How to manage product models and model categories effieciently?

[Allen_Deepak]

We are trying to establish a process for model management. We have following problems today with models which results in duplicate asset records and CIS

1. We need to avoid discovery creating duplicate models with different names. We need to ensure the new models while getting onboarded have proper checks.

2. What are all some of the processes we can follow for model management? 

3. We are not using Content services due to some security reasons. How to check models are normalized?

Thanks for your answer.

[Ashok Sasidhara]

The best method is to use HAM content service (if you have HAM pro) so that normalization happens for most of the models automatically. Is your security concern only about opting in to the content service and sending your data? If that is the only reason, it shouldn't matter as you do NOT have to send your data for receiving normalized model data for the models which are already present in the content service. i.e. There is no need to opt in for you to receive the content updates for normalization. Opting in is only for ServiceNow to receive data of unnormalized models (in a secure manner) from various customers so that they can refine their content service further to include more normalized models in future.

If the concern is something else or if you do not use HAM pro, check the field normalization feature given below which would involve more manual effort in configuring and maintaining:

https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/utah-platform-administration/page/administer/field-administration...

Another important consideration that will help in manual data load is to gather the names of the most common models used across your organization and then making sure that the model data is populated in a clean manner with a standardized name.