Adds real-time alert notifications by push, text and voice calls with tracking and escalations to ServiceNow
Integrated on-call duty and shift scheduling allows for automated routing of incidents to the right people at the right time
User-friendly mobile app for Android and iPhone provides incident and ticket management on-the-go
Integrates with a few mouse-clicks into ServiceNow. 2-way integration provides for anywhere ticket acknowledgement, closure and annotations.
Why SIGNL4
SIGNL4 is your platform for adding targeted and persistent mobile incident response to your ServiceNow incidents and for effectively scheduling and managing on-call staff. SIGNL4 give you peace of mind while away from your desk and while on-call. Our comprehensive on-call management and built-in duty scheduling fully automate the communication of incidents by addressing them to the right people at the right time, reducing noise and alert fatigue. Using SIGNL4 helps you to resolve incidents up to 10x faster, ensuring that you meet your SLAs and user expectations.
How it Works
SIGNL4 integrates with ServiceNow via a ServiceNow app for pushing relevant incidents to SIGNL4. To update incidents in SIGNL4 uses a 2nd connector app to communicate with ServiceNow. Any relevant incidents can then be communicated to on-call teams or engineers in the field leading to an instant anywhere response. Engineers can acknowledge, update, close and annotate incident tickets on-the-go using SIGNL4’s user-friendly, advanced mobile app.
Benefits and Value-Add
Use Cases
Integration Type
Incidents and Tickets in Service Now. Connectivity via SIGNL4 ServiceNow App, back-channel via SIGNL4 2-way connector app
Event categorization, routing and automated delivery based on duty schedules, skills, responsbilities
Persistent Notifications by push, text and voice call with Tracking, Escalation and Confirmation to Staff on Duty. Mobile app for remote incident ticket management
Installation and Account-Linking
1.Install the SIGNL4 application in ServiceNow. You can install it e.g. from the Store or you can install the application directly in your ServiceNow instance under “System Applications” -> “All Available Applications” -> “All” by simply searching for “SIGNL4” there.
2. Download and follow the ServiceNow SIGNL4 installation guide.
Create the integration user account
Next, you create an account for SIGNL4 in your ServiceNow instance. SIGNL4 then uses this account to access an inbound REST API that is part of the SIGNL4 application in ServiceNow. It handles incidents by, for example, assigning them an incident template (also part of the application) when a Signl has been acknowledged.
1.Enter “sys_user.list” in the navigator and open the user management.
2.Now create a new user with these characteristics:
3.Once the user is created, you assign him a special role, which is also part of the SIGNL4 application in ServiceNow. This role does not include any access rights as the access management for the application is purely based on the ServiceNow Scoped-Application sand-boxing model (The application uses the “Runtime Access Tracking” mode “Tracking” here).
However, it is used to detect if the SIGNL4 connector has modified an Incident or if a ServiceNow user has modified it. Thus event loop-backs are prevented.
4.It is important to only allow the user to log in via the web service. This way the user cannot log in to the ServiceNow portal which increases the security a bit. More details can be found here.
Customize Business Rule criteria (optional)
You define which incidents are forwarded to your SIGNL4 team using the criteria of a business rule, which is also part of the SIGNL4 ServiceNow application. By default, pretty much every new incident is sent to SIGNL4. To change this, follow these steps:
1.In the Navigator, type “sys_script.list“.
2.Search for the rule named “SIGNL4 – Trigger Signls“.
3.Now adjust the “When to run” criteria of the rule to your needs. You can specify whether incidents are only forwarded when they are first created (INSERT trigger) or also when they are updated (UPDATE trigger). You can also adjust the conditions an incident must have to be forwarded (e.g. high priority).
There is also the possibility to define how a forwarded incident has to change in order to close the corresponding Signl in SIGNL4. This is done by another business rule, which you can also customize:
1.In the Navigator, type “sys_script.list“.
2.Search for the rule with the name “SIGNL4 – Update Signls“.
3.The default criteria captures an incident status of “Closed” but you can customize it to close the Signl when the incident status is e.g. “Resolved”.
Customize Incident Templates (optional)
SIGNL4 offers a unique 2-way integration with ServiceNow. So when Signls are acknowledged or closed, the incident can be updated accordingly and the status can be set as well. This is done via incident templates, one for updating when the Signl is acknowledged and one when it gets closed. You can customize both as follows:
1.Enter “sys_template.list” in the navigator.
2.Then search for “signl4” in the name column.
Two search results will be displayed:
3.”SIGNL4 – Update SN Tickets (Acked)” defines how an incident is updated when a Signl has been acknowledged, e.g. in the SIGNL4 mobile app. You can set the status here to “In Progress” for example.
4.”SIGNL4 – Update SN Tickets (Closed)” defines how an incident is updated when a Signl has been closed, e.g. in the SIGNL4 mobile app. You can set the status here to “Closed” for example.
2way Integration – Create the Connector App in SIGNL4
In order for 2-way integration to work and for incidents to be updated in ServiceNow when commenting, acknowledging, or closing according Signls, you still need to create the SIGNL4 connector app for your SIGNL4 team. This is super easy:
1.Log in to SIGNL4
2.Select the appropriate team and click on Apps in the menu.
3.Then search for ServiceNow in the app template (or in the search box on the right side of the page).
4.Click on create
5.Next, quickly configure the connector app values described below:
6.Click ‘Create’. If the account data is OK and there are no authorization errors, the app is launched and you are ready to go.
Let’s go – Testing the configuration
Now that you’ve created the SIGNL4 app in ServiceNow and also added the ServiceNow connector app to your SIGNL4 team, you’re finally ready to go. We’ll log a new incident, get it on the SIGNL4 app and will update it from there:
1.Log in everywhere, i.e. in your ServiceNow instance, in SIGNL4 and also in the SIGNL4 mobile app.
2.Now create a new incident in your ServiceNow instance that meets the criteria of the business rule “SIGNL4 – Trigger Signls”.
3.The incident will then be forwarded to SIGNL4 and you will see the Signl both in the web portal and in the mobile app
4.Now you acknowledge the signl in SIGNL4, either in the portal under “Signls” or in the mobile app by pressing the circle button.
5.This status change is now transferred to ServiceNow by applying the template “SIGNL4 – Update SN Tickets (Acked)” to the previously created incident.