Measuring Business Outcomes with ServiceNow SAM

[Kieron Dean]

Measuring Business Outcomes with ServiceNow SAM

So, you’re using ServiceNow Software Asset Management (SAM) to control risk, reduce spend, and automate the software lifecycle, all from a single platform, and you’d like to know how to get maximum value out of the product? Let’s delve into strategies for identifying, prioritizing, and measuring business outcomes.

1.  Define Clear Objectives:

Start by understanding the specific business outcomes you want to achieve. These could include lowering software expenses through optimized licensing and usage, maintaining adherence to software licensing agreements to avoid penalties, and streamlining software deployment and management processes. 

Once you know where you want to focus your effort, collaborate with your stakeholders to define clear and measurable goals. For example:  

• Reduce Compliance Gaps by 50%: Identify and resolve 50% of existing compliance gaps within the first year
• Reduce Software Spend by 20%: Decrease overall software expenditures by 20% through better license management and optimization.
• Cut Software Deployment Time by 50%: Streamline deployment processes to reduce the time it takes to deploy new software by half.

These goals will guide your KPI (Key Performance Indicators) selection, so make sure you are all aligned before moving forward.

2. Select Relevant KPIs:

Now that you know what you want to accomplish and when, identify and select KPIs that directly align with those goals so that you can track your progress. Here are some relevant software asset management KPIs: 

• License Compliance Rate: Percentage of software licenses that are compliant with vendor agreements.
• Software Spend vs. Budget: Comparison of actual software spend against the allocated budget.
• Cost Savings from License Optimization: Total amount of money saved by eliminating unused or underused licenses.
• Software Deployment Time: Average time taken to deploy new software across the organization.

Be sure to prioritize KPIs based on their impact on the overall business outcomes. Measuring everything is not as important as measuring specifically what helps you achieve your goals.

3. Measure and Review performance:

Now that you know what you need to track, you can use Success portal view in Software Asset Workspace to track the progress of your Software Asset Management (SAM) application with success goals, assign activities to track the success of your goals, run health checks on your software, maximize the usage of your SAM capabilities, and mature your SAM program with predefined maturity items.

Use the Asset Management Executive dashboard to gain visibility into critical KPIs for the Software Asset Management application, via a single dashboard.

Be sure to regularly track and monitor your KPIs and use historical data to identify trends and areas for improvement. Also, ensure your data is accurate and consistent so you know you are making well-informed decisions.

4. Benchmark and Compare:

Benchmark your KPIs against industry standards and best practices. Understand what success looks like in your domain. 

Compare your performance over time, against your competitors (if possible), and identify gaps and opportunities.

There are various organizations that offer resources to help benchmark and compare your progress against others like you: Gartner, Forrester, etc. Use all available resources to help you get a sense of where you stand.

5. Iterate and Improve:

Continuously iterate on your strategies. Focus on your goals and if a KPI is not driving the desired results, adjust your approach – stay agile.

Collaborate with cross-functional teams to address bottlenecks and optimize processes. Use the skills and expertise of others to work together and find solutions.

Regularly communicate progress and insights to your stakeholders, good or bad. It’s important to keep everyone informed and on the same page. They’ll appreciate the transparency and might even have suggestions to help get things back on track.

In Summary:

Remember that effective measurement and optimization of ServiceNow SAM outcomes require a comprehensive approach, involving people, processes, and technology. There is no one-size-fits-all solution to helping you get the most out of your purchase, but there are plenty of resources and people that can help you along this journey.

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Have a question about measuring SAM value? Something you think we missed? Add a comment below to keep the discussion going!