HR to ITSM
HiBob ServiceNow integration: users and onboarding requests for the service desk
With an integration between HiBob and ServiceNow, employees from HiBob are users in ServiceNow, with department, site and manager, and KoppelHet creates a request in the ServiceNow service catalog for every new colleague and every leaver. The onboarding request holds start date, job, manager and site from HiBob, so IT arranges laptop and accounts for day one.
What the integration does
Organisations with HiBob for HR and ServiceNow ITSM for the service desk often take the users in ServiceNow from Active Directory, without a department and with the manager as an LDAP path. Approvals for software requests therefore reach the wrong person.
- HiBob reports a new or changed employee; KoppelHet fetches the current data.
- New departments and sites go to ServiceNow first, then the user.
- If the user already exists from Active Directory, KoppelHet updates it on employee number or email address.
- The manager becomes a reference to the manager's user, so approvals run correctly.
- After the last working day KoppelHet sets the user to inactive; tickets and history are kept.
- When the start date falls within the agreed lead time, KoppelHet orders the onboarding item in the new user's name, with manager and site as variables.
- For a planned leave date an offboarding request arrives a week ahead, so laptop and access are handled on the last day.
What to watch for with HiBob and ServiceNow
- HiBob sends employee.created as soon as HR creates a new colleague, often weeks before the start. KoppelHet remembers the start date and only orders the onboarding item within the agreed lead time, four weeks ahead by default.
- HiBob's leave message only comes after the last working day, which is too late to collect a laptop. KoppelHet therefore checks planned leave dates daily and creates the offboarding request in advance.
- HiBob sites are often in several countries, each with its own IT team. KoppelHet chooses the catalog item or assignment group per site, so a new colleague does not end up with the IT team of another country.
- HiBob only reports which employee changed and which fields, not the new values. KoppelHet then fetches the data itself and only passes on department, site, job or manager when they actually differ.
- HiBob reports a departure at midnight after the last working day, in the site's time zone. The user in ServiceNow therefore stays active up to and including the last working day, also for colleagues in other time zones.
- Many ServiceNow environments already take users from Active Directory, with the login name as the key. KoppelHet updates those existing users instead of creating a second user, and adds the department and manager the AD import does not provide.
- ServiceNow can run an import only after an earlier one is finished. KoppelHet loads departments and locations first and then users, so a new department from HiBob exists before the first employee refers to it.
- HiBob silently omits fields the service user has no rights to. An empty manager in ServiceNow is therefore usually a missing right in HiBob, and KoppelHet reports that instead of clearing the manager.
- ServiceNow has its own HR integrations for a few large HR systems, but they belong to HR Service Delivery. For HiBob with only ServiceNow ITSM, KoppelHet supplies the data through the standard import function.
- HiBob holds sites in every country. KoppelHet only includes the sites that belong to this ServiceNow environment, so the service desk gets no users who will never ask anything.
This integration is also part of joiner, mover, leaver.
How we build and run it
- The integration runs on the KoppelHet platform, hosted in a data centre in the EU.
- Every sync and every error is visible in the functional log; on an error your administrator is notified.
- A change that cannot go through is not half-applied but queued for another attempt.
- KoppelHet is ISO 27001 certified. Data travels encrypted and stays on the platform no longer than needed.
- After go-live we manage the integration and adjust it when your process changes.
- The integration fits next to your existing integration layer. Only the fields in the design are transferred; the platform keeps no register of its own.
Implementation and price
This is not an app you switch on. We build the integration for your organisation on our platform, with building blocks we reuse on every project. So it is custom work that does not start from scratch.
A consultant prepares the intake and analyses both systems. We then record the mapping and exceptions field by field, test in the test or acceptance environment and go live at a moment you choose. Costs are a one-off amount for the setup and a monthly amount for platform, monitoring and support.
Frequently asked questions
Can we also have tickets created for onboarding and offboarding?
Yes. For a new colleague KoppelHet orders the onboarding item from your service catalog, four weeks before the start date by default, and one week before a planned leave date the offboarding item. The team per site and the tasks are set up by you in ServiceNow.
We already take users from Active Directory. Will we get duplicate users?
No. KoppelHet updates the existing user on employee number or email address and adds what AD does not provide.
Do we need ServiceNow HR Service Delivery?
No. The integration works with ServiceNow ITSM and the standard import function.
What happens to tickets of departed employees?
They are kept. The user becomes inactive, not deleted.
What can be traced afterwards for an audit?
Every action of the integration is recorded in the audit logging of the KoppelHet platform. KoppelHet works with an ISO 27001 certified management system.
Technical details for IT
For those who want to know how it works under the hood: APIs, fields and sources used.
- HiBob is read through webhooks (employee events v2, including employee.created, employee.updated and employee.left, with only the employeeId and the IDs of changed fields) and the HiBob API people search; departed employees only with showInactive. Lifecycle events fire at midnight after the effective date in the site's time zone.
- ServiceNow is written through the Import Set API (POST /api/now/import/{stagingTableName}/insertMultiple) to staging tables with transform maps and coalesce on employee_number, with run_after to process cmn_department and cmn_location before sys_user. Integration user with only the roles for these tables.
- Tickets through the Service Catalog API: POST /api/sn_sc/servicecatalog/items/{sys_id}/order_now with the catalog variables in variables and the user in sysparm_requested_for. This creates a request (REQ) with a requested item (RITM); the catalog item's flow creates the catalog tasks (sc_task) per assignment group. A note on an open request goes through the Table API on sc_req_item. KoppelHet stores the RITM number per employee per event.
Which fields are transferred
The key fields. The full mapping is agreed per customer.
| Field in HiBob | Field in ServiceNow | Notes |
|---|---|---|
root.id of Employee ID | employee_number | Coalesce key |
root.firstName en root.surname | first_name en last_name | |
root.email | email | Second key for existing AD users |
work.title | title | |
work.department | department (cmn_department) | |
work.siteId | location (cmn_location) | |
Leidinggevende (reports to) | manager (sys_user) | |
Vertrek (lifecycle) | active = false | |
Indiensttreding, wijziging of vertrek | Catalogusitem voor onboarding, wijziging of offboarding | A separate item per event, chosen at the start |
Gesynchroniseerde gebruiker | sysparm_requested_for | The request is in the name of the new employee |
work.startDate of vertrekdatum | Variabele startdatum of laatste werkdag | |
Leidinggevende (reports to) | Variabele manager (verwijzing naar sys_user) | |
work.siteId | Variabele locatie (cmn_location) | |
work.title | Variabele functie | |
Afdeling of team | Toewijzingsgroep van de catalog tasks | Through the catalog item flow |
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