Best Practice for Migrating Software Entitlements to Production in SAM Pro

[entcenginee]

We are defining a standardized process for software entitlement creation and migration in SAM Pro. Currently, there are two ways to create entitlements:

• Bulk import using Excel template (validated in sub-PROD, then run in PROD)
• Manual creation in Software Asset Workspace (for smaller volumes)

Key considerations:

• Entitlements should not be promoted via Update Sets. I proposed for bulk imports, we need to create import sheets and run them on sub-PROD and also on PROD. The BA suggested we should run import only once in sub-PROD (since for Adobe publisher, creating import sheets take a lot of time since they send us raw extracts from legacy system) and then package the licenses into an import set and send it off to PROD. My opinion is – stakeholders should not be doing this. Their activities should be restricted to Software Asset Workspace.
• Software owners should work only in Software Asset Workspace, not backend tables. Their activities should be restricted to Software Asset Workspace. Let me know if I am wrong here.
• Change Requests are not needed for entitlement creation. This is something that I need to educate stakeholders on. We are migrating licenses from legacy system to new system and they feel we need to do this as part of change request.
• Some software (e.g., Adobe, Microsoft, ESRI, SAP ECC, SuccessFactors) may require publisher-specific handling.

Question:

Considering the above points - what is the recommended best practice for entitlement creation and migration in SAM Pro? Should we enforce a single standard process across all publishers, or maintain publisher-specific processes (Adobe, Microsoft, SAP, etc.)?

[entcenginee]

@dreinhardt - Would you please let me know your thoughts on this question?