How ServiceNow IT Asset Management (ITAM) Can Provide Business Value in the Current Economy

       

      How ServiceNow IT Asset Management (ITAM) Can Provide Business Value in the Current Economy

      Ketan Shah, Senior Solution Consultant

      A mature IT Asset Management (ITAM) program is your cornerstone to maximizing business value in any economy.  ServiceNow ITAM offers the visibility you need across your asset estate—bringing everything together for more informed decision-making to reduce costs and risk.

      ServiceNow ITAM (IT Asset Management) is the set of business practices that join financial, contractual, and inventory functions to support life cycle management and strategic decision making for the IT environment. IT Assets include all elements of software and hardware that are found in the business environment.

      Key to a successful ITAM Practice is the establishment and maintenance of an Asset Management Database (“AMDB”) that provides essential information on the in-scope IT Assets and related contracts, such as Software License, Warranty, and Service Support Agreements.

      To effectively implement an ITAM “Best Practice”, you start by assessing the current state methods in managing:

      • IT Assets throughout their life-cycle
      • IT Asset Cost Allocation
      • Software Asset Management
      • IT Contracts Management (Warranty, Service Support, Software License
      • Vendor and Configuration Management

      Your ServiceNow implementation partner or ServiceNow ITAM process Owner can prepare ITAM requirements and solution document with details on current state methods for requesting; purchasing, receiving, life-cycle tracking, disposal, and charge back of IT Assets and related IT Contracts; recommended remedies, improvements your organization should consider, and the business initiatives required to implement an ITAM “Best Practice”. If you have an ITAM Governance Board they can drive process improvement initiatives along with the ServiceNow implementation to ensure that ITAM processes are well integrated, efficient, not overly complicated, well documented, and timely initiated.

      Some of the outcomes to support your ServiceNow ITAM program can include:

      • Collection of All Active Software License Agreements/Entitlement Business Rules
      • Consolidation of Like, Active Software License Agreements
      • Discovery Tool(s) Integration and AMDB Reconciliation Testing
      • IT Asset Capital Cost Business Rules and Cost Allocation
      • ITAM in Meeting Compliance Regulations
      • Collect Unused IT Assets, Return to Inventory
      • Hardware, Software Request and IT Contract Process Improvement
      • Harvesting Unused Licensed Software and reduce spend
      • Mitigate risks with Lost or Stolen IT Assets

      The determination for which IT assets should be in-scope for tracking within the Asset Management Data Base (“AMDB”) is typically based on one or more of the following guidelines:

      • Cost of the asset (considered capital equipment and depreciated), e.g. all equipment costing $750 or more
      • Asset ownership, e.g. assets owned only by particular entities within the organization
      • Importance of the asset to the enterprise
      • Organizational and geographical considerations
      • Specify Out-of-scope Assets like monitors, laptop accessories, A/V equipment, non-licensed SW

      Considerations for applications in ServiceNow ITAM can depend on external or internal facing services, e.g., a CRM, HR, or payments system. For platform (Paas) and infrastructure assets consider the owners and end-users associated with the vendors, the make and model, and SKU of a product. (Generic, e.g., a specific version of the software, but independent of licensing. Or the vendor and model/serial number of a laptop.)

      ServiceNow HAM utilizes the base Asset Management plugin which is only available to customers of ITSM or CSM. Therefore, for a customer to purchase HAM, they must also purchase or already be a customer of either ITSM or CSM.

      For Software, once the product is deployed, the tasks to manage include managing the asset and metering the use. Once the product is discovered and normalized, you also need to configure ServiceNow to harden the configuration and monitor vulnerabilities. The data can be very useful and can yield significant financial savings during licensing true-up and renegotiating contracts.

      Implementation Steps:

      • Install Normalization Data Services
      • Validate Model Categories and Asset Creation Strategy
      • Hardware Model Normalization
      • Increase normalization accuracy by ensuring Model Number is present
      • Procurement & Asset Refresh – Set assignment groups and asset flows
      • Asset Receiving
      • Asset Tagging
      • Stock Rooms
      • Asset Audits
      • Auto-Discovery
      • Asset Reconciliation
      • Asset Cost Allocation
      • Regulatory Compliance, Information Security
      • Asset Retirement and Disposal
      • Asset Tasks (e.g. actions on for Incident, Change, and Work Orders)
      • Changes to existing ServiceNow tables
      • Schedule Jobs (Normalization, Content, Refresh, Audits
      • ITAM Dashboards and Reporting

      Flow for any asset in the image below can be associated to a catalog item and starts when an associated item is ordered to when the item is put in use.