Executive summary
Contracts sit at the center of how manufacturers buy, build, and operate. Yet many organizations treat every contract the same, whether it’s a supplier Master Services Agreement (MSA) or a maintenance agreement for a robot. On ServiceNow, you can manage both kinds of contracts, but not with the exact same tools.
This paper explains, in simple terms, the difference between Contract Management Pro (for managing the process of contracting) and ITSM/ITAM Contract Management (for managing the operational coverage of assets and services). You’ll learn how they complement each other, what they share under the hood, and how to choose the right starting point.
if you need one-single‑line differentiator think of this: Contract Management Pro manages contracting; ITSM/ITAM Contract Management manages contracts in operations.
Why this matters in manufacturing
- Production uptime depends on the right maintenance and support being in place at the right time.
- Cost and risk hinge on the language locked inside your supplier agreements.
- Legal and procurement measure success by cycle time and risk posture; IT/OT measure success by coverage, renewals, and service performance.
- When these worlds don’t meet, you get missed auto‑renewals, untracked obligations, audit headaches, and plant downtime.
Good news: ServiceNow supports both sides and they can work together.
Two different jobs to be done
Job 1: Manage contracting (Legal/Procurement)
- Draft contracts from templates and clause libraries.
- Negotiate redlines safely with version control.
- Approve using guided workflows and playbooks.
- Send for e‑signature and track status.
- Record obligations, milestones, and renewal terms.
Tool: Contract Management Pro (CM Pro).
Job 2: Manage contracts in operations (IT/OT/ITAM)
- Track start/end dates, SLAs, warranties, and costs.
- Link contracts to assets (robots, CNC machines), services, and software entitlements.
- Raise renewal tasks, plan change windows and prove coverage.
Tool: ITSM/ITAM Contract Management (CM).
What they share: a common backbone
Both solutions center on the ast_contract table, the base record for contracts on the platform. Think of ast_contract as the “contract folder” everyone can open.
- Pro adds templates, clauses, negotiation history, approvals, signatures, obligations.
- ITSM/ITAM adds relationships to assets/services/CIs, renewal tasks, entitlement checks, operational SLAs.
Let’s go through some real examples
Scenario A: Supplier MSA + SOW (Persona: CPO/GC)
- Their need: Standardize liability and quality language; shorten cycle time before a new plant ramp‑up.
- What Flow to use: CM Pro template → guided clause choices → negotiate safely → e‑sign → publish to ast_contract → obligations (e.g., quality audits) create tasks.
- What’s the Value: Faster, safer deals; auditable trail.
Scenario B — Robotics maintenance roll‑up (Persona: CIO/ITAM)
- Their Need: Dozens of vendor contracts for robots and PLCs with different dates and SLAs.
- What Flow to use: Import into ast_contract → link each contract to the right assets/services → schedule renewals and change windows → prove coverage.
- What’s the Value: Protected uptime; fewer surprise lapses.
Capability snapshots
Choosing where to start
Use this quick guide to pick your first step, knowing you can adopt both.
Start with Contract Management Pro if:
- Most pain is in drafting/negotiation/approvals and risk.
- You lack standard language or audit trails.
- Stakeholders complain about slow contracting and missed obligation tracking.
Start with #ITSM/ITAM Contract Management if
- Most pain is renewals, coverage, and asset/service linkage.
- Contracts exist but live in PDFs and spreadsheets.
- Plants experience outages from lapsed maintenance or warranties.
In the long term, the best choice is to use CM Pro upstream and ITSM/ITAM downstream, publishing to the same ast_contract record.
How coexistence works
- Author & approve in CM Pro: when a contract becomes Active, the system writes the key facts to ast_contract.
- Link in ITSM/ITAM: assets/services/entitlements point to that ast_contract record.
- Operate and renew: ITSM/ITAM raises tasks and change windows ahead of renewals; CM Pro manages amendments and new versions.
- Stay in sync: e‑signature status, obligation milestones, and renewal dates are visible where each team works.
Rule of thumb: CM Pro (the contract team) owns legal terms; IT/OT owns operational links. Everyone sees the same contract.
In the end you don’t have to overcomplicate your process. Start with the side of the problem that hurts most, whether it is the slow, risky contracting or messy operational coverage, then connect the dots on a shared contract record.
