Operational Technology Manager use case
Summarize
Summary of Operational Technology Manager use case
The Operational Technology Manager application in ServiceNow Yokohama release establishes foundational data and relationships essential for managing Operational Technology (OT) within enterprises. It integrates with the Configuration Management Database (CMDB), Service Graph Connectors, and Discovery applications to enable visibility and management of OT devices through dashboards in the Industrial Workspace.
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Key Features
- Extends the CMDB class hierarchy with OT configuration item extension classes.
- Restricts IT Discovery for OT Networks to OT-specific roles and allows addition of OT metadata to discovery schedules.
- Imports OT data from Excel spreadsheets via the Service Graph connector, validating and transforming data into CMDB records and relationships.
Key Outcomes
- Visualize OT device dependencies within industrial environments.
- Manage OT device lifecycle on a site-specific basis with role-based access control (RBAC).
- Build a robust data foundation defining critical infrastructure levels for OT management.
Summary of Industrial Process Manager use case
Overview
The Industrial Process Manager application enables creation of ISA-95 equipment model data foundations necessary for OT solutions, supporting detailed production process descriptions and equipment relationships.
Key Features
- Model production processes at each industrial site using ISA-95 standards.
- Manage equipment model entities and their relationships, including linkage to OT devices.
- Automatically map OT device relationships to equipment model entities based on OT subnet associations.
Key Outcomes
- Customize equipment models for each site to accurately represent production processes and OT device automation.
Summary of Operational Technology Vulnerability Response use case
Overview
This application helps prioritize and remediate OT device vulnerabilities at the site level by leveraging CMDB relationships and production process criticality.
Key Features
- Workspace mapping vulnerable items (VITs) to production processes for remediation owners.
- Risk calculation based on equipment model entity criticality automated by OT devices.
- Automatic assignment of vulnerabilities to remediation owners by device site.
Key Outcomes
- Prioritize vulnerability remediation using OT-specific risk factors.
- Track progress of remediation efforts effectively.
- Dashboards in Industrial Workspace provide summarized views of OT vulnerabilities and risks.
Summary of Operational Technology Incident Management use case
Overview
This capability enables efficient resolution of OT incidents—disruptions caused by OT devices—while distinguishing these from IT incidents.
Key Features
- Automatically assigns a Network Type of OT to incidents created in the Industrial Workspace.
- Separates management of OT incidents from IT incidents for focused resolution.
Key Outcomes
- Speeds up resolution of OT device and production process issues by OT engineers.
Summary of Operational Technology Change Management use case
Overview
This application facilitates collaborative management of changes to OT devices and industrial equipment configurations, integrating workflows and aligning with incident and vulnerability management.
Key Features
- Digitized change workflows connecting stakeholders and supporting site-specific processes.
- Separation and optional integration of IT and OT change management.
- Alignment of equipment model changes with downtime schedules.
Key Outcomes
- Supports remediation change requests initiated by OT remediation owners.
- Enables OT technicians to execute equipment-related changes.
- Allows plant heads to review and approve OT changes.
Summary of Operational Technology Knowledge Management use case
Overview
This application captures and manages knowledge related to OT systems and incidents, enabling efficient information sharing and reducing miscommunication.
Key Features
- Leverages existing ServiceNow Knowledge Management capabilities within the OT context.
- Supports browsing and creating knowledge articles directly from OT incident records.
- Configurable OT knowledge bases with approval workflows for article publishing, editing, and retiring.
- Articles can be created and edited within the Industrial Workspace.
Key Outcomes
- Centralizes OT expertise for use by engineers, technicians, and front-line workers.
- Provides timely knowledge resources to support issue remediation and operational continuity.
Summary of Operational Technology Request Management use case
Overview
This application provides access to an OT Service Catalog for submitting and fulfilling OT-related requests, improving service consistency and cross-functional collaboration.
Key Features
The Operational Technology Manager use cases are described in this section.
Operational Technology Manager use case
The Operational Technology Manager application creates the foundational data and relationships that enable your enterprise to use the Operational Technology solution. It supports the use of the Configuration Management Database (CMDB), Service Graph Connectors, and Discovery applications in the ServiceNow AI Platform.
The OT Visibility dashboard in the Industrial Workspace summarizes your OT device inventory. For more information about the dashboard, see Operational Technology Visibility dashboard.
- Operational Technology Manager uses OT configuration item (CI) extension classes that extend the CMDB class hierarchy.
- IT Discovery for OT Networks is restricted to OT specific roles and OT related meta data can be added to an OT discovery schedule.
- The Service Graph connector (Excel) imports OT data from a populated Microsoft Excel flat-file spreadsheet. This data is validated and then transformed into the appropriate table records and relationships to represent OT device details in the CMDB.
- Visualize dependencies of OT devices in the industrial environment.
- Manage the life cycle of OT devices on a site-by-site basis with site specific RBAC
- Create a solid data foundation and define critical levels of infrastructure.
Industrial Process Manager use case
Use the Industrial Process Manager application to create the ISA-95 equipment model data foundation that is required for the Operational Technology solution.
You can perform the following operations in the Industrial Process Manager workspace:
- Use ISA-95 models to describe the production process at each site in the industrial environment.
- Manage equipment model entities and their relationships with each other and with OT devices.
- Automatically map the relationship of all OT devices to the equipment model entity it automates using the OT subnet to equipment model entity relationship.
The Industrial Process Manager enables you to create a custom version of the equipment models in each of your sites.
Operational Technology Vulnerability Response use case
Operational Technology Vulnerability Response enables you to effectively prioritize and remediate OT device vulnerabilities at the site level.
- Remediation owner workspace maps vulnerable items (VITs) with the production process.
- Risk calculation for OT VITs can be based on criticality of the equipment model entity automated by the OT device.
- Automatic assignment of VITs to remediation owners based on the site assigned to the OT device with the VIT.
By leveraging the CMDB relationships of OT devices, you can prioritize vulnerable devices or items based on the criticality of the production process they automate.
As an OT engineer or OT vulnerability manager, Operational Technology Vulnerability Response enables you to find answers to questions such as:
- What are my OT device vulnerabilities?
- How can I prioritize vulnerability remediation using OT specific risk?
- What progress are we making toward remediation of OT vulnerabilities?
The OTVR (PA) dashboard and the OT Vulnerability Risk Management dashboard in the Industrial Workspace summarize the vulnerabilities in your system. For more information about the OTVR (PA) dashboard, see Operational Technology Vulnerability Response (PA) dashboard. For more information about the OT Vulnerability Risk Management dashboard, see Operational Technology Risk Management dashboard.
Operational Technology Incident Management use case
OT incidents occur when there is a disruption in service that is provided by an OT device on an OT network. Sometimes, the OT device may not be known when the incident is first created. Operational Technology Incident Management enables engineers to quickly resolve OT device and production process issues.
When a user creates an OT incident from the Industrial Workspace, the incident is automatically assigned a Network Type of OT to distinguish an OT incident from an IT incident. The field is not displayed by default.
ResultsOperational Technology Incident Management enables engineers to quickly resolve OT device and production process issues. It enables you to manage OT incidents separately from IT incidents.
Operational Technology Change Management use case
Operational Technology Change Management enables your team members to work collaboratively on changes to OT devices or industrial equipment configurations.
- Digitized change workflow that connects all stakeholders.
- Sites that have different change management processes (workflows).
- Separated IT Change Management and Operational Technology Change Management, but ability to be combined if necessary.
- Integrated Operational Technology Change Management workflow with the Operational Technology Incident Management and Operational Technology Vulnerability Response applications.
- Aligned factory floor changes for the equipment model entities with downtime schedules.
- An OT remediation owner, who's responsible for fixing vulnerabilities on OT devices, wants to initiate a change to fix a group of vulnerabilities.
- An OT technician, who's responsible for OT configurations and plant engineering activities, wants to execute a change to fix a malfunctioned robotic arm on the industrial floor.
- A plant head, who's responsible for overall production activity, wants to review and approve a change requested by the engineering team.
Operational Technology Knowledge Management use case
Operational Technology Knowledge Management helps you to capture information about your Operational Technology (OT) system in knowledge articles that are related to OT incidents. Your organization can then use these knowledge articles to help your users to access the right information and prevent miscommunication with your users.
- Ability to use the existing Knowledge Management ServiceNow AI Platform capabilities with the Operational Technology Management solution.
- Ability to browse all knowledge base articles that are related to an OT incident and to create knowledge articles directly from an incident record.
- Ability to configure an OT knowledge base for knowledge managers and knowledge users.
- Ability to create knowledge articles in the Industrial Workspace.
- Ability to request approvals to publish, edit, retire, or delete a knowledge article.
- Ability to edit existing knowledge articles with updated information.
The following examples show how to apply Operational Technology Knowledge Management to your team:
- An OT engineer with several years of experience wants to capture their OT device knowledge in one place for guide workers and junior technicians.
- Front-line workers and technicians responsible for production process operations have noticed an issue on the factory floor and need a knowledge article that explains remediation.
Operational Technology Request Management use case
- Provides a single view to efficiently manage multiple catalog requests.
- Encourages transparency, expedites request processes, and minimizes delays with automatic notifications and approvals.
- Maintains the products and services menu that you can use to create and update catalog requests.
- OT engineers can file and manage OT requests for various OT products and services in a one place.
- A plant head or supervisor can engage with the correct team to remediate an incident reported on the factory floor.