Disable the Benchmark module?

[geoffluk]

We're about to upgrade our instances to Kingston (from Istanbul) and noticed in our test instance the Benchmark module.

As great as Benchmarks might be overall, we have specific privacy laws that currently prevent us from opting in/enrolling into the program as we do not know yet what information is transmitted. (If we can confirm what is transmitted is safely scrubbed of all data that we're restricted from displaying, then we may consider opting in).

There are 3 plugins:

• Benchmark Client
• Benchmark Common
• Benchmarks Spoke

Before we uninstalled the plugins we tried to remove the "sn_bm_client.benchmark_data_viewer" role from the "itil" role, to no avail. There is a message in the Benchmarks Edit Application form saying "This record is in the Benchmark Client application and cannot be edited. The installed application 'Benchmark Client' is private", which effectively means "hands off".

We wanted to effectively hide the module/application from our end users as they have no need for it, and so we wanted to apply the "admin" role to the entire Benchmark module.

Our ask is if there is a better way to disable the module other than uninstalling the 3 plugins? In a test instance we uninstalled all 3 plugins and it seems to have safely removed it altogether. But surely there must be a way to hide the Benchmark module to all users without the "admin" role?

[Manjeet Singh]

All - Benchmarks app does not do anything unless you opt-in from your instance. If you do not have plan to use it then you can hide the module from application navigator so that users would not see it. 

In Kingston release, ITIL users were allowed to see the Benchmarks module so that they can see the performance of IT KPIs in comparison with other similar companies. Based on feedback from customers, we have removed ITIL users from Benchmarks viewer starting from London and also back-ported the change to Kingstons Patch 7. 

Uninstalling the Benchmarks plugin is not a good idea because it is a platform level module. If you do not plan to opt-in then just hide the module from application menu. ITIL users will not see it anyway after the change in KP7 and later versions.

Let me know if you have any further questions related to Benchmarks and I will happy to address them.

Thanks,

Manjeet, ITSM Product Management.