Business Applications

[nilssonim]

Hi!

Is it recommended to only have one record of a Business Application in an organization (Group) och can you have several?

We have different installations of the same software in differing BU's and the criticatlity can be different between the BU's aswell.

Thanks for any help to clarifying how to handle this.

[G Ponsekar · Accepted solution]

Hi @nilssonim ,

Yes, it is recommended to have only one record for a Business Application. In your case, where the same software has different installations and varying criticality across business units, the best practice is to represent these instances using Application Services, which are child records of the Business Application.

This approach avoids data duplication and provides a single, central source of truth for the base application while still allowing you to manage the specific characteristics of each unique deployment.

If I could help you with your Query then, please hit the Thumb Icon and mark as Correct !!

Thanks, GP

[Damhoej · Accepted solution]

You should only have one record for a Business Application.
The deployment of the Business Application is done through Service Instances (formerly known as Apllication Services). The Service Instance can be mapped out of your need.
So if you have Business Application A, and have deployed the BA in DEV, TEST and PROD environment you can further "deploy" the PROD into local (geograpihical) deployments.
So the map will show BA "A" has 3 Service Instances (DEV, TEST and PROD) and PROD have 4 child Service Instances (North, West, South and East) and each of the 4 Service Instances are covered by different BU.
You create the Service Instances in the Service Instance UI (found under CSDM menu) where you can select BA, Offerings and parent Service Instances.
You can get further help here: https://learning.servicenow.com/nowcreate?id=nc_asset&asset_id=90b0eaca879dae106838fd16dabb3502&nc_s...

[Shashank_Jain · Accepted solution]

@nilssonim ,

• One Business Application per software (like SAP Finance, Salesforce, Oracle ERP).

• Use Application Services to show different BU installations and their importance.

• Only split into multiple Business Applications if BU’s are truly running them as totally separate systems.

• How to handle different BU setups

• If SAP Finance is installed separately for BU1 and BU2:

  • Still keep one Business Application = SAP Finance.

  • Create Application Services for each BU installation:

    • SAP Finance – BU1

    • SAP Finance – BU2

• Each service can have its own servers, databases, and criticality.

When to create multiple Business Applications

• Only if BU’s run the same software completely independently, with:

  • Different owners

  • Different governance or cost centers

• Example: BU1 has their own licensing, own admins, own governance.

  • Then you could have two Business Applications:

    • SAP Finance – BU1

    • SAP Finance – BU2

• But this is not common and usually makes CMDB harder to manage

Note - 

• One Business Application = one piece of software (example: SAP Finance).

• You don’t create a new record just because it’s used by different business units (BU’s).

Hope it helps!

[G Ponsekar · Accepted solution]

Hi @nilssonim ,

Yes, it is recommended to have only one record for a Business Application. In your case, where the same software has different installations and varying criticality across business units, the best practice is to represent these instances using Application Services, which are child records of the Business Application.

This approach avoids data duplication and provides a single, central source of truth for the base application while still allowing you to manage the specific characteristics of each unique deployment.

If I could help you with your Query then, please hit the Thumb Icon and mark as Correct !!

Thanks, GP

[Damhoej · Accepted solution]

You should only have one record for a Business Application.
The deployment of the Business Application is done through Service Instances (formerly known as Apllication Services). The Service Instance can be mapped out of your need.
So if you have Business Application A, and have deployed the BA in DEV, TEST and PROD environment you can further "deploy" the PROD into local (geograpihical) deployments.
So the map will show BA "A" has 3 Service Instances (DEV, TEST and PROD) and PROD have 4 child Service Instances (North, West, South and East) and each of the 4 Service Instances are covered by different BU.
You create the Service Instances in the Service Instance UI (found under CSDM menu) where you can select BA, Offerings and parent Service Instances.
You can get further help here: https://learning.servicenow.com/nowcreate?id=nc_asset&asset_id=90b0eaca879dae106838fd16dabb3502&nc_s...

[Shashank_Jain · Accepted solution]

@nilssonim ,

• One Business Application per software (like SAP Finance, Salesforce, Oracle ERP).

• Use Application Services to show different BU installations and their importance.

• Only split into multiple Business Applications if BU’s are truly running them as totally separate systems.

• How to handle different BU setups

• If SAP Finance is installed separately for BU1 and BU2:

  • Still keep one Business Application = SAP Finance.

  • Create Application Services for each BU installation:

    • SAP Finance – BU1

    • SAP Finance – BU2

• Each service can have its own servers, databases, and criticality.

When to create multiple Business Applications

• Only if BU’s run the same software completely independently, with:

  • Different owners

  • Different governance or cost centers

• Example: BU1 has their own licensing, own admins, own governance.

  • Then you could have two Business Applications:

    • SAP Finance – BU1

    • SAP Finance – BU2

• But this is not common and usually makes CMDB harder to manage

Note - 

• One Business Application = one piece of software (example: SAP Finance).

• You don’t create a new record just because it’s used by different business units (BU’s).

Hope it helps!

[Shashank_Jain · Accepted solution]

@nilssonim ,

You can mark multiple solution as accepted. If this was helpful please mark it as accepted. That will be much appreciated.

Thank you!