Value builder
Summarize
Summary of Value builder
The Value builder is a functionality within the Software Asset Management (SAM) application designed to help thesamuserrole identify and prioritize unused or unimplemented SAM features. It provides insights into integrations, playbooks, and installations to maximize the value of the SAM application in your instance.
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Key capabilities include tracking automatically generated and manually created Value builder tasks, filtering tasks by domain or category, prioritizing tasks by marking them as favorites, and staying informed about upcoming features. The dashboard displays up to 15 tasks, with an option to view more.
Key Features
- Dashboard with Donut Chart Widgets: Four widgets show how fully your instance uses SAM capabilities, including publisher pack utilization and installed plugins.
- Automated Task Creation: Tasks are generated automatically for incomplete or unused publisher packs and other SAM components, helping users focus on areas needing attention.
- Task Management: Users can prioritize tasks by adding them to favorites or dismiss tasks they do not want to pursue.
- Filtering and Navigation: Apply filters by domain or category to focus the dashboard view; selecting portions of widgets navigates to detailed task lists.
- Scheduled Updates: Two scheduled jobs, SAM- Update value builder usage and SAM- Value builder content handler, refresh widget data and tasks.
Value builder Widgets Explained
- SAM apps and plugins: Tracks SAM-related plugins and store applications, showing which are installed (complete) and which are pending installation (incomplete).
- Publisher pack utilization: Displays usage status of publisher packs. A pack is complete if its plugin is enabled, usage is found, and entitlements are created; otherwise, it is incomplete and flagged for follow-up.
- Usage under management: Shows usage of licensable products based on detected usage and entitlement creation. Detection criteria vary by product and can include discovery models, client access records, or subscriptions.
- Value builder tasks by status: Lists tasks in states such as New, In Progress, Pending Review, and Closed Complete, excluding those marked as Closed Skipped.
Practical Use for ServiceNow Customers
As a ServiceNow customer using SAM, the Value builder enables you to:
- Identify gaps in your SAM implementation and usage to maximize your investment.
- Automatically track and manage remediation tasks to improve compliance and efficiency.
- Prioritize key SAM features and updates to focus your team’s efforts effectively.
- Leverage visual insights through the dashboard to quickly understand areas needing attention.
By regularly reviewing and acting on Value builder tasks, you can ensure your SAM instance is optimized, reducing risk and unlocking greater value from your software assets.
Maximize the usage of your Software Asset Management application capabilities by getting insights into integrations, playbooks, and other installations.
Overview of the Value builder
The sam_user role can identify and prioritize functionalities that haven't yet been implemented or aren't being used.
- Learn how close your instance is to maximizing the value of your Software Asset Management application.
- Track Value builder tasks that are automatically generated when publisher packs aren't fully used and are identified as incomplete. You can also manually create Value builder tasks. For details see Create a Value builder task.
- Filter the data by domain or category or you can filter by both domain and category. The filter applies to the entire dashboard, and when selected, displays only the data that matches the specific filter.
- Prioritize or increase visibility of certain tasks by marking tasks as favorites.
- Stay up to date and get a glimpse of the new features available in the upcoming release.
You can view a maximum of 15 tasks in the Value builder section. To see additional tasks, click View all.
Use case for Value builder
The Value builder displays four donut chart widgets to the sam_user role. Each widget shows you how far your instance is from fully using the Software Asset Management capabilities.
For example, the Publisher pack utilization widget shows five publisher packs but only four are being used in your instance. A Value builder task automatically gets created for the additional publisher pack that is not being used and appears in the New Value builder tasks section. You can prioritize this task and click the star icon to add this task to your Favorites list. If you decide not to work on this task, you can click Dismiss to remove it from the New Value builder tasks section.
Value builder widgets
Select a donut chart widget to take you to the list view of records. For example, if you want to view the incomplete publisher pack records, select the incomplete part in the donut chart widget.
- SAM- Update value builder usage
- SAM- Value builder content handler
| Widget | Source | Description |
|---|---|---|
| SAM apps and plugins | sam apps and plugins [samp_sp_apps_and_plugins] | All Software Asset Management plugins and store applications that are available to use and how many haven't been installed on your instance. Complete indicates the store applications and plugins that are installed. Incomplete indicates the store applications and plugins that haven't yet been installed. |
| Publisher pack utilization | SAM Publisher Pack Utilization [samp_sp_publisher_pack_utilization] | All publisher packs that are available for use and how many are actually being used. Complete indicates the publisher packs that are fully used. Incomplete indicates the publisher packs that aren't fully used. Utilization of a publisher pack depends on a criteria. If the value is true for all three details in the Usage details section of a publisher pack record, namely Plugin enabled?, Usage found?, and Entitlements created?, then the publisher pack is considered to be fully used and is set to be complete. If the value for even one of the three entities is false, then the publisher pack is considered to be not fully used and is set to be incomplete. Value builder tasks are automatically created for incomplete publisher packs. The criteria for Usage found? differs for each publisher pack. For details on the specific Usage found? criteria for each publisher pack, see Usage criteria for publisher packs. |
| Usage under management | SAM usage under management [samp_usage_under_management] | Usage of all licensable products. Usage of licensable products depends on a criteria. If the value is true for both Usage found? and Entitlement created?, the product is considered to be used. The criteria for Usage found? differs for each product. For
Usage Found? to be considered complete, any one of the following
entities should be detected in your instance for a product.
|
| Value builder tasks by status | SAM Value Builder Task [samp_sp_vb_task] | All value builder tasks that are in the following states:
Note: Value builder tasks that are in the Closed Skippedstate
aren't displayed. |
| Value builder tasks (In Progress) | SAM Value Builder Task [samp_sp_vb_task] | Value builder tasks that are currently in progress. |
| Value builder tasks (Favorites) | SAM Value Builder Task [samp_sp_vb_task] | Value builder tasks that are marked as favorites. Click the star icon in front of a value builder task, in the Value builder task section to mark it as a favorite. |
| Value builder tasks (Success Guides) | SAM Value Builder Task [samp_sp_vb_task] | Value builder tasks that would enable you in accessing the Success Guides. |
| New Value builder tasks | SAM Value Builder Task [samp_sp_vb_task] | All value builder tasks that are still in the New state and aren't favorites. |
| New Updates | SAM Value Builder Task [samp_sp_vb_task] | Preview of the features in the upcoming release. |