SAM Office Hours Q&A February 2026 | EMEA/APAC Session

[Kieron Dean]

About This Document

SAM Office Hours is a monthly live Q&A session where ServiceNow customers can ask questions about Software Asset Management directly to product experts.

• Session date: February 03, 2026
• Questions: 42 total (27 written, 11 extracted from recording, 4 unanswered)
• Answers marked as "Extracted from Recording" were processed using AI transcription and extraction
• While every effort has been made to ensure accuracy, extracted answers may contain inaccuracies or miss nuances from the original spoken response

Questions & Answers:

#	Question	Answer	Source
1	Hi have you posted the SAM questions online yet?	Yes! I've compiled all the historic Office Hours Q&A sessions into a complete archive, now available on the Community. The archive includes questions and answers from every session since we started in spring 2025 - already over 1,000 questions. For questions that were answered verbally during sessions, I've used AI to match the transcript responses to the original questions. There's a "Source" column that indicates whether each answer was written in the Q&A panel or extracted from the recording transcript. I recommend bookmarking the main archive article, which I'll update after every session with links to each month's Q&A.	Extracted from Recording
2	Just for these Zoom sessions; is it possible to highligt the questions that you are answering when you do? I find it rather difficult to search the Q&A while trying to listen to the answer especially at the end of the sessions	Unfortunately, Zoom doesn't have a built-in feature to highlight which question we're answering live. However, we try to read out the question before answering it verbally, which helps with transcript matching. I'm also considering doing a highlights reel in future - stay tuned for that. Additionally, I'm working with the Rangers on publishing the most commonly asked questions as a separate FAQ document with comprehensive, curated answers. In the meantime, the Q&A archive includes answers that were given verbally, marked as "Extracted from Recording" in the source column.	Extracted from Recording
3	We have the Jamf integration configured for a customer, but most of the software models being imported into ServiceNow are showing up under ‘license installs.’ For example, applications like Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel appear as standalone, unlicensed installs, even though the user has an active Microsoft 365 E5 license.	This is most likely due to the suite components in the included software models. I recommend checking all the sotfware models starting from the "Microsoft 365 E5 " software model down to all the children. The inference level of the model containing Excel, Word etc. needs to be checked and potentially modified .	Written
4	In the "License operation" / "Software Entitlements": how to display the Publisher name in the list since in the "personalized fields", the "Software model" field is displayed twice as "Software model (model)" and "Software model (software_model)". Both seems not allowing to fetch the "Publisher" name which is normally part of the software model table.	a software model can have one active DMAP, a single DMAP can technically be referenced by multiple software models depending on the product, making it generally a one-to-many or many-to-one relationship depending on the context of the model, but functionally, the DMAP enriches the model. | Let me have a quick check on my system..... | Have a look at alm_license table and you may have to dot walk to software model table.	Written
5	For SAP Publisher, does fetching the data from SAP make ServiceNow a candidate for indirect Access in ServiceNow? Is there any impact on SAP licensing if we use ServiceNow SAM for SAP products.	My understanding is no, ServiceNow SAM does not trigger SAP indirect access licensing. For those unfamiliar, indirect access is an SAP licensing concept where users hitting an SAP system indirectly through another application can be counted as indirect users, which can significantly impact licensing costs. My understanding is that the mechanism by which ServiceNow connects to SAP means we aren't subject to indirect access charges. I will validate this with our SAP integration team and update the answer if needed.	Extracted from Recording
6	I wanted to understand the relationship between a DMAP and a Software Model in ServiceNow. Is it - A. One to Many B. Many to one C. Many to Many D. One to One Please explain why do you think so and any link to product documentation if available.	a software model can have one active DMAP, a single DMAP can technically be referenced by multiple software models depending on the product, making it generally a one-to-many or many-to-one relationship depending on the context of the model, but functionally, the DMAP enriches the model.	Written
7	Is there any document form ServiceNow with a Step by step implementation guide of the SAM? e.g. some slides for the kickoff, implementation steps, plugins to install	https://mynow.servicenow.com/now/best-practices/assets/software-asset-management-recommended-impleme...	Written
8	Do we need to do anything with SAMP Scheduled Job (samp_job_log) stuck in "In Progress" state? Another job  has already run with Completed state.	There is no need to do anything to the "in progress" job if this does not happen on  a regular basis. If it happens again I recommend openening a support case.	Written
9	I am interested on understanding what is the role of CSDM on SA, and what are the best practices for different perspectives IT and OT.  Thank you.	CSDM (Common Service Data Model) is our data model that defines how data should be recorded in ServiceNow. For SAM specifically, CSDM is critical because the relationships, their direction, and relationship types all need to be CSDM-compliant for reconciliation logic to work correctly. For example, if you have virtual relationships like SQL Server running in a cluster, SAM expects those relationship types and definitions to follow CSDM so it can apply the correct licensing logic. If you're using ServiceNow Discovery or Service Graph Connectors, CSDM compliance is built in. However, if you're importing data via import sets from other sources or manually defining relationships, you must ensure you're using CSDM relationship types, otherwise SAM won't see those relationships and won't apply the correct licensing rules.	Extracted from Recording
10	Recently, we imported multiple entitlement line items using the "Create New Entitlement Import" page in SAM. As part of the import, we also created a few Custom PPNs as per our organizational requirements.  During the onboarding of approximately 1,000 line items, only 890 were successfully processed, while 110 were skipped. On further troubleshooting, we noticed that no records were created in the Entitlement Import Errors table for these skipped lines.  However, in the System Logs, we found an error mentioning “Missing entitlement” but it did not specify the reason for the failure. After deeper analysis, we identified the root cause: the skipped line items were associated with Custom PPNs linked to inactive DMAPs.  To identify the missing items, we had to manually use VLOOKUP to compare and trace the unprocessed lines.  It would be extremely helpful if the system could automatically generate an Entitlement Import Error entry indicating that “Custom PPN is linked to an inactive DMAP”.		Unanswered
11	SAM*		Unanswered
12	Are we still doing DemoHub based content? Is there anything new for SAM, SAM - AI there?	Yes, the ServiceNow team have access to our internal DemoHub instances/content and they are regularly updated with new SAM capabilities (included the use of SAM AI).  Your ServiceNow team can show you some of these new capabilities.	Written
13	We have integrated our ServiceNow instance with our OKTA SSO Provider to pull the directory group membership.  We have updated the entitlements for on of the Okta groups (Software) eg. Grammarly. However, when I run a Reconciliation for specific publisher - Grammarly. I do not get the reconciliation information like we are able to get for Adobe.	For your Okta/Grammarly integration issue: you've correctly set up the directory jobs for users, groups, and group memberships, and you can see Grammarly connected to the software model in the SSO applications. If you have entitlements linked to the models, and those models are linked to the applications, but you're still not seeing reconciliation data, I would suggest raising a support ticket. They can do a deeper dive into your instance. If first-line or second-line support can't solve it, it will be escalated to the SAM engineering team who will definitely be able to help.	Extracted from Recording
14	How do you efficiently delegate responsibilities in regard to the software asset management for tier-2, and tier-3 within an organization in which the SAM team size is limited and focused on the first top 10 tier-1 publishers?	For a smaller SAM team, we have seen other customers identify a dedicated resource to manage the publishers and products which make up the tail. Such publishers typically fall under tier 2 and tier 3 classifications where the licensing can be managed using any of the metrics under common metric group or custom metric is created, and then go on to analyse for app rationalization. This delegation by customers is for a fixed period and frequency, while the remaining members continue to focus on the tier 1 publishers and their optimization scenarios	Written
15	Do you have a step-by- step guide (not the guided setup) to manage Microsoft Core Infrastructure Suite and SQL server licenses which covers the inference, suite component mandatory /option, condition building etc.	For step-by-step guidance on managing Core Infrastructure Suite and SQL Server licenses, I would recommend the following resources: First, there is a guided setup in the product for these products which I would recommend. Beyond that, check the Community where Srinivas, one of our inbound product managers responsible for the Microsoft licensing publisher pack, has released excellent blogs and articles specifically about Core Infrastructure and SQL Server, covering inferences, suite components, and so on. Also check the Rangers videos where we discuss suites and inferences. Search the Community for "SQL Server" or "Windows Server Core Infrastructure" and look for articles authored by Srinivas.	Extracted from Recording
16	We are in the process of implementing SAM and will be going live in the next two weeks, any recommendations and guidance on our first stages of crawling	Good information about recommended implementation sequence is available on the ServiceNow Community. https://www.servicenow.com/community/sam-articles/software-asset-management-recommended-implementati...	Written
17	We've seen the new SBOM feature and wondering how this actually works in ServiceNow. Is there somewhere more information other then the official documentation ?	The SBOM documentation does have lots of information.  You may also refer to the ServiceNow Community. https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/yokohama/security-management/sbom-core/vr-sbom-exploring.html	Written
18	Regarding Health Scan, is it still important to resolve issues of retired software entitlements?	The aim of the SAM Health Check is to improve the accuracy and efficiency of your SAM program, but you do not need to resolve every single check immediately. Instead, you should prioritise them based on their impact on license compliance and financial risk.  https://youtu.be/afACVxeyYZA?si=si_MGQqVo75PHEqn	Written
19	How is the process of the SAM content team in case of M&A. We’ve seen a bunch of products still assigned to the old publisher (related to active PPN/DMAP) and we’ve to proactively raise content updates. Anything planned to adjust this process. Thanks	Hi Dennis, post M&A, if the acquired company continues to operate as a business, we typically continue to assign those product/families under the acquired/‘old’ company. In case the products are rebranded or consumed within the acquiring company, then we assign those productfamilies under the new publisher/brand	Written
20	Can you elaborate the architecture and dependency on OpenLM for managing Engineering applications license.	For Engineering applications OpenLM or Open IT can be connectoed to ServiceNow SAM to provide the discovered license servers, products and license usage. ServiceNow will normalize the products, calculate lincese consumption and allow for reclamation of unused licenses. There is also a short video available here https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/it-asset-management/now-assist-for-software-asset-management-sam/c....	Written
21	How to best track Company records that are used in SAM application/operations?	You could start with table: core_company	Written
22	But my concern is why this only happening with Jamf data not with any other software model coming through SCCM or SN.		Unanswered
23	i have an Issue with my Oracle java audit. Oracle wants to know if the commercial feature by Java are activated. Does the Servicenow Scan agent can read this information? how is it managed in ServiceNow SAM. Means, can we scann if the commercial feature are active and which one?	Hi Franck, you can leverage the ServiceNow GLAS App to discovery the details of the Java commercial features. The GLAS table for Java - ora_java_audit lists details of enabled commercial features	Written
24	To onboard Custom SaaS application like Jetbrains into SAM, do we have detailed doc & known issues doc?	The documentation for SaaS License Connections is a good starting point. https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/it-asset-management/saas-license-management/saas-license-connectio...	Written
25	Is there a firm date for Usage data via MS InTune?	Unfortunately, there's no firm date for usage data via MS Intune. Intune has been around for a few years and was originally intended to replace SCCM, but we're now in a world where many customers use both. Intune still doesn't capture all the same information as SCCM for software asset management purposes - one of the big missing pieces is usage data (when software was last used, how much it's been used). SCCM provided last-used date and metering capabilities, but Intune doesn't have this yet. We speak to Microsoft regularly asking them to add this feature, and it's on their roadmap, but we don't know the date. Rest assured, when usage data becomes available in Intune, we will quickly update our Service Graph Connectors to bring that information in. In the meantime, consider our own discovery agent (ACC) or other sources like Tanium that can capture usage data.	Extracted from Recording
26	Not a question, but a thing to be aware of if you are a none US based customer.  Most of the scheduled jobs in SAM runs during US night/early morning time, and this "hits" our production hours in EU - so a recommendation from here is to review the timing for the SAM scheduled jobs, as you install SAM/SAM Pro 🙂	Excellent point about scheduled job timing. The default times for SAM scheduled jobs are set for US time zones, which can impact production hours for EU-based customers. I strongly recommend reviewing the timing for SAM scheduled jobs when you install SAM Pro. To do this, go to the navigation bar and type "scheduled jobs" - all SAM-associated jobs start with "SAM" so you can filter on those. Make sure these jobs run outside business hours for your location. You can also see them from the SAM tree in the workspace where they'll be automatically filtered.	Extracted from Recording
27	how to check if the CSDM Relationships are all correct from the discovery. how can i best check the issues in the relationships?	You can use the Health Check (Success Portal) to review and manage different data quality issues	Written
28	Is there any updated documents for establishing integrations for M365 and Adobe considering the many issues that arise while trying to establish a successful connection.	Did you try the guided setups for Microsoft 365 and Adobe in the SAM success portal? Documentation for Microsfot is available here https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/it-asset-management/now-assist-for-software-asset-management-sam/i... and for Adobe  you find it here https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/it-asset-management/now-assist-for-software-asset-management-sam/a...	Written
29	How to exclude inactive users consume a license as a work around until customer fix their CMDB issues?	You can use software install condition under the software model to filter out the inactive user during reconciliation	Written
30	If we need to leverage CSD 2.0 integration with SCCM for request/revocation of software requests, how should the software catalogs be developed? especially considering customers usually have 100s of applications in their environment.  Do we have 1 catalog for each in which case there would a lot of catalog to manage. Need best practice approach/recommendation.	By design, Client Software Distribution (CSD 2.0) is intended to focus on high-value products. We recommend not using it for every single software title in your catalog, as standard software titles usually don't need that level of attention. Instead, focus on high-value products like Microsoft Project and other expensive licenses that require approvals and potentially license reclamation when not being used. This significantly reduces the number of catalog items you need to manage. For standard products that don't need specific workflows, you can still use SCCM Software Center to publish them directly.	Extracted from Recording
31	Is there a work around to get usage data ?	ServieNow’s Agent Client Collector (ACC) - part of ITOM Visibility can collected usage data.  https://support.servicenow.com/kb?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB1588232	Written
32	Is there a flag in the Company [core_company] table that identify those that are used in SAM application/operations?	When a customer sets up Normalization Data Services, there is a task wherein the customer can set up Normalzation Software Asset Mqnagement. The columns that are used in SAM are listed. Andthe column to refer in Core Company would be ‘Name’	Written
33	ACC has a license cost  - is this use case excused?	ITOM will need to be licensed for ACC, the ratio is applied for ITOM for EUC. The ACC will be picked up from ITOM licensing so it would need to be licensed.	Written
34	Is there any option to have a renewal calendar, where one can see all contract (not only those that have Assets covered - this is the current default setting in SAM Workspace). Would you recommend adjusting that within UI Builder, so the data source is ast_contract?  Or what is the intent of having it set up as it cueently is with only contracts linked that have an asset covered?	This is something that is in the roadmap for contracts to be managed in SAM Pro, I cannot comment on timeframes but has been tabled. I would look at a separate dashboard to point to ast_contracts unless this is something that would benefit having it in the Workspace.	Written
35	We do not have the PPN available for some of our Adobe products, my understanding is that Publisher,Product,Version, Edition, & Platform can be stand in values if PPN is not available to get the Software Model. Please let me know if I am correct.	You're correct that you can create entitlements without a PPN (Publisher Part Number) by using the publisher, product, version, edition, and platform fields. While the part number helps improve accuracy when uploading lots of entitlements, it's not a mandatory field. You can create entitlements without them and manually link to the software model. Alternatively, you can search through the DMAPs to find the right combination and use those. Another option is to set up custom part numbers with a mapping to the publisher/product/version/edition, so when you use those custom part numbers, they'll automatically link correctly. Also, check the Content Library using the Content Lookup - sometimes vendors provide PPNs under different identifiers that exist in our library.	Extracted from Recording
36	is there any guide that I can use (may be a steps with screenshots) how to Disable Device-Based Consumption? as the license consumption is user based, if the link is available - much apprecitaed.	The consumption depends on the license metric of the entitlement.	Written
37	Thanks, sorry to ask but can you provide some additional information how the condition should look like and so I need to uncheck LUM?	Please have a look at https://www.servicenow.com/community/developer-forum/business-rule-to-uncheck-a-checkbox/m-p/1410988	Written
38	talking about processes, how is the link between the softwarecatalog for the purchase process and for the deployment process? is there one single catalog for both? is this catalog linked to the softwaremodell?	There is a direct link between the cataog item, the software model. The software model then is linked to the entitlement.	Written
39	Thanks, but we need to increase the operational efficiency by improving the turn around time by leveraging this CSD2.0 capability and hence wanted the view on the software catalog approach for development/management	Have you looked at Bundles of software, this allows you to create combination of bundled software.	Written
40	The reason we are not able to get the PPN is because we are using the Adobe admin console to get the information  for the entitlements. Is that the right way to get the info?	If you're using the Adobe Admin Console to get entitlement information, that may be why you don't have PPNs. Ideally, for entitlement data, you should be looking at your procurement information - the contract and purchases made under that contract. That's the definitive source of what you own and will most likely include part numbers. The Admin Console gives visibility into what's being used but won't be the complete picture - it probably won't have renewal dates and other relevant information either. We always recommend using procurement data if available. Work with your procurement team or whoever is the custodian of that information to get the source data.	Extracted from Recording
41	Thanks Kieron!		Unanswered
42	Preferred phone number: +48601509579 Is it ok to contact you on your phone? - Yes  Best time to contact you:  Afternoon (12 PM to 4 PM) Morning (8 AM to 12 PM)    We need an OOTB field to indicate Group name that will be approving request for software catalog items.   Currently, we use field Product Owner (owner) on software model table (cmdb_software_product_model) but it generates an approval solely to one user.   What is the recommendation/best practice from ServiceNow to achieve our need? We do not want to hardcode any group name in the flow.	[Unable to locate answer in recording]	Written

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• EMEA/APAC Sessions: 1st Tuesday of each month, 9:00AM CET
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Additional Resources

🎬 SAM Ranger Videos — Step-by-step video tutorials from the SAM product team

📚 SAM Path to Value — Get to value with Software Asset Management

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