Data and Automation

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 4 minutes to read
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    Summary of Data and Automation

    Workflow Data Fabric enhances your ServiceNow environment by enabling seamless connection and automation across applications, data sources, and processes. It integrates automation, low-code development, and AI capabilities on the ServiceNow AI Platform®, providing a unified system of action for enterprises. This platform empowers you to automate workflows, integrate external systems, and synchronize data across multiple ServiceNow instances, boosting operational efficiency and maximizing your ServiceNow investment.

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    Key Features

    • Integration Hub: Automates integration tasks and supports custom integration development, with a subscription required.
    • Integration Hub Remote Process Sync: Enables one-way or bidirectional synchronization among multiple ServiceNow instances to keep process flows aligned.
    • Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Hub: Automates repetitive user actions across business applications to reduce manual effort.
    • Automation Center: Governs multi-vendor automation life cycles from a centralized dashboard, allowing real-time health monitoring and failure prevention.
    • App Engine Studio (AES): A low-code tool that allows employees with minimal training to build web applications that automate business processes and store information.
    • Document Intelligence (DocIntel): Uses AI to extract data from documents automatically, integrating extracted data into broader automation workflows.
    • Exports and Imports: Facilitate data movement by exporting instance data to external files and importing data from various sources into ServiceNow tables, supporting automation through Integration Hub.
    • Classic Orchestration: Extends workflows to manage and automate processes outside of ServiceNow instances.
    • Conversational Spokes: Enables business actions via conversational interfaces such as Now Assist, enhancing workflow automation through natural language interactions.
    • Boomi API Management: Provides full lifecycle API governance, security, and analytics through a cloud-based platform integrated with ServiceNow.
    • Process Mining: Analyzes and optimizes business processes for improved efficiency.
    • External Content Connectors: Allows AI Search to query content from external repositories like Atlassian Confluence Cloud and Microsoft SharePoint Online.
    • Stream Connect: Connects Apache Kafka environments to ServiceNow instances for real-time data streaming.
    • Workflow Data Fabric Hub: Powers AI agents and enriches workflows with real-time enterprise data on the ServiceNow AI Platform.

    Related Applications and Features

    • Instance Data Replication (IDR): Synchronizes data updates across multiple ServiceNow instances to maintain data consistency.
    • Inbound Email Actions: Allows scripting responses to inbound emails to automate communication workflows.
    • Workflow Studio: Provides a consolidated environment for workflow authoring, configuration, and monitoring, integrating playbooks, flows, actions, and integrations.
    • Building Actions: Supports automation of reusable tasks within workflows by defining actions that process inputs and outputs.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    By leveraging Workflow Data Fabric and its associated products, ServiceNow customers can:

    • Automate complex cross-enterprise workflows with minimal coding effort.
    • Integrate diverse applications and data sources seamlessly to create unified workflows.
    • Reduce manual, repetitive tasks through robotic process automation.
    • Monitor and govern automation deployments across multiple vendors from a single interface.
    • Utilize AI-driven capabilities to extract and process document data, improving speed and accuracy.
    • Maintain data consistency across multiple ServiceNow instances for cohesive organizational processes.
    • Enhance user experience with conversational automation and real-time data enrichment.

    Increase the impact of your cross‑enterprise workflows by connecting any application or data. Connect people, processes, and apps to enhance the value of your ServiceNow investment.

    Workflow Data Fabric brings automation, low-code, and AI efficiency to your workflows, all on the same platform. Workflow Data Fabric runs on the ServiceNow AI Platform®, a single system of action for the enterprise.

    Automate and connect anything to ServiceNow. Unify your approach to automation with  a complete set of capabilities that include insights and oversight, all on a single platform.

    Workflow Data Fabric products and features

    The following table lists the products and features that are available in Workflow Data Fabric.

    Table 1. Workflow Data Fabric products and features
    Product name Description

    App Engine Studio

    		 App Engine Studio (AES) is a guided, low-code tool for developing rich web applications to store information, automate business processes, and solve business problems. Work that was once assigned to administrators can now be delegated to employees with little to no training using AES.

    Automation Center

    		 Automation Center application governs your end-to-end multi-vendor automation life cycles from one place. By using real-time dashboards, you can manage and measure the health of the automation and prevent automation failures across multiple vendors​.
    Boomi Boomi supports full lifecycle API management, including governance, analytics, and API security. ServiceNow has partnered with Boomi to deliver Boomi API Management, a cloud-based platform that enables customers to discover, manage, secure, and monetize their APIs.

    Boomi provides documentation though their own portal, and customers requesting support with Boomi API Management will contact the Boomi support through their standard channels. To get started, see the Boomi API Management listing on the ServiceNow Store, which includes information about entitlements and required plugins, as well as a link to the Boomi API Management documentation.
    Classic Orchestration ServiceNow® Orchestration extends the workflow engine to manage processes and to automate things outside of a ServiceNow instance. See Classic Orchestration for more information.
    Conversational Spokes Now Assist in Conversational Spokes application to utilize the conversational ability of Integration Hub Spoke actions. Perform business actions through conversational interface like Now Assist and unlock the interactive conversational experience to automate your business workflows.
    Document Intelligence Document Intelligence (DocIntel) is an AI solution that enables any organization to automate and accelerate the process of extracting data from documents. That data can easily be integrated into larger automation workflows to save time and resources.
    Exports Exports enable you to push data from an instance to an external file. To dynamically export data from a script or web service, export data from the URL.
    Imports Imports enable administrators to import data from various data sources, and then map that data into ServiceNow tables. You can automate data import tasks from a new design environment using Integration Hub.
    Integration Hub Automate integration tasks using ServiceNow components for ServiceNow® Workflow Studio, or develop custom integrations. A separate subscription is required.
    Integration Hub Remote Process Sync Integration Hub Remote Process Sync enables you to set up one-way or bidirectional integrations among multiple ServiceNow instances, so that your process flows stay in sync.
    Process Mining Process Mining helps analysts and process owners quickly analyze and optimize their business processes.
    External Content Connectors The External Content Connectors ServiceNow® Store application enables AI Search applications to search content and metadata from supported external data repositories, such as Atlassian Confluence Cloud and Microsoft SharePoint Online.
    Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Hub Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Hub enables end-to-end automation for your organization. With a combination of UI interactions and element-based automations that interact between the various business applications, you can emulate user actions and eliminate mundane and repetitive human activities.
    Stream Connect Connect your Apache Kafka environment to your ServiceNow instance with Stream Connect for Apache Kafka.
    Workflow Data Fabric Hub Power AI agents and enrich workflows on the ServiceNow AI Platform with real-time data from across the enterprise using ServiceNow® Workflow Data Fabric Hub.

    Related ServiceNow applications and features

    Instance Data Replication
    ServiceNow® Instance Data Replication (IDR) copies data updates from one instance, called the producer instance, to one or more other instances called the consumer instances. IDR enables you to maintain consistent data across different instances. For example, you can synchronize data between different organizations in your company or even between different companies with separate instances.
    Inbound email actions
    Define an inbound email action to script how the system responds to an inbound email.
    Workflow Studio
    Integrate workflow authoring, configuring, and monitoring into a single page experience. Consolidate playbooks, flows, actions, decision tables, and integrations into one design environment.
    Building actions
    Actions automate a repeatable task or operation within a flow. Flows run actions by passing them data as inputs. Actions run a sequence of steps to complete the task, and pass data to the flow as outputs.