Software Asset Management overview

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated August 1, 2024
  • 2 minutes to read
    • Summarize
    Summarized using AI
    This content was generated using new OpenAI-powered functionality. Results are provided on an as is basis and are not guaranteed to be accurate or complete.

    Summary of Software Asset Management overview

    The Software Asset Management (SAM) application in ServiceNow provides comprehensive tools to manage software installations, licensing, compliance, and optimization across your IT environment. It helps you align software usage with entitlements to ensure compliance, optimize license usage, and support software reclamation efforts.

    Show full answer Show less

    Key Features

    • Dashboards: Visualize software installation data using various dashboards such as Software Asset Analytics, Normalization and Content Service, Software Publisher Analytics (for Citrix, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, VMware), and Office 365/Adobe Cloud dashboards. Some require activation of the publisher pack add-on.
    • Licensing: Use software models linked to entitlements that define license details. Features include publisher part number lookup, license metrics (per core/processor), entitlement discovery maps, client access, license change projections, and entitlement imports with error reporting.
    • Discovery and Normalization: Integrate with discovery tools like ServiceNow Discovery and Microsoft SCCM (2012 v2 or 2016) to identify installed software. The normalization process matches discovered software data to a standardized Software Library for accurate reconciliation. Custom products and manual normalization support are included. The application supports partial/full normalization, normalization suggestions, and an optional content service for updating the normalization library.
    • Integration with Microsoft SCCM: Supports SCCM versions 1606, 1906, 1910, and 2002 via a dedicated plugin. Legacy SCCM plugins are being deprecated in favor of the Service Graph Connector, with migration tools available to assist.
    • Reconciliation: Calculates software compliance status by comparing discovered installations to entitlements. Generates removal candidates for unused software and provides remediation actions to resolve compliance issues.
    • Optimization: Facilitates software reclamation by uninstalling unused software to reclaim licenses. Supports automated reclamation workflows via Client Software Distribution (CSD), creation of reclamation rules, software usage reports, and integration with Procurement to create purchase orders directly.
    • Downgrade Rights: Enables managing license rights to use earlier versions of software despite owning the latest version licenses, built directly into the SAM functionality.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    ServiceNow customers leveraging SAM can expect improved visibility into software usage and license compliance, enabling cost control through optimized license management and reclamation. The application supports automated discovery, normalization, and integration with existing tools like SCCM, making it easier to maintain accurate software asset records. Compliance issues can be proactively managed and resolved using built-in reconciliation and remediation features, while the downgrade rights feature ensures flexibility in license usage. Overall, SAM helps maximize software investment value while reducing compliance risk.

    An overview of the functionality of the Software Asset Management application.

    Software Asset Management functionality consists of these main features.

    Feature area Description
    Dashboards These dashboards show software installation results for your environment in the form of statistics and charts.
    • Software Asset Analytics: Overview, License Summary, Compliance Summary, and Removal Summary
    • Normalization and Content Service: Normalization trend charts
    • Software Publisher Analytics: Citrix, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, and VMware.
      Note:
      The publisher pack add-on must be activated to see the Software Publisher Analytics dashboard.
    • Office 365 and Adobe Cloud
      Note:
      The publisher pack add-on must be activated to see the Office 365 and Adobe Cloud dashboard.
    • Software Asset Management: Overview, Optimization, Compliance Analysis
    Licensing Software models created for all installed software products are used to tie software installations (software being used) with entitlements (software owned). Entitlements define license details and are assigned to software models.

    Features include publisher part number lookup, common per core and per processor license metrics, entitlement discovery maps, exclusion listing, client access, license change projection, entitlement import, and entitlement import error results list.
    Discovery and normalization A discovery process, such as ServiceNow Discovery or Microsoft SCCM (2012 v2 or 2016), can be used to discover the software installed in your environment.

    The normalization process compares the discovered publisher, discovered product, and discovered version values against the ServiceNow repository of normalized equivalents

    An OOB Normalization library contains all content except publisher and product. Custom products can be created if a software product does not exist in the Software Library. Discovered software can also be manually normalized for reconciliation. A software discovery model is then matched to discovered software installations.

    Features include partial, full, and publisher normalization, License Workbench, License Position report, custom pattern normalization rules, normalization suggestions, on-premise customer support, and an optional Software Asset Management content service to update the Normalization Library with pattern normalization rules.

    The Integration — Microsoft SCCM 2016 plugin is compatible with SCCM version 1606, 1906, 1910, and 2002.

    Note:
    Legacy SCCM plugins, SCCM 2012 and SCCM 2016, will be deprecated in the upcoming releases.If you are creating the integration for the very first time, then begin with Microsoft SCCM Service Graph Connector SG Connector. If you are already using one of these plugins then use the application titled Migration Readiness Tool for Service Graph Connector for SCCM in the ServiceNow Store to prepare for migration to the Service Graph Connector.
    Reconciliation The reconciliation process calculates the compliance status of software products regarding discovery and entitlements.

    Removal candidates are generated for unused software that can be used to reclaim software rights.

    Features include reconciliation grouping, and remediation actions for resolving compliance issues.
    Optimization The reclamation process remediates non-compliance by uninstalling software from devices and reclaiming those software rights. The reclamation process can be automated using Client Software Distribution (CSD).

    Features include removal candidate and workflows, reclamation rule creation, software usage listing, and support for creating a purchase order directly using Procurement integration. For more information, see the Procurement overview.
    Downgrade Rights The concept of downgrading licenses is built into the Software Asset Management plugin feature. Downgrade rights is the process of having acquired the rights to the latest version of software but using the rights to license earlier versions of the same software. For more information, see Downgrade Rights.