On-call schedule based on CI

deepthisree
Tera Contributor

12 hours ago

I’m trying to automate incident assignment in ServiceNow, where the assigned on‑call POC depends on the CI selected on the incident.

My scenario:

  • Each Assignment Group has 5–10 associated CIs
  • For every CI, the Primary and Secondary on‑call POCs are different
  • I want incidents to be automatically assigned to the correct on‑call person based on the CI

The challenge:

The On‑Call Scheduling module only supports group‑based rotations, and doesn’t provide a way to segregate or select on‑call schedules by CI. It always evaluates the on‑call roster based on Assignment Group, not CI.

What I’m looking for:

  • Is there any native or recommended way to automate CI‑based on‑call assignment?
  • Any best‑practice patterns for implementing CI‑specific on‑call logic?
  • Suggestions on how others have solved this situation (mapping tables, sub-groups, workflows, etc.)

Thanks in advance for your help!

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Matthew_13
Mega Sage

2 hours ago

Hi Buddy,

You’re correct — ServiceNow’s On-Call Scheduling is fundamentally group-based, and there’s no native way to select or segment on-call coverage by CI. If multiple CIs in the same assignment group need different primary/secondary contacts, the platform doesn’t handle that out of the box.

What I’ve seen work best is introducing a small routing layer based on the CI:

  • Create a simple CI → Primary / Secondary on-call mapping (custom table or attributes).

  • When an incident is created or the CI is set, use a Flow or Business Rule to:

    • Look up the CI in that mapping

    • Assign the incident to the Primary POC

    • Fall back to Secondary or the group queue if no match exists

This keeps On-Call Scheduling intact for group-level coverage, while still allowing CI-specific ownership where you need it.

Another option is splitting coverage into CI-specific sub-groups and attaching on-call rotations to those groups, but that tends to create a lot of group overhead and becomes hard to manage as the number of CIs grows.

Some teams also route off a higher abstraction (like a Service Offering or Technical Service tied to the CI) instead of the CI itself, which reduces the amount of mapping needed and is easier to maintain long-term.

Really: there’s no fully native CI-based on-call assignment today. Most successful implementations either use a CI mapping table with light automation or restructure groups so On-Call can be used as designed.

 

@deepthisree - Please mark Accepted Solution and Thumbs Up if you found helpful 🙂

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