Modelling 3rd Party Service providers in the CMDB

[Rob Barnett]

How are folks modelling internal Technical Services which have a dependency on an external service provider -

e.g. an internal team managing/configuring/supporting Mainframe and having Technical Service and Service offerings but also a Service provided by IBM to support.

Or

an internal team managing/configuring/supporting Public Cloud and having Technical Service and Service offerings but also dependent on the services provided by Microsoft or Amazon etc.

I ask as the EU DORA requirement specifies Complete inventory of your entire IT Provider ecosystem - including 3rd party service providers

[Jacques Clement]

Nope unfortunately, I never managed to think of a proper construct for this scenario. I believe ServiceNow's rationale is that from a consumer perspective (business or technical), only one offering matters. Should other teams/offerings be involved, then they are simply underpinning contracts.

Just my 2 cents, it could come from a completely different perspective. Hopefully one day this will be covered by one of their videos.

Warm regards.

[Andy H]

Hi Rob, how are you? The challenge you describe is exactly what I am trying to solution. I have looked at a number of ways of doing this but really wanted to a steer from ServiceNow on exactly how to use the data model to achieve it. Initially I modelled the Suppliers as Technical Services and then created Offerings for each contract/service the supplier provides. I was using the Company attribute to describe the difference i.e. those with a Company populated are 'external/supplier services'. Although this would work (not just my opinion, I have spoken to a few people within ServiceNow), I am also considering whether it would be better to create a new service class which on the face of it, would be a simpler solution. It may also allow us to easily migrate the data when/if SN come up with a specific model to meet this need.

[Stig Brandt]

hi Andy

Fully agree, Exactly what I suggest, though maybe not as clear as you describe it:

You then have 2-3 offerings/level (different contracts/vendors)😊

Cheers

Stig

[Daniel Vinterda]

Hi,

I do not have a sandbox instance in front of me but I know earlier versions of the platform had a Contract Data Model with ast_service (Service Contract) related to ast_contract (Contract).  A Contract have relation to CI meaning that you can have relation to a CI of class Service. So if I am right you can easily add an attribute noting that a Service Contract is External and the related Contract(s) are External and you can set up a Service that you mark as external (or just get that from the related External contract) . Then you have what DORA requires and more since you will add an Service offering to the Service (Tech or Bus) stating the exact Commitments (targets). The comitments stated in the contract. 
A general advice I have is to use the schema view and search for ‘contract’ . Requires admin rights. Set up a sandbox if you do not have it at your dev/test. I have read the replies so far.  With kindness, I advice against morphing an entity and use it to what it is not intended. A table knife can be used as a flat screw driver, but it will in the end cause problems. I have in the past caused myself some overtime by doing so.

Kind regards,

Daniel

[Stig Brandt]

Hi Daniel

Fully agree, that was what i tried to explain, using ootb features:

You then have 2-3 offerings/level (different contracts/vendors)😊