Asset Actions that can be used for the changes made: Deploy, Update/Repair, and Retire. By selecting these actions, workflows are triggered which reflect the changes automatically in real-time, showing instantly accurate information of the CI or asset in your instance.


Why get excited? A clear benefit with this feature is the opportunity to leverage real-time as events occur. But in addition, the value comes from the fact that you are “not reliant on periodic inventory events or failed discovery jobs to update your asset information.“ as Stephen Sturdevant puts it.


These are just a few of the features that stand out to our ServiceNow experts, but what are some of yours? Comment below with your favorite new Paris feature!


Within the Paris release are many tools and updates, but if you were looking for a reason to get excited about upgrading to Paris, we hope this gives you a good starting point from which you can increase your awareness of the release. If you’re looking for more information about the release, visit these links from ServiceNow:



Don’t have a good way of maintaining your instance? Need a way to prepare for upgrades by eradicating errors in your instance? Learn more about our top rated ServiceNow product, Best Practice Engine, by clicking here.


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