Software license entitlements for the legacy Software Asset Management plugin

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 1 minute to read

    • Software entitlements enable you to define the people or machines to which a specific, purchased software license is assigned.

    Before you begin

    Role required: asset

    About this task

    Asset managers allocate a license to entitle a user or machine to use the license. For example, a company purchases a software license for 100 rights. The software entitlement specifies the 100 employees or machines that are rightfully assigned a license. If the ServiceNow Discovery tool is used and it finds the software installed on 200 machines, the asset manager can identify the employees or computers that have the software installed without a license. The asset manager can ask users to remove the software from their computers.

    Built-in rules prevent entitling more licenses than have been purchased. License entitlements use specific software license asset tags. In addition to the mandatory asset tag, an individual person and a specific configuration item can be assigned.

    The benefits of using software entitlements include the following.
    • If the overall license entitlement is exceeded, the asset manager can rapidly address the problem and return to compliant status by either removing unauthorized software or ordering more licenses.
    • If the license entitlement is not being used completely, the asset manager can respond by lowering the number of licenses purchased in the future.

    Procedure

    1. Navigate to All > Asset > Software > Asset License Entitlements and create a new record (see table for field descriptions).
      Field Description
      Display name Name used in record lists.
      Allocated to The configuration item consuming the license token.
      Licensed by License granting this token.
      Cached Internal flag set and used by software counters logic.
    2. Click Submit.