Using Process Automation Designer to Configure Sequential Fulfillment of catalog Items in Order Guides

Using Process Automation Designer to Configure Sequential Fulfillment of catalog Items in Order Guides

Process Automation Designer in ServiceNow is like a digital tool that helps businesses create and manage their work processes. It’s kind of like a map where you can see all the steps of a task or project laid out visually. This tool lets you automate these steps so that things happen automatically, saving time and reducing mistakes. It’s useful because it works with other software too, making everything run smoothly together.

For more detailed information, you can read more about it here.

A catalog item in ServiceNow refers to a predefined service or product that users can request through the Service Catalog. It represents a specific offering available to users within an organization, such as software applications, hardware requests, access requests, or service requests like HR services or facilities management. Catalog items are designed to standardize and streamline the request process, ensuring that users can easily find, request, and track the services or products they need.

An Order Guide in ServiceNow is a structured tool designed to simplify the process of requesting items or services from a catalog. It guides users through a step-by-step interface, helping them select and configure items based on their needs. This approach breaks down complex requests into manageable steps, ensuring users can make informed choices without confusion. By standardizing the ordering process, organizations can enforce compliance with policies and improve efficiency in managing service requests.

use case:

In an Order Guide within ServiceNow, users can submit requests for multiple items simultaneously. While individual requests can often proceed independently and in parallel, there are scenarios where dependencies exist. These dependencies necessitate a sequential fulfillment approach, ensuring that certain items are fulfilled before their dependent counterparts.

With Order Guide sequencing in the Process Automation Designer, administrators can configure these sequences, ensuring that requests are processed in the correct order to meet dependencies and optimize the fulfillment process efficiently.

Solution:

In our example, we will create a new hire order guide with catalog items for onboarding an employee. First the new hire is assigned a laptop based on their role only then their corporate vpn can be created after the vpn is created their desk can be setup with external monitor , however the user ad account can be setup any time during the process before the email account is created let see how we can create this process using the sequence

we will be using the OOTB new hire order guide with demo data which we will customize for the our needs
in our rule base we will have 7 catalog items Standard Laptop , Developer Laptop (Mac) , Standard 27″ Monitor , Active Directory Creation , New Email Account , Corp VPN , Desk Set Up

Now We need to install Order Guide Sequential Fulfillment plugin once done a generate sequence ui action button will appear in the order guide

Navigate to the new hire order guide and locate the ‘Generate Sequence’ button at the top. Click on it, then enter your desired name. A new tab will automatically open

You will see lane 1 with all the catalog items in that lane ,we would add 3 lane with names vpn , desk setup , ad & email and sequence them as below image.

each lane has the when to start condition set as AFTER PREVIOUS by default, To view it click on configure lane then a edit lane properties tab will open

click on the Configure lane for the AD & email, We will add the condition for AD & email lane to start immediately.

 

Now click on the fulfill the new email account and add when to start as after previous so the email account only start when the active directory creation is complete

once done click on activate

Now lets request the new hire order guide from the service portal fill the required details and request the order guide

Once done the requested order will fall under the approval
Once approved by the approver the catalog item will using the process sequence we created earlier

The fulfillment stage began for the standard laptop because it’s in the first lane in process sequence.
However, Active Directory creation being in the last lane started immediately due to our condition for the AD & email lane. Consequently, the fulfillment stage for setting up new email accounts will begin only after Active Directory creation is complete. The VPN fulfillment will start once the standard laptop has been completed & The desk setup fulfillment will start once the VPN setup is finished.