ServiceNow Integration Guide

Bright Pattern Documentation

Generated: 8/09/2022 4:55 am
Content is available under license unless otherwise noted.

Purpose

Bright Pattern Contact Center omnichannel cloud call center software integrates with ServiceNow IT service management software to enable seamless customer conversations using voice, messaging, email, and video.

The Bright Pattern Contact Center ServiceNow Integration Guide provides instructions for setting up your Bright Pattern Contact Center to function in an integrated manner with your ServiceNow applications.


About

Bright Pattern Contact Center omnichannel cloud call center software integrates with ServiceNow IT service management software to enable seamless customer conversations using voice, messaging, email, and video.


The Faster Way to Address Service Inquiries

Bright Pattern’s omnichannel communications for ServiceNow allows your contact center to connect customers and clients with experts and knowledge workers who can assist with problem resolution or service request fulfillment. Omnichannel customer contact capabilities allow experts and knowledge workers to respond in context to any customer inquiry, be it an unsolicited inquiry or a notification reply. Users can recognize customers, record and distribute the interactions to analysts, capture customer satisfaction with post-transactional surveys, and assess analyst performance through an extensive set of reports.

Bright Pattern Contact Center integration with ServiceNow brings experts or knowledge workers into customer conversations, in context, to resolve service inquiries faster.

ServiceNow administrators can tailor their integration accounts to accommodate their organization’s business processes. Such customization is achieved using Bright Pattern’s omnichannel Scenario Builder application.


Reduce Agent Load with Automation

Integration with Bright Pattern also provides access to Bright Pattern scenarios, which automate frequent requests into self-service using Interactive Voice Response (IVR) technology. With call scenarios, customers are prompted to provide information for their case, and their information is used to direct their case to the appropriate agent, voicemail box, or service queue. Administrators can use call scenarios to design custom prompts for any service, while agents can use call scenarios to search, create, and update data in ServiceNow.

Reduced agent load also means fewer abandoned calls and added convenience for customers. Virtual queuing functionality allows customers to receive a call back at a later time, so they are not waiting on hold endlessly during peak call times. Abandoned calls can be captured in a preview campaign, and customers can be reached later during less busy hours. Customers also have the option to leave a voicemail and receive a call back later.

Bright Pattern Contact Center scenarios are built on a platform that lets ServiceNow administrators customize them for their organization’s unique workflows.

Scenarios and IVR technology provide the following features:


Agent Desktop Integration

Seamless integration with ServiceNow IT service management applications means that system administrators, IT support, and subject matter experts are able to use the same ServiceNow contacts and tools with which they are familiar, through Bright Pattern's efficient, streamlined Agent Desktop user interface.

Agent Desktop integration offers the following features:


Improve Customer Experience

ServiceNow customer data is pushed to the integrated Agent Desktop, enabling customers to be identified automatically according to their case number or any other data saved in ServiceNow applications. Moreover, customers keep their place in queue, ensuring that priority customers are identified as such and are served faster.

Built-in call and screen recording, monitoring, and grading quality management tools ensure maximum service quality. For example, a customer does not have to repeat information on transfer because the information follows the call through transfers and is saved to the activity history. To ensure the best service quality possible, agents and supervisors can routinely assess customer satisfaction by using built-in post-transactional surveys attached to both service and agent performance reports.



Audience

The ServiceNow Integration Guide is intended for the IT and/or technical personnel responsible for the data infrastructure of the contact centers that use Bright Pattern Contact Center solutions for customer interaction processing and ServiceNow applications for IT service management. Readers of this guide are expected to have experience in administration of these systems, as well as a solid understanding of contact center operations and resources that are involved in such operations.



Prerequisites

ServiceNow integration requires that you have admin-level access to both Bright Pattern Contact Center and ServiceNow systems.


Roles and Privileges

In addition to access to all regular agent functions, you must have the privilege Use ServiceNow. This privilege is granted by your system administrator via the Contact Center Administrator application in Configuration > Users & Teams > Roles, as shown. For more information, see the Contact Center Administrator Guide, sections Roles and Privileges.


Software Versions

For all types of integration described in this guide, Bright Pattern Contact Center version 3.16 or later is required.

For all types of integration described in this guide, the latest version of ServiceNow is required.



ServiceNow Integration Configuration

ServiceNow integration allows you to use the Bright Pattern Agent Desktop application within your ServiceNow instance, providing direct access to the phone, live chat, SMS, and other configured messaging capabilities. Through integration, the Agent Desktop application is embedded in ServiceNow via OpenFrame, and there is the option to pop out Agent Desktop in a separate browser tab for full use of activities, cases, interaction details, and more.

ServiceNow integration configuration involves linking your ServiceNow developer instance to Bright Pattern Contact Center in a ServiceNow integration account.

In this article, you will learn how to:

Procedure

For this configuration, we used ServiceNow Madrid and Bright Pattern Contact Center 5.3. If you are using an older build of ServiceNow (before Madrid), you may want to consult the integration configuration steps for Bright Pattern Contact Center 5.2.

Step 1: Activate plugins for phone communication on servicenow.com

Visit ServiceNow documentation, section Phone installation and configuration, and follow the given procedure, from step 5 to step 7, to activate plugins that establish the phone communication channel between internal and external users and customers.

These steps include:

  1. Activate CTI Softphone plugin, which enables OpenFrame to provide softphone functions and call center capabilities like making, receiving, and transferring phone calls.

    Activate CTI Softphone


  2. Activate the Customer Service Management Demo Data plugin (com.sn_customerservice), which enables additional security.

  3. Activate the OpenFrame plugin, which integrates external communication systems like Bright Pattern Agent Desktop with ServiceNow.

    Activate Openframe plugin


Step 2: Replace the OpenFrame configuration URL

  1. Go to System Properties > OpenFrame and click the CTI plugin shown to edit OpenFrame properties.

    OpenFrame configuration properties


  2. Click the lock icon to change the URL to:

    ​https://<tenant>.brightpattern.com/agentdesktop/ServiceNow.jsp?topDomain=https://<dev_instance>.service-now.com

    where:

    1. <tenant> is the name of your contact center (e.g., "example" in "example.brightpattern.com")

    2. <dev_instance> is your ServiceNow Developer instance account (e.g., "dev12345").

      For example: https://example.brightpattern.com/agentdesktop/ServiceNow.jsp?topDomain=https://dev12345.service-now.com

  3. Click the lock icon again to save changes to the URL. If you do not lock it, Agent Desktop may not load later.

  4. If not already done, check the active box to make sure the OpenFrame plugin was activated in the previous step. If it is not active, the Agent Desktop widget will not be displayed later!

  5. Click Update.


OpenFrame configuration properties


Note that in the URL, parameter "topDomain" is needed to avoid cross domain errors when activity history is posted to the activity stream of the ServiceNow object. It is possible to use the short form URL "​https://<tenant>.brightpattern.com/agentdesktop/ServiceNow.jsp", but omitting the "topDomain" parameter means activity history functionality will not work.

Step 3: Assign role to allow users to use OpenFrame

The OpenFrame user role called sn_openframe_user is added with activation of OpenFrame. All user accounts need to have the sn_openframe_user role assigned to them in order to use the embedded Agent Desktop. You can assign it to individual users, or to the group of which the users are members.

To assign the role to an individual user:

  1. Go to Organization > Users and click on the name of the user who needs the role.

  2. At the bottom of the user's details, find the Roles tab and click Edit.

  3. Use the filters to search for "sn_openframe_user" and add it to the user's role list.

  4. Click Save.

  5. Repeat for all desired users.


Add role to user's role list


To assign the role to a group:

  1. Go to User Administration > Groups and click on the name of the desired group.

  2. At the bottom of the group's details, find the Roles tab and click Edit.

  3. Use the filters to search for "sn_openframe_user" and add it to the group's role list.

  4. Click Save.

  5. Remember to add users to the group that includes this role.

Step 4: Add CORS Rules

CORS Rules allow Bright Pattern integration accounts to communicate with ServiceNow.

  1. In your ServiceNow instance, go to System Web Services > REST > CORS Rules and click New.

    Add new CORS rules


  2. In Name, enter a unique name (any).

  3. In Domain, enter ​https://<tenant-name>.brightpattern.com, where <tenant-name> is the name of your contact center.

  4. Select HTTP method POST.

    CORS rules and settings


  5. Set HTTP header Access-Control-Allow-Origin.

    HTTP headers


Step 5: Configure a new OAuth 2.0 Endpoint

In order to create a new ServiceNow integration account, you must first configure a new OAuth 2.0 endpoint for ServiceNow. Doing so will provide you with the Client ID and Client Secret, which you will need to authorize access to ServiceNow applications. You will specify the Client ID and Client Secret in your ServiceNow integration account properties in Step 7 of this procedure.

Note that previous builds of ServiceNow may have asked you to configure OAuth. Now ServiceNow recommends you configure OAuth 2.0. For more information, refer to the ServiceNow OAuth Setup documentation.

  1. Make sure the OAuth plugin is active.

    OAuth plugin


  2. Create an endpoint by going to System OAuth > Application Registry and clicking New.

    Add new application registry


  3. Then click Create an OAuth API endpoint for external clients.
    Create the endpoint


  4. Give this registration a name and click Save. The Client ID is filled in for you. The Client Secret will fill upon saving.

    Name the registration and save


  5. Now when you open the application registry you just created, you can view and copy the Client Secret.

Step 6: Create a new integration account

  1. Log in as Admin to the Contact Center Administrator application. Then navigate to Configuration > Integration Accounts.

  2. Click the Add + button to add a new account. In the Create integration account window that appears, select ServiceNow and click OK.

    Select "ServiceNow" as the type of integration account to create


Step 7: Specify ServiceNow integration account properties

Using the My Instance credentials that you saved when you first requested a ServiceNow developer instance, as well as the credentials from OAuth setup, enter values for the following screen properties. (If you do not know your credentials, ask your system administrator.) Be sure to click Apply to save your changes.


ServiceNow integration account properties


Click Apply to save your changes.

Step 8: Authenticate your newly integrated account in ServiceNow

  1. In a separate browser window or tab, go to the ServiceNow Developer site and sign in to your developer instance.

    ServiceNow Developer sign in


  2. Notice that your ServiceNow Homepage now displays a phone icon at the top right corner of the screen.

    You can now make calls from your ServiceNow home page


  3. Click on the phone icon to open the Agent Desktop application widget.

    Log in to Agent Desktop from the integrated widget


Step 9: Resize the Agent Desktop widget (optional)

You can change the width and height of the Agent Desktop widget by adjusting ServiceNow’s OpenFrame configuration properties. Access such configuration settings by searching ServiceNow for “openframe” or by going to ServiceNow’s System Properties > OpenFrame.

The default display size in OpenFrame properties is 373 (W) x 300 (H). In the example shown, we have resized the frame to be 300 (W) x 750 (H).


The widget's width and height are edited in OpenFrame properties


The Agent Desktop widget can be dragged and dropped onto any other part of the webpage.

Step 10: Log in and complete Agent Desktop installation

  1. Sign in to Agent Desktop with your username and password, being sure to select your desired phone device.

  2. By default, you log in with a softphone. To choose another device, click the current Phone device setting and select the desired type of device from the menu that appears. For more information about the available device options, see the Bright Pattern Contact Center Agent Guide, section Selecting a Phone Device.

  3. Click the Login button. Note that if this is your first login into Agent Desktop on the given computer, you will be prompted to install the Agent Desktop Helper Application.


The Bright Pattern Contact Center Agent Desktop widget will now show a standard set of tabs and controls available to a contact center agent.


Tab through to access the dial pad, directory, and more to view previous calls, make calls, and initiate chats


For more information about the Agent Desktop tabs and controls, see the Agent Guide. Note that the appearance and location of these controls has been modified to match the overall look and feel of the ServiceNow application.

You are now able to accept inbound calls and chats, initiate outbound calls and chats, send messages to other contact center users, and more.


Incoming call on ServiceNow





Accessing ServiceNow Data from Scenarios

You can access ServiceNow data directly from Bright Pattern scenarios.

For every customer interaction that enters your contact center, Bright Pattern Contact Center has to process that specific interaction to determine what to do with it (e.g., what prompts or announcements to apply, what resources to queue for, what music to play, or when to overflow to alternate resources).

The logic of such automated interaction processing is defined in scenarios. Execution of a scenario with respect to a specific interaction is triggered by a particular event, such as the arrival of a call at a specific access number or initiation of a chat session from a specific web page.

Scenarios are designed and edited in the application called Scenario Builder. This application is launched from the Contact Center Administrator application when you add a new scenario or select an existing one for editing. For more information, see the Contact Center Administrator Guide, section Scenarios Overview.



Configuration

The instructions that follow will walk you through the process of accessing ServiceNow data directly from Bright Pattern scenarios. Step 1 through Step 3 are essentially the same as Step 1 through Step 2 of section ServiceNow Integration Configuration of this guide.


Step 1: Add ServiceNow as an integration account.


Step 2: Establish credentials for your ServiceNow integration account.


Step 3: Confirm that ServiceNow and Bright Pattern are connected.

Click the Test connection button. You should receive confirmation that the connection between the Bright Pattern platform and ServiceNow data repository is valid.


Step 4: Enable data access from scenarios, and turn on screen-pop functionality.

You can make ServiceNow data accessible from scenarios, as well as enable screen-pop, when working in the Bright Pattern Contact Center Scenario Builder application.



Scenario Blocks

After you have set up your ServiceNow integration account, you are able to create and edit scenarios within the Scenario Builder application. The following steps will walk you through the process of creating a scenario with ServiceNow scenario blocks, such as the example scenario shown.


This example scenario includes ServiceNow blocks


How to Create a ServiceNow Scenario

In the Contact Center Administrator application, navigate to Configuration > Scenarios > Voice.

Click the Add scenario + button to add a new scenario, or select a scenario template to edit.

The scenario will open in the Scenario Builder application. Before you do anything else, save your scenario by clicking the Save As button and giving this scenario a unique name.


How to Build a Scenario with Blocks

To access ServiceNow data from a scenario, drag the following scenario blocks onto your scenario, in this order:

  1. Find Agent
  2. ServiceNow Select Account
  3. ServiceNow Create Object
  4. ServiceNow Search
  5. ServiceNow Screen Pop
  6. ServiceNow Update Object
  7. Connect Call

These blocks build a basic ServiceNow scenario, which will be used as an example in the following descriptions of this guide.


Find Agent

The Find Agent block finds the best matching agent to answer the call according to requested skills. More information about Find Agent screen properties is available in the Scenario Builder Reference Guide.


ServiceNow Select Account

The ServiceNow Select Account block is used to specify the integration account that will be used by ServiceNow blocks in the given scenario. You can create multiple ServiceNow integration accounts for access to different ServiceNow systems. This block is useful only if you have more than one ServiceNow integration account.

If the ServiceNow Select Account block is not used, all ServiceNow blocks in the given scenario will access data from the integration account marked as Default account.


ServiceNow Select Account properties


Settings for ServiceNow Select Account are described as follows:


ServiceNow Create Object

The ServiceNow Create Object block is used to create new objects in ServiceNow.


ServiceNow Create Object block properties


You must specify the settings for this new object on the Settings pane. These settings are described as follows:


ServiceNow Search

The ServiceNow Search block is used to obtain ServiceNow data.


ServiceNow Search block properties


You must specify the search settings on the Settings pane. These settings are described as follows:


ServiceNow Screen Pop

The ServiceNow Screen Pop block is used to synchronize the delivery of calls and related ServiceNow records to agents; records can be retrieved using either object IDs or predefined ServiceNow reports with multiple selection criteria.


ServiceNow Screen Pop block properties


ServiceNow Screen Pop settings are described as follows:


ServiceNow Update Object

The ServiceNow Update Object block is used to update existing ServiceNow records.


ServiceNow Update Object block properties


As with the other blocks, you must specify the settings for this block on the Settings pane. These settings are described as follows:


Connect Call

The Connect Call block connects a call to the destination specified in the $(destination) variable (typically, the extension of the agent found by the preceding Find Agent block). If the destination extension has an agent logged in, the system tracks the agent’s state according to the state of the call. The block handles call transfers and conferences internally and only ends when the remote party disconnects or the last agent on the call disconnects.

For more information on the Connect Call block, refer to the Scenario Builder Reference Guide, section Connect Call.

Refer to the Scenario Builder Overview for additional supporting documentation on scenarios and scenario blocks.


Integrated Agent Desktop

The integrated Agent Desktop user interface is the same as the Bright Pattern Contact Center Agent Desktop application, but with the look and feel of the ServiceNow environment. Designed to increase agent productivity, the integrated Agent Desktop displays only the controls and information needed at each point of work.

Agents and supervisors can work more efficiently using the following features:

Refer to the Bright Pattern Contact Center Agent Guide to learn more about the Agent Desktop user interface and its applications.




Softphone and Click-to-Call

ServiceNow integration puts a software telephone (softphone) right where you need it--on the integrated Agent Desktop. Any ServiceNow user can dial internal and external phone numbers from either the Dial tab of the Active Communications List, or the case page of a specific contact.

Click-to-Call is an important function that allows you to initiate calls to people who originated or handled a ServiceNow case, with a single click. Contacts from previous interactions are saved in the system, so that agents and supervisors can call such contacts using the Click-to-Call function.

How to Use the Click-to-Call Function

  1. Select a ServiceNow case assigned to someone who has a phone number configured in the system. Notice the contact information, as shown.

    Use Click-to-Call to dial a contact


  2. Next, click the Click-to-Call ServiceNow-Click-to-Call-Icon-2.png icon beside the contact’s name to make a call.

  3. The Agent Desktop widget is launched and you are prompted to log in if you are not logged in already. The phone number of your contact is dialed, which you can see from the Agent Desktop widget.

    Using Click-to-Call with the Agent Desktop widget


When the call is answered, you should have all of the call control functions (e.g., mute, hold, transfer, release) available to you via the integrated Agent Desktop window. Note that when you transfer an interaction to another integrated desktop user, the ServiceNow item that was open on your desktop at the time of transfer will be displayed for that user.

For more information, see the Agent Guide.




Activity

In the integrated ServiceNow environment, information about each interaction is saved, updated in real time, and shown as a running list of notes at the bottom center of the ServiceNow interface. The information contained in these notes is called activity. In ServiceNow, activity appears in the activity stream associated with each case. Notes with basic data are added automatically to the activity stream upon completion of any interaction activity (i.e., hanging up a call, ending a chat, setting dispositions, finishing after-call work (ACW), and so forth).

Interaction activity is associated with the case that was present on the desktop at the end of the interaction processing. If no such object was present, activity will be recorded without any associations.

ServiceNow case activity includes interaction-processing details such as call type, start time, end time, duration (talk+hold time), task, agent, service, activity state, assignments, and more.


Activity Stream

To test the activity history function, you simply release (i.e., complete or end) the previously established call. Upon completion of the after-call work (ACW), you should be able to see a new note added to the case with data about the call you just finished. This data appears in the ServiceNow Activity Stream, which you can access by clicking the Activity Stream ServiceNow-Activity-Stream-Icon.png icon from any ServiceNow case. Clicking the icon will cause your screen to jump to the Notes tab and Related Links section of the case.

You can browse the data shown in the Related Links by clicking on any of the tabs shown:


Activity Stream


Activity data includes interaction-processing details such as call type, start time, end time, duration (talk+hold time), task, agent, service, activity state, and assignments. If such data is available for the case, the Related Links tab displays the number (i.e., “(2)”) of items available.