Telecommunications Network Inventory and Order Management for Telecommunications and Media
Summarize
Summary of Telecommunications Network Inventory and Order Management for Telecommunications and Media
The Order Management for Telecommunications and Media (OMT) application enables ServiceNow customers to manage product and service orders centrally. These product orders are broken down into service orders, which are further divided into resource orders. Integration with the Telecommunications Network Inventory (TNI) application allows the management and fulfillment of network-related order tasks, such as creating network configuration items (CIs) through change requests.
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Order Workflow and Integration
The order workflow orchestrates tasks to fulfill customer-facing and resource-facing service orders. Key workflow stages include:
- Orchestration: Generates resource orders for tasks including network planning, initiated by service agents or TMF 641.
- Plan: Uses predefined project templates to initiate projects via Service Portfolio Management (SPM), integrated with OMT.
- Procure: Handles procurement activities for hardware assets.
- Design Assign: The TNI application creates change requests and tasks based on change characteristics, completing tasks via inventory workflows to read or create required CIs.
- Build: Service is physically built or implemented through Field Service Management (FSM).
- Activate: Service deployment is completed using activation procedures.
Key Integration Requirements
- Both Telecommunications Network Inventory and Order Management for Telecommunications applications must be licensed in the same ServiceNow instance.
- Only the ADD action service order requests from OMT are supported in this integration.
- Admins must create record producers, change models, and decision entries to enable automated change request creation for network inventory tasks.
Change Models and Automation
The TNI application provides default change models for common inventory-related tasks 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 on the network.
- Design and Assign Telco Equipment: Creates equipment at network sites based on predefined templates.
Change requests created through these models follow a lifecycle starting in the "New" state and progressing through implementation and closure.
Change Request Workflow
When an order task requiring network inventory action is created in OMT, the following occurs:
- OMT triggers TNI to create a change request mapped to the appropriate change model and record producer.
- Order task characteristics are passed to the record producer variables via APIs, which creates and submits the change request.
- Work notes are updated on the order task as the change request progresses and closes.
Role of Inventory Agents
Inventory agents are responsible for opening, verifying, implementing, and closing change tasks assigned to them. Upon implementation, created CIs appear under the Affected CIs tab, and the related product orders are linked to these CIs through install base items. This ensures accurate tracking of network assets and order fulfillment.
Practical Example
For demonstration, the SD-WAN product in OMT includes an "Allocate and Install CPE" task that automatically triggers equipment creation change requests in TNI. The TNI demo workflows support provisioning of equipment, LAG, GPON broadband, and fiber-wise mobility infrastructure.
Additional Notes
- Change requests are created automatically only if a corresponding decision entry exists in the TNI decision table.
- Multiple change requests may be created per order task depending on inventory action needs.
This integration streamlines telecommunications order fulfillment by linking order management with network inventory changes, providing ServiceNow customers with automated, efficient handling of network resources and service deployment.
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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Procure: In this stage, instantiation of procurement activity for hardware assets to fulfill the request is obtained.
- Design Assign: In this stage, the Telecommunications Network Inventory application initiates the following process:
- creates change request that triggers the respective change model based on the analyzed change characteristics.
- creates change tasks based on the change characteristics.
- 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.
- Build: In this stage, the service is physically built or implemented through FSM.
- 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 have the license of both the Telecommunications Network Inventory and Order Management for Telecommunications applications in the same instance.
- In this integration, only the ADD action service order request from Order Management for Telecommunications and Media is provided.
For admins
- Create a record producer. To learn more, see Create a record producer.
- 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.
The states are New, Implement, Review, and Closed for the earlier change models. By default, all new change model states are set as New.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. -
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 OMT subflow creates an order task.
- When the Order Task Created trigger is received, the TNI flow launches the Create Change Request and later creates a Change Request action.
- 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.
- The Producer is then submitted to the Record Producer via the sn_sc.CatItem API.
- 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.
- When this action is completed, it adds work notes to the Order task.
- 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.
- 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.