Content updates for Software Asset Management

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Content updates for Software Asset Management

    The Software Asset Management (SAM) Content Service provides bi-weekly content updates to your ServiceNow instance to help normalize and maintain accurate software asset data. These updates ensure your software asset management processes are aligned with the latest software product classifications, license rules, and discovery details.

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    Key Features

    • Content updates include various software asset data elements such as categories, discovery maps, normalization suggestions, product classifications, license exception rules, product names and types, publishers, suite definitions, software model life cycles and suggestions, custom software product suggestions, and Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) normalization rules.
    • Software models are not updated solely when a publisher's name changes, but they are updated if a product moves between publishers.
    • Product types can be updated at the edition level through custom license exception rules, allowing for precise control of licensability on specific editions.
    • Non-licensable editions cannot be overridden to licensable via rules; instead, customers must contact the Content Service team with documentation to review such cases.
    • The scheduled job "SAM - Apply latest content changes" automates the application of content updates by moving data from staging to target tables and updating related transactional data.
    • The scheduled job "SAM - Create suites for a software model" manages the propagation of suite components and life cycle changes to software models.
    • Customers can disable automated content updates on individual software models by clearing the "Allow automated content updates" flag on the Software Model form; this flag is enabled by default.
    • Life-cycle data added by content updates cannot be deleted but can be deactivated; such data is marked with the source "ServiceNow."
    • Reports such as "Software Models with deactivated discovery maps" help identify software models linked to inactive discovery maps.
    • Content updates do not affect any custom products or custom discovery maps created by the customer.

    Practical Considerations for ServiceNow Customers

    • Regular content updates help maintain accurate software asset normalization and license compliance.
    • Review and manage the "Allow automated content updates" setting on software models to control update applicability.
    • Use provided reports and audit tables to monitor changes and deactivated elements within your software library.
    • Engage with the Content Service team when exceptions or special licensing considerations arise that cannot be handled through standard rules.
    • Custom products and discovery maps remain unaffected by content updates, preserving your custom configurations.

    The Software Asset Management Content Service provides content updates to your instance twice every week that you can use to normalize your data.

    The following types of content can be updated as part of a content update:
    • Categories
    • Discovery maps
    • Normalization suggestions
    • Product classifications
    • Product license exception rules
    • Product names
    • Product types
    • Publishers
    • Suite definitions
    • Software model life cycles
    • Software model suggestions
    • Custom software product suggestions
    • Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) normalization rule
    Note:
    Software models aren’t updated when a publisher's name is updated as part of the content updates. The software model isn't updated because its display name is removed from the core company's reference. However, if a product moves to a different publisher, then the software model gets updated during content updates when the product goes from one core company to the other core company. The publisher name is updated for new software models but not for existing software models.

    Product types can be updated on a product’s edition level using the Custom Product License Exception Rules [samp_cust_prod_lic_excep_rules] table. For cases where certain editions are non-licensable, the product type gets updated automatically if the exception rule is defined in the Product License Exception Rules [samp_prod_lic_excep_rules] table or the Custom Product License Exception Rules [samp_cust_prod_lic_excep_rules] table. However, if a product is non-licensable, an exception rule can’t be created for ​a licensable edition. For this case, you must raise a case with the Content Service team​ with supporting documentation and the team reviews ​whether the edition must be tagged as licensable.

    The SAM - Apply latest content changes scheduled job runs and processes the content updates. After the content download is complete, the updated content is pulled from the staging columns to the corresponding target columns. Related downstream records are also updated.

    A query runs and identifies what transactional data in your instance must be updated with the new content. After the changes are identified, the changes are then propagated to your instance.

    Another scheduled job, SAM - Create suites for a software model, runs and propagates suite component and life cycle changes to your software models. If you don't want content changes applied to a software model, then you can clear the Allow automated content updates flag on the Software Model form. By default, the flag is selected to enable automated content updates to all software models.

    Note:
    If a content update adds life-cycle data, it can't be deleted from the software model, but you can deactivate it. Any life-cycle data that is added as part of a content update has the source set to Servicenow.

    Use the Software Models with deactivated discovery maps report to show software models that are pointing to any deactivated discovery maps.

    To see the changes that have been made to the software library, review the SAM Content Audit [sam_content_audit] table.

    Note:
    Content updates don't have an impact on any custom products or custom discovery maps.

    For more information on how to send your content to ServiceNow, see Enable sharing information with Software Asset Management content service. For more information on content updates, see KB0824127.