3 Benefits to Contextual Search During IT Change Management

The challenges of IT change management often stem from the complex nature of IT environments – not to mention that the technology itself is constantly evolving. 

That’s why effective change management means identifying and addressing potential risks when modifying an IT environment. 

What if there was a way to know about the catastrophic risks in your environment while planning those changes?

With BugZero’s contextual search in ServiceNow, you can do just that. We believe that proactive bug identification can transform your IT change management practices. 

Contextual search refers to the ability to search for relevant information within the context of a particular task or process. Within IT change management, this means having the capability to quickly assess change risks.

BugZero improves this functionality by feeding crucial data about vendor bugs directly into ServiceNow. The integration ensures that you are not just aware of potential risks, but have actionable insights to handle them. 

One of the most significant advantages of integrating contextual search within SN is the heightened awareness of risks it brings – particularly in Change Advisory Board (CAB) meetings. 

BugZero’s integration means contextual search doesn’t just serve as a tool, but rather a guide. It highlights risks for CAB meetings that might otherwise go unnoticed. Uncovering vendor bugs that are directly relevant to the items in a proposed change. 

For instance, imagine a scenario where a CAB manager is reviewing a proposed change to the IT environment. Traditionally, this would involve working through a checklist of potential issues based on past experiences. However, with this enhanced contextual search, the approver can now access a curated list of relevant vendor bugs and their associated risk scores.  This enables the approver to understand the risk without having to be a Subject Matter Expert (SME). 

Our goal is not just to avoid costly downtime. We’re talking about amplifying uptime.

Contextual search within ServiceNow also allows IT professionals to create tasks and incidents. That means the integration helps improve the overall incident management workflow. Risk is identified, and action is created. 

This is what it looks like on screen.

A significant feature of this integration is the Bug Risk Score filter. Each vendor bug identified by BugZero is assigned a score that reflects its severity on a scale of 0-10. The scoring system helps your team prioritize tasks.

BugZero is the only platform that can produce this type of report, which is illustrated below.

Consider a scenario where you’re tasked with managing a vendor software update across your enterprise. Using the contextual search in SN, your team can quickly pull up a list of all vendor bugs related to the software in question – along with their Bug Risk Scores. The information then helps create a task workflow that addresses high-risk bugs first.

When an issue arises, the ability to correlate it with known bugs and their risk scores allows for a more rapid response. Teams can proactively identify if a new problem is related to a previously identified bug.

Accessing a consolidated view of vendor bugs across various systems and third-party vendors is a game-changer. ITOps leaders will understand the risks present in their environment. This perspective is crucial when planning IT initiatives. 

For CAB managers who are not experts in every technological or vendor-specific aspect of their IT environment, the enriched contextual search feature helps them ask better questions.

Integrating BugZero with ServiceNow is a significant advancement within IT change management. The integration ensures that every decision is rooted in data, and you can mitigate urgent risks before they impact your applications. 

We encourage you to consider the power of BugZero with ServiceNow. Are you ready to reduce the accepted risk in your IT estate? 

Contact BugZero to learn how we can make it happen.