Hardware Asset Inventory

[Koki Sugimori]

I would like to conduct a hardware asset inventory using ServiceNow.
This primarily involves taking inventory of the PCs, tablets, and mobile devices used within the company.

There is an option called “Inventory > Asset Audit” in the Hardware Assets workspace. Is this the feature I should use to conduct the inventory?

Please also let me know if there are any other out-of-the-box (OOTB) features that can be used to perform the inventory.

Thank you in advance.

[Bill Martin]

Just a couple of things worth adding.

On Asset Audit — the thing to keep in mind is the single vs. multi-scan choice really depends on volume. If you're just checking a handful of high-value machines, single scan is fine. But for a stockroom count or an end-of-lease batch, multi-scan saves you a ton of time since you can scan a whole shelf and reconcile in one go. We use multi-scan for the warehouse and single scan only for spot checks.

On your re-verification question — yes, you can run attestation on a schedule rather than as a one-off. Most people I've seen set it to run once a year, or line it up with whatever their audit calendar is. So it's not manual every time; you just set the cadence.

And the [No] remediation flow — that's the part I'd actually pay the most attention to. When someone says they don't have their assigned asset, don't treat that as just a data fix. That's really a "possible lost/stolen device" signal, and it's worth logging it that way so you've got the trail later if audit ever asks. The task gets generated automatically, but what you do with it is where the real value is.

One quick distinction that helped me keep these straight: Audit answers "is the thing physically here?" and Attestation answers "does the person still actually have it?" Different questions, and honestly you want both running if you've got remote staff.

Docs on the audit feature if you want the OOTB details: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/it-asset-management/hardware-asset-management/ham-inventory-audit....

Hope that helps.

[Koki Sugimori]

@Bill Martin 

Thank you.

I’d like to clarify one point.
I believe that when a remediation task is closed, the asset’s status changes to “Stolen/Lost.”
If the investigation reveals that the asset has been found, do we update the asset first and then close the task?

Or do we close the task first and then update the asset?

I’m concerned, however, that closing the task will change the asset’s status to “Stolen/Lost.”　

[Bill Martin]

Hi @Koki Sugimori ,

Good question. I'd check the HAM Process Guide on this one rather than have me guess at the exact status behavior, it covers the audit/remediation flow and how the states are supposed to work:

https://mynow.servicenow.com/now/best-practices/assets/hardware-asset-management-process-guide

Should answer the Stolen/Lost concern.

Let me know if it's still murky after that.

Bill

[Koki Sugimori]

@Bill Martin 

Thank you.

I’ll take a look at the HAM Process Guide.

I have another question on a different matter—would that be okay?

I understand that in Hardware Asset Workspace > Inventory > Asset Audits, once the status of an Asset Audit changes to “Complete,” the audit results are displayed.

View audit results

I tried this in the demo instance, but the audit results did not appear.

Do you know anything about this?

Thank you in advance.

[Bill Martin]

This is a very good documentation source and it provides the official ServiceNow configuration.

Assuming you have followed all the steps correctly, it could be an instance-specific problem.

In that case, you can raise a support ticket. Just make sure you have access to the demo instance dashboard so you're able to raise a case.