Migrating from the legacy Ideas application to Idea Portal

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Migrating from the legacy Ideas application to Idea Portal

    This guide outlines the migration process from the legacy Ideas application to the new Idea Portal with the Australia release. Customers are encouraged to complete migration tasks post-upgrade to effectively utilize the new features and functionalities of the Idea Portal.

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    Key Features

    • New Idea States: The Idea Portal introduces states like Completed, Under Review, and In Backlog, which can be mapped to your existing states. Existing idea states can be retained or replaced by the new ones.
    • Idea Categories: Organize ideas into categories relevant to specific products or departments. Default categories are provided, and existing ideas can be mapped to these new categories.
    • Conversion Options: Ideas can be converted into various work entities, such as projects or user stories, via the Create Task button. Required Agile plugins must be installed for these options to be visible.
    • Business Rules Management: Review and adjust existing business rules associated with ideas to ensure they align with the new settings.
    • Legacy Navigation Removal: To promote the new Idea Portal, it is recommended to remove access to the legacy application from the application menu.

    Key Outcomes

    By following these migration guidelines, ServiceNow customers can seamlessly transition to the Idea Portal, enhancing idea management and collaboration. The new states and categories enable more effective organization and tracking of ideas, while conversion options facilitate better project planning and execution. Properly configuring business rules and removing legacy navigation will further streamline the user experience and encourage adoption of the new system.

    If you are upgrading to the Australia release, complete the migration tasks after the upgrade to start using the new Idea Portal.

    Review the following information and make any necessary changes to your configuration:

    Idea States

    The new Idea Portal provides new idea states such as Completed, Under Review, and In Backlog, which are mapped with your existing idea states. The following tables provide a comparison to the existing idea states and the equivalent new states with their values.
    Table 1. Legacy Ideas application
    Idea State Value
    Draft -5
    Submitted 1
    NA NA
    NA NA
    Accepted 2
    NA NA
    NA NA
    Closed complete 3
    Closed skipped 7
    NA NA
    NA NA
    Table 2. Idea Portal
    Idea State Value
    Draft -5
    Submitted 1
    Under Review -1
    Need more information -2
    In Backlog 2
    Planned 4
    In Development 5
    Completed 3
    Unlikely to Implement 7
    Duplicate 8
    Already Exists 9

    Starting with the Australia release, idea states are stored in and retrieved from the Idea [im_idea_core] table. You can continue to use your existing idea states along with the new idea states. However, if you want to use only these new states for managing your ideas, navigate to the Choice [sys_choice] table and delete the old idea states.

    Idea categories

    Organize your ideas using categories, for example, to group ideas that are relevant to a particular product, department, or business unit. If your existing ideas are not associated with any category, create new categories or select an existing table to define categories to which you can map your ideas. The Ideas application also installs a set of default new categories to which you can associate your existing ideas.

    If your ideas are already associated with categories and you want to use the new categories, you can map your existing idea categories to the default new categories. You then write and use a script to create m2m mapping between existing ideas and categories.
    Note:
    You must map an existing idea with appropriate categories for your ideas to appear in the Idea Portal.

    Converting ideas to demands or project, stories, initiatives, and epics

    You can convert an idea into work entities other than demands. The Create Task button enables you to convert an idea into a project, epic, or story as well as a demand becomes available in the Idea form.

    You must have the required Agile plugins Agile Development 2.0 and Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) and Continual Improvement Management installed to view these options.

    If you want to allow conversion of ideas only to a demand, disable the Create Task button and continue using the Accept button or disable the Accept and Defer buttons to use other options. For more information see, Using the form designer.

    Business rules

    Review the existing business rules in the idea table. Set the business rules that you don't want to apply as False.

    Navigation for legacy Idea application

    To encourage your users to submit ideas through the new Idea Portal, remove navigation for old Idea application from the application menu and deactivate the Submit an Idea option from the Service Catalog. For more information see, Enable or disable an application menu or module.