If you miss any content, please leave it as a comment and I will add it to this article.
| Table of Contents |
My library Knowledge Sources To Go is very popular, but it was intended mainly as a thematically grouped guide to standard sources and was provided by me as a PDF file. For certain topics, however, there is so much content that I can no longer include it in that document, as it cannot continue to grow forever.
For this reason, I have decided to handle such topics in individual community articles like this one instead.
What is Software Asset Management?
Almost every worker in an enterprise organization has a computer and uses software provided by their company, whether on-premise or cloud-based. Software Asset Management (SAM) is the motion or tool used to help IT better oversee and control those software assets from a physical, financial, and contractual perspective. Besides managing the distribution and usage of software, this discipline includes lifecycle processes, as well as policy and governance monitoring and enforcement.
ℹ️ You can find an even more detailed introduction to the topic on the following pages:
Entry point to the official product information pages.
Entry point to the official product documentation
Data Sheet (Software Asset Management)
Summarized overview in one PDF file.
Data Sheet (SaaS License Management)
Summarized overview in one PDF file.
Data Sheet (Cloud Insights)
Summarized overview in one PDF file.
Cloud Spend Optimization (Cloud Insights)
Summarized overview in one PDF file.
Download our Success Map to support your journey with Software Asset Management applications that systematically track, evaluate, and manage software licenses, compliance, and optimization. This overview shows the processes and best practices you’ll need to implement, maintain, and get maximum value from Software Asset Management applications.
This success pack assists in implementing ServiceNow Software Asset Management by providing leading practice guidance in the initial installation and configuration of the implementation of SAM in order to reconcile subscription information with software installations in an attempt to expose potential cost savings.
Provides detailed guidance on the way that ServiceNow intends the process to-be, for Hardware Asset Management.
Process Diagrams in Visio format for: Hardware Asset Management (HAM) Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) Software Asset Management (SAM)
How to Discover and See All Your Technology Assets
This white paper provides an overview of the data you need to see all your technology assets such as software assets, hardware assets, assets in the cloud as well as cloud resources that are often considered assets.
Trainings & Courses
Software Asset Management Fundamentals 💲🧪
Setting up an effective Software Asset Management (SAM) practice includes key milestones: planning a design, defining policies, identifying the information required and how that information can be obtained, what the software asset processes should look like, and how the technology can support these items. Most successful SAM programs involve various people and departments, including IT, finance, purchasing, services, and end users. Investing time and careful consideration to build out the SAM practice produces a higher quality outcome. In this interactive course, attendees will master the setup, configuration, and usage of the Software Asset Management Professional application, with a focus on:
- Managing software licenses (models, entitlements, and metrics)
- Controlling the cost of purchasing and managing software assets
- Managing the software asset life cycle from planning to disposal
- Using software discovery and normalization
- Reconciling and achieving software compliance
- Controlling software usage and reclamation
- Improving IT software asset services to end users
- Creating standards and processes for managing software assets
Software Asset Management Extras
Review supplemental topics to the Software Asset Management Professional Fundamentals course with SAM Extras.
Software Asset Management Reconciliation Troubleshooting
What happens when the results from running SAM reconciliation are not as expected? Use this course as a resource for methods to troubleshoot SAM reconciliation.
Software Normalization for Software Asset Management
This course provides an overview of software normalization for Software Asset Management (SAM), the benefits, and how to get the most out of it.
Entitlement Import Basics for Software Asset Management
In this course we will explore using the Software Asset Management Professional entitlement import feature to automatically upload your software entitlement data, from populating the entitlement import template through importing the template and resolving common errors that occur during the import.
Microsoft Office 365 Optimization for Software Asset Management
ServiceNow Software Asset Management supports license compliance and optimization for Office 365 and Microsoft 365 subscriptions purchased through the Microsoft 365 Admin Center. This video provides an overview and for more information read the blog here on the Now Community site.
Discovery Basics for Software Asset Management
This course explores using the integration between Discovery and Software Asset Management Professional to automatically find and populate software installation information within your data center for later normalization and reconciliation in SAM.
Software Asset Management: Integration with SCCM for Reclamation and Distribution
Discover firsthand how SAM and Discovery help clients reduce software spend with automated detection, consolidation and reclamation of Software Assets. Explain what the ServiceNow Client Software Distribution (CSD) product is and how it can be used to improve automation of software related tasks. Armed with the information generated by SAM, companies are able to drastically reduce expenses on the software during the next renewal.
Software Asset Management Simulator 🧪
The Software Asset Management (SAM) Simulator will assess your understanding of Software Asset Management.
Articles & Blog Posts
2022-04-06 by @Daniel Slocum
Software Installations Table Attribute Review
What are all these fields, and do I need to be concerned with them? Since the availability of the Software Asset Management application in the Jakarta release, there have been many inquiries about the attributes contained in the cmdb_sam_sw_install table. While the primary goal of this article is to identify the fields SAM Admins and ServiceNow Administrators should be concerned about, it will also address to a degree, the purpose of the many other attributes contained in the table.
2022-12-05 by @Dave Aiken
Assets and CIs – Understanding the Difference
Asset Management and Configuration Management are distinct areas of focus, and yet it can be very difficult to differentiate assets from configuration items. Understanding the difference will facilitate the creation of well-defined Asset and Configuration Management processes enabling well-informed decisions for asset spend and operational support.
2023-02-02 by @Daniel Slocum
Explained: Software Asset Management System Properties
You have all seen them and maybe you are your organization’s expert who breaks through the mystery of what they do and how they impact SAM functionality or you are just as perplexed as many people and don’t have an expert to turn to for help. In either case, I believe this article will help you. My goal in organizing these words into what I hope are coherent sentences is to identify for you, the SAM Admin or System Admin supporting a SAM Team, the purpose and functionality of each SAM System Property.
2023-03-01 by @Sidhima S
Personalizing SAM workspace experience for your organization
Personalize the brand and theme settings for your software asset workspace so that they express your brand’s look and feel and users can see a consistent look and feel across all pages.
2023-09-28 by David RodrĂguez-Pastrana Parareda
Impact of automation in Software Asset Management Systems
After researching SAM and its integration in ServiceNow, I designed a BPM-SOA diagram incorporating six key functions, including AI-driven license optimization and software recognition.
2024-02-22 by Paul Stuart
Software Asset Management in ServiceNow
Software Asset Management (SAM) in ServiceNow is a critical process for managing an organization's software assets throughout their lifecycle. It aims to maintain compliance with software vendors, optimize spending on software assets, and support software audits. SAM addresses the challenges of overseeing licensing complexities, preventing unnecessary overspending, and managing the distribution and decentralization of IT assets across global companies. By implementing key processes such as normalization, reconciliation, and software spend detection, SAM enables organizations to effectively track, analyze, and optimize their software investments.
2024-04-10 by Julia's Dev
Tame Your Software Jungle: Navigating the ServiceNow Asset Management Safari
In the sprawling wilderness of modern business technology, managing software licenses can feel like navigating an untamed jungle. Hidden compliance traps lurking in the underbrush, the constant roar of financial and operational challenges echoing through the trees… So what should an enterprise manager do? First, put down the machete and for goodness sake, close that excel sheet.
Videos & Podcasts
2020-09-29 by ServiceNow Community
How To - SAM Pro Normalization
his demonstration shows how to utilize the ServiceNow Software Asset Management Professional normalization feature along with manually uploading software data into the instance.
2020-10-05 by ServiceNow Community
Software Asset Management (SAM) - Normalization
In this video we will discuss normalization and why it is key to any software asset management program. We will also cover ServiceNow’s content service, their research team and how ServiceNow is truly an extension of your asset management team. Below is a link to our white-paper that covers normalization in more detail.
2020-10-19 by ServiceNow Community
Software Asset Management (SAM) - Paris Updates
The ServiceNow Software Asset Management (SAM) application systematically tracks, evaluates, and manages software licenses, compliance, and optimization. You can reclaim unused software rights, purchase new software rights, and manage allocations for entitlements.
2022-03-05 by ServiceNow Community
How To - Software Asset Management
2022-03-22 by ServiceNow Community
San Diego Release - Software Asset Management
2022-07-11 by ServiceNow Community
SAM Activation: Plugins, Store Apps, Software Normalization & Content Service
Start your engines, it is time to activate! Join us for a summary of the fundamental plugins and store apps for Software Asset Management & a thorough explanation of Software Normalization and the Content Service.
2022-07-20 by ServiceNow Community
Entitlements, Software Models & Discovery Models
Join us as we navigate between three key components of SAM and cover the associated leading practices. Topics include:
- Entitlement leading practices
- The power of Software Models and Discovery Models
- Maintaining balance
2022-10-18 by ServiceNow Community
Software Asset Management in Tokyo
Check out this 15 minute overview to learn how to use ServiceNow's SAM solution to keep your software and cloud investments from going to waste. Manage and optimize your purchases, deployments, maintenance, utilization, and disposal of your software applications.
2023-01-24 by ServiceNow Community
How To: SaaS License Management to reduce and optimize spend
In this video we will talk about how ServiceNow customers can reduce and optimize their SaaS spend with direct to vendor integrations and reporting. These simple to set up integrations enable our customers to cut cost and optimize spend quickly and easily with SaaS License Management in ServiceNow’s Software Asset Management Professional.
2023-01-31 by ServiceNow Community
How to: Get Started with Software Asset Management
2023-04-12 by ServiceNow Community
What's new in the Utah release for ITAM and EAM
ServiceNow asset management solutions help our customers optimize their asset investments across software, hardware, cloud, and the enterprise with advanced workflows that drive outcomes at all stages of the asset lifecycle. In this webinar, get to know some of the key innovations in the Utah release for IT Asset Management (ITAM) and Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) that can help you reduce costs, mitigate risk, and align asset investments to strategic goals. You’ll be joined by a panel of ServiceNow’s asset management product experts for a live Q&A session.
2023-06-12 by ServiceNow Community
Identify "What's Next" in your Software Asset Management Journey
The SAM Success Portal - Value Builder is about helping you understand what's next in your SAM journey by showcasing features adoption to get value faster and plan for future improvements.
2023-06-12 by ServiceNow Community
Vancouver Release: Software Asset Management Overlapping Software Analysis
This Vancouver feature identifies where there is overlapping software spend and provides usage insights to drive decision support for application rationalization to help organizations ensure they're getting the most value from their software purchases.
2023-09-20 by ServiceNow Community
Vancouver Release: SAM MSOFT Server Guided Experience + Server Enhancement
This Vancouver feature is step-by-step guided process to setup SQL Server license management in Software Asset Management that will lessen the complexity with managing and configuring the customer’s Microsoft SQL Server environment.
2023-09-20 by ServiceNow Community
Vancouver Release: SAM Product Success Guide
This Vancouver feature is within SAM Success Portal that will house a growing list of Success Guides for customer to use. These guides will cover multiple publishers and licensing scenarios over time. This feature will instantly gives customers a library of success guides to use during different phases of their SAM journey.
2023-09-20 by ServiceNow Community
Vancouver Release: SAM Optimizing Consumption Rules & Reclamation
This Vancouver feature optimizes the way your organization can manage license consumption across different entities (region, company, cost center, etc.) with designated license pools that are accounted for through the SAM reconciliation process. Additionally, more flexibility was introduced to our Reclamation Rules to allow your organization to get more specific when determining when licenses should get tagged as removal candidates.
2023-09-20 by ServiceNow Community
Vancouver Release: SAM M365 & Adobe
M365 and Adobe Cloud license usage to provide inisghts and recommendation to drive optimal spend and savings.
Troubleshooting
Known Error Portal
Pre-configured filter for the respective topic. Remove the query string or modify the filters on the left side if you want to narrow down the search results in a different way.
Selected Articles
-
