Using Contracts seems to create duplicate work

[loberle]

Hi all,

Release: San Diego with SAMP license

I wanted to know how others are handling Contract Management and Software. I feel like I am duplicating efforts.

We use Contract Management for all of our hardware/software renewals. Basically, if it has an end date it is located in the contracts module. We have a series of automated workflows that kick off based on renewal date including notifying the business owner of upcoming renewal and creating a procurement task for the finance team.

Each Contract has the hardware and software associated to it. We also track the start/end date, invoice, PO, vendor order date and use rate cards to track the finance piece. 

Software subscriptions are entered as an entitlement with Invoice, PO, Vendor, dollar amount, etc. Each software subscription is tied to a contract which includes the same financial information. This has been our process prior to SAMP being release and before entitlements had start/end dates. I feel like I am entering the same data in so many tables. Each renewal, I have to then update both the contract and Software Subscription.

Our Finance teams runs reports from the contract table to assist with budgeting and forecasting. If I track Contracts and a Software subscription in its own area, how would someone see everything coming due?

How are others handling this?

Do you track software subscriptions in entitlements only?

Thanks

Lisa

[jaheerhattiwale]

@loberle I think Software subscriptions should be tracked in the contracts because we have the workflow for the renewal, extension there. And we can link the contracts to software entitlements in contracts section.

[loberle]

True, but it creates so much more work. 

When you renew the subscriptions you have to update the same fields in both the contract and the software entitlement.  It just seems so redundant. 

We create a new entitlement when e each subscription renews since it would have different purchasing details. 

For each renewal you need to...

Create a new entitlement for the new year

Tie that new subscription entitlement to the existing Contract.

Move all allocations to the new entitlement

Update the contract with the same information that is in the entitlement.

Remove the older license entitlement from the contract.

Not that big of a deal if you only have one entitlement on the contract but when you have 6 or 7 entitlements per contract and you have multiple contracts renewing each month, it is a lot of work.

You also have to keep an eye on the product that was renewed.

Most likely, there is updated version which creates the new model which creates the below work..

Create a new model (from part number or manual)

Check the discovery to make sure it is correct.

Update the software catalog that is published for users to tie to the new model.

Unpublish the old catalog item.

Update KB article if needed.

This may be the best practice but it is hard to keep up with the workload. Especially if you do not have a large Asset Management team.

[MercBuilding · Accepted solution]

Hi,

  I agree that the work is redundant for entering in two different places but each has it own use cases, Contracts generally notify owners to renew and send remainder notifications before 90 days, 60days, 30 days and when it is expired, you can view terms and conditions of the contract and ofcourse the most important one is financial information which helps in reporting, whereas Software entitlements deals with number of rights you have purchased through the contract, and this information will be used in reconciliation for further audits and see how many are being utilized. One easy option is to enter these details into separate Contract import excel sheet and Software entitlement excel sheet and import the data, the system will create the data from excels. I know that some fields are redundant in both software entitlement and contracts, identify those type of fields and get in touch with Servicenow support team and look out the options to automate creation of contract which has same values as entitlement and once entitlement is created the contract record will also be created automatically and then you can go and fill out the other details and then send it for approval. You can scripts to automate the repetitive work you are doing and which will be the constant process/approach you are following.

Hope this helps!

If my answer helped you in any way or if this resolved your issue, please then mark it as helpful or correct accordingly to set this thread to solved.

Thanks!