Highlights from ServiceNow Knowledge12

This year I was privileged to get a ticket and a chance to head to the US to be part of the knowledge12 conference for ServiceNow and what an amazing week it was. The hardest thing about the conference was the unbridled session envy wondering if the one you picked was the absolute best you could have chosen. Not because any lab, session or keynote was bad but simply there were so many topics on offer you wanted to be able to attend them all. As I'm writing this I can't help but feel I've been swept up by the conference and ended up drinking a little too much of the koolaid but it's hard not to be when there are 2000 people spurring you along.  The labs were probably the most valuable with a host of new tips and tricks for extending the platform (which I'll post in the coming weeks) but being able to get hands on with the new Berlin release after Fred Luddy's keynote was the highlight.  Here's a quick list of what I saw: - new IT assets module, allowing you to create an it asset register separate to your cmdb. This is one of the biggest changes to the cmdb model since it was included allowing you to store procurement and stock information separately from your cmdb information being managed by discovery.  - new SCRUM module, most of the improvements here we're reporting and collaboration through the UI. The most notable addition is the burn down chart and the story board giving you an interactive "post it" note view of your stories - task/live feed integration allowing you to include the live feed updates as part of the history of a task (incident problem change etc) as well as allowing collaboration on the live feed.  - archiving automated and configurable archiving on any table all scheduled in background workers to prevent performance impacts. Probably the nicest is that the data is automatically flattened, the data is demoralized so reporting remains accurate. The nicest feature is though you can simply choose records to return to a non archive state at any time.  Now for a few of the more under the covers niceties  - data mapping tables. Allowing for functions like priority matrix to be moved out of code and administered with table data with the ability to run both on the client and server side.  -in instance clones, pretty much what the title says but with the added bonus of selective data to retain AND A ROLL BACK FEATURE! -new VM provisioning integration in the Run book plug in -new script editors with formatting and highlighting.  Everything wasn't all Berlin centric. There were a few big themes from that I took away from the conference. -Social and collaborative IT is here to stay and not only should you have a strategy there are real quantitative benefits to embracing it.   -Gamification can inject new performance gains into your existing processes (although it's essentially bribery with a leader board, but I'm ok with that) -Automation of business process and giving the end user power to drive the automation through a service catalog -Knowledge should be the foundation of your implementation. A lack of knowledge can be more costly to the business than a lack of processes.  All this comes down to a common theme, IT needs to be able to offer more value to the business with less resources and all the tools are available to achieve it. The key is a little strategic planning for your implementation and a little innovation.  Overall I had a fantastic conference and look forward knowledge13 in Las Vegas. My aim is to be speaking at the next conference....