Auditing License usage

[jjarka]

I am relatively new to ServiceNow and have been asked to audit the number of licenses to see what we realistically need.   I used the Access role detail view and the user report that I created but have found some differences.   For example, in my report I looked to see who had either opened an active Incident, Req, or Change record and who had assigned Active Incident, Req or Change records.   The problem is there are some people who run reports and don't really update or open records at all. Then we have users who just approve change requests and don't create or work changes.  

Is there a report that I am missing that shows all activities by users, their roles, and maybe the frequency of usage?   I want to be able to run a report to see if those licenses we have purchased are truely needed or do we need to implement some processes for creating change records, or how many people can actually run reports.  

Thanks for your help.

[mgupta]

Hello Jeff,

I was in the similar situation few months ago and had to come up with some creative methods (increases administrative overheard though) to address these requirements. Just to add to the scenario, we had users with a process user license but wouldn't log on to the system for months. I implemented following changes:

1) We rolled out a service in service catalog which must be used to request process user license. All requests must go through approval process. It involves interaction with user and understanding as to why an elevated access is required. Most of the times its a straight forward decision.

2)   Use emails for capturing approvals/rejections. Notifications were configured with enough information to facilitate a decision

3) Promoted the use of watch list extensively.

4) Scheduled reports to be delivered to the inbox at a set frequency or build dashboards for the users.

5) Any process user who doesn't use the system for certain period of time (lets say 2 months), their access level is readjusted. It triggers a healthy conversation with the user to understand their true requirements.

My response may not be directly answering your reporting question but it may help you to introduce some process changes to manage your licenses properly.