On-call group for managers on duty

[Thereza Van der]

Hi everyone

I created a bunch of schedules in on-call scheduling which works perfect. What I need to create now is a schedule for all managers on duty. They rotate like the rest of the people, but they do not handle tickets. So it is basically just to make them aware of when they are on duty in case we get a P1 or P2 incident. What I want to know is if can I create a group, add them to it, give the group rota_manager  role and create a schedule like all the others? I am more concerned about if there are license implications and if I am allowed to do it that way.

Regards

Thereza

[Naveen20]

This works fine. You can create a group, add managers, configure on-call rotas, and schedule them just like your other groups. The scheduling mechanics are identical regardless of whether the members handle tickets or not.

A couple of clarifications on the role though:

The rota_manager role is for administering rotas (creating, editing, managing schedules) — it's not required for someone to simply be on a rota. To appear on a schedule, the managers just need to be members of the group that has the rota configured. So unless these managers also need to create or modify schedules themselves, you don't necessarily need to assign rota_manager to the group. That said, giving it to them won't hurt anything functionally.

On the licensing side — this is where you need to be careful. On-Call Scheduling is part of ITSM, and ServiceNow's licensing model generally ties fulfiller licenses to users who participate in ITSM processes. Even though your managers aren't resolving tickets, being on an on-call rota places them within an ITSM workflow. Whether that counts as a fulfiller activity depends on your specific contract terms and how ServiceNow audits interpret "participation."

My recommendation would be to check with your ServiceNow account team or TAM before rolling this out, specifically asking whether users on on-call rotas who don't touch incident records still require fulfiller licensing. This is the kind of thing that varies by contract and could surface during a license audit.

As an alternative to avoid any licensing gray area, some teams handle manager-on-duty awareness through a lighter approach — like a shared calendar, a simple custom table with a scheduled rotation, or a notification rule that alerts the current duty manager when a P1/P2 is raised — none of which would require those managers to be ITSM fulfillers. You could even build a quick widget on Service Portal showing who the current duty manager is, pulling from a simple rotation table.

[Thereza Van der]

Thanks for the advice and for the quick response. I will liaise with our ServiceNow Account Manager and, depending on the outcome, follow your alternative suggestion.

Regards

Thereza