Low code is a disruptive software development approach that facilitates apps’ time to market, reduces costs, and optimizes multiple business operations across dozens of industries. Akveo Low-code Hall of Fame is a list of the best platforms you can use to fully understand the benefits the paradigm brings to businesses and developers. 

In this article, we will get into the ServiceNow platform. It is a unique low-code system with great connectivity, security, and customization capacity. 

ServiceNow overview

ServiceNow is a company with headquarters in San Diego, California founded by Fred Luddy in 2003. In 2018, Forbes magazine named ServiceNow the world’s most innovative company.

ServiceNow is one of the cloud-based low-code platforms that allow developers to create enterprise-grade digital workflows, mobile applications, and internal tools. It focuses on system security, connectivity, and availability. Moreover, the platform provides a unique opportunity to connect data and processes from different business domains, such as customer service, internal HR activities, business IT management, etc.  

ServiceNow has lots of pre-made components and out-of-box functionalities for no-code/low-code application development. With that, the platform makes a match for citizen developers. Also, the platform is a quick way to supplement existing business management systems with additional functions like data analytics, tasks automation, and advanced security. At the same time, professional developers have the opportunity to create custom elements, connectors, and native mobile applications using JavaScript language.

Inside ServiceNow

Developer workflow

Service Now provides a visual app builder and designer with a drag-and-drop interface. It has App Engine Studio that allows citizen developers to create work dashboards and simple digital apps using ready-made templates. 

For more advanced low-code developers, there is a ServiceNow Studio that has a programming environment with smart code suggestions, pre-built connectors, and an integrated development environment for effective team collaboration. Full-stack ServiceNow tools make low-code programming workflow smooth, providing the means to control the process at every stage. In addition, the platform’s DevOps tools include automated QA operations that highlight the bugs and signal developers about any code inconsistency. 

Hosting and Deployment

You can deploy ServiceNow applications in a few clicks and manage the process using several pipelines. To launch the deployment process, a low-code developer needs to move the app into the ServiceNow Engine Studio. The studio provides a testing and evaluation environment to ensure quality and performance before the apps’ publication.

DevOps tools

ServiceNow is embedded with a comprehensive set of DevOps to control the development process at every step and check the deployment statistics. Besides, the tools provide real-time performance monitoring, bus checks, and impact analysis.

ServiceNow CI/CD 

CI/CD support enables developers to deploy ServiceNow low-code applications across different environments.

Integrations

Service Now has a special Integration Hub that adds integration steps to the low-code visual design interface. The platform allows connecting applications to any API-enabled system. It has out-of-box spokes for more than a hundred business-critical systems, facilitating time to value for your integration development and implementation. Also, you can create custom spokes for SOAP, REST, JDBC, and JSON APIs. Among the business management systems, you can integrate ServiceNow apps are Salesforce, Oracle, SAP, Microsoft, Okta, Dokusign, Jira, and Workboy. On top of that, you can leverage ServiceNow security to straighten your business system. 

Customization

The platform offers vast app customization capabilities. However, it is recommended to avoid excessive custom system elements and integrate them step by step. These measures will save you from technical debt and make the new features bring value as soon as they are integrated.

The customization types available in ServiceNow fall into two categories:

Configuration changes

Customization of the existing out-of-box functionalities, templates, or other existing ServiceNow platform parts. 

Custom apps and features

This is where the true system personalization and customization lies, matching perfectly with the business challenges of each user. ServiceNow allows you to create custom apps within the ServiceNow environment or anywhere else. 

Security

ServiceNow Vault is a set of protection and privacy controls that can scale with your app or business system. It provides means for platform encryption, data anonymization, and secrets management.

One of the most prominent benefits is the platform is its security. The system has various data encryption protocols, SOAR (Security, Management, Automation, Response), and risk-based vulnerability management. SOAR systems enable businesses to collect the input motored by the security team. You can connect ServiceNow SecOps with several existing business management systems: Microsoft, Paloalto, Zscaler, Recorded future, tenable, Vera code, and Crowdstrike.

Use Cases

ServiceNow is mostly used to connect different business apps to manage them from a single integrated system. The Now platform doesn’t only connect your apps in a single environment but can produce AI performance analytics, ML-powered predictive intelligence, and sensitive data protection means. In addition, you can add automatization tools, accelerate digital transformation, facilitate employee workflow, and enhance customer experience. ServiceNow platform can help you build native mobile applications, customer portals, digital workplaces, service catalogs, security centers, chatbots, knowledge management interfaces, and other types of software.

Pricing

The low-code platform doesn’t publicly disclose its products’ prices. Although it has a ServiceNow store of pre-made applications, digital services, and development environments, you get to know the pricing for an app only by sending a request for a particular solution. The big plus of the store for developers is that they can place their applications and solutions for sale. 

Pros and Cons of ServiceNow

ServiceNow pros:

• Stable and performant applications of high complexity;
• Convenient and multifunctional drag-and-drop UI;
• Fast low-code development process and easy deployment;
• Reduces development costs for ITOM solutions;
• Robust security features and application certificate compliance;
• Large app and product marketplace;
• Vast customization capacity;
• Lots of pre-built components and integrations.

ServiceNow cons:

• The platform may seem complex for beginners;
• No free plan and no free trial period;
• You can disclose the price for a product only by request.

ServiceNow reviews

One of the best ways to get familiar with a product is to ask its users about it. So, let’s see what they say about their experience using ServiceNow.

“I like the fact that it can be integrated with active directory and it also has nice Power Shell integrations. Tickets created in the alert monitoring tool are reflected in seconds, which makes it much easier for analysts who are working on this. …”

“The tool is quite flexible, we can define which fields are mandatory and which are not, also we can add any additional custom fields.”

“Because simple query response and knowledge management can be accomplished easily, it would be really advantageous if we could be more forthcoming about what more we can do to improve our organization.”

“Sometimes the page is slow to load or the server crashes while comments on incidents or changes are being updated.”

Verdict

ServiceNow is one of the best systems to connect your existing business applications and manage them from a single place. A plethora of pre-built connectors, code abstractions, and templates make the development available for citizen developers. At the same time, ServiceNow studio opens vast customization opportunities for professional JS developers. Besides, you can just pick the necessary app or solution from the ServiceNow store instead of developing one by yourself. 

Then, the platform invested much effort into the platform security and offers its SecOps as a service. This will come in handy for businesses that strive to straighten their system resilience to hacker attacks (DDoS), eliminate code vulnerabilities, and prevent any sensitive data leaks.

To sum up, ServiceNow has versatile services to offer to SMBs as well as large enterprises. The platform’s integration capacity, comprehensible low-code development environment, and tons of ready-made apps will address business digital transformation needs quickly and efficiently. 

ServiceNow alternatives

If ServiceNow does not have some functions you are looking for, consider using other low-code platforms: 

UI Bakery

Mendix

Retool

Airtable

Appian

Budibase

Appsmith

OutSystems

DronaHQ

Low-code development experts.

Low-code approach is the fastest and easiest way to build your business application or internal workflow optimization software. Low-code and no-code platforms cater to all types of businesses (SMEs, startups, and enterprises) and individuals alike. But usually, to access the full potential of low-code you may need professional developer assistance that has experience using these platforms.

You can discuss your project with our low-code development experts if that is your case. We have more than 7 years of software development experience including working with various low-code development platforms including Retool, UI Bakery, Appsmith, Budibase, and others. 

We can help you at any stage of your low-code app development: from the right low-code platform selection and process strategizing to full-scale development, customization, and integration with your existing systems. For more information, reach out to our low-code development team leads and get a free consultation. 

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