Create and manage software suites using the legacy Software Asset Management plugin

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Create and manage software suites using the legacy Software Asset Management plugin

    This topic explains how ServiceNow customers can use the legacy Software Asset Management (SAM) plugin to create and manage software suites. Software suites group related software products offered as a single unit, such as Microsoft Office Professional, which includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Access. Managing suites accurately ensures your organization’s software licenses are counted correctly.

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    Key Features

    • Suite and Component Roles: Each software model can be defined as a suite (parent) or a component (child). A component can belong to multiple suites, for example, Microsoft Word can be part of both Microsoft Office Standard and Professional suites.
    • Inference Controls:
      • Inference percent: Defines the percentage of components that must be installed to infer that the suite is installed.
      • Inference mandatory: Specifies if a particular component must be installed to count the suite as installed.

      For example, setting inference percent to 80% and marking Microsoft Access as inference mandatory means that Access plus 3 of the other 4 components must be installed to infer the suite is installed.

    • Suite Management:
      • Add child components to a suite via the Suite Components section in a software model record.
      • Assign a software model as a child to one or multiple suites in the Suite Parents section.
    • Automated Calculations: Changes to suites trigger a scheduled job “Calculate suites [Software Suite Model]” which runs immediately, calculates suite installations, stores results in the cmdbsamswinstall table, and then deletes itself.

    Key Outcomes

    • Accurate tracking of software licenses by grouping individual software components into suites.
    • Greater control over license inference, helping to precisely identify when a suite is installed based on its components.
    • Automation of suite installation calculations improves efficiency and data accuracy in your software asset management processes.

    Software uses the concept of suites instead of bundles.

    A software suite is a group of related software offered as one unit. An example is the Microsoft Office Professional suite of office productivity software tools that includes Powerpoint, Word, Excel, Outlook, and Access. You can use the legacy Software Asset Management (com.snc.software_asset_management) plugin to create suites and add components to the suite so that the licenses your organization own are counted accurately.

    For any software model, you have the option to specify whether the model is a suite (parent) or a component (child). A software model can be a component in multiple suites. For example, Microsoft Word is a component in Microsoft Office Standard and Microsoft Office Professional. Although you can set a single software model as both a suite and a component, software is not typically sold as nested suites.

    Use the Inference percent and Inference mandatory options for even greater control of suites.
    • Inference percent: specifies what percentage of the components in the suite must be installed for the software to be identified as a suite.
    • Inference mandatory: enforces that a specific component in a suite must be installed to infer that the suite is installed.
    For example, specify the Inference percent as 80% and set the Inference mandatory option to true on Microsoft Access. These settings specify that Microsoft Access must be installed, along with 3 out of 4 other products (Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, and Microsoft Outlook) to infer that Microsoft Office Professional is installed.
    Figure 1. The interference percent and interference mandatory fields
    The interference percent and Interference mandatory fields
    To make the new software model record a parent record in a suite:
    1. Open a software model record.
    2. In the Suite Components section, double-click an empty row under Suite child.
      Figure 2. Suite child
      The suite child
    3. Add the software to include in the suite.
    4. [Optional] Set the Inference mandatory option to true if the software must be installed to count the model as a suite.
    5. Repeat as necessary.
    To make the new software record a child item:
    1. Open a software model record.
    2. In the Suite Parents section, double-click an empty row under Suite parent.
      Figure 3. Suite parent
      The Suite parent
    3. Add the suite to which this software model should belong.
    4. Repeat as necessary.
      Note:
      When a change is made to a suite, a scheduled job called Calculate suites [Software Suite Model] is created. The job runs instantly, calculates any suites, and then deletes itself. The calculations are stored in the cmdb_sam_sw_install table under inferred suite.