External routing overview

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of External Routing Overview

    External routing in ServiceNow’s Advanced Work Assignment (AWA) enables integration with third-party contact-center-as-a-service (CCaaS) providers by routing work items to an external queue based on service channel and queue conditions. The external system then takes responsibility for assigning work items to agents. This approach allows organizations to outsource agent selection while maintaining tracking and management of work items within ServiceNow.

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    Process Flow and Key Mechanisms

    • Work items enter queues in a "queued" but unassigned state.
    • Work items can expire if a maximum wait time is configured on the queue.
    • The external system uses the Work Item Table API to retrieve queued work items.
    • Agent availability is validated via the AWA Agent API before assignment.
    • Assignments are completed by the external system using the AWA Assignment API.
    • Agents receive Inbox cards displaying assigned work items with Accept and Reject options depending on configuration.

    Key Features and Configuration Notes

    • Queue behavior: Queues cannot have Assignment Eligibility Groups defined; work items remain queued until assigned externally or timeout occurs.
    • APIs required: AWA Assignment API, Work Item Table API, and optionally AWA Agent API for checking agent availability.
    • AWA components utilized: Agent availability, Accept button, capacity tracking (increases capacity usage but does not enforce max limits), channel conditions, inbox layouts, and queue order.
    • AWA components not utilized: Reject button (unless manually enabled), max agent/universal capacity limits, assignment group fields, presence checks at queue level, and several queue-related features such as assignment eligibility rules and agent affinity.
    • Agent experience: Inbox cards show timeout values and provide Accept/Reject buttons if auto-accept is disabled; auto-assigned work items bypass timeout and appear immediately.
    • Queue settings: Max wait time controls expiration of queued work items, and routing conditions and queue order remain active.

    Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Enables seamless integration of ServiceNow with external contact center platforms for routing and assignment.
    • Allows customers to maintain visibility and tracking of work items while leveraging third-party agent assignment capabilities.
    • Provides a flexible agent experience with configurable auto-accept and timeout behaviors.
    • Reduces complexity in queue management by disabling unused features and focusing on essential routing and assignment APIs.

    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 do not display at the bottom of 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
    • Components not utilized
      • 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.
      • Max agent capacity
      • Max universal capacity
    Service channel
    • Components utilized
      • Channel advanced condition
      • Inbox layouts
      • Queue order
    • Components not utilized
      • Assign to and assignment group fields
        These fields are used to:
        • Determine if a document should qualify for routing.
        • Determine which field to update once the work item is successfully assigned to an agent.
      • 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
    • Components not utilized
      • Queue agents' presence checks: Agent's presence is checked during the assignment API request processing.
      • 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.