Telecommunications Network Inventory and Order Management for Telecommunications and Media

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 4 minutes to read
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    Summary of Telecommunications Network Inventory and Order Management for Telecommunications and Media

    The Order Management for Telecommunications and Media (OMT) application enables you to manage product and service orders efficiently by breaking them down into service orders and resource orders. It integrates closely with the Telecommunications Network Inventory (TNI) application to handle network-related tasks that involve inventory configuration items (CIs), models, and templates. This integration ensures that any network inventory-related actions during order fulfillment trigger corresponding change requests in the TNI application.

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    Order Workflow and Integration Stages

    • Orchestration: OMT orchestrates orders by generating resource orders for various tasks including network planning, initiated by service agents or via TMF 641 API.
    • Plan: Service Project Management (SPM) uses predefined templates to create and process projects integrated with OMT.
    • Procure: Procurement activities for hardware assets are initiated to fulfill requests.
    • Design Assign: TNI creates change requests and tasks based on change characteristics, executing inventory task flows to read or create required CIs.
    • Build: Physical service build or implementation is performed through Field Service Management (FSM).
    • Activate: The service is deployed using defined activation procedures.

    Key Integration Details

    To create network CIs, OMT and TNI applications must be licensed on the same instance. Only the ADD action service order requests are supported for network inventory operations. The creation of change requests for network-related order tasks is automated through integration, provided appropriate decision entries and change models exist.

    Administrator Responsibilities

    Administrators must prepare the environment by creating record producers and change models. TNI provides default change models such as:

    • Provision LAG: Creates Ethernet links and Link Aggregation Groups with associated VLAN ranges.
    • GPON Broadband Service (Automated): Provisions GPON services over existing networks.
    • Fiber-wise Mobility Infrastructure: Provisions mobility infrastructure.
    • Design and Assign Telco Equipment: Creates equipment at network sites following a defined lifecycle.

    Change models start in the "New" state by default, and administrators need to define decision table entries that map order tasks to change models and record producers to automate change request creation.

    Workflow for Change Request Creation

    The integrated workflow operates as follows:

    • OMT creates an order task and triggers the TNI flow.
    • TNI launches the change request creation, mapping order tasks to change models and record producers.
    • Record producers are submitted programmatically to create change requests linked to order tasks.
    • Work notes are added to order tasks when change requests are created and when they are closed.

    Agent and Inventory Actions

    Inventory agents manage change tasks by opening, verifying, implementing, and closing them. Once implemented, created CIs are listed under the Affected CIs tab. The system updates order tasks with work notes and links the product order to the CI via install base items. This provides traceability between orders and inventory configuration items.

    Additional Notes

    • A change request is generated automatically only when a decision table entry exists for the order task.
    • Multiple change requests may be created depending on the inventory actions required by the order task.
    • Demo data is available for scenarios like SD-WAN product orders that trigger equipment creation through change requests in TNI.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Centralized management of telecommunications product and service orders with network inventory integration.
    • Automated change request creation for network-related order tasks reduces manual effort and increases accuracy.
    • Visibility into order fulfillment progress through work notes and affected CI tracking.
    • Support for complex telecommunications workflows including network planning, equipment provisioning, and service activation.
    • Predefined change models and templates facilitate consistent and repeatable network inventory changes.

    With the Order Management for Telecommunications and Media (OMT) application, you can manage all your product and service orders from one place. These product orders are divided into service orders that are further divided into resource orders.

    Introduction to OMT integration

    The order workflow generates the order tasks that fulfill the customer-facing service order (CFS) and resource-facing service order (RFS). Network-related tasks that involve the inventory configuration items (CIs), models, and templates, may interact with the Telecommunications Network Inventory application to create network CIs. For all network-related order tasks, you must create a change request in the Telecommunications Network Inventory application.

    Following are the stages of the workflow:
    1. Orchestration: In this stage, the Order Management for Telecommunications application fulfills the function of order orchestration. It generates resource orders to execute a variety of order-related tasks, encompassing network planning. These resource orders can be initiated by either a service agent or through the TMF 641.
    2. Plan: In this stage, the SPM leverages pre-defined SPM project template to initiate project creation. Subsequently, the SPM utilizes the established integration with the Order Management for Telecommunications to facilitate further project processing.
    3. Procure: In this stage, instantiation of procurement activity for hardware assets to fulfill the request is obtained.
    4. Design Assign: In this stage, the Telecommunications Network Inventory application initiates the following process:
      1. creates change request that triggers the respective change model based on the analyzed change characteristics.
      2. creates change tasks based on the change characteristics.
      3. completes all the tasks through the inventory task flow that includes template sub flow, read flow action, and create flow action. After which required CIs or resources are read or created.
    5. Build: In this stage, the service is physically built or implemented through FSM.
    6. Activate: The service is deployed using activation procedure.

    To create a network CI, the Telecommunications Network Inventory and Order Management for Telecommunications applications are integrated to perform service or product tasks, such as design and assign. A change request is initiated for the tasks that need a network inventory-related action.

    You must ensure that these conditions are met:
    1. You must have the license of both the Telecommunications Network Inventory and Order Management for Telecommunications applications in the same instance.
    2. In this integration, only the ADD action service order request from Order Management for Telecommunications and Media is provided.

    For admins

    To create a change request, an admin must perform the following tasks for an order task that needs the network inventory actions:
    1. Create a record producer. To learn more, see Create a record producer.
    2. Create a change model. To learn more, see Create a change model.
      By default, the Telecommunications Network Inventory application provides the change models that are described in the following table.
      Table 1. Default Change Models
      Change Models Description
      Provision LAG Creates Ethernet links across ports, and a LAG circuit over those Ethernet links. LAG has virtual interfaces. The VLAN ranges are also created and associated with LAG.
      GPON broadband Service (Automated) Provisions a GPON service over the existing network.
      Fiber-wise Mobility Infrastructure Provisions a mobility infrastructure over the existing network.
      Design and Assign Telco Equipment Creates equipment according to the predefined template at a particular network site.
      The states are New, Implement, Review, and Closed for the earlier change models. By default, all new change model states are set as New.

    3. Create a decision entry in the decision table provided by the Telecommunications Network Inventory application. See Order Management for Telecommunications integration to learn how to create an entry.

    The workflow for creating a change task using TNI-OMT integration is as follows:
    1. The OMT subflow creates an order task.
    2. When the Order Task Created trigger is received, the TNI flow launches the Create Change Request and later creates a Change Request action.
    3. The OMT action and Service Specification are mapped to the Change Model, Record Producer in the TNI Order Task Submit Script Include and Decision Tables. Then the OMT characteristic is mapped to the Record Producer variables.
    4. The Producer is then submitted to the Record Producer via the sn_sc.CatItem API.
    5. It creates a Change Request with respect to the Order Task, Change Model, and Variables. Also, it uses the sn sc.CatItem API to return the result to the TNI flow.
    6. When this action is completed, it adds work notes to the Order task.
    7. After the Change Request is closed, it adds work notes to the Order task.

    For inventory agents

    An inventory agent can open, verify, implement, and close the assigned change tasks. After implemented, the created CIs are added under the Affected CIs tab. The work notes of the order task are updated when the order task is closed.

    As a result, the Order Management for Telecommunications and Media application fetches the list of the affected CIs and creates an install base item to relate the product order to the CI. To learn more, see Configuring order fulfillment in Order Management for Telecommunications, Media, and Technology.
    Note:
    • A change request for an order task is created automatically only if a decision entry is created.
    • A number of change requests is created based on the need for inventory action of an order task.
    • As a demo data:
      • In the Order Management for Telecommunications and Media application, the SD-WAN product has an Allocate and Install CPE task that triggers an equipment creation change request to the Telecommunications Network Inventory application.
      • The Telecommunications Network Inventory application has demo data that you can use to create equipment, provision a link aggregation group (LAG), automate a Gigabyte Passive Optical Network (GPON) broadband, and fiber wise mobility infra as Telecommunications Network Inventory workflows.