How to Export Data from ServiceNow (3 Methods)

Organizations that can easily export data from ServiceNow have more options as to how that data can be leveraged. 

This post explores the ways in which organizations can benefit from exporting ServiceNow data, and the methods that can facilitate the process. 

Table of contents:

1. Why Export Data from ServiceNow?
2. How to Export Data From ServiceNow?
3. Exporting Data from ServiceNow via Data Replication and Integration

Why Export Data from ServiceNow?

Although ServiceNow is a powerful platform, it can’t do everything, and not everybody is able to (or wants to) use the platform. It is also somewhat of a data silo which neglects features geared towards making extracting data from the platform easier. 

As such, there are a number of reasons why organizations may wish to export data from ServiceNow. 

An organization could have a team dedicated to working with data from multiple platforms/sources, and obtaining licenses for each platform, for each user simply would not be cost efficient. 

Many organizations have also invested considerable time, money and resources into purpose-built analytics, business intelligence and reporting solutions, or populating and maintaining data lakes and/or warehouses. 

With ServiceNow data siloed, and unavailable for use in such solutions, organizations are not extracting maximum value from ServiceNow, or their purpose-built solutions for working with data. 

With ServiceNow data free from its silo on the platform, organizations have a much broader range of options for visualizing, analyzing and using ServiceNow data in ways that are not available on the ServiceNow platform itself.

How to Export Data From ServiceNow

Method #1: Export Data from ServiceNow Using the Platform’s Built-in Reporting Features

To export data from ServiceNow using the built-in reporting features, users should:

1. Navigate to View/Run under Reports.

2. Select a report containing data you want to export.

3. Click the Sharing icon (it looks like a square with an arrow coming out of its right side) and then Schedule.

4. Configure the export and decide who it should be shared with by entering their email address and other message details.
   
5. Select export Type using the drop-down menu. Users can select from PDF, Excel or CSV.

Method #2: Export Data from a ServiceNow Platform List

Users can avoid exporting a whole report by exporting from a list instead.

In this case, users can:

1. Navigate to the required list (i.e. Incident > All)
2. Right click any one of the column headers (Number, Opened, Short description, etc)
3. Click Export, then select an export type from Excel, CSV, XML, JSON, PDF and Export Set.

Method #1 and #2 Limitations

The above methods are a popular approach to exporting ServiceNow data.

In both cases, the popularity of the method is down to their availability to all users and the ease of configuration, not the extent of the capabilities on offer. 

Particularly for large and/or scaling organizations, some limitations make the methods unsuitable. Limitations including:

Format/targets
The formatting options and the targets that support those formats are limited. This means many solutions will require an additional step to transform data into a format they can work with, if this is even an option at all.

Scale
With the above methods, you’re either exporting data in all lists of a specific type (i.e. incidents), a specific list (i.e. open incidents) or a specific report. 

This makes scaling up difficult as you’re unable to do things such as export all data that meets X conditions, regardless of the list or report they are contained in. 

Performance
Arguably an extension of the scale issue, exporting large volumes of data using ServiceNow’s operational resources could have an impact on the platform’s performance, causing disruption for platform users. 

Bulk only (no dynamic sharing or automation)
While the above methods let users schedule, or manually initiate bulk exports, automated/dynamic exports are not an option. This means users are unable to instantly and automatically export data that meets particular conditions.

For example, business leaders (or anyone without direct ServiceNow access) won’t be able to see the status of opened/closed cases in real-time as the export of data that such insight relies on only happens periodically, or when manually performed.

Method #3: Export Data from ServiceNow via Data Replication and Integration 

While the out of the box capabilities for exporting ServiceNow data will suffice for one-off or occasional use, any repeat/consistent requirement for data is better supported via data replication and integration. 

Data replication and integration is essentially a smart approach to exporting data that provides more scope to configure the types of data exported, the target of exports and the timing and/or conditions that trigger exports.

Data replication and integration solutions can also export data with its original context intact by maintaining referential integrity and including related data in the export event.

I.e. when exporting a ServiceNow record, users could also choose to export any related attachments, comments and other data. 

Since different vendors and platforms will have different configuration options, you’ll have to contact your chosen data replication/integration vendor for a specific, step-by-step process. So instead of a step-by-step process, we’ve listed the features enabled by Method #3 below.

• For help choosing the right data replication and integration vendor, check out this whitepaper. 

Method #3: Basic Data Replication and Integration Capabilities (Most Vendors)

As standard, a data replication and integration solution will allow organizations to benefit from:

Condition-based filtering and scalability
With an increased scope for configuring the criteria that defines which data should be exported, organizations are much better equipped to export data at scale.

For example, rather than exporting all incident data and using Excel queries to find data that met multiple, particular conditions (i.e. Opened date and Priority), users could simply configure an export to include only P1 incidents opened on a specific date. 

A wider range of targets
ServiceNow’s default capabilities do not provide an easy means to export data into common repositories (such as AWS, MySQL, Snowflake, SAP Hana, SQL Server, etc) or solutions (such as Tableau, Power BI, etc). However, many data replication and integration solutions do support this.

Method #3: Advanced Data Replication and Integration Capabilities (Perspectium)

Perspectium is a data replication and integration solution providing the basic capabilities mentioned above, and advanced features for more control, and a better user experience.

With Perspectium organizations can also benefit from:

Real-time data delivery
Perspectium was purpose-built to enable the best possible throughput and performance when exporting ServiceNow data.

As a result, Perspectium is able to move data in real-time, greatly benefiting organizations who want to feed data into a centralized repository with live dashboards reflecting an up-to-date view of the enterprise. 

Dynamic sharing/automation
Perspectium’s Dynamic Share feature allows organizations to automatically trigger data exports when particular conditions are met. Coupled with the ability to deliver data in real-time, organizations experience far greater availability of ServiceNow data.

Improved ServiceNow performance
Perspectium is unlike most data replication and integration solutions on the market that rely on API to initiate data transfers.

Although API is widely used and understood by many developers, extracting ServiceNow data using API requires the same operational resources that facilitate tasks on the ServiceNow platform.

In short, this means the more data you export, and the more often those exports occur, the more significant the impact on ServiceNow’s performance. 

In contrast, Perspectium uses push technology to export data to a message broker system (MBS), which in turn feeds the target solution. 

As the push technology operates natively within ServiceNow, it’s far more efficient at initiating the data transfer than externally made API calls that are not specifically configured for the platform.

Publish/Subscribe, One to Many Integration Model
With the MBS approach to exporting data from ServiceNow, multiple targets can “subscribe” to the MBS without ServiceNow having to perform multiple redundant exports to facilitate the transfer of data to multiple targets. 

This means that the burden of repeat exports is handled by the MBS, leaving the ServiceNow platform free to support the tasks that occur on the platform. 

If your organization stands to benefit from Perspectium’s advanced data replication and integration features for ServiceNow, today, or as it scales, then contact us to learn more.