Licensing is the most neglected skill in ServiceNow platform ownership.

PlatformPadawan · 3 weeks ago

Most platform owners I talk to can walk you through a flow, a catalog item, or an ACL without blinking. Ask them how many fulfiller licenses they’re consuming versus entitled to, and the room gets quiet. I get why. Licensing isn’t fun, it isn’t on the certification path in any obvious way, and nobody asks about it until the renewal is 90 days out.

We spend years getting good at building on the platform. Very few of us get good at understanding what we’re paying for. Here’s what I’ve learned running license reclamation: the number on a dashboard is rarely the full story. Users pick up fulfiller access through inherited roles, role containment chains, and group memberships nobody remembers granting. If you only look at the Subscription Management dashboard, you’re seeing a summary, not the source.

Here’s why it matters beyond cost savings. Reclaimed licenses can fund your roadmap. And a platform owner who walks into a renewal with data has far more influence than one with ten certifications and no numbers.

My take: if you own the platform, you own the entitlement position. Learn it before someone else has to explain it to you.

So I’m curious:

Who owns licensing at your organization: the platform owner, procurement, or nobody?
Do you know how many users hold a fulfiller role but haven’t logged in for 90 days?
Has a true-up or renewal ever surprised you?

Share your story below. I’d love to hear what’s worked.

#ServiceNow #PlatformOwner #ServiceNowLicensing #ProductOwnership

Paer · 3 weeks ago

I would definitely agree with this. I have spent many hours over several years getting a decent understanding of the SN license model. Not to cheat and bend rules, but to make sure licenses are used in an efficient way and to optimise value for investment already made.

The fulfiller (itil) licenses is indeed a good place to start. To ensure that any user not actively using the system for x months (using last login field) gets the itil role (and therefore the license) removed is a good start.

A good thing to do as a structural foundation is to separate out assignment and permission groups. If you assign roles through the same groups you assign tickets to, then it is difficult to manage assignments and roles/licenses separately and efficiently. The recommendation is to create a separate group type, create permission groups for any role allocation you need, and manage roles and therefore licenses that way.

The main advantage of this structure is that you can utilise Business stakeholder licenses effectively. BSH licenses are very useful but often under-utilised entities within the ITSM suite (and some other modules), that provides the right to run existing reports, approve records and view any information in the actual module in SN. Therefore you can for example have users in an assignment group (managers etc), that can view tickets in dashboards and lists, but not work actively with the tickets, and have a much cheaper BSH license rather than ITIL.

Another tip is to ensure the Identity type field is set correctly. No license is counted for users with identity-type = machine (and possible some other types, but the jury is out on that). That means if you have service accounts that need itil role, but only interacts with the system through API calls, then by setting this flag, you increase your security posture and save a license. Win Win.

There is of course a lot more in this area when you start talking about other modules such as ITOM and Workflow Data Fabric, but this is a good start.

I absolutely agree with PlatformPadawan that a key responsibility of a platform owner of SN is to maximise the value the company derives from SN and to minimise license costing without impacting service levels is an essential part of that.

#ServiceNow #PlatformOwner #ServiceNowLicensing #ProductOwnership

Wilfred Hoefakk · 3 weeks ago

One thing i've learned a long long time ago -> Know your licensing model and keep up to date with this knowledge. Invest time and effort in it to be able get the most value out of what you have rights to.
In short my answers:

Who owns licensing at your organization: the platform owner, procurement, or nobody?
The platform owner.
Do you know how many users hold a fulfiller role but haven’t logged in for 90 days?
Absolutely, this is reoccurring check at our company. If you're not logged in for 30 days we take action.
Has a true-up or renewal ever surprised you?
Because the subscription management dashboard does not supply this information (user based licensing) anymore there's a risk (unfortunately) that this will happen more often. But, no i've not been surprised until now.

Paul Ciarfella · 3 weeks ago

I own the entitlement management - I control access for all licensed applications. And specifically for ITSM, since its the most expensive and most used, I have a policy of removing 'itil' licenses after 90 days, or go back to 60 and even 30, when our user count hits the maximum number of licenses with an automated process.

ARScheuvront · 3 weeks ago

Just curious do you base the 90, 60, 30 days based on log in date or work being assigned to the individuals?