License Management with ServiceNow Software Asset Management

ServiceNow SAM is a component of a broader set of practices known as IT Asset Management (ITAM). SAM focuses on managing software, while ITAM involves managing an organization's entire IT environment.

Software Asset Management is a license management system that is fully integrated with ServiceNow, can be easily connected with the applications already in use by ServiceNow and provides optimal management of software acquisition, usage and life cycle maintenance across an organization.

WHY organizations need sam

Organizations spend a great deal of time and resources managing software assets. This process is often done manually in spreadsheets and requires the use of multiple inventory and discovery tools. 

According to data from Enterprise Management Associates (2018), the average enterprise spends 15 hours each week resolving discrepancies between its IT assets, and twice that time collecting asset credentials in preparation for a major software audit. And as organizations purchase more and more software to support their business environment, these numbers will continue to increase.

SAM Key features

• License workbench for compliance and cost overviews 

SAM gives us a good way to display and classify costs within a dashboard. Cloud consumption (licensing and costs) can also be closely monitored through a consolidated overview to find opportunities for cost reduction.

• License management for Publisher Packs and SaaS

Publisher Packs and SaaS enable us to view the cloud licenses together with the software assets of our own infrastructure in a holistic report/dashboard without any effort. 

• Software Asset Connectors

ServiceNow SAM also provides us with the ability to connect third party vendors to our system. Even the systems for which no direct connector is available in the ServiceNow platform. 

• Forecasting for license changes

Since SAM is also involved in the IT change process, we can plan the changes and get forecasts with the upcoming costs.

With these features, SAM also provides many useful functions such as: 

• Discovery

ServiceNow offers an integrated discovery function in which SAM is embedded. The advantage here is that as soon as Discovery is used, SAM that is brought in later can immediately access the existing data in the CMDB.

• HR Asset Onboarding

This results in a synergy of the onboarding process with plannable software usage costs that arise from employees joining or leaving the company. In this way, license management can also show exactly which license costs are to be planned for in the future. 

• Software Vulnerabilities Assessment

SAM can support us in security issues related to software. With the help of the National Vulnerability Database, we are able to identify risky software. The assessment is then displayed accordingly in the dashboards.

• Life cycle content

Here, the responsible manager is informed by the SAM whether a software product used in a company is end-of-service or even end-of-life. With this function, ad-hoc software changes can be avoided and a regulated and planned software change procedure can be established. 

EFfort for the implementation of SOftware Asset management 

The first thing that is necessary for an implementation is a good data quality of the CMDB. This is where time really needs to be invested, because data that is not well organized can lead to problems and significant delays in the project.

A big help is that most of the functions of SAM are already technically integrated and only need to be activated. However, one must not overlook the need for coordination in the "technical" and "process" interfaces. After all, the implementation of SAM is an extension of already existing processes in ServiceNow, which means that the interests of all stakeholders must be taken into account.

Non-existing data, such as asset or contract data, can be initially generated through imports.

The rule of thumb for a successful SAM implementation is to perform an implementation step by step and to take care to orientate yourself as close as possible to the integrated, predefined functionalities of SAM.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO GET MORE INSIGHTS INTO THE TOPIC FROM OUR EXPERTS?

Then watch our on-demand webinar "Licensemanagement with ServiceNow Asset Management", available for free upon registration.