Software Asset Management release notes
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Summary of Software Asset Management release notes - Xanadu release
The ServiceNow® Software Asset Management (SAM) application in the Xanadu release enhances the tracking, evaluation, and management of software and SaaS assets, focusing on cost control, utilization, compliance, and optimization. This update introduces capabilities to manage software inventory from day one, control software version sprawl, and handle end-of-life (EOL) products through defined workflows. It also expands support for virtualized environments, cloud deployments, and SaaS license management.
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Key Features
- Expanded Integration and Visibility: Direct integration with Tableau Cloud and enhanced views of GitHub Enterprise Cloud subscriptions help optimize SaaS license usage and reclaim unused licenses.
- Enhanced SaaS License Optimization: Smartsheet subscription analysis without additional add-ons, minimized user permission requirements for SaaS integrations, and login-based license insights for Salesforce CRM.
- Improved Licensing Models: Support for licensing Oracle Java SE Universal using an Employee license metric with tiered discounts; enhanced Microsoft 365 subscription tracking including Visio, Project Online, and Copilot; and more accurate software suite licensing with inference settings.
- Advanced Asset and License Management: Export capabilities from the Software Asset Workspace for deeper analysis, actionable insights into discovered software inventory including normalization, version control, and EOL status, and combined spend transaction data for overlapping software usage.
- Virtualization and Cloud Compliance: License compliance management for Microsoft Windows Server, SQL Server, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (RHEL) on Nutanix virtualization technology; automated tracking of Microsoft Windows Server Client Access Licenses (CAL); and IBM license tracking across public clouds using IBM License Compliance for SAM.
- SAP Digital Access Licensing: Management of indirect SAP application usage to avoid unexpected costs by licensing based on document counts generated through third-party or intermediary software.
- Cluster and Normalization Enhancements: Consolidated cluster health, license use, and optimization views; wide-net normalization for similar discovery models to improve software product normalization efficiency.
- Content Management: Ability to submit and manage content requests for software products directly within the application, including adding custom software products when not found in the content library.
- Security and Compliance: SaaS application integration with minimal user permissions to reduce security risks; enhanced discovery and reporting for Oracle Java and middleware certified by Oracle Global License Advisory Services (GLAS).
- UI and Reporting Updates: Updated widgets and reports in Software Asset Workspace for overlapping usage and license usage views, improving clarity on SaaS and spend detection data.
Important Upgrade Information
After upgrading to Microsoft Entra ID spoke 4.3, the Microsoft Azure AD - Download Group Membership directory job is replaced by a job that downloads all groups and memberships. Legacy dashboards are deprecated for new users activating the Software Asset Management Professional plugin, with access maintained for existing users unless migrating to the Workspace plugin.
Activation and Plugin Details
The Xanadu release requires activation of the Software Asset Management Professional plugins, including the Software Asset Workspace plugin, to access new features and the updated user interface. Once activated, reverting to the classic UI is not possible. Additional SAM-related applications like SaaS License Management and IBM License Compliance are available via the ServiceNow Store.
Related ServiceNow Applications
- Hardware Asset Management: For tracking and managing physical assets.
- Enterprise Asset Management: For end-to-end lifecycle management of enterprise assets.
- Cloud Cost Management: To analyze and optimize cloud-related expenses.
- Contract Management: For contract tracking and management.
- Procurement: To facilitate purchase orders and service catalog fulfillment.
The ServiceNow® Software Asset Management application systematically tracks, evaluates, and manages the cost, utilization, compliance, and optimization for software and SaaS applications. The Software Asset Management application was enhanced and updated in the Xanadu release.
Software Asset Management highlights for the Xanadu release
- Gain insights into your software asset inventory from the first day, control version sprawl, and manage end of life (EOL) software products with the prescribed workflows.
- Use the added support for the Nutanix virtualization technology to meet your license compliance requirements for Microsoft Windows Server, SQL Server, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (RHEL Server).
- Track and optimize IBM licenses across public clouds by using the IBM License Compliance for the Software Asset Management application.
- Track and manage the indirect usage of SAP applications, avoiding any unexpected licensing costs by using the SAP Digital Access licensing model.
See Software Asset Management for more information.
Important:
SaaS License Management, Data Collection for Oracle Global Licensing and Advisory Services, IBM License Compliance for Software Asset Management, ITAM Health Check, and Software Asset Management Guided Experiences are available in the ServiceNow Store. For details, see the "Activation information" section of these release notes.
Important information for upgrading Software Asset Management to Xanadu
After upgrading to the Microsoft Entra ID spoke 4.3 version, the Microsoft Azure AD - Download Group Membership directory job isn't executed for existing Microsoft Azure AD SSO or Directory integrations. This directory job also isn't created for new Microsoft Azure AD SSO or Directory integrations. Instead, the Microsoft Azure AD - Download Groups directory job downloads all groups and group memberships configured on Microsoft Azure AD.
New in the Xanadu release
- Direct integration support for the Tableau Cloud application
- Gain visibility into the subscriptions and reclaim stale licenses by integrating your ServiceNow instance with the Tableau Cloud application.
- Gain a complete view of your GitHub Enterprise Cloud Subscriptions
- Take advantage of the enhanced ability to optimize your GitHub Enterprise Cloud subscriptions, including outside collaborators, pending invitations, and pending outside collaborators.
- Minimize cost while optimizing Smartsheet subscriptions without the need for the Event Reporting add-on
- Optimize your Smartsheet subscriptions without the additional Smartsheet Event Reporting add-on. Use the Smartsheet integration to retrieve the last login information, enabling you to analyze the subscriptions that aren't used efficiently, reducing software spend for Smartsheet.
- Integrate your SaaS applications with minimal user permissions
- Minimize security risks and protect information by granting access only to the necessary user or API permissions for optimizing SaaS licenses.
- Get visibility into the login-based licenses of Salesforce CRM applications
- Gain insights into the number of Salesforce CRM login consumptions without the need to create user subscriptions.
- License your organization for Oracle Java SE Universal with the Employee license metric
- License all your employees that are using Oracle Java SE Universal with the Employee license metric. The tier-based licensing model also supports licensing discounts.
- Expand your analysis of asset information using the export capabilities in the Software Asset Workspace
- Gain more insights and streamline operations with support for exporting asset information from the Software Asset Workspace.
- Improve Software Asset Management licensing outcomes with actionable insights into discovered inventory
- Gain insights into discovered inventory, normalization, EOL software products, software version, and edition proliferation in your estate. Act to improve normalization, reduce version and edition proliferation, and remediate EOL software.
- Expand your analysis of overlapping software usage with added insights from spend transactions
- View data related to spend transactions in the Overlapping usage view in Software Asset Workspace. You can gain insights into the combined data from applications including spend detection, Direct integration profiles, and SSO integration profiles.
- Determine license compliance for Microsoft Windows Server, SQL Server, and RHEL Server deployed on Nutanix virtualization technology
- Address your license compliance requirements for Microsoft Windows Server, SQL Server, and RHEL Server with deployments on Nutanix virtualization technology.
- Reduce manual effort for managing Microsoft Windows Server Client Access Licenses (CAL) with automated usage tracking
- Track and manage the users and devices that are accessing your server software using ServiceNow® Discovery and use the automatic base CAL creation support for Microsoft Windows Server.
- Optimize Microsoft Visio, Project Online, and Microsoft 365 Copilot subscriptions on the Microsoft 365 Admin Center
- Track the usage of Microsoft Visio, Project Online, and Microsoft 365 Copilot subscriptions through the Microsoft 365 Admin Center and create reclamation candidates for any unused subscriptions. Additionally, you can monitor blocked users across all subscriptions who are consuming licenses for potential removal.
- Improve licensing accuracy for software suites with additional configuration for detecting software suites
- Improve licensing accuracy for software suites by setting an inference number for suite components. For newly created software models that include suite components, the Number inference option is selected by default.
- Limit the License usage view to managed software
- Display software model results for only those software models that are associated with entitlements, limiting the License usage view to managed software.
- Gain comprehensive insights into cluster configuration, licensing, and optimization
- Simplify cluster analysis by consolidating infrastructure, license usage, optimization, and cluster health data into a single, comprehensive view. This consolidation empowers Software Asset Management (SAM) managers to comprehend their cluster setup, examining details such as hosts, virtual machines, and software running on the cluster. Additionally, they gain insights into software license usage, optimization, and health issues. Equipped with this knowledge, SAM managers can make informed decisions that cover all aspects of their clusters.
- Gain improved normalization coverage for similar discovery models through wide-net normalization
- Achieve improved normalization of software products that have similar discovery models through wide-net normalization. With wide-net normalization, the Software Asset Management application uses a single normalization rule to normalize software products that share the same patterns for the discovered major version, discovered publisher, and discovered product. The Software Asset Management application can then immediately normalize your discovered software products without requiring the Content Service team to create additional normalization rules for similar discovery models. With this streamlined normalization process, you can reconcile and determine the license compliance of your software products more efficiently.
- Manage content requests for software products directly through the Software Asset Management application
- Submit, review, and disposition content requests for software products directly through the Software Asset Management application. If any publicly available software products don't exist in the Software Asset Management Content Library, you can add them to your ServiceNow instance as custom software products. By adding these custom software products to your instance, you can immediately use them in your downstream processes while automatically submitting corresponding content requests to the Content Service team. After these content requests are processed by the Content Service team, you can consolidate the custom software products with the software products that are added to the Software Asset Management Content Library.
- Manage license compliance for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) software across hybrid infrastructures
- Use bring your own subscription (BYOS) support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) to determine the license compliance of your RHEL software across both on-premise and public cloud environments. Supported public cloud providers include AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP). Use your license compliance information to remediate any RHEL software installations that are non-compliant.
- Optimize IBM licensing across public clouds by using the IBM License Compliance for Software Asset Management application
- Use the IBM License Compliance for Software Asset Management application to track and measure IBM licenses across public clouds. Supported public cloud providers include AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
- Optimize license costs for Microsoft Windows Server and Microsoft SQL Server deployments on your clusters
- Use the Microsoft Core License Optimization reports to gain insight into the recommended cost-based licensing optimizations for your Microsoft clusters. Use this information to maximize cost savings across your Microsoft cluster deployments.
- Manage licenses for indirect access to SAP applications using SAP Digital Access licensing model
- Track the usage of SAP applications through a third-party application or a non- SAP intermediary software by using the SAP Digital Access model. In this licensing model, the usage of SAP applications is licensed by the count of documents created by the third-party application. The documents include the following:
- Sales
- Invoices
- Purchase Orders
- Service & Maintenance
- Manufacturing
- Quality Management
- Time Management
- Financial
- Material
- Access software content data in National Security Cloud (NSC) Department of Defense (DOD) Impact Level 5 (IL5) deployments
- Access Software Asset Management Content Library data and receive regular software content updates for your NSC DOD IL5 deployments through the NSC DOD IL5 Content Data Service (CDS).
- Gain increased visibility to Java landscape with enhanced ServiceNow Discovery application and reporting certified by Oracle Global License Advisory Services (GLAS)
- Access Oracle verified GLAS data by downloading Oracle Java reports populated by the ServiceNow Discovery application. The Discovery application also supports the discovery and evidence download of the Oracle database and middleware.
UI changes
- Reports displaying the combined data for SaaS and spend detection applications in the Overlapping usage view
- On the Overlapping usage view of Software Asset Workspace, the following widgets have been changed:
- Highest count in overlapping software application is replaced by Total count for SaaS and spend detection applications
- Highest spend in overlapping software application is replaced by Total spend for SaaS and spend detection applications
- Report visualizations with details of published products on the License usage view
- On the Publisher details page of the License usage view, the following widgets have been changed:
- True-up cost and Savings are replaced with score cards
- Software Model Statistics are removed
- Progress indicators are split into two widgets, with one widget showing only unlicensed entities
Removed in this release
The following legacy dashboards are no longer available for new Xanadu users who have activated the Software Asset Management Professional (com.snc.samp) plugin or upgraded to Xanadu without activating the Software Asset Management Professional (com.snc.samp) plugin prior to Xanadu.
- Office 365 and Adobe Cloud dashboard
- Software Asset Analytics dashboard
- Software Publisher Analytics dashboard
- SaaS Overview dashboard
- Software Asset Management dashboard
- Engineering License Overview dashboard
- Normalization and Content Service dashboard
- Software Asset Management Foundation dashboard
- Overlapping Software dashboard
Note:
If you activated the Software Asset Management Professional (com.snc.samp) plugin prior to Xanadu but didn't activate the Workspace plugin (com.sn_sam_workspace), you have access to the legacy dashboards. If you activate the Workspace plugin, you aren't able to access the legacy dashboards from
the Software Asset navigation menu in your instance. You can, however, access the legacy dashboards from the Dashboards navigation menu.
Deprecations
- In the Software installation [cmdb_sam_sw_install] table, the Installs associated to lifecycle column is deprecated.
- In the Software lifecycle Reports [sam_sw_product_lifecycle_report] table, the Installs column is deprecated. You can view the Software installation related list by selecting the Name column.
Activation information
Software Asset Management is available with activation of the Activate all Software Asset Management Professional plugins, including the Software Asset Workspace plugin (com.sn_samp_master_ws). Activating this plugin automatically activates the Activate all Software Asset Management Professional plugin (com.sn_samp_master) and the Software Asset Workspace plugin (com.sn_sam_workspace). After the new plugin is activated, you can't access the classic user interface. For details about the plugins and how to request them, see Components installed with Software Asset Management Professional.
In the ServiceNow AI Platform® Xanadu release, there's limited support for the Software Asset Management classic user interface. While it remains active in your instance, including when you upgrade to a new ServiceNow AI Platform® release, you can move to the new workspace for an intuitive and personalized experience.
For releases prior to Utah, if you activated the older Software Asset Management Professional plugin (com.sn_samp_master), the Software Asset Workspace is available with activation of the Software Asset Workspace plugin (com.sn_sam_workspace). After the Workspace plugin is activated, you can't revert to the classic user interface. For details about the plugins and how to request them, see Request the Software Asset Management plugins.
To activate Next Experience, make sure that the glide.ui.polaris.experience system property in your instance is set to true.
Install the following Software Asset Management applications by requesting them from the ServiceNow Store. Visit the ServiceNow Store website to view all the available apps and for information about submitting requests to the store. For cumulative release notes information for all released apps, see the ServiceNow Store version history release notes.
- Software Asset Management - SaaS License Management
- Data Collection for Oracle Global Licensing and Advisory Services
- IBM License Compliance for Software Asset Management
- ITAM Health Check
- Software Asset Management Guided Experiences