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Setting Up the ServiceChannel Application for ServiceNow

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Before You Start

To use the ServiceChannel-ServiceNow integration, your company needs to have Service Automation and an instance of ServiceNow where you can install the ServiceChannel Facilities Management app. This app serves as a connector between the ServiceChannel and ServiceNow platforms and can be downloaded from the ServiceNow store.

A ServiceNow administrator from your company with the ServiceNow HI access needs to request and configure the app for installation on the ServiceNow store. Once the app is linked to your instance, the ServiceChannel Facilities Management application is listed in the ServiceNow Application Manager. An administrator can install and upgrade the ServiceChannel Facilities Management app from the Application Manager.

The Application Manager in ServiceNow

Setting Up the Integration

There are several steps that you should take to connect the two platforms together:

  1. Obtain the client ID and client secret
  2. Set up a service account
  3. Import the data
  4. Configure the status types
  5. Add users

Obtain the Client ID and Client Secret

For the ServiceNow application to talk to Service Automation, you need to provide ServiceNow with a system identifier and password required for security and authentication. These are known as the client ID and client secret.

⦿ How to Configure the Client ID and Client Secret
  1. In Service Automation, navigate to Admin > Permissions > API Integration.
  2. Find the required client ID and client secret. If they are not present, click Add new client. Fill out all the required fields in the overlay to receive the client ID and client secret.
  3. In ServiceNow, navigate to Administration > System Properties, and add the obtained client ID and client secret to the Default Client ID and Default Client Secret fields. These client ID and client secret are used as default values when creating Connections.

Set Up a Service Account

Once you have provided the client ID and client secret, you need to add a service account.

A service account is a user account in Service Automation that is used to download all the data and pull work order updates into ServiceNow. It should be able to read all data in Service Automation. Your user within the ServiceChannel platform should have the following:

  • All permissions turned on
  • Access to all trades
  • Super Admin secondary role enabled
  • Be assigned a Dashboard

Learn more about configuring permissions and granting Dashboard access to a ServiceChannel user.

⦿ How to Create a Service Account
  1. Navigate to Connections > Create New, and provide a user account along with the User name and Password of the ServiceChannel account.
  2. Select the Service account checkbox, and click Connect.

We recommended creating a user account in ServiceNow specifically for the service account. The service account user cannot create work orders in ServiceNow. This account is only used for importing data. It is impossible to have more than one service account.

Creating a service account in ServiceNow

Once the user account is connected, you see a notice that the data sync is in progress. After a few seconds, the connection status changes to OK if everything has worked correctly. You may need to refresh the page.

Active service account in ServiceNow

Import the Data

Once the properties and service account are set up, and the service account is connected with the OK status, the data from Service Automation should be imported to ServiceNow.

The data load can take anywhere from several minutes up to a few hours and is best handled by a ServiceNow administrator or with the assistance of a ServiceChannel implementation manager.

⦿ How to Start the Import
  1. Navigate to the service account, and click Import All Data under Related Links.
    Importing the Service Automation data to ServiceNow

The order of imports is as follows:

  1. Locations
  2. Categories
  3. Priorities
  4. Trades
  5. Areas
  6. Problem types
  7. Asset types
  8. Problem codes
  9. Issue choices

A series of scheduled jobs is used to import the data. An administrator can see these requests in the Administration > HTTP Requests module. When no more IssueChoicePoller requests are being created, the import is complete.

At this time, you can also see the WorkOrderPoller requests. These requests are importing existing work orders from Service Automation into ServiceNow. If required, click Fetch all work orders to ensure all work orders data is up to date in ServiceNow.

You may need to delete the data that was previously imported from Service Automation to ServiceNow.

 Click the link to find out how to clean up the imported data.
⦿ How to Clean Up the Imported Data
  1. Navigate to the Scheduled Jobs page, and click New.
    Creating a new scheduled job from the Scheduled Jobs page
  2. Select the Automatically run a script of your choosing option to proceed.
    Selecting the option to automatically run a custom script

  3. On the page for creating a new job, insert the script provided below, choose to run the job Once, and fill out other required fields. When ready, click Submit.

    Script That Cleans Up the Imported Data 
    function deleteAll(table) {
  var ga = new GlideAggregate(table);
  if (!ga.isValid()) {
	gs.debug('Error: table ' + table + ' is not a valid table.');
	return;
  }
  ga.addAggregate('COUNT');
  ga.query();
  ga.next();
  gs.debug('Removing ' + ga.getAggregate('COUNT') + ' records from table ' + table);
 
  var gr = new GlideRecord(table);
  gr.deleteMultiple();
}

deleteAll('x_serch_scc_sc_work_order');
deleteAll('x_serch_scc_area');
deleteAll('x_serch_scc_asset');
deleteAll('x_serch_scc_asset_type');
deleteAll('x_serch_scc_category');
deleteAll('x_serch_scc_http_request');
deleteAll('x_serch_scc_issue_choice');
deleteAll('x_serch_scc_location');
deleteAll('x_serch_scc_note');
deleteAll('x_serch_scc_priority');
deleteAll('x_serch_scc_problem_code');
deleteAll('x_serch_scc_problem_type');
deleteAll('x_serch_scc_provider');
deleteAll('x_serch_scc_qualifier_result');
deleteAll('x_serch_scc_status');
deleteAll('x_serch_scc_trade');
deleteAll('x_serch_scc_user_location');
deleteAll('x_serch_scc_user_trade');

    Creating a scheduled job that cleans up the imported data

  4. On the Scheduled Jobs page, find the job you created, and click it.
    Locating the created scheduled job on the Scheduled Jobs page

  5. To run the script, click Execute Now on the scheduled job page.
    Executing the scheduled job that cleans up the imported data

All the data that was imported from Service Automation earlier is deleted. No records should be displayed in ServiceChannel > Data.

Once the ServiceChannel information is cleared, you can start a new import. Be sure to complete the connection setup process to be able to create work orders in ServiceNow.

Configure the Status Types

Once the status records have been imported, you should choose which statuses are default, which act as canceled, and which ones should require feedback.

⦿ How to Set Up the Status Types
  1. As a system administrator or application administrator, navigate to Data > Status.
  2. Edit the status records that have been created:
    1. Choose the status that should be used when a new work order is created, for example, Open. Open the record, and change the Type to Default.
    2. Choose the status that should be used when a work order has been canceled, for example, Completed/Cancelled. Open the record, and change its Type to Canceled.
    3. Choose the status or statuses that should allow the feedback to be given, for example, Completed / Pending Confirmation. Open the record, and select the Show feedback checkbox.

Add Users

Now that the service account is configured, you can start setting up users. Refer to Creating an Integrated User for more information.

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