Common Core release notes

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 4 minutes to read
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    Summary of Common Core release notes - Yokohama Release

    The Yokohama release enhances the ServiceNow Integrated Risk Management (IRM) application, enabling organizations to maintain business continuity during adverse events. This release focuses on improving risk management efficiency, data security, licensing visibility, and content integration for regulatory compliance and governance workflows.

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    Key Features

    • Entity-Based Access: Implements data segregation with granular access control, allowing administrators to restrict user access to only authorized entity-related records. This enhances data security and minimizes exposure risks.
    • Generative AI Issue Summarization: Integrates AI-powered summarization within the Now Assist for IRM application to quickly generate concise contextual summaries of GRC issues, improving analysts’ productivity and situational awareness during issue resolution.
    • GRC Licensing Summary Dashboard Enhancements: Provides detailed insights into licensing treatments for users added to groups via role assignments. Users can view role hierarchies to better understand license allocation.
    • Regulatory Agency Email Monitoring: Offers visual pie charts on the agency overview page showing email activity by regulatory domain, with filters and direct access to the Email Tracker for targeted monitoring.
    • Microsoft 365 Integration with Document Designer: Enables updating and adding content using Microsoft 365 within ServiceNow Reporting, allowing insertion of data and reports into Word documents. Users can add up to 20 columns in tables and content blocks and reorder columns via the Document Designer Word add-in for customized reporting templates.
    • Now Assist Skill Activation (Yokohama Patch 11): Certain Now Assist skills are enabled by default for new installations and for previously unconfigured skills during upgrades, simplifying setup and enhancing AI assistance availability.
    • Now Assist Usage Measurement Change: Transition from a 365-day look-back to a 365-day burn-down model for usage tracking, resetting at the contract anniversary date to provide more accurate usage metrics.

    Important Notes and Activation

    • IRM and Now Assist for IRM applications are available via the ServiceNow Store and require installation requests through the store.
    • The template data relationship table has been deprecated and removed from the Document Designer application in this release.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Improved data security and access control reduce compliance risks by ensuring users see only authorized data.
    • AI-driven issue summarization accelerates issue resolution, boosting analyst efficiency and decision-making.
    • Enhanced licensing dashboards provide clearer visibility into user role assignments and license consumption.
    • Integrated Microsoft 365 reporting capabilities streamline document creation and customization, enhancing governance reporting.
    • Default activation of Now Assist skills simplifies deployment and ensures AI features are readily accessible.

    The ServiceNow® Integrated Risk Management (IRM) application enables your organization to continue to provide its business services during adverse operational events, such as a pandemic, extreme weather, or hacking. Integrated Risk Management was enhanced and updated in the Yokohama release.

    IRM highlights for the Yokohama release

    • Generate a GRC issue action plan by using the agentic AI workflow.
    • Segregate data by entities and granular access management when using entity-based access.
    • Summarize an issue by using generative AI to provide quicker context gathering and contextual awareness. With this feature, you can improve the efficiency and productivity of your analysts on GRC issues.
    • Use the enhanced GRC licensing summary dashboard to understand the licensing treatment for users that are added to the group by roles that are mapped or assigned to the group.
    • Select a user record on the licensing summary dashboard and select the role hierarchy to see all the parent roles that are assigned to the user and their role hierarchies.
    • Monitor the email activity from the Overview page for regulatory agencies.
    • Update and add content by using Microsoft 365 for ServiceNow Reporting, which is now integrated with the Document designer application.
    • Add up to 20 columns in a table and in a content block by using the Document designer application.
    • Select and reorder columns by using the Document designer Microsoft Word add-in while creating templates.
    Yokohama Patch 11
    • Some Now Assist skills are now turned on by default.
    • Review changes to Now Assist usage measurements.

    For detailed documentation, see Common Governance, Risk, and Compliance features.

    Important:
    IRM is available in the ServiceNow Store. For details, see the "Activation information" section of these release notes.

    New in the Yokohama release

    Entity Based Access
    Implement data segregation and detailed access management so that users can access only the permitted data through entity-based access. Administrators can grant access to an entity's related records by adding users or user groups or by using entity user fields for entity-based access configuration. You can enhance your data security and minimize the risk of unnecessary data exposure while ensuring that only authorized users can access an entity's related records.
    Gen AI issue summarization
    Optimize the GRC issue resolution agentic AI workflow in the Integrated Risk Management application to help your issue managers and analysts resolve GRC issues with AI agents in the Now Assist panel. This workflow makes the issue resolution process more efficient by introducing targeted solutions for key steps in the issue management life cycle.
    Gen AI issue summarization
    Summarize an issue by using the Now Assist for IRM application to provide quicker context gathering and contextual awareness. You can quickly analyze the issue records, including the description, activity log, and remediation tasks, and then generate a concise summary that provides you with a concise context of the issue to help you resolve it. Check your entitlements to determine whether you have access to issue summarization.
    Searching user groups to understand the licensing treatment
    Use the enhanced GRC licensing summary dashboard to understand the licensing treatment of users that are added to the group by roles that are mapped or assigned to the group.
    Overview of an agency record
    View the pie charts that depict the total number of emails that are sent to the various regulatory domains. On the overview page of a regulatory agency, you can view the domains where the maximum number of emails were sent and access the Emails Tracker page directly from an agency record. You can also filter and display only the relevant emails that were sent to a specific agency.
    Document designer integration
    Update and add content by using Microsoft 365 for ServiceNow Reporting, which is now integrated with the Document designer application. You can insert data and reports into a Microsoft Word document.

    UI changes

    Create data relationships
    The Data Relationship tab has been added to the template configuration record as part of the configuration process for the Document designer Microsoft Word add-in.

    Changed in this release

    Column Organization
    You can select and reorder columns when adding a table into your template by using the Document designer Microsoft Word add-in. You can now organize your content better to meet your reporting needs.
    Create content configurations
    You can add up to 20 columns in a table and content block by using the Document designer application. You now have more flexibility with customizing your table and content block to meet your reporting needs.
    Yokohama Patch 11
    Some Now Assist skills are turned on by default
    The new default behavior works as follows:
    • New customers: When you install a Now Assist product, designated skills are turned on automatically.
    • Existing customers who are upgrading (starting with Yokohama Patch 11): Any previously unconfigured skill is turned on automatically (the skill was never configured and turned on, then turned off again). Previously configured skills that were turned on, then off, remain inactive.
    Changes to Now Assist usage measurement
    Starting with Yokohama Patch 5, Now Assist usage measurement is transitioning from a 365-day look-back model to a 365-day burn-down model, with usage resetting at the contract anniversary date. For more information, refer to KB KB2704710: Now Assist Usage - Overview & New Measurement Logic.

    Deprecations

    The template data relationship table has been removed and deprecated for the Document designer application.

    Activation information

    Install Integrated Risk Management and Now Assist for IRM by requesting them from ServiceNow Store. Visit the ServiceNow Store website to view all the available apps and for information about submitting requests to the store. For cumulative release notes information for all released apps, see the ServiceNow Store version history release notes.