Salesforce IT Service Center: Version 1.36 Gives ITSC Momentum in ITSM Market

By Kedar Zavar, Chief Solutions Architect, Cloudaction

Salesforce IT Service Center (ITSC) unquestionably has enjoyed phenomenal success since its launch in March 2021. As a brand new ITSM solution built on the Work.com platform, whatever ITSC might have lacked in product maturity at its inception, when compared to long-established ITSM software vendors, Salesforce product managers have made up for with their vision and innovation—and a little chutzpah!

Fast forward to the recent release of ITSC Version 1.36, many perceived gaps in functionality with legacy ITSM solution providers are closing. Let’s take a quick look at what Salesforce has been up to with the ITSC product roadmap, with a bit of color commentary.

  • Integration with Any Discovery Tool – ITSC gives you the ability to integrate with and import assets from any endpoint management solution. This functionality is the most significant new enhancement in Version 1.36.  CIs are not created in Tanium so you can integrate ITSC with other discovery tools with Salesforce to write to Asset records.  Admins can use native integrations, third-party apps in AppExchange, Salesforce API, or data loader.
  • CMDB on Salesforce – ITSC now allows you to store assets and relationships directly in Salesforce, including the ability to create custom record types, classes, fields, layouts, and relationship types using the native Object Manager. Additionally, new record types/page layouts have been introduced, including Application, Application Server, Business Process, Business Service, Datacenter, Endpoint, and Service. Reconciliation Mapping and Matching File Set are also included in 1.36.
  • Network Discovery – Version 1.36 enables you to discover and automatically import any device with an IP address into the CMDB, including network devices, IoT devices, and other non-manageable assets. A “Tanium Discovered CI” record type has been added to Asset object for unmanaged assets found with Tanium Discover; for Tanium users, this is important for surfacing devices on the network that do not have the Tanium Agent. Another key benefit here is that with 1.36 we can automatically import Discovered CIs the same way we automatically import Managed CIs as part of our sync processes.
  • Employee Assets – The new version enables you to not only assign assets specifically to an employee but also enable employees to select their primary device for automatic association with new incidents and requests. What’s key is that a new “Assigned To” field on Asset object and Asset page layouts allows us to assign one or more assets to an employee, which she or he can view via “MyAssets” component, which is available in Employee Community. From there, employees can select their Primary Device from the list of assets that are assigned to them. Primary Device will automatically associate with the “Primary CI” field on any Incident and Request created by the employee.
  • Change CAB Events on the Calendar – Now you can schedule and track Change Advisory Board (CAB) meetings for requested changes by adding CAB events to change calendars. A CAB Meeting record type is also introduced with Version 1.36.
  • Enhanced Announcements – Version 1.36 enables rich-text details and custom fields on announcements for employees and agents.
  • Module-Based Reporting – ITSC now provides module-based reports with specific key performance indicators (KPIs) for incidents, problems, and changes. New reports include Problem Source Count, Change Backlog Count, Changes Submitted Form template, and Rejected Changes.
  • Notification Templates – Version 1.36 enables you to streamline email notifications for employees, agents, and approvers via preconfigured email templates. New template verbiage is also introduced.