CSDM and DPM with subsidaries
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10 hours ago
Hi everyone,
I’m looking for best practices on how to handle subsidiaries in a shared ServiceNow instance used by both the Group and its subsidiaries, without domain separation.
The subsidiaries purchase IT services from Group IT, and these services are governed by formal contracts. At the same time, the subsidiaries also operate their own IT services (IT Business Services), which have technical and business dependencies on Group IT services.
I have a couple of questions related to Service Portfolio Management / DPM:
1. Service Portfolio structure and taxonomy in DPM
How would you recommend structuring the service portfolio and taxonomy in DPM?
Should the Group maintain its own service portfolios, while each subsidiary (e.g. Denmark, Finland) has their own?
For example:
Sweden (Group) IT Service Portfolio
Denmark IT Service Portfolio
In this case, subsidiaries would not have visibility into the Group’s DPM portfolio, since they are effectively customers of Group IT.
Or is it better to have one (or more) common portfolios shared by the Group and all subsidiaries, with full transparency across all services?
What are the pros and cons you’ve seen in practice?
2. Dependencies between subsidiary services and Group services
How is it typically handled when subsidiaries have their own service offerings that depend on Group IT services?
Is it considered best practice to allow subsidiaries to create formal service dependencies to Group service offerings in DPM?
Or is it better to document the dependency via contracts (or only in text), given that there is a clear customer/vendor relationship?
One concern is that if formal dependencies are created:
Subsidiaries may gain visibility into incidents and changes related to Group services.
Some of those incidents or changes may not actually impact the subsidiary, which could cause confusion or unnecessary communication.
From a governance and transparency perspective, is it really good practice to expose that level of operational insight to customers — even if they are internal subsidiaries?
Historically, we have seen that having a clear line of visibility has been beneficial. But subsidaries are demanding more insight.
Looking forward to hearing how others have approached this and what has worked well in real-world implementations.
Thanks in advance!
