Design and assign

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of Design and assign

    The design and assign function in the Telecommunications Network Inventory application enables ServiceNow customers to digitally model their network inventories and services. This function supports sequential or parallel inventory tasks to establish network design criteria that trigger change workflows, allowing efficient allocation and instantiation of network inventory resources. It integrates with customer order data and leverages standard Change Management and Workflow Studio processes to build new network capacity with accuracy and automation.

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    Key Features

    • Network inventory modeling: Create inventory models containing manufacturer technical information and define relationships between these models to represent network assets and their interconnections.
    • Inventory templates: Develop templates that include business rules from telecommunications providers to guide network asset instantiation.
    • Automated workflows: Utilize ServiceNow AI Platform-generated workflows to perform all necessary tasks for network inventory instantiation, including change requests and associated change tasks.
    • Change Management integration: Create and manage change requests and tasks to execute network asset instantiation using APIs or manual processes.
    • Support for complex infrastructures: Design and configure both simple circuits and complex network topologies, including path analysis, computations, VLAN, and LAG assignments for Passive Optical Networks (PONs).
    • Enforcement of technology and process restrictions: Ensure compliance with network design standards during resource allocation.
    • Operational integration: Trigger workflows that coordinate purchase, installation, shipment, and instantiation when integrated with operational and business support systems.

    How it Works

    To use the design and assign function, customers first define inventory models, model relationships, templates, and template relationships that set design criteria. The ServiceNow AI Platform then generates an automated workflow to instantiate the network inventory. Inventory template or catalog managers create the necessary models, relationships, and templates. Inventory agents create change requests and tasks to instantiate network assets, resulting in network inventory records that reflect the defined structural relationships.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Build and expand network services efficiently with accurate resource allocation and automated workflows.
    • Maintain consistency in network design by enforcing provider business rules and technology restrictions.
    • Support complex network service topologies, including broadband GPON orders, through detailed modeling and design.
    • Seamlessly integrate inventory instantiation with operational workflows to manage physical asset deployment.

    With the design and assign function, you can build a digital representation of your network inventories and your network service in the Telecommunications Network Inventory application.

    Design and assign overview

    By using the design and assign function, you perform inventory tasks sequentially or in parallel to set a network design criteria that initiate s change workflows. With these workflows, you can assign inventory resources and instantiate your network inventory. You can also perform the design and assign function with the information that you collected from the customer orders.

    When you perform the design and assign function in the Telecommunications Network Inventory application, you use the standard processes from the Change Management and Workflow Studio applications. Create a change request enables you to instantiate the network inventory resources to support your network service topologies. It helps you efficiently build new network capacity with accurate resource allocation. You can also automate workflows to create and expand your network service.

    You can design and configure both simple circuits and a complex network infrastructure. You can then perform path analysis and computations for your network assignments​. You can also apply virtual local area network (VLAN) and link aggregation group (LAG) assignment rules for Passive Optical Networks (PONs). By using the design and assign function, you enforce technology and process restrictions as you design and allocate your network resources.

    Design and assign workflow

    Design and assign process

    Before you start the design and assign function, you define the models, model relationships, templates, and template relationships for your design criteria. Then the ServiceNow AI Platform generates an automated workflow that performs all the tasks that are required to instantiate a network inventory.

    As an inventory template or catalog manager, you can do the following tasks to instantiate your network inventory:
    1. Create the inventory models. You create an inventory model to track the technical information from the manufacturer about a network asset. When you instantiate an inventory record, your inventory record contains this standard manufacturer information. To learn more, see Create inventory models.
    2. Create the model relationship. The model relationship captures the relationships between the inventory models. To learn more, see Modeling network inventory relationships.
    3. Create the inventory template. You create the network inventory template that contains the business guidance rules from a telecommunications provider. To learn more, see Create inventory template for network asset instantiation.
    You can then instantiate a new network inventory record by using the change management workflow to fulfill the network designs. As an inventory agent, you perform the following tasks:
    1. Create the change request with the change model. To learn more, see Create a change request from Network Inventory Workspace.
    2. Create the change tasks from the change request. The network asset instantiation takes place using an Application programming interface (API) or change task that you create from the change request. To learn more, see Create and execute a change task.
    When you complete the task, the following processing takes place:
    • A network inventory record is generated. The record is based on the same structural relationships that you defined for the inventory templates and associated inventory models. The configured item consists of your inventory model and all the related inventory models.
    • If you integrate with other operational and business support systems, the process triggers an internal workflow. This workflow completes the purchase, installation, shipment, and instantiation of your network asset at the designated site. This internal workflow is based on the individual tasks or lists of tasks that are associated with the inventory model in Workflow Studio.

    Instantiation example

    You can create a set of network inventory records to fulfill an order request for Gigabyte Passive Optical Networks (GPON) broadband by using the design and assign function.