Best practices for HAM purchasing workflow with external system (Coupa)

[Robert _ysakows]

We're approaching HAM Pro implementation and one of the early decisions is how to approach purchasing. We will use external system to create PO (Coupa). We want to capture the asset in HAM as soon as possible, preferable once PO has been acknowledged and vendor can provide us the asset data. Have a couple of questions to that:

1. Do we need to create PO in ServiceNow to be able to create assets prior the delivery? All we want is to capture that assets are 'on order'.

2. Are there any disadvantages of not creating the PO in ServiceNow? Since we will use Coupa to manage this piece I am wondering if having a duplicate PO in ServiceNow brings any benefits.

3. Have anyone integrated creation of POs in external system with ServiceNow and can share experience?

4. If we do not create a PO in ServiceNow, can we use ASN to create 'on order' assets prior the receipt?

thanks,

Robert

[Ashok Sasidhara]

Advanced shipping notification (ASN) is the recommended method for creating assets before delivery from the vendor. You need to provide the ASN template to the vendor while or after placing the order and once they provide the template filled with the details of assets, it can be used to create assets before delivery.  This is explained in the following URL:

https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/utah-it-asset-management/page/product/hardware-asset-management/t...

Purchase order is not a mandatory field for asset records and so it is fine to not populate it. But from a HAM process best practices perspective, it is recommended to capture the PO details in ServiceNow for better tracking & reporting of asset purchase information. Also some asset fields like vendor and acquisition method are populated based on the information present in the purchase order. 

So I would suggest to integrate your external procurement system Coupa with ServiceNow. Following is the URL to the store app for this integration:

https://store.servicenow.com/sn_appstore_store.do#!/store/application/6bc356601b9e1101cf85dd75dd6abe...

[Robert _ysakows]

Thanks for the reply and suggestions. Have more questions though:

1. The ASN creates assets in 'in transit' state - how do we capture 'on order' state with this workflow? Is it a recommended flow to skip 'on order' lifecycle stage and go directly to 'in transit'?

2. The Coupa connector is for SAM which is not what we're implementing. Do you know if there is a version for HAM module?

Robert

[Ashok Sasidhara · Accepted solution]

If you are making use of ASN, it should be fine to create assets in 'in transit' state as per OOB behavior. The main objective is just to create assets before they arrive so that it is easier to validate the list of assets and their specifications while receiving them. The skipping of 'on order' state should not have any impact as such.

I also noticed that the description of the Coupa connector mentions SAM only. But it seems strange if they are considering only software assets without including hardware purchases. I would suggest to raise a hi-ticket to clarify this with ServiceNow.