License metrics added by the IBM License Compliance for Software Asset Management application

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of License metrics added by the IBM License Compliance for Software Asset Management application

    The IBM License Compliance for Software Asset Management (SAM) application enhances your ServiceNow SAM environment by adding specific license metrics tailored for IBM software products. These metrics help classify and reconcile IBM software licenses more accurately when you have activated the Software Asset Management publisher pack for IBMandinstalled the IBM License Compliance application. Simply activating the publisher pack alone does not provide these additional metrics.

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    Key Features

    • The application introduces IBM-specific license metrics to improve license reconciliation precision.
    • Software Asset Management automatically adds default license metrics for supported publishers (e.g., Adobe, Microsoft) through publisher-specific metric groups.
    • For IBM, the default metric group includes key metrics such as Authorized User, Per Device, Per Processor (CPU count), Processor Value Unit (PVU), Resource Value Unit (RVU), and Virtual Processor Core (VPC), among others.
    • Any IBM license metrics beyond the default IBM metric group must be added manually as custom license metrics in your ServiceNow instance for reconciliation purposes.
    • Custom license metrics allow you to incorporate additional software license calculations not covered by default metrics, enhancing your reconciliation capabilities.

    Practical Implications for ServiceNow Customers

    • To fully leverage IBM license reconciliation, ensure you both activate the IBM publisher pack and install the IBM License Compliance for SAM application.
    • Use the provided default IBM metrics for standard reconciliation scenarios.
    • If your IBM licensing requirements include metrics outside the default set, create custom license metrics in ServiceNow to incorporate these into your reconciliation process.
    • This approach ensures that discovered IBM software products in your environment are accurately classified and reconciled, supporting compliance and optimized license management.

    The IBM License Compliance for Software Asset Management application adds license metrics that enable you to classify your IBM software products.

    These additional license metrics are available only if you have activated the Software Asset Management publisher pack for IBM and installed the IBM License Compliance for Software Asset Management application. They are not available if you have only activated the Software Asset Management publisher pack for IBM.

    You can also use license metrics to reconcile the software products that are discovered in your environment. The Software Asset Management application automatically adds default license metrics for supported software publishers by using publisher-specific metric groups, such as the Adobe and Microsoft metric groups. These license metrics are then set in your corresponding software entitlements and used for reconciliation. Any additional license metric that is not included in an existing metric group must be added as a custom license metric in order to be used for reconciliation. Custom license metrics modify the reconciliation process by adding software license calculations that are not already included in the default list of supported license metrics.

    By default, the IBM metric group includes the following license metrics for IBM reconciliation:
    • Authorized User
    • Authorized User Value Unit
    • Employee User Value Unit
    • External User Value Unit
    • Per Device
    • Per Named User
    • Per Processor (CPU count)
    • Per user
    • Processor Value Unit (PVU)
    • Resource Value Unit (RVU)
    • Virtual Processor Core (VPC)

    All other license metrics that are added by the IBM License Compliance for Software Asset Management application are not included in the IBM metric group. If you want to reconcile your IBM software products using any of these license metrics, you must create a corresponding custom license metric on your ServiceNow instance. See Add a custom license metric for more information on how to create a custom license metric.