The Top Five New and Useful Updates You’ll Get with Zurich

In our recent recording of The Blueprint, hosts Matt Espley, Nate Weldon, and Kenric Wong dug into why upgrading to ServiceNow Zurich is a smart move for every organization and how to approach it with less friction and more value. 

“Upgrades are part of your platform’s health and growth,” Matt said. “Each one is a chance to shed technical debt, align with new best practices, and unlock innovation.” 

What is new and genuinely useful 

Zurich delivers fresh value with AI-driven automation, stronger governance, and smoother cross-platform consistency. Whether you upgrade every release or lag behind, these updates make Zurich a compelling step forward. 

Here are the top five updates you should know about:

1. Platform governance and security

   • CMDB edit role: decoupled from ITIL in greenfield or z-booted environments. No more unintended CI tampering by broad ITIL access. For long-time instances, plan a role rationalization step during the upgrade.
   • Scripting Governance: provides finer control over who can script, plus guardrails that nudge toward best practices.
   • Data Type ACLs: govern access to sets of columns via metadata rather than one-off ACLs. Cleaner, safer, and easier to maintain.
   • MFA Dashboard: gives admins clear visibility into who is enrolled and who needs exceptions, helping you close gaps quickly.

2. Release operations that scale

   • App Engine pipelines: generalized to the full platform.
   • Update set promotion: via pipelines with your preferred flow across dev, test, sandbox, and prod.
   • Deployment Analyzer: runs out-of-box checks across code changes, roles, ACLs, catalog-only updates, and heavyweight schema changes. You can add your own checks to enforce standards.
   • Practical win: less manual promotion, better approvals, and fewer surprises from risky updates.

3. Strategy and portfolio execution

   • SPM and Enterprise Architecture: tighter integration with auto-visualized data models linking business apps, services, CIs, assets, and even AI components. Less time drawing diagrams, more time making decisions.
   • Collaborative workspaces: roll up tasks for PMOs, RMOs, agile and test teams in one place, extending the clarity ITSM teams already enjoy.

4. HRSD upgrades that move the needle

   • HRSD umbrella: core HRSD, Talent Acquisition, and Talent Development unified in the HR Enterprise SKU. Fewer silos in process and data.
   • Resolved HR Case Planner: agent uses RAG to draft resolutions, gather knowledge, and decide when to hand off to a person. Agents walk in with context, not a blank page.
   • HR Multi Instance v2: helps large or federated orgs coordinate HR tasks and approvals across instances, including external user handling that respects licensing.
   • Onboarding and offboarding: AI-driven ramp plans, a secured pre-hire role with an external experience, and a more robust alumni portal.

5. Builder productivity and reliability

   • Scheduled Jobs: now support richer patterns such as “second Wednesday of the month.”
   • Audit retention rules: can be set at the table level for cleaner compliance.
   • Flow Designer: gains version history, complex object variables without custom script, and the ability to surface subflow stages so request status actually reflects reality.
     
     

Why an upgrade is good for everyone

• Security improves: when roles, MFA, and ACLs are cleaner by design.
• Reliability improves: when promotion is standardized and analyzed.
• Speed improves: when workspaces unify teams, and AI handles the grunt work.
• Cost of ownership drops: when you reduce customization and rely on platform capabilities that ServiceNow maintains.

A simple upgrade playbook

1. Start with lessons learned: document what went well and what did not in your last upgrade. Use that as your baseline.
2. Map value to roadmap: pick Zurich features that support your strategic outcomes. Do not turn on everything at once.
3. Rationalize roles: plan for the CMDB edit role separation and broader ITSM role cleanups. Close easy privilege gaps first.
4. Automate testing: stand up ATF for critical paths and consider third-party tools for scale. Use Release Operations and Deployment Analyzer to catch risky changes early.
5. Clone strategy before coding: use sandboxes or pooled instances to parallelize testing without blocking current work.
6. Communicate early and often: set clear windows for development freezes, clone schedules, CAB, and cutover. Avoid end-of-sprint surprises.
7. Manage skip logs weekly: decide to keep or replace. Test downstream effects when you accept an out-of-box update over a customization.
8. Target a one-month window: many teams complete clone, test, remediate, and cutover in about a month. Larger federated environments may take longer, but automation and pipelines shrink the timeline.