OpenText Solutions Business Manager vs. ServiceNow App Engine

How many users will be using the system? What part of the organization will own the product? Serena is a great workflow tool. It can be tailored to fit in any scenario and so I dont believe there is any situation where it would be inappropriate.

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When the solution involved complex workflows and integration with many 3rd party applications, we felt the Now app engine was less appropriate as it could not handle different integrations simultaneously for incident resolution and complaints management. This was well suited and managed by people who don't know basic coding.

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• One of my favorite capabilities within the Serena user interface is the reporting. Detailed searches into the workflows allow the users to create reports containing any field that is in the workflow. Users here use the reporting during review time to pull metrics on tickets they have worked during the year. From a process perspective, the system provides a specific report with details around how long the items have been in various states. I use this information to measure my process peformance and to identify bottlenecks within the processes themselves. The reports are fairly easy to use but they can also be very complex too. Reports can be set up and shared across groups. Generic reports can also be set up so that query at run time fields can be entered.
• Developing new processes in Serena Business Manager is relatively easy and does not necessarily need to be done by a developer. Serena has added some key features that reduces the need to add Java scripts. Serena Business Manager is a blank slate and it can be as complex or as simple as you make it. The forms are the same. I have seen some very simple designs and some very complex and beautiful form designs.
• From a user perspective, it is fairly simple to just pick up and start using. I introduce our new hires to the systems in a thirty minute session. Most users are more confused by which process to use for what than by how to use the system.

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• Perfect tools for easy task management.
• Coordination platform.
• Effective project documentation.

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• Serena's documentation for the product is well written but it can be a bit challenging because it is often missing key components, best practices or tips and tricks that you get when you call into their customer support. It is also very frustrating to have their release notes refer back to their knowledge base to have their customers figure out what they fixed in their releases.
• Serena Business Manager manages their users in an Administrator function. Any changes made in this part of Serena is only logged in the database. It would be nice to have some reporting out of of this system. When you have multiple administrators of a system, it would be a nice feature to have some reporting here rather than having to go into the database.
• The notification feature within Serena can be a bit challenging and time consuming. You can't copy the notifications so if you want to duplicate a notification you had previously created you have to recreate it again. The notifications have three levels to them and they can be a bit tricky to get them to work just right.

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• Improve the UI of the environment
• The left panel in service now is clumsy that can be improved.
• Connect service now with callers email for any notification related to any incident raised.

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There are limited use cases where we are just using the service now app engine as of now

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overall it's a good software, but I think it could be updated to give it an edge over other platforms

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Almost 100% available on time

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They tried their best to resolve our queries every time we contacted them about any technical support

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App engine can be used just to process the minimal amount of the data which is being received from the user. We are service now catalogue items or any other data technology.

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We have been using Serena for eight years and I don't believe I can answer this question since it was so long ago that we made the decision to purchase Serena.

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ServiceNow App Engine is best among all the competitors. Its integration is best with Outlook and ERP, its SLA management is best, and very organized filters are very useful. Categorization of tickets is something that is very useful. It's very easy to search the tasks/order with limited keywords and very easy to customize. The best part is we can simply reply on mails using ServiceNow App Engine and keep a proper log of the tickets.

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It is scalable but not reliable

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• We use Serena to standardize our business processes to ensure a more efficient work day experience for our employees. By having the employees use Serena for the processes we can ensure the process is completed the same way every time.
• By having our key processes in Serena we are able to measure our processes at any time. Some of those key metrics include a 90% reduction in rework and a 47% reduction in overall process time. With the ability to measure processes at any time, we can react to process problems and correct them quickly. Serena Business Manager is flexible enough to allow quick development and rapid promotion when necessary.
• Serena is very ingrained in our culture and the culture has taken on the "ticket" mentality unfortunately. With everyone trying to measure their work and justify their body counts through ticket counts, having a ticket opened for every act of work has become the standard.

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• Effective and profitable multiple project management platform.
• The tracking of project activities and contract management the tool is amazing.
• Effective solution of files sharing and easy project comment sharing software.
• Intuitive collaboration solution.

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