External routing overview

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated August 1, 2024
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of External routing overview

    External routing in ServiceNow Advanced Work Assignment (AWA) enables work items to be routed to external queues based on service channel and queue conditions. The assignment of these work items is then managed by a third-party system, such as a contact-center-as-a-service (CCaaS) provider, rather than internally within ServiceNow.

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    This approach allows integration with external contact center solutions that handle agent assignment decisions, while ServiceNow tracks and presents the work items to agents.

    Process Flow

    • Work items enter queues in a "queued" but unassigned state.
    • Work items may expire if a maximum wait time (Max timeout) is configured.
    • The external system polls queued work items using the Work Item Table API.
    • Agent availability is checked via the AWA Agent API before assignment.
    • The external system assigns work items to agents using the AWA Assignment API.
    • Agents receive inbox cards showing the assigned work items.

    Key Configuration Details

    • Queues configured for external routing do not support Assignment Eligibility Groups.
    • Work items remain in the queue with "queued" status until assigned by the external system or when the queue’s max wait time elapses.
    • Several related lists (e.g., assignment eligibility, scheduling, group priorities) are hidden and not used in external routing queues.

    Essential APIs for External Routing

    • AWA Assignment API: Allows the external system to assign work items to agents.
    • Work Item Table API: Enables external system to query queued work items.
    • AWA Agent API: Supports validation of agent availability before assignment.

    Functionality of AWA Components with External Routing

    • Agent Components Used: Agent availability, Accept button, Reject button with reasons, and capacity usage indicators (though capacity is not enforced).
    • Agent Components Not Used: Maximum agent or universal capacity limits.
    • Service Channel Components Used: Channel advanced conditions, inbox layouts, queue order, and assignment group fields.
    • Service Channel Components Not Used: Capacity and utilization features, capacity overrides.
    • Queue Components Used: Max wait time to expire items, routing conditions, queue order, and agent presence checks during assignment API calls.
    • Queue Components Not Used: Queue schedules, assignment eligibility and rules, work item sort order, agent affinity, and group queue priorities.

    External Routing Enhancements

    • Enables integration with third-party CCaaS providers for agent assignment decisions.
    • Supports sending events to external providers about work item and agent status.
    • Improves logging and performance for external routing scenarios.
    • Provides enhanced inbox card experience, including Reject and Accept buttons, time-out display, and presence state changes.
    • Supports auto-assign behavior, either immediately assigning or presenting the item in the inbox depending on settings.

    Implementation Steps for External Routing

    • Create a Connection Alias in ServiceNow to connect with the third-party provider.
    • Create a custom flow action and subflow in Workflow Studio to enable external routing logic.
    • Define a payload format to communicate work item details and events to the external system.
    • Link the subflow and payload to the external queues to complete routing configuration.
    • Configure Advanced Work Assignment to enable external routing for specific queues.
    • Set up external routing events and payloads using the AWA External Service API to allow third-party providers to submit assignment events.
    • Use the External Routing Test Tools plugin to perform test implementations and validate configuration.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    By leveraging external routing, customers can seamlessly integrate ServiceNow with external contact center systems, allowing third-party providers to control agent assignments while maintaining visibility and control over work items within ServiceNow. This enables enhanced flexibility in managing complex agent workflows, improves assignment accuracy, and supports richer agent inbox experiences.

    External routing also reduces internal queue management overhead by delegating assignment logic externally, while still providing critical agent status and work item updates back into ServiceNow for tracking and reporting.

    External Routing involves routing to external queue based on the service channel and queue conditions, and then the assignment is completed by the third-party system.

    Process flow

    This is how the work items are processed when using external routing:
    1. Work items are routed to the queue in a queued state but are unassigned. Work items expire if the Max timeout is set.
    2. External solution looks for work items in queued state by the Work Item Table API.
    3. External solution looks for agent availability vi the AWA Agent API before assigning to agent.
    4. The external solution uses the AWA Assignment API to assign the work items to the agent.
    5. The agent sees an inbox card.
    When Advanced Work Assignment is configured to use external routing:
    • Queues do not allow to have Assignment Eligibility Groups defined.
    • Work items remain in the queue with a "queued" status until the external system assigns the work item or the queue maximum wait time elapses.
    • Related lists are displayed on the Queues screen.
    These APIs are required for external routing:
    • AWA Assignment API to support the external routing system to assign work items. For information on AWA Assignment API, see AWA Assignment API .
    • Work item table API (awa_work_item) to look up the queued work items waiting for assignment. For information on table API, see Table API.
    • AWA Agent API if the external solution requires validation of agent availability within Workspace before assignment. For more information on the AWA Agent API, see AWA Agent API.

    Functionality of AWA components

    When external routing is enabled, the AWA components provide these capabilities:

    Agent
    • Components utilized
      • Agent availability
      • Accept button
      • Agent capacity in use (Service channel capacity) increases but is not utilized against the max capacity of service channel
      • Agent universal capacity in use increases but is not utilized against the max universal capacity
      • Reject button with rejection reasons: The Reject button is used when configured in the manual assignment API. If the reject button is enabled (allowed_to_decline=true parameter in assignment API request), then the rejection reasons are supported.
    • Components not utilized
      • Max agent capacity
      • Max universal capacity
    Service channel
    • Components utilized
      • Channel advanced condition
      • Inbox layouts
      • Queue order
      • Assign to and assignment group fields
    • Components not utilized
      • Capacity and utilization features
      • Agent capacity overrides
      • Work item override
    Queue
    • Components utilized
      • Max wait time will expire work items if set on queue
      • Work item routing conditions
      • Queue order
      • Queue agents' presence checks: Agent's presence is checked during the assignment API request processing.
    • Components not utilized
      • Work items remain in the queue with a status of "queued" until the external system routes the work item
      • Queue schedules
      • The following related lists are hidden on the queue since they are not utilized:
        • Assignment eligibility and rules
        • Work item sort order
        • Agent Affinity
        • Agent assignments
        • Group queue priorities
        • Work items

    Functionality of External routing in AWA

    External routing enables AWA to integrate with third-party contact-center-as-a-service (CCaaS) providers. When the external provider has made an assignment decision, the work item gets assigned utilizing the existing AWA Assignment API.

    External Routing can
    • Send events to keep providers informed about the work item and agent status.
    • Enhance the assignment API to handle provider-initiated work items.
    • Track and offer contact center work items, while outsourcing agent selection to the contact center.
    When Advanced Work Assignment is configured for external routing:
    • AWA provides additional parameters for an Inbox experience.
    • AWA provides additional logging and performance improvements.
    • The Inbox card is presented to the Agent with both the Reject and Accept buttons when Auto-accept is false.
    • The Inbox card shows the Time-out value to Agent. If auto-assign is true, this field is ignored, when the Time-out value of the Work Item is greater than 0.
    • The presence state of the agent switches to the specified presence state. If auto-assign is true OR no timeout is passed in, this field is ignored.
    • The work item is immediately assigned to Accept, when the Auto-assign value is true.
    • The auto-assigned work item is either displayed as an Inbox card, or both Inbox card and workspace tab. If the auto-assign value is false, this field is ignored.