ServiceNow License Management Help

Vance1 · ‎11-28-2016

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.

Vance1 · ‎12-06-2016

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

Four Primary Components:

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

One Secondary Component if Applicable (Not Shown):

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.

View solution in original post

lmt · ‎12-06-2016

Hi Tabitha,

We are also struggling with trying to get an accurate count of all our licensed users. We are moving to another instance with Helsinki. If you have some demo or videos on the topic, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

LT

Paul Ciarfella · ‎12-06-2016

Hi Tabitha,

Does the Subscription Management application in Helsinki provide any function other than reporting, such as limiting or controlling user access to subscribed applications? I'm trying to understand the value of subscription management in Helsinki other than improved reporting (but with additional overhead of user administration that includes both role allocation and subscription allocation). Or am I missing something?

You may not remember me but we worked together when you were the CSM for EMC Managed Services back in 2011/2012.

Paul

saiteja_474 · ‎07-15-2018

Hi @tabitha / smithva,

if i add itil role to users directly,does it count as allocated in subscription management

jonathanbledsoe · ‎11-30-2016

We had similar requirements to track fulfiller licenses and the ability to break them down by different criteria. We used Performance Analytics to help us accomplish this through a nightly data collection. This allows us to provide very similar visuals about how our fulfiller licenses are trending.

PA also allows us to add breakdowns based on the data, In our case the most important criteria was the user's company due to our outsourcing model but you can easily add breakdowns for department or manager if needed. You can also dive down into the data of the users who had licenses on the day in question. This has helped us out greatly to better predict our fulfiller usage.

Vance1 · ‎11-30-2016

Hi Jonathon,

We don't currently have PA but this is very helpful. I am curious to know how I might replicate this if/when we do get it. Is the base report created on the [sys_user_has_role] table and filters for all users that are Active = "true" and have logged in during the last 365 days?