Crawl-Walk-Run approach in implementing a SAM program in ServiceNow (Part 3 - Run)

Run Phase: all about operational efficiency

This is the moment when you focus on establishing and using mature, standardized, and automated processes and procedures for centralized software assets tracking and system management. You use the standard catalog, and onboarding processes for new catalog items in the purchasing process. And you provide software to end users through automated on-demand mechanisms, and rightsize your software spend. It is also very important that you set up a clear structure to ensure regular process evaluations and (re) alignment with your Software Asset Management goals.

In the article by Kieron Dean, ServiceNow distinguishes a number of processes that are crucial in the Run Phase:

• Integrate the Procurement process with the Request process;
• Incorporate software processes as part of the onboarding and offboarding of users;
• Create and document the software audit process.

 Process: Integrate the Procurement process with the Request process

This process is important because it ensures efficiency, cost control, and compliance. By aligning these processes you can achieve:

• Requests can be quickly evaluated and approved, reducing delays and ensuring that users get the necessary software in a timely manner.
• Procurement can track and manage software licenses more effectively, preventing over-purchasing, consolidating orders, and leveraging volume discounts.
• Centralizing the process ensures adherence to licensing agreements, budget constraints, and organizational policies, reducing the risk of unauthorized software use.
• Integration helps maintain accurate software inventories, preventing the use of unlicensed or outdated software and ensuring proper tracking for renewals or audits.

All this ensures that there is a clear flow of data and information on how software originally was purchased, which is important to define how it needs to be managed.

 Process: Incorporate software processes as part of the onboarding and offboarding of users

A correct and efficient user onboarding or offboarding is critical for any organization to ensure a consistent and smooth experience.

Steps to complete:

• Identify any existing onboarding and offboarding processes within the organization. Many times, these processes can be enhanced to incorporate asset management processes.
• Utilize ServiceNow capabilities in HAM and SAM to automate onboarding or offboarding activities and predefined or custom-defined tasks.
• Document the process and communicate with stakeholders.

ITAM and HR teams need to work hand-in-hand to manage both digital and physical assets. When you have HR asset management solutions in place, employee records connect directly to assigned assets, which helps keep every detail on track. This helps cut down the follow-up exchange between the two departments, as it automatically syncs the information about employees’ roles and needs. HR stays in the loop on which devices or software are allocated, and IT gets notified when they need to act upon those needs – which helps everyone save time and focus on other high-value work.

When an employee leaves, data security and cost control both hinge on proper ITAM management during offboarding. ITAM addresses three main concerns from different departments: It reclaims assets, wipes data securely from devices, and revokes access to accounts and software. When an employee leaves a company, it doesn't mean they automatically lose access to sensitive information - unless ITAM is involved! Offboarding through ITAM means making sure all devices and accounts are securely closed out.

When devices are collected and wiped, and software access is rescinded, organizations stay protected against data leaks or unauthorized use. This helps prevent situations where former employees might unwantedly or deliberately access company information long after they’ve left.

A very important benefit of thorough offboarding is to reclaim and repurpose assets rather than constantly purchasing new ones. ITAM handles the retrieval, reset, and reallocation of assets, stretching their lifecycle (as an example, reassigning a laptop to a new employee).

 Process: Create and document the software audit process

Organizations are trying to keep up-to-date with ever-changing licensing rules and stay in control of their license position. Establishing a software audit process helps organizations reduce the chaos and helps mitigate risk associated to an audit.

Steps to complete:

• Consult stakeholders and other internal/external resources while creating the audit process.
• Define the stakeholders, associated tasks, system of record and communication plan that will be involved.
• Conduct a review of the process and outcomes after each audit to identify areas of improvement.
• Document and establish a review cycle for the process.

Like ServiceNow, we strongly recommend to have ITAM policies in place that ensure that you will be able to respond to any type of audit. Again, the ISO 19770-1 standard provides clear guidance on the processes, activities and tasks that are crucial to be able to answer any query for trustworthy data.

 ServiceNow distinguishes three main topics:

1. Datacenter: Compliance Validation
2. Identify overlapping software
3. Bring Your Own License (BYOL) tracking

Datacenter: Compliance Validation

The Compliance Validation maturity item was described in the Walk phase with a focus on end-user-compute. The focus of this maturity item in the Run phase is around data center software products.

Steps to complete:

• Validate reconciliation results within the ServiceNow Software Workspace.
• Identify and fix any data related issues. The ITAM Health Check store application can be used to identify any missing or misconfigured data which can result in incorrect compliance results.
• Establish a communication plan to notify stakeholders of results and/or issues that may need attention.
• This maturity item is to establish a process of validation. Complete compliance activities for individual publisher/product will occur on an iterative basis.
  

 Identify overlapping software

ServiceNow SAM has ‘overlapping software’ capabilities to help you gain visibility of redundant applications in your software portfolio.  

Use the Overlapping usage view in Software Asset Workspace to get insights into the feature level usage and rationalize your SaaS and Single sign-on (SSO) applications that were integrated during the Crawl and Walk phases. The Overlapping usage view displays reports showing the spend on your applications based on application category - SaaS or spend detection. You can also view the list of applications grouped by categories based on the main function of the software application, such as video conferencing, project management, and email marketing. This list of applications includes the following details:

• Spend
• Usage
• Total number of subscriptions
• Reclamation candidates
  

Steps to complete:

• Overlapping usage view in the Software Asset workspace can help identify SaaS and SSO rationalization opportunities.
• Additional reporting based on discovery models or software models can be done using the data on the product table.

Bring Your Own License (BYOL) tracking

Bring Your Own License (BYOL) lets organizations use their existing software licenses in a cloud or hosted setting, saving them from buying new ones from the cloud provider.

Key aspects of BYOL:

• Cost savings: You avoid the need to buy new licenses, potentially reducing overall costs.
• License compliance: You remain responsible for managing and tracking the usage of your licenses to ensure compliance with vendor terms.
• Flexibility: BYOL allows organizations to migrate workloads to the cloud or new environments without the complexity of purchasing different licenses from the cloud provider.

BYOL is often utilized in cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, allowing you to apply your current licenses for software, including databases, operating systems, or applications.

BYOL support on the ServiceNow Software Asset Management application helps you:

• Discover perpetual and subscription-based software licenses automatically across on-premises and cloud environments, such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, and GCP.
• Determine the license compliance of the following software products across your hybrid infrastructure:
  • Microsoft SQL Server
  • Microsoft Windows Server
  • Oracle Database
  • Oracle WebLogic Server
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server
• Provide advanced support for optimization through Cloud Special Rights, such as dual use rights, edition flexibility, and unlimited virtualization.
• Perform remediation when your software is out of compliance.

Steps to complete:

• BYOL data imported by a discovery product, such as ServiceNow Discovery, is required.
• Once the installation is populated and the appropriate BYOL fields, the reconciliation process will handle any rules specific to the product of the installation.

 Conclusion

The ServiceNow article clearly aligns with best practices for IT Asset Management as defined in the ISO/IEC 19770-1:2017 standard for ITAM, which specifies requirements for an IT asset management system within the context of an organization. The standard is a guiding beacon, offering a robust framework tailored explicitly for managing software assets. This standard not only streamlines compliance and risk management but also paves the way for optimizing IT costs.

In the past 15 years we have assisted our customers in setting up the processes around ITAM, and helped them increase their maturity. The aspects that ServiceNow highlights in the Run Phase are all part of this journey, and make sure that organizations can get maximum value out of the capabilities of the tool as a result of solid processes at the back-end.

We will be more than happy to help you link our practice.

Read more?

• Part 1: the Crawl phase
• Part 2: the Walk phase