ServiceNow License Management Help

[Vance1]

Hello,

I have been looking through the Wiki and ServiceNow Community for the best way to view and manage ServiceNow License utilization but have not come across a "Best Practice" for how to do so.

• I found some very helpful threads that explain how to configure some report settings (Thread-1, Thread-2) but essentially they direct you to paste "javascript:gs.getRoledUsers()" into the sys id filter on the sys_user table tweak from there. Thread-1 had a nice speedometer built from the "sys_user_has_role" table, but neither of these options provide details about where the licenses are used internally like by department without additional data analysis.
• I found a thread that suggested the use of "System Usage" but the number of licensed users displayed here was different that what I get using the report method above.
• Finally, I came across something called "Subscription Management Application" that seems to be the most promising, except... Subscription data arrives on production instances only and the application will not be made available until Helsinki. How am I supposed to test this as a solution in my development instance if I am only able to access data in my production instance? It would be nice to know exactly how this application will be generating an accurate license count. A dedicated video about the intended usage of this application and demonstration would also be helpful. Will automation be built in? Can I have the system reclaim licenses based on specified criteria like no login within 6 months?

What I am looking for:

• The best, most accurate way to monitor ServiceNow License usage with visibility down to department and user at this point in time.
• I would like to know how license reporting works between ServiceNow and Us (company). It seems that ServiceNow must be monitoring our instance and bills us periodically based on this reporting mechanism. I would like to know how often ServiceNow counts our licenses used and what criteria is being used to generate that report so we can duplicate it for accurate planning.

Thanks to anyone who is able to help. I feel like something as important as License Management shouldn't be this difficult.

[snbrown]

Vance,

From a detailed reporting standpoint, your request is likely able to be handled more elegantly by Performance Analytics.   I have seen very nice looking and flexible reporting results, but I am not an expert in this area.   I'll see if I can get a PA guru to respond to you on that.

You are correct, users that have a fulfiller role but have not logged in within 365 days or ever are NOT utilizing a license (in a Fulfiller model).

Non-Fulfiller roles would be any classified as an Approver or a Requester.   A role granting the user Fulfiller functionality is listed on the ServiceNow Order Form (User Type matrix) and includes items such as:

• View a report published to them
• Approve requests ROUTED to user via system
• Create/Delete/Modify any record
• Drill through any report
• Create/Delete/Modify any report
• Perform development or administrative activities

[Vance1]

Stephen,

Thank you for clarifying. In Jonathon's post below, PA seems to provide the appropriate amount of analysis needed to fully understand how licenses are being utilized within the organization. However, I believe PA is an additional cost; is it not? It would be a shame if the only tool within ServiceNow that is fully capable of accurately measuring license utilization within the organization is a paid add-on and not available by default to all ServiceNow customers.

So far, this thread has provided some much-needed clarity on this topic, for me and hopefully others as well. But I must say that I still feel like this is the kind of metric that ServiceNow should just provide for its customers, especially for those that the Process User Usage Model applies to. Determining Actual License Position (ALP) in an effort to maintain Effective License Position (ELP) is far too important of a task to just leave it up to the customer and their own devices. Especially when ServiceNow is already capturing this data.

I remain hopeful that the Subscription Management Application (tabitha) fills this gap and affords ServiceNow customers the means to efficiently and responsibly manage their license utilization with minimal effort.

[Vance1 · Accepted solution]

Configuring the report as shown here seems to be the best answer to my question.

Four Primary Components:

1. Data > Table >   sys_user
2. Sys ID > is > javascript:getRoledUsers()
3. Active > is > True
4. Last Login Time > Relative > On or after > 365 > Days > Ago

One Secondary Component if Applicable (Not Shown):

1. Filter Out Non-Fulfiller Roles

In our case, we currently don't have any users that utilize a non-fulfiller role ONLY. However, If you do, and you subscribe to a Fulfiller user model, it might be a good idea to filter these out as they don't utilize a license according to ServiceNow. Please consult your order agreement and ServiceNow representative for confirmation.

Using this report configuration will eliminate duplicates as it is pulling individual users from the "sys_user" table instead of users and their individual roles from the "sys_user_has_role" table. You can then add related columns like department to gain more insight into who is using licenses.

If you have Performance Analytics (PA), I suggest using it. It will allow you to practically eliminate the need to export this report to Excel for post-processing and analysis.

Thanks to all who contributed to this thread and other like it as this solution would not likely be possible without you.

[Vance1]

If you find this solution helpful, please mark it as "helpful" with the thumbs up button.

[brittanyg_]

So I'm confused about how to filter out non-fulfiller roles. When I run this all my active users show. Since we now have an snc_internal now assigned to all the end users, how do I edit the report to filter out that role? I have been unable to dot walk the role information to the user table.