Difference between Asset and Sold Product in CSM

[SwarnadeepNandy]

I am trying to figure out the difference between Asset and Sold Product. Or what is the relationship between Asset and Sold Product. When to use Asset and when to use Sold Product. Where should the assigned product be stored?

Where should the case be raised on? How the BOM should be mapped, either in Assets or Sold Products?

More in-depth insight will be really helpful, maybe with an example (if possible not the Boxeo dev, qa and prod example Or Sold Product is only meant for SAAS products).

Thanks & Regards,

Swarnadeep Nandy

[SwarnadeepNandy]

Hi Stijn,

My sincerest apologies for delay in response.

CFS - Customer Facing Service

CustomerFacingService is one that is obtained as a Product by a Customer

RFS - Resource Facing Service

A Service that is indirectly part of a Product, but is invisible to the Customer – it exists to support one or more CustomerFacingServices

My bad here about mentioning the acronyms. I think these terminologies are mostly telecom specific.

Regards,

Swarnadeep Nandy

[Stijn Verhulst1]

No problem Swarnadeep!

In your situation the CFS would be a Sold Product, related to a customer (Account) and represented by a Product Model (Product). The CFS Sold Product would contain one or multiple Install Base Items, representing the CFS Business Service CIs that are being managed by your internal IT teams from an operational point of view for any customer you have. This way you're building the bridge between the good (CFS) you're officially selling and supporting to those B2B customers handled by CSM, while linking it all to IT Operations handled by ITSM.

As for RFS, I wouldn't model this as an actual Sold Product or Product (Model) given the context it is invisible for a customer nor is it sold to them. Instead, this is a supporting service hidden in the background the customer is not aware of at all, no? Then it would imply it's a technical or business service that would be represented as a Business Service or Technical Service CI linked to the CFS Business Service CI in the CMDB you created earlier (and made available as an Install Base Item to the Sold Product for customer facing cases), but not exposed or contained by any Sold Product.

Assets are not applicable in your case as it concerns only services being sold to the customer instead of installed equipment - software at the customer premises or licenses. Though internal tracking of Asset Management is still an option from a financial point of view: example; what are the costs (operational and expense) made for the business services? Yet, internal Asset Management is an entirely different topic 😉

Please correct me if I'm wrong with my interpretation of the services here. Does this help?

Warmest regards,

Stijn

[SwarnadeepNandy]

Hi Stijn,

Yes this was definitely helpful and this was the kind of the specific details I was actually looking for.

In our case we have assets as well.

One part of it was the Customer facing details. Then comes the 2nd part where the items will be procured from the vendors. So we have partly vendor management as well. So for that part we are creating assets as well.

We would be running back to back SLAs, like a case raised by a customer, will also create a work order towards actual vendor who has supplied the item. So we will have SLA towards Customer and OLA towards Vendors.

Thanks,

Swarnadeep Nandy

[Flavia Margaret]

Hi @Stijn Verhulst1, I have a scenario in which a software (e.g. Docuware) is installed in a printer that is sold to the customer. How should I store this in regards with sold product, install base item or asset? TIA!

[Stijn Verhulst1]

Hi @Flavia Margaret,

First of all, you'll need to create a Sold Product for the printer that is sold to the customer.

Using the Install Base data model, an Install Base Item should be created for any IT and non-IT (!) product/service that is deployed for or at the customer (the non-IT aspect is new since the original post I've made here as ServiceNow's CSM product grew and improved). Thus, you would have an Install Base Item record named for example "printer".

This Install Base Item record:

• Must be related to the printer Sold Product record as an Installed Product (= an Install Base Item is an instance of (sold) product)
• Must be related to a separate Configuration Item (which must be defined on the Install Base Item form) IF you intend to use for example ITSM processes for the printer (the Install Base Item is used solely by CSM processes as in Case)
• Would have a Child Install Base Item (as in a hierarchy managed with the respective related list on the Install Base Item form) for the installed software. Also for this software you'd make use of a related Configuration Item to track its technical details relevant for technology processes such as the ITSM ones.

If you make use of Asset Management on the Now Platform, and it involves the printers, I do recommend storing financial, warranty, etc. information, which characterizes the nature of an asset in business, in a separate Asset record. With the latest 2 (or 3) releases, Assets can also be directly related to an Install Base Item record using the latter's form.

Hope this helps and makes sense!