Software Asset Management: Adding License for User for inclusion in Counter

[Dmatasek]

I am trying to allocate licenses specifically to a user so that they are included as installations on software counters.   I have been able to handle the "entitlement" but cannot figure out how to programatically assigned to a user so that they are counted by the software counter.   I am actually trying to develop a software counter for our Service-Now ITIL licenses.

[Community Alums]

Hi Dan,

Software Licenses do not count as installations. Software Counters will only determine the Rights owned from Software Licenses. What you need for ServiceNow, because there are no installations to count to determine the Rights used, are Software Usage [cmdb_sam_sw_usage] records. These work in a manner similar to Software Installation records, but are used for software that does not/cannot use installation information to determine how many rights are used. ServiceNow is a good example of this. Web meeting tools, like WebEx and Adobe Connect, are also good examples.

Typically you would populate this information through an import of information from the software's central repository. I'm hoping we get something in place that takes care of this for you automatically, but in the meantime, you could set up a scheduled job that runs a script and checks for users that meet specific criteria (users with any role or users with the itil role) and then generates a Software Usage record for each of these. The Software Usage records, just like the Software Installations, normalize to the Software Discovery Models, and then you will want to associate the Software Discovery Model for ServiceNow to the Model you created to match up with your Software License record.

Here is a visual. It is similar to the one we use in the Asset course to describe how the different software records interact, but with the usage records instead of installation records.

[Dmatasek]

Thanks.   However even as an admin user I cannot insert records to the software usage table or to the discovery model table.   What am I missing?

[Community Alums]

Correct. You need to use an Import Set. Or, for ServiceNow information, you could potentially do it with a Scheduled Job or even a business rule.