Exploring Digital End-User Experience

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 4 minutes to read
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    Summary of Exploring Digital End-User Experience

    The Digital End-User Experience (DEX) suite in ServiceNow provides comprehensive, proactive visibility into the health and performance of applications, networks, and end-user devices across your organization. It helps identify root causes of issues rather than merely addressing symptoms, enhancing the overall digital workplace experience. Key components include Application and Device Health, DEX Content Playbook, Desktop Assistant, Digital Experience Score, and Proactive Engagement.

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    Users and Roles

    DEX supports multiple roles tailored to organizational needs:

    • DEX Administrator: Manages user access, oversees application monitoring, handles onboarding/offboarding, and troubleshoots application issues.
    • DEX Engineer: Executes remedial actions and accesses detailed insights.
    • DEX User: Utilizes DEX features for monitoring and analysis.
    • DEX Service Desk Agent: Provides L1/L2 support using DEX for incident investigation and remediation directly from the ServiceNow incident platform.
    • Desktop Assistant Administrator: Manages configuration and resolves issues within Desktop Assistant.
    • Desktop Assistant User: Uses Desktop Assistant to access device health and digital tools but cannot configure it.

    Benefits and Capabilities

    • Proactive Visibility: Monitor end-user experience from any location or device, consolidating reliability data into a centralized workspace without additional monitoring tools.
    • Increased Productivity: Empower users with easy access to troubleshooting tools, password resets, and software, reducing IT support load.
    • Issue Analysis: Gain insights into usage patterns, pain points, and performance to make data-driven improvements.
    • Performance Evaluation: Access detailed device performance and health metrics to optimize application usage and user engagement.
    • Enhanced Engagement: Continuously monitor application and device health to quickly identify and address poor user experiences, supporting job satisfaction.
    • Optimized Digital Experience: Utilize Desktop Assistant as a centralized hub for request management, device health monitoring, internet testing, and usage metrics within ServiceNow.

    Integration and Practical Use

    Service Desk agents can seamlessly integrate DEX within their incident workflows to investigate device health and apply remediation directly from the ServiceNow platform. DEX facilitates automated root cause analysis and resolution documentation, streamlining support processes.

    Integration with Software Asset Management (SAM) enables the use of DEX software metering data to optimize software license management and reduce costs.

    Next Steps for Customers

    • Configure and customize Digital End-User Experience to fit your organizational needs.
    • Monitor and manage digital workplace health using DEX tools and dashboards.
    • Leverage Desktop Assistant for end-user empowerment and streamlined IT support.
    • Utilize the Digital Experience Score dashboard for tracking and improving user experience.
    • Explore detailed administration options to maintain and optimize DEX deployment.

    The Digital End-User Experience (DEX) suite provides proactive visibility to help you understand and improve the end-user experience across your organization. It includes Application and Device Health, DEX Content Playbook, Desktop Assistant, Digital Experience Score​, and Proactive Engagement to help diagnose and address negative experiences.

    Digital End-User Experience overview

    The Digital End-User Experience (DEX) provides end-to-end visibility into the health of applications, networks, and end-user devices. DEX provides such features as application, user, and device navigation, trend analysis, and various useful metrics. With DEX you can identify the root cause of an issue instead of addressing only its effects.

    Digital End-User Experience users

    For examples of how different people in your organization would use DEX Application and Device Health, see these users and roles.

    Table 1. Application and Device Health users and roles
    Role title [name] Contains roles Description
    DEX administrator

    [sn_dex.admin]
    • sn_dex.user
    • sn_dex.engineer
    • agent_client_collector_admin
    • report_admin
    		 Responsible for managing user access to DEX, managing the applications that are being monitored, and handling onboarding or offboarding-related tasks. This role also troubleshoots any issues that arise within the application.
    DEX engineer

    [sn_dex.engineer]

    		 sn_dex.user Responsible for accessing and executing the remedial actions.
    DEX user

    [sn_dex.user]
    • dependency_views
    • agent_client_collector_user
    • sow_incident_read
    • mbplus_reader
    • sam_user
    • evt_mgmt_user
    		 Responsible for accessing and using the features provided by DEX.
    DEX Service Desk agent

    [sn_dex.service_desk_user]

    		 Not applicable Responsible for L1 or L2 support representatives accessing DEX from the incident platform to explore and investigate the details of the devices linked to the incident.

    Also responsible for accessing and executing the remedial actions allowed for this role.

    For examples of how different people in your organization would use Desktop Assistant, see these use cases.

    Table 2. Desktop Assistant users and responsibilities
    User Responsibilities
    Desktop Assistant administrator

    [sn_dex_desktop.admin]

    		 Responsible for managing configurations and resolving any issues that might arise within the application.
    Desktop Assistant user

    [sn_dex_desktop.user]

    		 Responsible for using Desktop Assistant. Cannot configure any items within the application.

    Digital End-User Experience workflow

    Depending on your role, you can use Digital End-User Experience for a variety of scenarios.

    Figure 1. Digital End-User Experience overview
    Digital End-User Experience workflow

    Digital End-User Experience benefits

    Having a positive digital experience can lead to the following benefits:

    Proactive visibility into the end-user experience

    Gain insights into the digital experience of your application and services from the end-user viewpoint, regardless of their location, device type, or network connectivity. Identify and measure the health of user systems — view what applications and system crashes are happening. All this reliability data is brought together in one central workspace, enabling your IT team to examine detailed data without deploying additional monitors.

    Increased productivity

    Access digital tools and resources easily to troubleshoot IT issues, reset passwords, or access software. Reducing the burden on IT staff can increase productivity. The DEX Content Playbook includes policies and checks for metrics and subsequent actions required for different operating systems.

    Issue analysis

    Identify and analyze issues by providing insights into pain points, usage patterns, performance, and impact. By analyzing DEX data, organizations can identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions to enhance the digital workplace experience for end users.

    Performance evaluation

    Provide insights into the productivity, efficiency, user behavior, and engagement. DEX provides a wealth of device performance and health information. This data can help IT teams understand how a given application is being used and identify areas for improvement.

    Enhanced engagement

    Promote end-user experience and productivity by continuously measuring and monitoring application and device health metrics. Gain end-to-end visibility and insights into the overall user experience and quickly identify users, applications, and devices with poor experiences that need your attention. A positive digital experience can support end-user engagement and job satisfaction.

    Optimized end-user digital experience

    Empower your employees with Desktop Assistant – a centralized hub that provides a comprehensive view of requests and device health, enables internet connection testing, and offers a usage metrics dashboard for communication with the ServiceNow® instance.

    Better together

    DEX for Service Desk Agents
    As a Service Desk agent, navigate to the DEX device health page from the ServiceNow Core UI incident experience or from the Investigate tab within the Incident experience in Service Operations Workspace (SOW). Configure a computer Configuration Item (CI) and install the DEX plugin for the ability to analyze device metrics from within the platform, getting valuable insights for effective issue investigation.

    Use incident investigation with DEX to review device health, detected issues, and suggested resolutions. Implement resolutions and remedial actions directly from your workspace and monitor the status of actions. For more information, see Incident investigation with DEX.

    Use the DEX issue diagnosis and resolution agentic workflow to resolve detected issues with automated root cause analysis, targeted resolution plans, and documentation of resolution summary in incident records. For more information, see DEX issue diagnosis and resolution agentic workflow.

    Software Asset Management
    Unifying the experience of DEX application with Software Asset Management (SAM) software enables you to access SAM-normalized software content. This integration provides software metering data from DEX to integrate with SAM for software licensing reclamation and, in turn, reduce software license costs. For more information, see Using DEX or SAM for application monitoring.

    What to explore next

    To learn more about configuring and using Digital End-User Experience, see: