How to report on external data in ServiceNow platform?

Introduction :

ServiceNow leverage data collected in ServiceNow system and build reports through available visualization types. As it is an in-platform analytics solution, data remains within ServiceNow platform. It maintains data security and protection.

When we talk to customers, they are interested to build reports to compare or merge ServiceNow data with their third party applications data. To provide effective access to your data, it is desired to place at one location.

To achieve this, we will walk through two approaches in more detail in this article.

External Indicators in Performance Analytics

External indicators allow you to collect scores from external data. Only scores are copied into ServiceNow instance, raw data remains on external data sources.

*Performance Analytics has to be activated, if you want to use external reporting. User should have pa_admin, pa_power_user or admin role.

1. Navigate to Performance Analytics ->External Indicators and select New
2. Select Data Sources, if it is not available click on New. Only JDBC data type supported by Performance Analytics
   
3. Supported databases are MySQL, Oracle and SQLServer
   
4. Enter database details – Database Server name, Port, Username, Password, etc.
   
5. Mention SQL statement for the score to collect.
   
6. Test the query for an indicator to verify if queries run correctly.

Later you can define external breakdowns to associate them with external indicators.

After verifying all queries for external indicators and breakdowns and returns the desired data, add external indicator to data collection job.

Operational reports on Excel document:

With operational reports, you can create reports from tables and data sources. Operational reports provide you real time data. It also provides way to import external data from your third-party applications into ServiceNow platform. You can import data maintained in excel files.

*You must have Performance Analytics enabled to create reports on imported data. User should have admin, sys_admin, report_admin, pa_admin or pa_power_user role.

Below are few limitations with excel files:

• Size should be less than 2MB
• Number rows should not exceed 10000 and number of columns should be below 25.
• Excel file should have only one sheet.

Steps to create report:

1. Navigate to Reports -> Create New
2. Select External Import as Source type
   
3. You should browse required excel file or drag and drop it to canvas
   
4. You must specify expiry date for excel file. After expiry date, file and depending report will not be available. You can also apply data security for this file.
   
5. Then you can select visualization type for your report and start configuring it.
   
   This report can be added on dashboard/homepages along with other gauges and performance analytics widgets.

This will allow you to easily report on the platform data along with your external third-party applications data. It enables everyone to combine data together and make better decisions.