Service Builder

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
    • Summarize
    Summarized using AI
    This content was generated using new OpenAI-powered functionality. Results are provided on an as is basis and are not guaranteed to be accurate or complete.

    Summary of Service Builder

    Service Builder is a feature within Service Portfolio Management that enables ServiceNow customers to create, edit, and maintain business and technical services and their offerings through an interactive, guided experience. Available as part of the Digital Portfolio Management products, it supports version control, allowing updates to services before and after publishing while keeping published versions active until new drafts are approved.

    Show full answer Show less

    Key Features

    • Guided Creation and Editing: A step-by-step interface walks users through creating services, starting from the Dashboard where you choose either a business or technical service.
    • Contextual Guidance: Each tab in the workflow provides instructions and support to help complete service and offering details accurately.
    • Service Builder Tabs:
      • Details: Define service name, type, and classification.
      • Team: Assign service owners, delegates, and business contacts.
      • Service Performance: Set measurement criteria for service performance.
      • Manage Offerings: Enter or edit offerings’ details including team, operations, financials, and performance criteria.
      • Review and Submit: Review comprehensive service and offering details before submission for publishing, with options to edit or duplicate services.
    • Home Page Tabs:
      • Dashboard: Starting point for creating services and viewing recent interactions.
      • Services: View and edit all services with details such as state, classification, phase, status, and owner.
    • Version Control & Approval Flow: Drafts can be worked on and published while the prior published version remains active, ensuring seamless updates without service disruption.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Enables structured and consistent creation of service definitions and offerings aligned with organizational standards.
    • Simplifies management of service lifecycles with version control and approval workflows.
    • Improves collaboration by assigning clear ownership and contact points for each service.
    • Supports performance monitoring by incorporating measurement criteria directly into service definitions.
    • Facilitates rapid creation of new services through duplication of existing entries, saving time and effort.

    Create and edit services and service offerings using the ServiceNow® Service Builder application. Service Builder is an interactive, guided experience as you create and edit services and service offering details. Even though Service Builder is a feature of Service Portfolio Management, its plugin is part of the Digital Portfolio Management list of products in the ServiceNow Store.

    Service Builder in action.
    Tip:
    Refresh the browser to replay the demo video.

    Service Builder overview

    Create and maintain definitions of your business and technical services and offerings through a guided experience in Service Builder. You can edit service definitions anytime before you publish as well as update already-published services using version control.

    After your services and offerings are published, you can view and edit them in the Services tab of Service Builder or in its parent application Service Portfolio Management.

    Walk-through experience with contextual guidance

    Service Builder provides contextual guidance for each step tab as you create your services and service offerings. From the Service Builder Dashboard tab, create a service by selecting one of the two options:
    • Create a business service
    • Create a technical service

    After you select an option, Service Builder provides an organizer for you to see the steps to create a service.Create service organizer.

    Selecting Continue takes you through each step, starting with the Details tab as described in the following Service Builder tabs table.

    Table 1. Service Builder tabs
    Tab Definition
    Details General information about the service such as name, type, and classification.
    Team Service team information including the owner, delegate, and business contacts.
    Service Performance Measurement criteria for the service performance.
    Manage Offerings General information about the service offering. This tab has its own set of tabs to enter or edit the offering's details, team, operations, financials, and performance criteria.
    Review and Submit Comprehensive view of the services and offerings you created. You can make changes, if necessary. After review, submit for publishing.

    You can edit your services and offerings at any time. You can also duplicate them (create a copy) to edit services, as needed so that you can create other services and offerings quickly. The contextual guidance in the experience walks you through how to do these tasks.

    After you edit a service or an offering, the published version stays active until the draft that you’re working on becomes the new published version. For more information, see Service Builder approval flow.

    Table 2. Service Builder home page tabs
    Home page tab Description
    Dashboard The default landing page where you can create a business service or a technical service. You can also view services that you interacted with in the last few days from the dashboard view.
    Services List of all services along with their state, classification, phase, status, and owner. If you have editing access to the services and service offerings, you can edit them from this tab.