What is prerequisite for SAM Pro greenfield implementation on servicenow

[amit_kishore]

Hi All,

We have a requirement from the customer to onboard more than 500 software into servicenow  into Software Asset Management Professional. This includes a mix of software that already belongs to known publishers as well as several that do not fall under any existing publisher category.  

Before we begin with the development and actual onboarding activities, it would be extremely helpful if someone could provide a detailed list of prerequisites needed for this exercise. Specifically, we are looking for clarity on any technical, functional, data, or process‑related requirements that must be fulfilled beforehand to ensure a smooth and efficient onboarding process.  

If there are specific guidelines, environmental checks, data preparation steps, integration dependencies, access requirements, or best practices that we should be aware of, kindly share those as well. Any documentation, checklists, or references that have been used in similar past exercises would also be greatly appreciated.  

Your support will help us plan the effort accurately and avoid delays during execution

Note: we dont have discovery enabled environment however we have integration from BMC helix to update the CMDB for infra related CIs and SCCM& JAM for end user devices 

regards,

Amit

[Mark Manders]

So you are asked to do something and have no idea how to do it? Maybe the solution is to tell your customer to look for someone else?

Did you check on the SAM Implementation course (yes, there are courses for that). Did you check what ServiceNow already offers through NowCreate?

[Vikram Reddy]

Hi Amit,

ServiceNow Discovery is not mandatory for a SAM Pro implementation, but trusted software inventory, software usage, device/CI data, normalization, and entitlement data are mandatory.

Since your environment does not have ServiceNow Discovery, SCCM/MECM, Jamf, BMC Helix, and any other inventory tools must provide the required SAM data into ServiceNow. CMDB infrastructure CIs alone are not enough for SAM Pro reconciliation.

For a greenfield SAM Pro implementation, I would validate the following prerequisites before onboarding 500+ software products:

1. Platform readiness

- SAM Professional subscription is available.
- Software Asset Management Professional plugin com.snc.samp is activated.
- Software Asset Workspace is available if you plan to use the workspace experience.
- Required roles are assigned, such as sam_admin, sam_user, model_manager, asset, procurement_user, contract_manager, and integration/admin roles.
- SAM Content Service is enabled and content updates are running.
- Store apps/connectors are installed for the inventory sources, such as Service Graph Connector for SCCM/MECM and Service Graph Connector for Jamf.

2. Inventory source readiness

Because ServiceNow Discovery is not enabled, validate the source systems carefully:

- SCCM/MECM for Windows endpoint inventory, installed software, removed software, and usage.
- Jamf for macOS/iOS inventory, installed applications, and software usage where supported.
- BMC Helix for infrastructure/server CIs.
- Additional sources may be required for server/datacenter software, databases, virtualization, SaaS, cloud, Oracle, IBM, VMware, SQL Server, etc.

The key check is whether these sources populate the SAM-required tables, not just CMDB CI tables.

Important SAM tables/data include:

- Software Installation [cmdb_sam_sw_install]
- Software Discovery Model [cmdb_sam_sw_discovery_model]
- Software Usage [samp_sw_usage]
- Software Model
- Software Entitlement
- Software Subscription [samp_sw_subscription] for SaaS

3. CMDB/device data readiness

Before onboarding software, clean and validate device/CI records.

Minimum fields to check:

- Computer/server CI exists.
- Serial number or unique identifier is populated.
- Device name is consistent.
- Assigned to / owned by is populated where required.
- Company, department, cost center, location are populated if you need grouping.
- Device lifecycle state is accurate: active, retired, disposed, duplicate, etc.
- VM/host/cluster relationships exist for datacenter products.
- Processor/core/socket data exists where licensing depends on hardware capacity.

For products like SQL Server, Windows Server, Oracle, IBM, VMware, and Red Hat, endpoint install data alone is not enough. You may need host, VM, cluster, processor, core, and relationship data for reliable reconciliation.

4. Software installation and usage readiness

For each source, validate that software records include:

- Publisher
- Display name
- Version
- Edition, if available
- Install device
- Install status
- Discovery source
- Last discovered date
- Removed/uninstalled software data
- Usage data where reclamation is required

ServiceNow creates Software Discovery Models from discovered software. The documented primary key is Publisher, Display Name, and Version. Discovery models are not manually created; they are generated from discovered software installation data and then normalized.

5. Normalization and Content Service readiness

Enable and use SAM Content Service as early as possible. Content updates include items such as publishers, products, product classifications, discovery maps, suite definitions, license exception rules, normalization suggestions, software model lifecycle data, and product names.

For known publishers, use Content Service normalization and publisher content wherever possible.

For software that does not fall under an existing publisher/product, classify it first:

- Licensable commercial software
- Freeware
- Driver
- Patch
- Component
- Child product
- Internal/custom product
- SaaS/subscription product

Only licensable software should be prioritized for reconciliation. Unknown software should not all be treated as license-managed by default.

6. Entitlement and contract readiness

Reconciliation is not meaningful without entitlement data.

Collect the following before onboarding high-priority products:

- Publisher
- Product
- Version/edition
- Publisher part number/SKU, if available
- License metric
- Quantity purchased
- Contract number
- PO/invoice details
- Start/end dates
- Maintenance/support dates
- Upgrade/downgrade rights
- Subscription terms
- Company/cost center/region ownership
- Allocations or consumption rules, if required

ServiceNow documentation confirms that software entitlements relate software models to the rights purchased. Reconciliation compares discovered/required usage against those rights.

7. License metric readiness

For each software title, identify the correct license metric before onboarding.

Examples:

- Per device
- Per user
- Named user
- Per install
- Per processor
- Per core
- Per server
- Per VM
- Subscription
- Concurrent/floating
- SaaS user subscription

Do not onboard 500 titles without license metric classification. The same installation count can produce different compliance results depending on the metric.

8. SaaS readiness

If some of the 500 titles are SaaS applications, do not handle them like endpoint-installed software.

Use SaaS License Management where applicable. ServiceNow supports OOB SaaS integrations for many applications, and if the SaaS application is not listed, a custom integration profile can be created. SaaS integrations populate subscription data and usage/activity data, not just software installation data.

9. Process and governance readiness

Define process ownership before starting development/onboarding:

- Who owns software normalization?
- Who owns entitlement import?
- Who approves custom software products?
- Who reviews reconciliation results?
- Who handles true-up?
- Who handles reclamation?
- Who validates exceptions?
- Who maintains contracts and publisher part numbers?
- What is the inventory refresh frequency?
- What is the reconciliation cadence?

10. Recommended onboarding approach

Do not onboard all 500+ titles at once.

Recommended wave approach:

- Wave 1: Top 10-20 high-cost/high-risk publishers.
- Wave 2: Products with clean inventory and entitlement data.
- Wave 3: SaaS/subscription products.
- Wave 4: Custom/unknown products after classification.
- Wave 5: Low-risk freeware/utilities/drivers/non-licensable products.

Start with a pilot. Import inventory, validate software installations, normalize discovery models, create software models and entitlements, run reconciliation, and validate License Usage/License Workbench results.

Your biggest prerequisite is not ServiceNow Discovery. Your biggest prerequisite is data readiness.

If SCCM, Jamf, and BMC Helix provide complete and trusted device, software installation, usage, entitlement, and relationship data, SAM Pro can work without ServiceNow Discovery. If they only populate infrastructure CIs and not SAM-specific software/usage data, reconciliation will be incomplete or misleading.

Thank you,

Vikram Karety