SAM Pro | How potential savings are calculated?
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04-10-2024 11:57 AM
Hello, does anyone know by chance how the value of the "Potential Savings" field of the records of removal candidates is calculated?
For example, I have this entitlement
and my removal candidates mark this amount as potential savings
My client is asking me for this information, how it is calculated and under what criteria a candidate is generated, does anyone know the formula or where I could look for information, in the Servicenow documentation I have not found anything about it.
thanks
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01-21-2026 12:06 PM
Hi @AlvaroDono I found this response on another article
Here's how the potential savings are typically calculated and what you might need to check:
Calculation of Potential Savings
- Unused or Underused Software:
- Identify software installations that are unused or underused. Unused software is installed but not used at all, while underused software is used less frequently than the defined threshold.
- License Cost Information:
- Ensure that the cost per license is entered correctly in the software model record. This cost information is crucial for calculating potential savings.
- Normalization:
- Software installations need to be normalized correctly to the right software model. Normalization ensures that usage data is correctly associated with the software models.
- Usage Data:
- Accurate and comprehensive usage data is necessary. This data can come from various sources such as SCCM, JAMF, or other discovery tools integrated with ServiceNow.
Reasons for $0 Potential Savings
- Missing Cost Data:
- Check if the cost per license is entered correctly in the software model. Without cost data, potential savings cannot be calculated.
- Incorrect Normalization:
- Ensure that software installations are normalized correctly. Misnormalized installations won't be associated with the correct software models and their costs.
- Lack of Usage Data:
- Verify that usage data is being imported and is up-to-date. If the system doesn't have recent usage data, it won't be able to identify unused or underused software.
- License Compliance:
- If the organization is already compliant and there are no unused or underused licenses, potential savings would naturally be $0.
- Configuration Issues:
- Ensure that the SAM configurations and scheduled jobs related to usage data collection and normalization are running correctly without errors.
Steps to Troubleshoot
- Verify License Costs:
- Go to the Software Models and check that the license cost is entered for each relevant model.
- Check Normalization:
- Review the normalization results to ensure that software installations are correctly associated with the software models.
- Review Usage Data:
- Check the software usage data for completeness and accuracy. Ensure that the data sources are correctly configured and are regularly updated.
- Run Scheduled Jobs:
- Verify that scheduled jobs related to data collection and normalization are running successfully. This includes jobs like "SAM - Software Usage Data Collection" and "SAM - Normalize Software Installations."
- Check SAM Compliance Dashboard:
- Use the SAM Compliance dashboard to review the overall compliance status and potential savings opportunities.
- Update Software Entitlements:
- Make sure that all software entitlements are up-to-date and reflect the current license agreements.
By ensuring that all these aspects are correctly configured and up-to-date, you should be able to accurately calculate potential savings in ServiceNow SAM. If issues persist, it might be helpful to review the SAM documentation or contact ServiceNow support for more specific troubleshooting based on your instance configuration.

