tracking software licence renewals

[mrswann]

We have a situation where some Software Licences are expiring and causing incidents as they need to be renewed.

These are "internal" but follow a similar pattern to something akin to QAS (for anyone in UK).

They are valid for 90 days and then we need to send in a techie to reactivate the licence. If we don't get ahead of this, our Clients lose functionality within their system.

So in simple terms we just need a way to track renewals, but I would prefer to do so in a more holistic way. It feels like there is crossover with Contract Management and Software Asset Management. On this occasion we are less concerned with costs, more so with end user impact and being proactive.

It is worth noting that we do have a CMDB populated with the CIs which is running the Application; so we can "see" the exposure to a point.

Simply adding an expiry date to each instance of the application would be a most crude way, but I think we should be able to attach a licence asset to the CI?

I have been reviewing demos and tutorials and wiki / docs , but there doesn't seem to be an easy fit as it transcends two areas and I probably need to use a very small amount of each??

guidance, feedback and discussion - much appreciated as always

[Community Alums]

mrswann,

There are a couple possible ways to handle this depending on your specific needs here:

• Probably the easiest way would be to use the Warranty Expiration date on the Software License record to identify when the licenses will expire. You can entitle the systems that use the license with this particular expiration and then set up a report to show which ones are coming up soon or even generate a notification for those coming up soon. How do you currently have the licenses entered? Does a single Software License record contain only rights that expire at the same time?
• You could use a combination of software license and contract here, but here's my issue with this approach in the situation you describe: Contract notifications are based on the contract date, not on the start and end dates for the associated Assets (the software licenses in this case). What this means is that you do not get much additional benefit from this method over the first method, but it adds a LOT more complexity. Especially with such a frequent refresh rate.
• Is it possible to automate the renewal/reactivation of the license? Have you considered a Workflow (this would require Orchestration) as a means to automate this. ServiceNow could watch for those with upcoming end dates, kick off an approval to determine if it should be renewed, and take the steps to update the client system and the record that supports it.

I hope this helps get you started.

Ben

[mrswann]

Thank you, let me look at Warranty Expiration date.

I think I agree, theres little benefit in the trade off for complexity in Contract at this stage (I just notice it covers expiration/renewals and think it does have a general fit)

I am investigating about the refresh rate. 90 days is part of the problem!

I think Orchestration is a way off for now.

On that basis - going with the first option, what would be the key components you see needing to be set up - not including the reports/notifications (even scheduled jobs to perform an audit). I need to better understand the 'flow' and interaction between product models, software models, software licences, entitlements, assets, CIs, and so on...

[Community Alums · Accepted solution]

For the components you absolutely need here just to handle the expiration date management:

• Software Model - this is the basis for the Software License records, so you need to have this in place first.
• Software Licenses - I would have one for each different expiration. I suggested the Warranty expiration date field that exists on this record because it probably is not otherwise being used for these software licenses and it seems to fit, but you could create a custom date field if you prefer.
• CI records to 'entitle' to use this Software License record. This will allow you to have the device matched with the software and its expiration.

These are the only records required just to meet the needs of what you describe. With these records, you can easily set up a report to show what devices are coming up to their expiration.

This will not get you license compliance information. To get license compliance information, you also need:

• Software Installations - this should be populated by some discovery source, such as ServiceNow Discovery or deployment tool used in your environment. These will create Software Discovery Models automatically that need to be matched to the Software Model.
• Software Counters - Counters do the work to determine if you are compliant for the software with the vendor. Here you identify the License type that determines how to count the software installations as Rights used.

Another quick consideration that come to mind:

• When a technician reactivates the license, does it add 90 days to the day they do the reactivation or is it 90 days from when it was originally set to expire. This could impact how you do this if all affected systems under a single Software License record cannot be updated on the same day and makes this harder to track. If this is the case, you might even consider a 1:1 for this particular software between its Software License and the entitled device. This will give you more flexibility on the dates.

Ben

[mrswann]

thanks Ben, I am going to mark this correct as it definitely meets my requirement and answers the question.

I have built a couple of reports, one looking at alm_asset the other at device entitlement ( which links through to the asset/CI) and with a trend over time based on warranty expiration I can see some really meaningful data and how this will work at least in the interim to solve our immediate needs.

worth noting, the Warranty Expiration field had to be brought through on the form layout, easy enough.

I really need to drill into the process and requirement internally to understand, like you say, whether this is 90 days tagged on from due to expire or from the date of the renewal... also whether this is even an arbitrary value we can challenge and make it 6 months. (this could buy more time, but the method to manage it would be the same, and impact of not doing so as significant).

very happy that tomorrow I demonstrate the power of the system straight out the box! again!

apologies I have not used this area of the system so happy to get a toe in.. thanks again