Adding Product to SOM Product Catalog

[D Trivedi]

Hello Expert,

I am planning to implement TSM, SOMT & FSMT in Telecom and i am utterly confuse about adding product to the product catalog.

My Primary product is XYZ > has two Virtual Services (A-End) & (B-End) and Two Virtual Access Circuits (no 1) & (no 2). One set of service and circuits will be dispatch to location M & other set to location Z. How can i add location option when selecting a product? 

What is the best way to configure it? If you have done it then please share your ideas.

Also, i am now to this modules so Step by step process to add above products in to the product catalog for SOMT will be helpful.

Thank you

[Kailash Bhange · Accepted solution]

Here's a draft answer you can post:

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Hi @D Trivedi 

Good question. The A-End/Z-End pattern trips up a lot of people when they first model it in TSM. The short answer is that the location shouldn't be part of the product. It belongs on the order line item. Your catalog describes what you sell. The site for each component is picked when the order is captured, and it then flows into Service Order fulfilment (SOMT) and field dispatch (FSMT).

1. Recommended design

Keep the catalog generic and reusable, and capture the sites at order time:

Product Offering: XYZ (Bundle / Composite)
 ├── Virtual Service – A-End        → Site M
 ├── Virtual Access Circuit – 1     → Site M
 ├── Virtual Service – B-End        → Site Z
 └── Virtual Access Circuit – 2     → Site Z

Product Specification: XYZ (Composite)
 ├── Virtual Service (spec, reused by A-End & B-End)
 └── Virtual Access Circuit (spec, reused by 1 & 2)
        └── mapped to Service Specs (CFS) → Resource Specs (RFS/Resources)

Some tips:

• Don't create separate specifications for A-End and B-End. Create one Virtual Service spec and add a characteristic such as Site Role (A-End / Z-End). Do the same for the circuit. This keeps decomposition and inventory simple.
• You can still create separate child offerings (A-End / B-End) if you need different names, pricing or rules in the catalog.
• Location: Customer Order line items in Order Management for Telecom have a location/site field, so each child line item can point to its own site from the customer account. Assign Site M to A-End + Circuit 1 and Site Z to B-End + Circuit 2 in the order capture UI (Sales Agent Workspace / Order Capture). If you also want the sites visible on the parent, add characteristics such as A-End Site and Z-End Site to the XYZ offering.
• Add a validation (business rule or order validation) so that A-End and Z-End sites can't be the same, and so that each circuit's location matches its virtual service's location.

2. Step-by-step: building the catalog for SOMT

Step 0: Prerequisites

• Install and activate Product Catalog Management, Order Management for Telecom (Sales and Order Management), Service Order Management and FSM for Telecom (plus demo data on a sub-prod instance, which helps a lot for learning).
• Give yourself the product catalog admin/manager roles and open the Product Catalog Management Workspace.

Step 1: Create characteristics

• Examples: Bandwidth (choice), Site Role (A-End/Z-End), VLAN ID (text), Access Type (Fibre/Copper), and so on.
• Add the characteristic options and mark mandatory ones.

Step 2: Create resource specifications

• These are the physical/logical resources, e.g., Access Port, NTE Device, VLAN.
• They're used later for resource orders and inventory.

Step 3: Create service specifications

• Customer Facing Service specs: Virtual Service CFS and Virtual Access CFS.
• Link them to the resource specs from Step 2 (spec relationships).
• These are what Service Order Management decomposes and orchestrates.

Step 4: Create product specifications

• Simple product specs: Virtual Service and Virtual Access Circuit, with their characteristics (including Site Role).
• Composite product spec: XYZ, with the two specs above as children (cardinality 2 each, or model as needed).
• Map each product spec to its service spec (product-to-service mapping). This is what drives decomposition from Customer Order → Service Order.

Step 5: Create product offerings

• Child offerings: Virtual Service – A-End, Virtual Service – B-End, Virtual Access Circuit – 1, Virtual Access Circuit – 2. Each references the right product spec, and you can default or lock the Site Role characteristic.
• Bundle offering: XYZ, containing the four child offerings (mandatory, min/max = 1).
• Set pricing (price list / price plans), the category, the catalog and the sales channel.

Step 6: Publish

• Move the specs and offerings through the lifecycle (Draft → Published). Specs must be published before the offering is.

Step 7: Configure fulfilment

• Check the decomposition and orchestration rules / Flow Designer subflows that create Service Orders and domain (resource) orders from the order line items.
• Make sure the line item location is copied to the service order line and then to the tasks.

3. FSMT: dispatching to Site M and Site Z

• When a service order task needs a field visit (installing NTE, patching the circuit), the fulfilment flow creates an FSM Work Order whose location comes from the service order line.
• Because A-End/Circuit 1 and B-End/Circuit 2 carry different locations, you get two work orders, one per site. Each is dispatched to technicians in that site's territory/dispatch group.
• Tip: group tasks by location in your flow so that the virtual service and circuit at the same site go into one work order, and a technician doesn't get two visits.

4. Test it end to end

1. Create a Customer Order for a test account that has both sites (M and Z) set up.
2. Add the XYZ offering, set the characteristics, and assign a location to each child line item.
3. Submit, then check the following:
   • Service Orders are created with the correct sites.
   • Resource/domain orders are created.
   • Two FSM work orders are created, one at Site M and one at Site Z.
   • After completion, the installed products/services show up in the customer's inventory with the right locations.

Field names and workspace labels vary slightly between releases, so check against the Product Catalog Management and Order Management for Telecom docs for your family release. The ServiceNow demo data also has telecom bundle offerings you can open and copy as a template.

Hope this helps. If it resolves your question, please mark it as helpful/correct.

[D Trivedi]

@Kailash Bhange thank you so much for your time and explanation. It makes sense but still have few questions. Is there any chance you can share your email to connect with you? Fyi, I am now following you on Linkedin.

[Kailash Bhange]

We can talk om LinkedIn too! Lets connect there 🙂