Operational Technology Manager use case

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated November 10, 2025
  • 5 minutes to read
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    Summary of Operational Technology Manager use case

    The Operational Technology (OT) Manager use case in ServiceNow’s Zurich release provides a comprehensive suite of applications designed to manage and optimize OT environments within industrial enterprises. It enables organizations to establish a strong data foundation for OT assets, manage their lifecycle, address vulnerabilities, handle incidents, and streamline change and request management processes. The solution integrates tightly with the Configuration Management Database (CMDB), Service Graph Connectors, Discovery applications, and the ServiceNow AI Platform, delivering unified visibility and control over OT infrastructure.

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    Key Features

    • Operational Technology Manager: Extends CMDB with OT-specific configuration item classes, restricts discovery access to OT roles, and imports OT device data via Service Graph connectors, enabling detailed OT device inventory and dependency visualization.
    • Industrial Process Manager: Uses ISA-95 equipment models to define and manage production process data and relationships, automatically mapping OT devices to equipment entities.
    • Operational Technology Vulnerability Response: Prioritizes and remediates OT device vulnerabilities based on production process criticality, assigns remediation tasks by site, and offers dashboards summarizing vulnerability status.
    • Operational Technology Incident Management: Allows quick resolution of OT incidents by categorizing them separately from IT incidents, facilitating focused handling of OT disruptions.
    • Operational Technology Change Management: Supports collaborative and digitized workflows for OT device and equipment configuration changes, integrates with incident and vulnerability response processes, and accommodates site-specific change workflows.
    • Operational Technology Knowledge Management: Enables capturing and managing OT-specific knowledge articles linked to incidents, improving information sharing and reducing miscommunication.
    • Operational Technology Request Management: Provides a centralized OT Service Catalog for submitting and tracking OT-related requests, enhancing transparency, efficiency, and cross-team collaboration.

    Key Outcomes

    • Gain comprehensive visibility into OT devices and their dependencies across industrial environments via dashboards and CMDB extensions.
    • Effectively manage OT device lifecycles and security by prioritizing vulnerability remediation according to production process criticality, ensuring site-level governance with role-based access control.
    • Resolve OT incidents faster by distinguishing OT issues from IT and managing them through dedicated processes.
    • Streamline OT change management with digitized workflows that align with operational needs and integrate with incident and vulnerability management.
    • Improve operational knowledge sharing through structured knowledge articles linked to OT incidents and processes.
    • Enhance request handling for OT products and services with a unified catalog, promoting efficiency and communication among OT teams and stakeholders.

    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.

    Key features
    • 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.
    Results
    With the Operational Technology Manager use case, you can:
    • 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.

    Key features

    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.
    Results

    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.

    Key features
    • 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.
    Results

    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.

    Key features

    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.

    Results

    Operational 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.

    Key features
    • 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.
    Results
    The following examples show how to apply Operational Technology Change Management to your organization:
    • 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.

    Key features
    • 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.
    Results

    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

    Operational Technology Request Management enables you to access the OT Service Catalog to request OT catalog items and fulfill them based on the defined flows. OT workers can then create and submit an OT request from a catalog item, which helps provide a consistent experience and facilitates cross-functional requests.
    Key features
    • 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.
    Results
    The following examples show how to apply  Operational Technology Request Management to your team:
    • 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.​