This feature will be available in the ServiceNow Q1store release - 2024, February 1!
Overview and problem statement:
ServiceNow order management system decomposes customer orders into product, service, and resource orders. Each of these decomposed orders will have corresponding fulfillment flow with order tasks which would be reviewed, updated, and closed by fulfillment managers and agents to complete the fulfilment process in order to fulfill a customer order within the planned, estimated and or committed (contracted) time.
To fulfill a customer order within the planned, estimated and or committed time, service providers need to resolve the customer order's domain orders and order tasks in a timely fashion.
Track and managing customer order domain orders, and order task fulfillment by clicking through multiple screens (back and forth) and clicking through per UI form fields decreases agent productivity. If the agent is handling a large workload of orders - that nonproductive time increases OpEx, agents are not spending their precious time quickly and more efficiently handling customer order fulfillment to resolution. UI navigation clicks add up, especially if the agent is handling a large workload of orders assignments.
In summary, the challenge encountered prior to the introduction of order timeline view was multiple forms and related list for domain orders and order tasks made the fulfillment manager and agent to move through (those clicks again!) through different order entity object forms to gather status of domain orders and order tasks to gain a complete end to end view of the status (where we were, currently at, and where we are moving towards) of the customer order fulfillment delivery process. Multiple order object entity forms prevented the agent from easily and quickly gathering customer order fulfillment order object-entity status information on domain orders and order tasks and their related dependencies.
For example, for this customer order, the fulfillment manager clicks through three forms and various fields within each form to put together a complete picture in order to track and managed customer order fulfillment.
Order, product and order line forms:
The order timeline feature streamlines order fulfillment track and manage to order completion, by providing a single pane of glass view end to end view of the status of the customer order fulfillment delivery process - where we were, currently at, and where we are moving towards.
It solves for the following use case:
As an order fulfilment manager or agent, I want to view all the OLIs, domain orders, and order tasks of an order on a single UI so that I can track the current status of the orders and take required action to fast track the order fulfilment without having to navigate to multiple forms, fields and lists.
Business Ethernet Glod plan - customer order:
Let us look at the Business Ethernet Gold plan - customer order and how it will be displayed in the order timeline single pane of glass.
Fulfillment flow diagram - to give context:
Order Timeline feature capabilities and views:
At the order detail tab, the user can select “view order timeline” or “view order orchestration” on the order record page.
Order detail tab:
Notice on the order timeline UI screen snapshot below - the layout of the order page. Oder timeline feature OOB provides the user a single pane of glass view of the following:
Left panel:
- Order line items
- State
- Jeopardy status: notice for jeopardy status – you see at risk for an item. The status gives a quick indication that for an active task – there is a risk associated with the order task!
Middle Panel:
- Date range
- Order task label
- Order task dependency between order tasks
- Red vertical line indicates current date – depending on date range view, will show date and time.
- Hovering over an order task will show:
- Task name
- Planned start and end date
- Actual start date
- Due date
- Task duration
To the far right, not exposed in this UI view is the timeline and grid control panel.
Order Timeline UI
This order is a three-location broadband ethernet gold customer order. You can scroll down to see all the order’s domain order three location timeline data.
Order timeline view - three order lines in timeline:
The date and time on the UI middle panel can be changed by the user to provide – Day, week, month, quarter, year and autofit time range adjusted views of the order’s object entity timeline:
Order Timeline UI - change timeline range:
The right panel when selected for view, enables the user to personalize what order object entity grid and timeline view granularity is desired for viewing, so the user based on specific order task track and manage interest can resolve order tasks efficiently in the single pane of glass.
- User only desires to view:
- all customer order domain object entity and child line hierarchy in grid and timeline
- child lines
- Order task bar label
- Critical path if defined for the order line tasks
- Order task dependencies
Order timeline UI - Personalize panel selections:
- User only desires to view in grid and timeline:
- child lines
- Order task bar label
- Critical path if defined for the order line tasks
- Order task dependencies
Order timeline UI - Personalize panel selections:
- User only desires to view in grid and timeline:
- child lines
- Critical path if defined for the order line tasks
- Order task dependencies
Order timeline UI - Personalize panel selections:
- User only desires to view:
- all customer order domain object entity and child line hierarchy in grid and timeline
- child lines
- Order task bar label
- Critical path if defined for the order line tasks
Order timeline UI - Personalize panel selections:
- User only desires to view:
- child lines
- Order task bar label
- Critical path if defined for the order line tasks
Order timeline UI - Personalize panel selections:
- User only desires to view grid with:
- Domain order
- child lines
- Order task bar label
- Critical path if defined for the order line tasks
Order timeline UI - Personalize panel selections:
Something we have not yet discussed is when personalizing the user view, the domain order and order task information the user desires to see in the order UI timeline UI can be configured.
The order timeline's UI order detail column personalization provides a straightforward way to configure order entity data selected for viewing. Personalizing the user view experience can be accomplished for both timeline and columns. We discussed timeline view personalization, lets discuss columns.
In the below order timeline UI display, “columns” OOB information will always display the Order line item, state, and jeopardy status.
OOB selectable options are:
- Due date
- Assign to
- Jeopardy level – which is different from jeopardy status – jeopardy status provides indication of the order task has risk. While jeopardy status is the actual risk level
- Start date
- Task id
- Task duration
Order timeline UI - Personalize panel selections for column data to be displayed:
Here is a day timeline view of the grid and timeline personalized.
Order timeline UI - Personalize panel selection - day view with order detail selected:
In summary, the TMT Order Timeline feature provides increased customer order fulfillment track and manage and delivery – gives the fulfillment manager, agent or other customer order fulfillment stakeholders a single UI to track, update, view and resolve customer order delivery to ensure that customer orders are delivered on time.
ACL & Roles:
Order Timeline is enabled for all the order fulfilment personas:
sn_ind_tmt_orm.order_fulfilment_manager
sn_ind_tmt_orm.order_fulfilment_agent
sn_ind_tmt_orm.service_order_manager
sn_ind_tmt_orm.service_order_agent
Technical Details – script included:
OrderTimelineUtil – Added the logic to create and manipulate order timeline row data based on the user configuration on the timeline view.
OrderTimelineUtilOOB - Added the logic to create and manipulate order timeline row data based on the user configuration on the timeline view.
Technical details – Jeopardy Management enabled:
For Non – jeopardy management enabled orders, timeline view does not present an accurate duration and estimate.
For baseline date calculation, information about the previous and dependent task and their duration is required. It is possible only if jeopardy management is enabled for the order. Hence, for the non-jeopardy order, timeline view is not accurate. Instead, I recommend using the order timeline grid view only and personalize the column data to be able to take advantage of viewing the hierarchy of order entities related data selectable from the column fields:
Technical details – Customizations:
Users can edit the following extension files provided but should only do so if they understand the effects and consequences of their changes:
OrderTimelineUtil: An empty script include file. This file should define any OOB function a customer may wish to override from OrderTimelineUtilOOB.
