Reimagining ServiceNow Automation with UiPath RPA

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Businesses need Enterprise Application Software (EAS) to increase efficiency and productivity. An Enterprise Application (EA) is a software application built to operate in multiple business environments such as operations, finance, customer management, etc. Enterprise Application Software aims to keep the business processes running smoothly by establishing a core system that considers each department’s activities and functions.

Enterprise Application Software has been a priority of business organizations for decades. The demand for EAS is constantly rising as it makes employees’ jobs easier by automating high-frequency processes and tasks. Having EAs helps remove organizational silos, improve communication, keep deadlines in line with company projects, and more.

At Opteamix, we recently leveraged UiPath, to reduce test cycle time by a staggering 98% test for ServiceNow implementations for a large US-based Financial Services firm. Read our case study that explains the challenges faced by the client, our solution, and the benefits.

What is ServiceNow?

ServiceNow is a cloud-based Enterprise Application Software that enables organizations to improve operational efficiencies by digitizing and streamlining routine processes. With roots in IT Service Management, ServiceNow has become the leading enterprise service management platform that unites business functions from customer service to HR to security.

ServiceNow renders features based on a ticketing workflow engine that processes and catalogs the customer service requests. It enables users to submit requests for instances, revisions, and other services affecting different organizational functions. It is one of the most sought tools across industries globally for their business and back-office operations. ServiceNow addresses the implicit need for quicker feature quality assurance and validation for specific business demands.

Generally, organizations face difficulties repeating the validation activities every time there is a change in a requirement of the project, whether it is test authoring, execution, or validation. An ideal solution is to have a suite of tests that are easily customizable for specific requirements and would yield more accurate results at a faster rate if the customizable assets are automated. If you look at the image below, the components highlighted in green are expensive and time-consuming from an approach perspective to test continuously.

ServiceNow Integration with other Applications and Middleware

Workflow Automation with ServiceNow

ServiceNow workflows eliminate bottlenecks while connecting people and technology to streamline processes. ServiceNow automated workflows use out-of-the-box drag-and-drop interfaces to simplify interactions using events, requests, and approvals. Almost all the manual business processes can be automated to maximize investment in ServiceNow. Some examples are:

• Routing requests, approvals, and decisions
• Process mapping
• Automating workflows
• Document creation
• Process Intelligence

Problem Statement and Solution

Organizations that follow manual and green field automation approaches (as depicted in the image below) must develop their automation suite from scratch and manually generate redundant product functions and parameters. This is where Opteamix’s approach makes a difference. Our UiPath experts developed this framework to design scenarios using a workflow-based model. This framework is easy to code and implement and is compatible with all kinds of organizations using ServiceNow, allowing the assets to be customized for any new requirements instead of developing from the bottom

Conventional vs. Opteamix’s Blueprint Dev Approach

What is UiPath?

UiPath is a popular Robotic Process Automation (RPA) tool that allows users to automate many business processes. It is an RPA platform that encourages cooperation and automates mundane activities. With more companies rapidly looking to accelerate digital transformation, UiPath is ideal for automating workflows for larger organizations and businesses that still use legacy systems without APIs, virtual infrastructures, or database access. Below are the key features of UiPath –

UiPath Features

Overview of Customized UiPath Framework

The below UiPath framework has state containers to initiate applications, retrieve & process input data and end the process. These states invoke multiple workflows looking after different aspects of a project and are connected across multiple process transitions required for every automation scenario.

A high-level view of UiPath’s workflow-based framework

The following steps show how the activity works from design time (i.e., the activity dependencies and input/output properties) to run time.

  • Input data and selectors are from the Excel file
  • Process/Run the scripts
  • Scripts fetch Test data from Excel
  • Reusable functions are created for all core ServiceNow activities
  • Report generated after execution if any error or exception that is also recorded in the report

High-level Technology Stack

UiPath is one of the best RPA platforms for end-to-end automation and is compatible with multiple tools that enhance its efficiency and productivity. The technology stack that is widely used for UiPath automation testing projects are:

ComponentsTools/Framework
Data Input and Test Results ReportingExcel
Behavior Driven Development FrameworkCucumber with Gherkin
Test Implementation Layer/Domain Specific Language (DSL)Groovy
Build Automation ToolMaven
Testing Automation Framework for Web ApplicationsSelenium Web Driver
RecorderSelenium IDE
Continuous Integration (CI) ToolJenkins
Versioning and Revision Control SystemGIT

Benefits of Using UiPath to Achieve ServiceNow Automation

The following are the benefits of leveraging UiPath to implement ServiceNow automation:

• Ease of Use – UiPath has inbuilt packages to install and use with a simple drag and drop option
• Faster Productivity – UiPath supports a pipeline of products to implement in sprint automation and the CI/CD model:
– Studio Pro for quick development
– Robots or assistance for rapid execution
– Orchestrator for version control and scheduled execution
• Cost Savings – Bot gives a significant Return on Investment (ROI) on cost and time
– Unattended bots – These bots are designed to run without any human assistance
– Parallel bots – Multiple machines can operate parallelly for different processes

Conclusion

RPA helps organizations overcome the burden of increased workload and low productivity. UiPath is one of the leading RPA tools in the world and uses innovative and cutting-edge technology to simplify automation. UiPath offers several options, including UiPath Studio for designing the RPA process and Orchestrator for managing, monitoring, and optimizing digital workers (robots). UiPath currently provides two APIs to achieve two-way automation to build and deploy bots that work best in the ServiceNow environment. UiPath and ServiceNow have joined forces to help organizations improve their business performance. ServiceNow Test Management 2.0 streamlines testing processes for quality engineers and managers, enabling teams to deliver software with fewer bugs.

If you are using ServiceNow for your business to digitize your instances and are unsure how UiPath and ServiceNow work together, get in touch with Opteamix, and our RPA experts will address your ServiceNow automation challenges.

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