Actionable notifications for approvals in ITSM Virtual Agent

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated August 1, 2024
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Actionable notifications for approvals in ITSM Virtual Agent

    Actionable notifications in the ITSM Virtual Agent enable ServiceNow customers to notify employees of approval requests and updates directly through chat interactions. These notifications allow approvers and requesters to take immediate action—such as approving, rejecting, viewing details, or skipping notifications—without leaving the Virtual Agent interface. To use these notifications, activation in Workflow Studio is required.

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    Key Features

    • Approval requests for Service Catalog items: Virtual Agent notifies approvers of service catalog item requests, allowing direct approval, rejection with comments, or skipping the notification via chat.
    • Approval requests for changes: Notifications are sent to the requester or approver of change requests, enabling them to approve, reject, view details, or skip notifications.
    • Knowledge Base article approvals: End users receive notifications for knowledge article approvals, with options to approve, reject, view details, or skip.
    • Other approvals: Notifications for approvals of non-task records (e.g., knowledge base articles) are sent to approvers, who can view details or skip.
    • Approval reminders: Virtual Agent sends reminders to approvers about pending Service Catalog requests to prompt timely action.
    • Request status notifications: Requesters are notified when their Service Catalog item requests are approved or rejected, with options to view details or skip.
    • Task approvals: Notifications are sent to approvers when new tasks require review and approval, excluding tasks related to Change, Standard Change, Requests, and Requested Items.

    Configuration and Customization

    Administrators can customize the fields displayed in approval notifications by duplicating and modifying the showapprovaldetails topic and editing the approvaldefaulttaskfields script variable. For non-task tables without configured fields, notifications include a link to the relevant record.

    Practical Benefits

    By leveraging actionable notifications in ITSM Virtual Agent, customers can streamline their approval processes, reduce delays, and improve communication between requesters and approvers. The ability to act within the chat interface enhances user efficiency and supports faster resolution of approval tasks.

    Notify employees of approvals for requests with notifications from ITSM Virtual Agent.

    You must activate notifications in Workflow Studio in order to use them. For details, see Set up actionable notifications for ITSM Virtual Agent.

    Some of the default actionable notifications in ITSM Virtual Agent that need approvals are as follows:

    Approval request for requested items

    Virtual Agent sends a notification to the approver of a Service Catalog item request. The approver can choose to view the request details or skip the notification.

    Approvers can approve or reject the request directly in the chat. Approvers can also add comments to rejected requests directly in the chat.

    Approval request for requests

    When an approval for a change is requested, Virtual Agent sends a notification to the end user who made the change request. The end user can be either the requester or the approver. Virtual Agent sends the notification to the end user, as applicable, who can then approve or reject the request, see details, or skip the notification.

    Notification for approval details not configured task table.

    The fields shown below are the default fields for any task table (the Show Details field is not configured for the Task extended table).

    Actionable notification for approval details not configured on the task table.

    The fields below are the fields configured in the _show_approval_details_ topic (the Show Details field is configured for the Task extended table). Admin users can configure these fields by duplicating the topic and editing the approval_default_task_fields script variable within the topic.

    Actionable notification for approval details configured on the task table.

    KB request approved or rejected

    Virtual Agent sends a notification when an approval for a knowledge article is requested. End users approve or reject the request, see details, or skip the notification.

    Approval for knowledge article fields configured.

    The fields shown here are the fields configured in the _show_approval_details_ topic.​ Admin users can configure these fields by duplicating the topic and editing the approval_default_task_fields script variable within the topic.

    Approval for knowledge article fields configured.

    For non-task tables, when no fields are configured in the _show_approval_details_ topic, a message displays with a link to the record being reviewed.

    Notification for knowledge article approval.

    Other approval

    Virtual Agent sends a notification to the approver when a non-task record (such as a Knowledge Base article) needs approval. The approver can choose to view the request details or skip the notification.

    Request approval reminder

    Virtual Agent sends a notification to remind the approver of a pending Service Catalog request. The approver can choose to view the request details or skip the notification.

    Request approved or rejected

    Virtual Agent sends a notification to the requester of a Service Catalog item when their request has been approved or rejected. The requester can choose to view the request details or skip the notification.

    Task approval

    Virtual Agent notifies the approver about a newly created task that needs review and approval.

    This notification is not applicable for tasks such as Change or Standard Change. It is also not applicable to Requests (sc_requests) and Requested Items (sc_req_item).