The Path to Value for a SAM Program in ServiceNow
Implementing a SAM program within ServiceNow provides organizations with a systematic method to monitor, manage, and optimise their software assets. To fully leverage your SAM program, itโs crucial to adopt a phased approach, generally categorized into Crawl, Walk, and Run stages. This step-by-step process enables organizations to enhance visibility, minimise risks, and boost operational efficiency progressively.
ServiceNow SAM provides a 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.
Mature your SAM program with predefined maturity items
The program maturity is categorized into Crawl, Walk, and Run stages to help you improve the value return of your SAM program, including processes, features, functionalities, and capabilities within your organization. You can link these maturity items to Success goals and Value builder tasks to track and report on the improvements of your SAM application over time.
It is important to recognize that every organisation is unique. The recommendations provided below offer a suggested sequence of activities aimed at ensuring your SAM Program brings value as you expand it across your entire organisation. The activities listed for each phase are suggestions rather than strict guidelines, and we advise you to prioritise them based on your specific requirements.
Crawl Phase: Visibility Into Software Estate/Spend
At this stage, you will establish a healthy Configuration Management Database (CMDB), identify tools to discover software data, and establish processes and roles. You should focus on End-user computing (EUC) or SaaS integrations, for which licensing isn't overly complex and software discovery sources are readily available.
Perform a CMDB Health Check
A healthy Configuration Management Database (CMDB) is essential for the success of a SAM program. Since the CMDB holds all asset and configuration data, ensuring its health and integrity will prevent data issues and improve the effectiveness of asset tracking and lifecycle management.
Steps for a CMDB health check include:
- Validate current asset and configuration data: Ensure that the CMDB accurately reflects all current assets and their relationships to services, systems, and applications.
- Ensure the CMDB is well-structured: Organize the CMDB with well-defined asset classes, categories, and relationships to other IT services to avoid fragmentation.
- Resolve any data discrepancies: Identify and fix any inconsistencies or gaps in the CMDB before importing new asset data.
Establish SAM Processes
Click here to access the Software Asset Management Process Guide on Now Create, offering detailed instructions on how ServiceNow envisions the SAM process.
Identify Key Stakeholders for SAM Program
One of the areas to help with a successful SAM implementation and adoption throughout the organization is to identify key stakeholders. Stakeholders could be anyone affected by the SAM Program. Establishing clear communication and gathering input from these stakeholders could help in gaining support for the SAM program.
Steps to complete:
- Identify different areas that will be impacted by the SAM program
- Identify stakeholders who are invested and supportive to ensure a successful SAM program
- Document and setup clear communication plan with stakeholders
Assignment of responsibility to each role based on level of involvement in the SAM Program
Establish roles and responsibilities for those that need to carry out functions for the SAM program success. Identify the resources that need to be consulted on decisions or informed on outcomes.
Steps to complete:
- Documented roles and responsibility for the SAM Program
- Review RACI with Stakeholders
- Finalize and establish process to publish and maintain on a periodic basis
Define the Success Criteria of the SAM Program
Definition of the goals, objectives, metrics and overall success criteria of the SAM program is important to help identify measurable and achievable milestones and report on progress.
Steps to complete:
- Document Success criteria
- Document the metrics and intended outcomes of a successful SAM program
- Communicate the overall success criteria with your stakeholders
Create software end user request process
Creation of standard and non-standard software request is critical to establish a single point of entry of requests and the ability to source the request from existing licenses if available. ServiceNow Procurement Plugin along with the ServiceNow Request Catalog can used to provide an example of the software request flow and the mechanism to implement the process.
Steps to complete:
- Work with various stakeholders to identify the current process and gaps
- Document the software request process and gain sign-off from stakeholders
- Keep in mind in the Crawl stage not everything needs to be automated. Work on the process steps and then make the process more efficient over time
Measure and share success achieved in the SAM Program
Identify, measure, and share the successes achieved within the SAM Program via the ServiceNow Success Goals in the SAM Module. These success goals can be used to identify potential and actual savings as well as the activities needed to achieve these savings.
Steps to complete:
- Refer to the ServiceNow documentation on Success Goals
- Success goals can be both long- and short-term goals
- Establish a process to record measurable success goals and the activities that is needed to achieve these goals
Establish โswivelโ activities to capture procurement information to related software licenses
In the Crawl stage a full integration to the procurement system may not be achievable. Establishing swivel or data import procedures will help track back to the original purchase of the software entitlement.
Steps to complete:
- Documentation of procedure to capture purchased software entitlements from procurement system
- Utilization of the Procurement Plugin can be used to record the purchase in ServiceNow
Training
Training, both internal to end users and external for SAM resources is essential to a successful SAM Program. Success programs have established standard training materials, short videos, and training classes for end users and SAM resources. SAM resources can receive training from external sources as well as certification training for specific vendors and technologies.
Steps to complete:
- Documented training material is available for End users and SAM resources
- Training on SAM best practices, certifications, and technologies are encouraged to help gain knowledge in the overall Software Asset Management methodologies
EUC: Service Graph Connectors
Software license compliance varies greatly between the datacenter environment and the end-user computing (EUC) environment because of the distinct ways software is deployed and utilized in each setting.
During the Crawl phase, we suggest focusing on identifying software within the EUC environment, as this information is typically accessible through Endpoint Management Tools in most organisations (e.g., Microsoft SCCM/MECM, Microsoft Intune, Tanium, Jamf, etc.).
Service Graph Connectors enable organizations to integrate data from external systems into ServiceNow's CMDB. They help maintain data accuracy, consistency, and alignment with ServiceNowโs Common Service Data Model (CSDM). Explore the links below for more details:
- Service Graph Connector for Microsoft SCCM
- Service Graph Connector for Microsoft Intune
- Service Graph Connector for Jamf
- Service Graph Connector for Tanium
See here for our KB article on Evaluating Third-Party Discovery Sources for Software Asset Management Use Cases.
Steps to complete:
- Identify the sources and the Service Graph connector plugins that are needed
- Follow the instructions on loading the plugin or store application
- Gather the necessary credentials
- Configure the connector to setup the integration and import data
Relevant Demo and Tutorial Content:
- Watch here to learn about Configuring SG-SCCM for IT Asset Management
EUC: Normalization
Software data can originate from various sources and consequently may have different formats. To keep an always-clean software asset database, automatic and continuous normalization standardizes this data. All software data, no matter the source, undergoes a normalization process to standardize installation data from various discovery tools. This involves comparing discovered publisher, product, version, and edition against the ServiceNow Content Library. Matches are recorded in the normalized fields of the Discovery Model table. Additionally, the Content Library adds useful metadata such as lifecycle dates and UNSPSC classification.
If there are any unrecognized outliers, our ServiceNow content service team researches and updates the Content Library, distributing the updated content to all customers. SAM Enterprise customers also gain from Machine Learning Normalization, which helps with partially normalized software where the publisher and product are recognized but the version or edition are not.
You can opt-in to the Software Asset Management Content Service, which lets you submit missed or partially normalized software discovery models to ServiceNow for analysis. Customers receive updated content and rules to enhance software normalization.
Steps to complete:
- ServiceNow Content data is loaded into instance
- Data is populated into various usage tables such as software installations and user subscription
- Verify normalization data on Normalization and Content Service Dashboard in the Software Asset Workspace
Relevant Demo and Tutorial Content:
- Watch here to dive deeper into Normalization Data Services.
- Watch here for more on how to opt-in to the Software Asset Management Content Service
- Watch here for more on how to install the Content Library Portal. The IT Asset Management Content lookup portal gives you visibility into the data stored in the Software Asset Management Content Library.
When is Normalization complete?
Never! ๐ Software normalization is a continuous process because software is constantly being added to and removed from your environment. In SAM, scheduled tasks make sure the normalization process runs regularly for all Software Discovery Models and instantly whenever new ones are generated.
SAM customers typically achieve initial normalization rates of ~85%+ out-of-the-box when leveraging discovery sources such as SCCM. By also opting into the Software Asset Management Content Service, you can expect to achieve higher normalization rates of 95%+
EUC: SaaS Usage via Single Sign-On
The software discovery sources discussed in the previous section such as MECM/SCCM, Intune, Jamf etc. will provide visibility into software locally installed on devices in the EUC estate. However, in todayโs IT landscape end users increasingly consume software products that are not installed on any device in your organization. Such software is consumed via a web browser and is typically licensed on a subscription basis. This software delivery model is known as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).
Companies can leverage Single Sign-On (SSO) data to gain insights into SaaS application usage by analyzing user authentication patterns. SSO provides a centralized log of when and how employees access various SaaS applications, making it easier to track active users, frequency of use, and the adoption of different tools. By examining this data, companies can identify which applications are being used regularly, which are underutilized, and where licenses may be going to waste. This visibility helps optimize SaaS spend, ensure compliance with licensing agreements, and improve security by detecting any unauthorized or unusual access attempts. Additionally, SSO data can inform decisions about renewing or discontinuing SaaS subscriptions based on actual usage trends.
ServiceNow SAM provides integrations to the following SSO providers:
- Okta
- Azure AD
These integrations will enable the download of a comprehensive list of all your SSO applications, users, and groups. You can monitor user login data for all connected applications and reclaim unused licenses. Additionally, you can use this usage data to predict future licensing requirements and reduce the number of unused licenses during renewal.
Steps to complete:
- Follow the required steps in the documentation to create an application/credentials in the SSO provider
- Setup the integration profile in ServiceNow
- Connect the SSO applications in ServiceNow to begin monitoring users and groups who have access to the application
Relevant Demo and Tutorial Content:
- Click here to learn how you can integrate your ServiceNow instance with Microsoft Azure Active Directory (AD) to view software usage for all connected SSO applications.
- Click here to learn how you can integrate your ServiceNow instance with Okta to view software usage for all connected SSO applications.
Create/import entitlements for End user software products
Software entitlements are legal agreements that define the rights to install, use, and distribute software. They outline the specific terms under which an organization can use a software product, including the number of permitted installations, the duration of use, and any associated maintenance or support. Loading software entitlements into SAM is crucial because it enables you to track and manage your software licenses efficiently. This ensures compliance with licensing agreements, helps avoid penalties for overuse, optimizes software spending by identifying unused licenses, and provides a centralized view of all entitlements, facilitating better decision-making regarding software procurement and usage.
For many organisations, 80% of their software spend is across a few โtier1โ software publishers such as Microsoft, VMware, Adobe, Oracle, IBM, SAP, Salesforce etc.
In the Crawl phase, we recommend focussing on creating entitlements for end user software products across both on-premises and subscription-based delivery models.
Steps to complete:
- Gather entitlements data from various sources
- Create software entitlements using the entitlement import, the Entitlement guided setup, or manually create the entitlement in ServiceNow
- Repeat this process for various publishers and products
Relevant Demo and Tutorial Content:
- Watch here to learn about what software entitlements are, the process for obtaining them, and how to generate entitlements for both on-premise and SaaS environments.
- Watch here to learn the steps of creating software entitlements using the โGuided Playbook Experienceโ.
- Watch here to learn the steps of creating Software Entitlements manually using the default โSoftware Entitlementโ form.
- Watch here to learn the steps of creating Software Entitlements in bulk using the "Entitlement Import" feature.
Walk Phase: Cost savings & avoidance / Mitigate risk
In this phase you will begin establishing processes, procedures, policies, resources, and tools to execute on the roadmap of the Software Asset Management program. You can automate the manual processes and procedures, which youโve established during the Crawl stage. Move to more complex licensing models found in datacenter environments, Bring-your-own-license (BYOL) use cases, and additional SaaS publishers. You can consider additional governance and cost control through software metering and reclamation, identify overlapping software, and right-size the software estate through compliance results.
Process: Intake new software titles into the organization
Establish a process to intake new Software titles into the organization. This process should include architecture, security, procurement and contract reviews. Identification of the license metrics, contract terms and conditions, installation requirements, type of software (subscription or software install), and establishing the product owner.
Steps to complete:
- Identify the stakeholders that will be involved in the new software intake process
- Create the process and identify the method for intake
- Utilization of a Catalog item or Demand record will assist with the automation, routing of approvals and review.
Discover Datacenter/Infrastructure environments
In the Crawl phase, we focussed on discovering software in the End User Compute (EUC) estate. In the Walk phase we are going to turn our attention to software deployed in the datacenter. Software discovery in datacenters requires more sophisticated tools and processes to account for virtualization, dynamic environments, and complex licensing.
ServiceNow Discovery is recommended to automatically populate the datacenter. Discovery uses patterns in the discovery process that can be created or customized. The base system contains a wide range of patterns that cover most industry standard network devices and applications. The following are some of the base system patterns used by Software Asset Management:
- Microsoft SQL Server
- Microsoft Exchange Server
- Oracle Database Server
- VMware vCenter
- Citrix XenApp
- Citrix XenDesktop
You can also customize other patterns for Software Asset Management.
Additionally, ServiceNow SAM also provides specific capabilities to gather datacenter software information required for specific software publishers:
- IBM:
- You can integrate with ILMT or BigFix Inventory using either version 1 or version 2 of the ILMT and BigFix Inventory integration APIs. The Software Asset Management application uses these APIs to retrieve data, such as software installation data and peak usage data, from the ILMT or BigFix Inventory. For more information on integrating with ILMT or BigFix Inventory click here
- You can track and manage IBM licenses in both VMware vSphere environments and IBM LPAR infrastructures by integrating the Software Asset Management publisher pack for IBM with Software Asset Management providers that are authorized to participate in the IBM Authorized SAM Provider (IASP) Program. With these integrations, you can track and manage IBM licensing directly without having to integrate with the IBM License Metric Tool (ILMT) or BigFix Inventory. For more information, click here.
- Oracle: To collect installation and usage data for the Oracle products that are deployed in your environment, you must use a discovery process. With the verification and enrolment of ServiceNow in the Oracle Third-Party Tool Vendor (3PTV) Program, the ServiceNow Discovery application and Software Asset Management application are both verified by Oracle to collect and report on this data without requiring any Oracle measurement tools. Oracle discovery, see Oracle Global License Advisory Services (GLAS) data collection.
- SAP: To start connecting your SAP systems and your ServiceNow instance, deploy the ABAP program for SAP.
Steps to complete:
- Identify data sources for datacenter use cases and necessary credentials of all the different environments
- Work with CMDB teams to verify scanned environments and ensure relationships for various applications and virtual environments are populated
Setup Direct integrations to SaaS products
Building on the broad understanding of SaaS usage obtained in the Crawl phase, now is the time to optimize the spend on your most used, highest cost SaaS applications.
Create direct integration profiles to view software usage information and optimize stale licenses.
SaaS integration profile pulls your company's software usage information from the software vendor. This information includes a list of all users and identifies which users haven't recently used the software.
See here for a current list of all the pre-built SaaS Integration profiles. Be sure to check this list regularly as we release new integrations on a quarterly basis!
You can also create integrations for Adobe Cloud and Microsoft Office 365. For more information, see Microsoft 365 integration and Software Asset Management publisher pack for Adobe.
After following this process, you're ready to start reclaiming unused licenses to reduce software costs for your company.
Steps to complete:
- Select from the list of supported integrations that is available on the ServiceNow doc site
- Download the SaaS License Management store application from the ServiceNow store
- Follow the integration instructions for each SaaS application
- Once the integration is complete and the software subscription records are created use the pre-generated software models to create the entitlements
EUC/SaaS: Compliance Validation
Maturity item for compliance validation is to ensure that a process is established to check reconciliation output, identify and fix any data related issues. Reconciliation and compliance checks are critical to the SAM Program to minimize true-up and audit costs and help reduce waste and overspending on software.
Steps to complete:
- Validate reconciliation results within the ServiceNow Software Workspace
- Identify and fix any data related issues. ITAM Health check store application can be used to identify any missing or misconfigured data which can result in incorrect compliance results
- Establish a communication plan to notify stakeholders of results and/or issues that may need attention
- This Maturity item is to establish a process of validation. Complete compliance activities for individual publisher/product will occur on an iterative basis
Create/import entitlements for Datacenter software products
In the Crawl phase, we focussed on creating entitlement data for end-user compute (EUC) software. In the โWalkโ phase we expand the scope to include datacenter software.
The complexity of datacenter software licenses vs. end-user compute (EUC) software licenses varies greatly due to differences in usage environments, scope, scalability, and compliance requirements. Here is a breakdown of the differences:
- Typically, datacenter software is licensed for large-scale, multi-user environments. Examples include server operating systems (e.g., Windows Server, Linux), virtualization platforms (e.g., VMware, Hyper-V), and databases (e.g., Oracle, SQL Server).
- These licenses are often designed to accommodate multiple servers, virtual machines, and data-heavy workloads.
- Software might be installed across multiple physical servers, virtual machines, or even geographic locations.
- Licensing models for datacenter software are often based on metrics such as processor/core count, physical/virtual machine (VM) instances, or RAM allocation. E.g., database licenses might be based on the number of CPU cores in use (core-based licensing) or per server.
- Licenses can be perpetual or subscription-based and may involve more complicated enterprise agreements with discounts based on volume.
- They may also include concurrent user licensing, where a limited number of users can access the system at the same time, regardless of how many users are enrolled. This type of licensing if often seen in Engineering/design software products.
- Datacenter software often comes with complex support agreements involving different levels of service (e.g., 24/7 support, on-site technicians, etc.). Maintenance fees are usually significant and must be renewed yearly, covering patches, upgrades, and premium support.
- Licensing agreements often include complex service-level agreements (SLAs) that dictate performance and availability requirements.
In summary, datacenter software licenses are more complex due to scalability, varied licensing models, and infrastructure integration. They often involve server-based or virtualized environments and require careful compliance tracking. The complexity of datacenter licensing stems from its need to support mission-critical systems, while EUC software focuses more on accessibility and ease of management.
Steps to complete:
- Gather entitlements data from various sources
- Create software entitlements using the entitlement import, the Entitlement guided setup, or manually create the entitlement in ServiceNow
- ITAM Health Check can also be used to verify that the entitlement has been setup correctly
- Repeat this process for various publishers and products
Important Note: The task of creating an accurate baseline of datacenter software entitlements should not be underestimated. Working with a certified SAM partner having specialist knowledge in this area to ensure success in this endeavour is highly recommended.
Relevant Demo and Tutorial Content:
- Watch here to learn about what software entitlements are, the process for obtaining them, and how to generate entitlements for both on-premise and SaaS environments.
- Watch here to learn the steps of creating software entitlements using the โGuided Playbook Experienceโ.
- Watch here to learn the steps of creating Software Entitlements manually using the default โSoftware Entitlementโ form.
- Watch here to learn the steps of creating Software Entitlements in bulk using the "Entitlement Import" feature.
Create Reclamation Rules for EUC & SaaS software
Software Asset Management (SAM) reclamation rules are automated processes used to identify and reclaim unused or underutilized software licenses within an organization. These rules help optimize software license usage and reduce costs by ensuring that unused licenses are reclaimed and made available for other users or purposes.
How Reclamation Rules work:
- Identify Unused Software: SAM reclamation rules define criteria to detect software that hasn't been used for a specified period. For example, if a user hasn't opened a licensed application (on-premises or SaaS) in 90 days, that license may be flagged for reclamation.
- Automate Notifications: Once unused software is identified, SAM can send notifications to users, asking if they still need the software. If not, it can be automatically reclaimed.
- Reclaim Licenses: The system can automatically reclaim unused licenses by uninstalling the software or revoking access, making those licenses available for other users. This reduces the need to purchase additional licenses.
- Reallocation and Reporting: The reclaimed licenses can be reassigned as needed, and the process generates reports on software usage, savings, and compliance improvements.
Overall, SAM reclamation rules help organizations control software spending, maintain license compliance, and ensure efficient resource usage.
Steps to complete:
- Ensure usage data or last used data is available
- Determine the process to remove the software or subscription. Will this be automated via client software distribution or API calls or will this be routed to an assignment group to have the software or subscription removed manually
Relevant Demo and Tutorial Content:
- Watch here to learn about Software Usage data, examine the different methods for importing this data, and demonstrate how to import software usage from SCCM into ServiceNow.
- Watch here to learn about Reclamation Rules in ServiceNow
- Watch here to learn about Removal Candidates and Reclaiming Software Installations.
ITAM Health Check
Now is a good time to run a Heath Check for Software Asset Management.
The Health Check ServiceNow Store application gives a reliable overview of your Software Asset Management configurations and makes recommendations for you to correct any errors that may exist.
The Health Check application can be used by multiple personas such as implementation partners, SAM managers, and support analysts to determine the health check of their configurations.
Use the Health Check ServiceNow Store application during the deployment of the Software Asset Management application to identify errors. For example, configuration errors such as incorrect setup of entitlements or software models, or missing data attributes found from Discovery. For details on running a health check scan, see Run a health check scan for Software Asset Management.
The current set of checks include checks for the following configurations:
- SQL Server Config
- SQL Server CMDB
- Windows Server CMDB
- Windows Server Config
- Database Server - Oracle
- Java - Oracle
- Microsoft 365
- General
After the health scan is performed, view the results on the Health Check dashboard. View the results in the form of reports that you can download, and those reports give recommendations on resolving the issues. For more information, see Health check.
Steps to complete:
- Download ITAM Health Check from Store
- Navigate to the Success Portal and select the ITAM Health Check tab
- Click on the Execute Scan and select the Suite check to execute
Relevant Demo and Tutorial Content:
- Watch here to learn more about the Health Check application, understand the Suite Checks and Scan Results and Review Resolution details.
Data center: Normalization
The normalization process was described in the Crawl phase with a focus on end-user-compute. The focus of this maturity item is around data center software products.
Steps to complete:
- ServiceNow Content data is loaded into instance
- Data is populated into software installation table
- Verify normalization data on Normalization and Content Service Dashboard in the Software Asset Workspace
Run Phase: Operational Efficiency
Establish and use mature, standardized, and automated processes and procedures for centralized software assets tracking and system management. You use the standard catalog and onboarding process for new catalog items in the purchasing process. Provide software to end users through automated on-demand mechanisms and rightsize your software spend. You must also be evaluating processes and establishing Software Asset Management goals regularly.
Process: Integrate the Procurement process with the Request process
Integrating the software request process with the software procurement process is important because it ensures efficiency, cost control, and compliance. By aligning these processes:
- Requests can be quickly evaluated and approved, reducing delays and ensuring that users get the necessary software in a timely manner.
- Procurement can track and manage software licenses more effectively, preventing over-purchasing, consolidating orders, and leveraging volume discounts.
- Centralizing the process ensures adherence to licensing agreements, budget constraints, and organizational policies, reducing the risk of unauthorized software use.
- Integration helps maintain accurate software inventories, preventing the use of unlicensed or outdated software and ensuring proper tracking for renewals or audits.
Relevant Demo and Tutorial Content:
- Watch here to learn about sourcing software requirements through purchase orders
- Watch here to learn about sourcing software requirements through stock
Process: Incorporate software processes as part of the onboarding and offboarding of users
Establishing an onboarding or offboarding process of users is critical to any organization to ensure a consistent and smooth experience and to ensure a standard process is followed. Incorporating Asset Management processes such as the install of software and recording of allocations or the removal of allocation and release of licensing when a user is leaving the organization.
Steps to complete:
- Identify any existing onboarding and offboarding processes within the organization. Many times, these processes can be enhanced to incorporate asset management processes
- Utilize ServiceNow capabilities in HAM and SAM to automate onboarding or offboarding activities and predefined or custom-defined tasks
- Document the process and communicate with stakeholders
Process: Create and document the software audit process
Establishing a software audit process helps organizations reduce the chaos and helps mitigate risk associated to an audit. Identify notifications, involved stakeholders, and any other rules of engagement that may be needed to successfully respond to an audit request.
Steps to complete:
- Consult stakeholders and other internal/external resources while creating the audit process
- Define the stakeholders, associated tasks, system of record and communication plan that will be involved
- Conduct a review of the process and outcomes after each audit to identify areas of improvement
- Document and establish a review cycle for the process
Datacenter: Compliance Validation
The Compliance Validation maturity item was described in the Walk phase with a focus on end-user-compute. The focus of this maturity item in the Run phase is around data center software products.
Steps to complete:
- Validate reconciliation results within the ServiceNow Software Workspace
- Identify and fix any data related issues. ITAM Health check store application can be used to identify any missing or misconfigured data which can result in incorrect compliance results
- Establish a communication plan to notify stakeholders of results and/or issues that may need attention
- This Maturity item is to establish a process of validation. Complete compliance activities for individual publisher/product will occur on an iterative basis
Identify overlapping software
ServiceNow SAM has โoverlapping softwareโ capabilities to help you gain visibility of redundant applications in your software portfolio.
Use the Overlapping usage view in Software Asset Workspace to get insights into the feature level usage and rationalize your SaaS and Single sign-on (SSO) applications that were integrated during the Crawl and Walk phases.
The Overlapping usage view displays reports showing the spend on your applications based on application category - SaaS or spend detection. You can also view the list of applications grouped by categories based on the main function of the software application, such as video conferencing, project management, and email marketing.
This list of applications includes the following details:
- Spend
- Usage
- Total number of subscriptions
- Reclamation candidates
Steps to complete:
- Overlapping usage view in the Software Asset workspace can help identify SaaS and SSO rationalization opportunities
- Additional reporting based on discovery models or software models can be done using the data on the product table
Relevant Demo and Tutorial Content:
- Watch here to learn about Software Spend Detection
Bring your own license tracking
Bring Your Own License (BYOL) lets organizations use their existing software licenses in a cloud or hosted setting, saving them from buying new ones from the cloud provider.
Key aspects of BYOL:
- Cost savings: You avoid the need to buy new licenses, potentially reducing overall costs.
- License compliance: You remain responsible for managing and tracking the usage of your licenses to ensure compliance with vendor terms.
- Flexibility: BYOL allows organizations to migrate workloads to the cloud or new environments without the complexity of purchasing different licenses from the cloud provider.
BYOL is often utilized in cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, allowing you to apply your current licenses for software, including databases, operating systems, or applications.
BYOL support on the Software Asset Management application helps you:
- Discover perpetual and subscription-based software licenses automatically across on-premises and cloud environments, such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, and GCP.
- Determine the license compliance of the following software products across your hybrid infrastructure:
- Microsoft SQL Server
- Microsoft Windows Server
- Oracle Database
- Oracle WebLogic Server
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server
- Provide advanced support for optimization through Cloud Special Rights, such as dual use rights, edition flexibility, and unlimited virtualization.
- Perform remediation when your software is out of compliance.
Steps to complete:
- BYOL data imported by a discovery product such as ServiceNow Discovery is required
- Once the installation is populated and the appropriate BYOL fields, the reconciliation process will handle any rules specific to the product of the installation
Relevant Demo and Tutorial Content:
- Click here to learn about BYOL capabilities in ServiceNow SAM
- Click here to read a blog about BYOL support on ServiceNow
Wrap-up
Implementing a SAM program in ServiceNow is a structured journey that enhances software asset visibility, minimizes risks, and boosts operational efficiency. By adopting the Crawl, Walk, Run approach, organizations can progressively improve their SAM maturity.
We hope you found this article helpful. If so, please give it a thumbs up ๐.
Have a question about The Path to Value for SAM? Something you think we missed? Add a comment below to keep the discussion going!
