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Process Automation Designer

Process Automation Designer enables process owners to author cross-enterprise workflows and create a single, unified process. You can also use Process Automation Designer to provide end users with a simplified, task-oriented view of your process.

Process Automation Designer benefits

Process Automation Designer is a Now Platform® feature that enables you, as a business process owner, to organize Flow Designer content into unified and digitized cross-enterprise processes. With Process Automation Designer, you gain these benefits:

Connect multiple flows and actions into an end-to-end business workflow.
Reuse existing Flow Designer flows, subflows, or actions to automate process activities.
Organize process activities in a digitized task board interface.
Guide end users to complete a process in a task-oriented interface, such as a playbook.
Consolidate separate business processes across the organization.
Define a consistent record life cycle from creation to completion.
Pass data between the activities and stages of a business process.
Specify the conditions and the order in which activities and stages run.
Visualize and manage the activities and stages of your process.

Creating a well-designed process

The automated business processes that you design guide your end users and help them focus on the tasks and information that matter to them. A well-designed process can do these things:

Start up, or trigger, automatically for the types of records that your end users care about
Reuse activities from existing Flow Designer content
Has well-defined lanes that end users can follow for a record
Clearly show the next steps that end users must take to move through a record's life cycle

Process Automation Designer content

Process Automation Designer has these components:

Processes: A process is a Now Platform® representation of a cross-enterprise business process for your organization. A process owner is responsible for creating and maintaining a process.
Triggers: A trigger specifies when to start running your process.
Lanes: A lane is a grouped sequence of activities in a process. A process owner creates a lane to specify a logical grouping of activities. A lane represents one stage in your overall business process.
Activities: An activity defines the Flow Designer content that powers the process's automation. An activity can also specify the user-facing experience that the process produces when it runs.

For more information about how to use and navigate the Process Automation Designer user interface, see Exploring Process Automation Designer.

Getting started

Before you get started with Process Automation Designer, familiarize yourself with any features that your business uses to automate operations on the Now Platform, such as Flow Designer, business rules, and workflows. Learning about these concepts can help you avoid creating any conflicting logic in your processes.

If you're a process owner who wants to learn the basics of digitizing your business process, check out the following resources:

If you're a ServiceNow Process Automation administrator who wants to set up and customize Process Automation Designer, check out the following resources:

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Process Automation Designer

Process Automation Designer benefits

Connect multiple flows and actions into an end-to-end business workflow.
Reuse existing Flow Designer flows, subflows, or actions to automate process activities.
Organize process activities in a digitized task board interface.
Guide end users to complete a process in a task-oriented interface, such as a playbook.
Consolidate separate business processes across the organization.
Define a consistent record life cycle from creation to completion.
Pass data between the activities and stages of a business process.
Specify the conditions and the order in which activities and stages run.
Visualize and manage the activities and stages of your process.

Creating a well-designed process

The automated business processes that you design guide your end users and help them focus on the tasks and information that matter to them. A well-designed process can do these things:

Start up, or trigger, automatically for the types of records that your end users care about
Reuse activities from existing Flow Designer content
Has well-defined lanes that end users can follow for a record
Clearly show the next steps that end users must take to move through a record's life cycle

Process Automation Designer content

Process Automation Designer has these components:

Processes: A process is a Now Platform® representation of a cross-enterprise business process for your organization. A process owner is responsible for creating and maintaining a process.
Triggers: A trigger specifies when to start running your process.
Lanes: A lane is a grouped sequence of activities in a process. A process owner creates a lane to specify a logical grouping of activities. A lane represents one stage in your overall business process.
Activities: An activity defines the Flow Designer content that powers the process's automation. An activity can also specify the user-facing experience that the process produces when it runs.

For more information about how to use and navigate the Process Automation Designer user interface, see Exploring Process Automation Designer.

Getting started

If you're a process owner who wants to learn the basics of digitizing your business process, check out the following resources:

If you're a ServiceNow Process Automation administrator who wants to set up and customize Process Automation Designer, check out the following resources:

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Process Automation Designer

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Process Automation Designer benefits

Creating a well-designed process

Process Automation Designer content

Getting started

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Process Automation Designer

Process Automation Designer

Process Automation Designer benefits

Creating a well-designed process

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