SACM Workshop Best Practice and Road Map Implementation Process Guide - PL Corp Dec 2015

SERVICE, ASSET & CONFIGURATION WORKSHOPGUIDE
FOR
PL CORPORATION
VERSION:1.3

IT Asset Management
SACM Process Guide v1.3 Page 2 of 120
RevisionHistory
Version Date of Issue Nature of Changes Author (s)
1.1 December28, 2015 Initial Doc–Internal – PT (Linium) &DS (SN) PhilipTishberg- Linium
1.2 January15, 2016 Final Notes/RecommendationsCompleted PhilipTishberg- Linium
1.3 January15, 2016 Final DeliverableContent DinoSammarco

IT Asset Management
Table of Contents
1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY...................................................................................................................6
1.1 Scope...........................................................................................................................................................................6
1.2 Process Description...............................................................................................................................................6
1.3 Critical Findings.....................................................................................................................................................6
1.4 Critical Recommendations.................................................................................................................................8
1.5 Next Steps.................................................................................................................................................................9
2 ASSET WORKSHOP OVERVIEW.....................................................................................................11
2.1 Scope........................................................................................................................................................................12
2.2 Process Description............................................................................................................................................12
2.3 Process Goal..........................................................................................................................................................13
2.4 Process Objectives...............................................................................................................................................13
2.5 Best Practice Relationship with other processes....................................................................................14
2.6 Best Practice Asset Management..................................................................................................................14
3 PROCESS ROLES...........................................................................................................................16
3.1 Best Practice RACI Matrix...............................................................................................................................18
3.2 PL Process Roles..................................................................................................................................................19
4 ASSET MANAGEMENT LIFECYCLE PROCESS OVERVIEW .................................................................20
4.1 Best Practices – Asset Management Lifecycle Process Overview.....................................................20
4.2 Best Practices – Asset Management Lifecycle Process Overview (phases 1-4)...........................20
4.3 Best Practices – Asset Management Lifecycle Process Overview (phases 5-7)...........................24
4.4 Best Practices – Asset Management Lifecycle Process Overview (phases 8-10)........................27
4.5 PL – Asset Management Lifecycle Processes / Business Use Cases..................................................29
5 ASSET MANAGEMENT PROCESS GUIDE ........................................................................................30
5.1 Governance............................................................................................................................................................31
5.1.1 Policy Management........................................................................................................................................31
5.1.2 Processes.............................................................................................................................................................32
5.2 Fulfillment.............................................................................................................................................................37
5.3 Auditing..................................................................................................................................................................41
5.4 Active Asset Management................................................................................................................................45
5.5 Disposition.............................................................................................................................................................49
5.6 IT Financial Management...............................................................................................................................52
6 SERVICENOW CONFIGURATION REQUIREMENTS..........................................................................58
6.1 ServiceNow Plugins............................................................................................................................................58
6.2 Model / Class (Product Catalog)...................................................................................................................58
6.3 Models.....................................................................................................................................................................59
6.4 Asset Class.............................................................................................................................................................60
6.5 Configuration Item Class (Model Category).............................................................................................60
6.6 Asset and Configuration Item Status...........................................................................................................61
6.7 Asset States (install_status)............................................................................................................................61
6.8 CI Statuses(install_status)..............................................................................................................................62
6.9 Asset & CI State/Status Synchronization...................................................................................................63
6.10 Naming Conventions & Data Normalization.........................................................................................63
6.11 Naming Conventions.......................................................................................................................................64
6.12 Data Normalization........................................................................................................................................64

IT Asset Management
6.13 Integrations........................................................................................................................................................65
6.14 MID Server..........................................................................................................................................................65
6.15 Web Services......................................................................................................................................................65
7 SERVICENOW IMPLEMENTATION.................................................................................................67
7.1 Implementation Methodology.......................................................................................................................67
7.2 PL Current Capability Summary...................................................................................................................70
7.3 Tier 0 Governance Capability.........................................................................................................................70
7.4 Tier 1 Trustworthy Data..................................................................................................................................70
7.5 Tier 2 Practical Management........................................................................................................................71
7.6 Tier 3 OperationalIntegration......................................................................................................................71
7.7 Tier 4 Strategic Conformance........................................................................................................................72
7.8 Implementation Roadmap..............................................................................................................................73
7.9 Roadmap Overview............................................................................................................................................73
7.10 Process Roadmap.............................................................................................................................................73
7.11 Technology Roadmap.....................................................................................................................................74
APPENDIX A: DOCUMENT CONVENTIONS.........................................................................................84
APPENDIX B: GLOSSARY OF TERMS AND ACRONYMS........................................................................85
APPENDIX C: ISO/IEC 19770-2 SOFTWARE ASSET TAGGING ...............................................................91
APPENDIX D: ASSET MANAGEMENT PROCESS OVERVIEW .................................................................92
1 ASSET MANAGEMENT PROCESS ACTIVITY OVERVIEW (BEST PRACTICE LEVEL STACK).....................................92
2 ASSET MANAGEMENT PLANNING AND DESIGN (BEST PRACTICE LEVEL STACK).................................................93
3 PROCURE ASSET ACTIVITY (BEST PRACTICE LEVEL STACK).....................................................................................94
4 RECEIVE ASSET ACTIVITY (BEST PRACTICE LEVEL STACK)......................................................................................96
5 MANAGE ASSET ACTIVITY (BEST PRACTICE LEVEL STACK)......................................................................................97
6 DISPOSE ASSET ACTIVITY (BEST PRACTICE LEVEL STACK)......................................................................................98
APPENDIX E: ROLES ASSOCIATED WITH SERVICENOW IMPLEMENTATIONS........................................99
1 CUSTOMER RESOURCES.....................................................................................................................................................99
2 SERVICENOW RESOURCES.............................................................................................................................................100
APPENDIX F: CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT PROCESS OVERVIEW...............................................101
1.1 OVERVIEW..................................................................................................................................................................101
1.2 PROCESS DESCRIPTION............................................................................................................................................101
1.3 PROCESS GOAL..........................................................................................................................................................101
1.4 PROCESS OBJECTIVES...............................................................................................................................................101
1.5 RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHER PROCESSES............................................................................................................102
1.6 PRINCIPLES AND BASIC CONCEPTS.......................................................................................................................103
1.7 PROCESS OVERVIEW ................................................................................................................................................107
1.8 PROCESS PLANNING AND DESIGN .........................................................................................................................109
Process Planning andDesign Activity Description.........................................................................................109
1.9 CONFIGURATION IDENTIFICATION ........................................................................................................................113
Configuration Identification ActivityDescription..........................................................................................113
1.10 CONFIGURATION CONTROL..................................................................................................................................115
Configuration Control ActivityDescription......................................................................................................115
1.11 STATUS ACCOUNTING AND REPORTING ............................................................................................................116
Status Accounting and Reporting Activity Description................................................................................116
1.12 VERIFICATION AND AUDIT ...................................................................................................................................117

IT Asset Management
Verification and Audit ActivityDescription......................................................................................................117
1.13 KPIS..........................................................................................................................................................................119
1.14 REPORTS & HOMEPAGE GAUGES........................................................................................................................119
APPENDIX G: DATA CERTIFICATION AND VERIFICATION..................................................................120

IT Asset Management
1 Executive Summary
1.1 Scope
The following Service Asset & Configuration Management (SACM) Guide was created in support
of an Asset & Configuration Management Workshop between PL Corporation and ServiceNow
(SN). The results of the Asset & Configuration Management Workshop are provided within this
report.
The Asset & Configuration Management Workshop (Service, Asset & Configuration Workshop)
was held at PL’s Corporate Headquarters in Birmingham, Alabama. Stakeholders from PL were
present to provide details related to Service Asset & Configuration Management within PL.
1.2 Process Description
This report identifies the facts discovered during onsite efforts with PL and any follow-up
efforts that may have occurred or planned for at the time of this document. These facts serve
as baseline information that is used to both assess the current ITAM environment and
recommend roadmap activities. Any details provided by PL are both referenced and embedded
within this document unless otherwise noted.
ServiceNow recognizes the importance of IT Asset Management for mitigating risks, reducing
costs, and optimizing services supported by technology. The ability to effectively perform IT
Asset Management is based on several factors identified as the Asset Lifecycle. The ServiceNow
IT Asset Management Methodology focuses on enabling efficient management of IT Assets
based on industry standards and real-world experience. The following are summary elements
that identify critical findings and recommended next steps.
1.3 Critical Findings
PL is beginning a new effort related to IT Asset Management. This effort currently lacks the
following elements for long-term success.
1. Protective currently does not have a single central repository of asset records across the
company. Instead a variety of disconnected tracking tools are used to store segments of
information:
 SCCM is relied on for asset discovery data. SCCM reports only discoverable
attributes of discoverable assets thereby missing cost and assignment information
for all assets and missing the In Stock, In Maintenance, and Retired assets entirely
 Protective has a “project allocation” method for their financial system that is used to
track asset purchases, however these are not organized in a single easy to access
data store, and are only tied to specific assets, especially those that are not
capitalized
 Spreadsheets are used to track pieces of information, however there are no whole
asset records with inventory. The cost and contractual data is being tracked through
the Finance/Procurement Group (Laura)

IT Asset Management
2. There is currently no policy-driven, end-to-end Asset Lifecycle Management process in
place across the organization and asset types to manage and track assets from the time
they are acquired to the time they are disposed. The front (beginning) of the Asset
Lifecycle is better understood, managed and tracked. The predicament question of
“Where is the asset?” after it arrives is what is underlining this Critical Finding.
Specifically:
 Each IT Services team has their own set of procedures that they follow to complete
their tasks
 There are no documented process policies or procedures across Protective
 There is no process automation to enable efficient reportable process compliance
 There is no tracking of process updates to asset records, such as when and where it
was returned to stock
3. The third key observation is that there is currently no formal IT Asset & Configuration
Management organization with defined roles and responsibilities and users and groups
assigned to the roles. The IT Services teams perform designated services related to the
assets they manage, however their guardianship over the asset record is not defined or
documented.
 There is no formal program management office (PMO) for SACM
 There is no governance for SACM
 There are no documented roles and responsibilities for SACM
 There is no continuous end-to-end ALM process governing the complete asset
lifecycle - Procurement, Stockroom Management, Request Management, Move /
Add / Change (MAC), Support, and Disposition
 There are no targets or metrics to report their progress for asset management
related tasks such as creating or updating asset records in a timely manner following
an introduction or modification of an asset
 There is no formal audit procedure in place to measure the accuracy of asset and
configuration data
4. There is currently no real synergy between asset and configuration management and
the business and IT services they support.
 ServiceNow is not being used yet as the CMDB with raw discovery data being relied
on referentially when evaluating incidents and planning upcoming changes
 No formal integration or synchronization of processes or data between the key
process areas of SACM – Financial, Contract, and Physical asset management
 No formal synchronicity at either the process or data level with the IT Services that
rely on trustworthy SACM data: Incident, Problem, Change, Release & Deployment,
Disaster Readiness, Continuity and Availability management services
 No comprehensive CMDB with consistent standard based configuration item
records, attributes and relationships to support the IT services

IT Asset Management
5. There is currently no business services map identifying the PL critical business services
and the relationships of the IT assets and configuration items that support them.
 No CI relationships among CIs
 No ability to gauge impact of a proposed change based on CI relationships
 No ability to report total cost of ownership of assets at the Asset Level, It is there for
the business service level due to the Financial “Service Allocation Method”
employed.
 PL current ITAM Capability Assessment score is 1.8 out of a total 4.0. This assessment is
based on the International Standards Organization (ISO) tiered Asset Implementation
recommendation. A score of less than 3.0 shows a need to focus on Governance and
Trustworthy Data (See Section 7.2)
Tier / Activity Score
Tier 0 – Governance 0.4
Tier 1 – Trustworthy Data 0.5
Tier 2 – Practical Management 0.5
Tier 3 – Operational Integration 0.5
Tier 4 – Strategic Conformance 0.5
Total Capability Score (out of 4.0) 1.8
1.4 Critical Recommendations
Based on best practices from our customers and experts, the following critical
recommendations have been made.
PL has some pieces in place that will be needed for a successful SACM program. What is lacking
is the stitching together of these pieces. The following key recommendations will form the basis
of the PL Foundational SACM framework.
R1. Establish a common data model for the use of asset and configuration item data
elements in the ServiceNow platform
 Foundational data including users, departments, entities, locations, and
stockrooms
 Model management data including vendors, models, and maintenance contracts
 Asset identification data including model, asset tag, and serial number
 Asset assignment data including assigned user, department, location, entity,
stockroom, host computer, cluster, rack, rack unit, and operating environment
R2. Establish a SACM organization of defined roles and responsibilities with data stewards
assigned for each asset type

IT Asset Management
 SACM Process Owner
 Hardware asset managers – Microsystems (Desktop, Unix, Virtual) & Other (e.g.,
Headsets) and IT Services
 Software asset managers – Microsystems and IT Services (same as above, esp.
figure out non-persistent DT tracking if the value is for license & is the only
effected determinant for the data tracking)
 Configuration manager
 SACM data analyst
 SACM tools administrator
R3. Establish a common end-to-end policy driven and metric monitored Asset Lifecycle
Management (ALM) processes for all asset types and management scopes covered by
Protective IT Services
 Request fulfillment - Deployment
 Acquisition – Purchase tracking and Receive
 Mass moves – Departments, Data centers, etc.
 Reclaim/ restock of unused assets
 Retirement and disposal of assets at end of life
R4. Establish the ServiceNow CMDB
 Define the data model – configuration items and attributes desired for the
CMDB
 Configure SCCM to capture desired data elements
 Import the SCCM discovery data (Compare for cleaning against the BDNA data
for a more accurate inventory prior to migrating into Production for use)
 Update configuration items with non-discoverable attributes (Wyse Terminals?)
R5. Establish a Business Services Maps using ServiceWatch that can be used for impact
analysis when managing incidents, changes, and unplanned events
 Identify core services where continuity, availability, and capacity are key
 Identify the entry points to these services, such as a URL
 Let ServiceWatch build and update the Business Service Map
1.5 Next Steps
An implementation plan has been provided (See Section 7) that suggests a phased approach for
SACM at PL using ServiceNow. This phased implementation will need to include the time to
build the requirements (stories) needed to begin a technical implementation of Phase 1.
It is recommended to focus on any Process recommendations while implementing the technical
requirements.

IT Asset Management
ServiceNow is available to assist in any enablement and implementation efforts in support of
PL. The details of this report may be easily turned into an implementation Statement of Work
upon your request.

IT Asset Management
2 ASSET WORKSHOP OVERVIEW
ServiceNow has assembled the following Service, Asset & Configuration Management (SACM)
Workshop Guide that will assist PL in optimizing the implementation and operation of IT Asset
and Configuration Management within ServiceNow.
The guide includes a review of the existing processes, roles & responsibilities, best practice
recommendations, and ongoing asset & configuration management guidance.
In addition to the SACM Process review, the Asset Management Workshop Guide provides an
Action Plan for the implementation of IT Asset Management within ServiceNow. This action
plan identifies PL specific configuration requirements that can be used to build Stories for
implementation. A roadmap is provided to assist PL in the planning of activities related to initial
and ongoing implementation of IT Asset Management within ServiceNow.
A Service, Asset & Configuration Workshop was held at PL in Birmingham, Alabama during the
week of December 16-17, 2015. ServiceNow representatives included
ROLE ATTENDEE
Engagement Manager DinoSammarco (SN)
Process/Business Lead PhilipTishberg(Linium)
Technical Consultant RoderickGodfrey(SN)
The following PL representatives participated in the workshop.
ROLE / O R G A N I Z A T I O N ATTENDEE
RiskAnalysis Ron W.
Business Service Level Costing/Allocation KenW.
NetworkAnalysis –WorkflowAutomation Jeff B.
NetworkAnalysis –WorkflowAutomation AjayB.
QualityandProcessManagement Gerry I.
SACMOwner ChrisB.
Enterprise Architecture JeremyP.
ServiceNow JonS./Eric R.
ServiceNow &BillingManager KimP.
Finance Laura T.
Service Operations Steve M./DerekS.
Facilities,DataCenter Rich U./SamP.
Enterprise Messaging Joe S.
This document assumes that the Asset Management Workshop has been completed and that
one or more of the Asset Management applications have been, or will be, activated. The
applications are as follows: Asset Management, Software Asset Management, and Contract

IT Asset Management
Management. PL also plans to test the Procurement module in parallel with use of their current
procurement system for feasibility and use with the other components mentioned.
2.1 Scope
The attendees shared at the beginning of the workshop some of the goals that they personally
wanted to get out of the workshop and the future use for SACM in SN. In no particular order as
above the following are the goals mentioned individually and collectively shown:
• Implementation project roadmap and scope
• Maturing current asset processes
• Hardware life cycle refresh
• Impact of changes on configuration items, cascading up to business services
• Data Analytics/BSM/BI/ITSM –Workflow automation
• Vendor Management, Contract Management, Risk Analysis, Coordination with Business
Team
• Desktop procurement
• Inventory of server assets, physical, virtual, non-discoverable items
• Single Source of record for IT assets
• Leverage CMDB for monitoring
• Life cycle management. Ability to coordinate Application owners for schedules &
maintenance window notifications
• Lifecycle of desktop hardware
• Maintenance renewals on hardware/software/license purchases
• Making asset tracking, software compliance, and allocations simpler
• Impact of changes throughout the ecosystem. Mapping assets all the way through
business process/service
• Workflow automation. How do we leverage the tools we have to become more
efficient?
• Business service level costing and allocation: “how much does it cost us to run
Application X?”
• Risk Analysis, Coordination with Business Team
The enclosed process models are compliant with the concepts depicted in the ITIL
framework. Additional elements related to industry best practices are offered in a
manner to facilitate best-in-class performance related to IT Asset Management.
ITAM is the process responsible for tracking accurate and complete financial, contractual,
and operational information about hardware and software assets. Asset Management is
not Configuration Management.

IT Asset Management
Asset Management is one of the lifecycle processes in ITIL and is one of the foundations
of IT Service Management.
2.3 Process Goal
IT Asset Management (ITAM) is a core business discipline that integrates financial,
contractual and inventory processes, controls and technologies, enabling strategic
decision making for the IT environment.
ITAM business practices have a common set of goals:
 Uncover savings through process improvement and support for strategic
decision making
 Establish governance and control processes over hardware and software asset
inventory
 Reduce total cost of ownership (TCO) through transparency in all costs
associated to assets and how it supports critical business services related to
budgeting, allocation, accounting, and service valuation
 Increase accountability to ensure compliance
 Enhance performance of assets and life-cycle management
 Reduce impacts to assets caused by changes
2.4 Process Objectives
Configuration Management:
Focuses on operational usage and
logical relations

IT Asset Management
ITAM Process objectives describe material outcomes that are produced or achieved by
the process. The following is a list of objectives for this process:
 Challenge the Status Quo
 Identify data needs
 Identify opportunities for automation
 How to build a Roadmap for proceeding further is tabled but outlined until
further discussion around requirements occurs.
2.5 Best Practice Relationship with other processes
This is a graphic depicting not only ITIL best practice, but a clear functional map for
Service Now workflows and the design that those tasks enable the tool to leverage for the
processes.
2.6 Best Practice Asset Management
Process RelationDescription Input Output
Service
Request/
The IT AssetRepositorycontainsdetailsof the infrastructure
vital to efficientincidentclassification,initialsupport,
X

IT Asset Management
Process RelationDescription Input Output
Incident
Management
investigationanddiagnosis.
WhenAssetrecordsare identifiedasinaccurate,incident
recordsare createdand assignedto Assetmanagementfor
correction.
X
Change
Management
The CMDB provideschange managementwiththe necessary
informationforthe assessmentof the riskandimpactof
proposedchanges.
X
New,modifiedordisposedassets. Change management
ensuresthatthe informationrelatedtoassetsisupdated
properlyfollowing the implementationof achange.
X

IT Asset Management
3 PROCESS ROLES
Each role is assigned to perform specific tasks within the process. Within a specific process,
there can be more than one individual associated with a specific role. Additionally, a single
individual can assume more than one role within the process although typically not at the same
time. Depending on the structure and maturity of a process, all roles described may not exist in
every organization.
The following describes the typical roles defined for service asset management, and the
identified personnel that will be undertaking that role:
Role Description
Designee
Process
Owner
A SeniorManagerwiththe abilityandauthoritytoensure the processis
rolledoutandusedby the entire ITorganization.
Responsible andAccountable for:
 Definingthe overallmissionof the process
 Sponsorship,design,andcontinual improvementof the process
and itsmetrics
 Establishingandcommunicatingthe processmission,goals,and
objectivestoall stakeholders
 Ensuringconsistentexecutionof the processacrossthe
organization
 Reportingonthe effectivenessof the processtosenior
management
 Initiatinganyprocessimprovements
 Resolvinganycross-functional(departmental)issues
ChrisB.
Asset
Manager
Responsible for:
 Managing the dayto day activitiesof the process
 Maintainingdatacontinuitywithinthe IT AssetRepository,
includingAsset Models
 Trackingand governingcompliance of the processwithintheir
team
 Gatheringandreportingonprocessmetrics
 Escalatinganyissueswiththe processtothe ProcessOwner
KimP/Laura
T./Jeff
B./JeremyP.
Asset
Analyst
Responsible for:
 Assetsdefinedwithinthe scope of theirarea
 Recordingandmaintainingassetswithinthe Repository
 Monitoringthe repositoryforaccuracy& consistency
 Analyzingdataandcreatingreports
 Assistingthe AssetManagerwithauditsandreportgeneration
 Collectingandretainingassetdataforriskand cost assessment
Gerry I/Rich
E./AjayB.

IT Asset Management
Asset
Owner
Responsible for:
 Supporting,maintaining,controllingandupdatingof aspecific
assetor assets
 All activitiesthatdirectlyaffectthe actual assetorassets
 CollaboratingwithProcessOwneronprocess
changes/continualimprovement
Laura T. /
ChrisB.
Stakeholder
 All personswhohave aninterestinthe informationcontained
inthe CMDB. Stakeholdersmayinclude employees,customers,
partners,CIowners,andothers
Can be
anyone

IT Asset Management
3.1 Best Practice RACI Matrix
An example of aRACIisnotedbelow. The Rolesandresponsibilitiesare assigned tospecificprocessactivities.
ID Activities
ProcessOwner
AssetManager
AssetAnalyst
AssetOwner
ProcessPlanning and Request
Produce assetmanagementplan A R I C
Define what'sinscope (models...etc.) R C I A
Determine selectionguidelines R C I A
Performaudit I A R C
Baseline CMDB I A/R R C
Procurement
Manage vendors I A/R R I
Add/Remove newvendors I A/R R I
Add/Remove newmodels I A/R R I
Evaluate appropriate attributes I A/R R I
Stockroom/Receiving
Receive newasset A R I
Proof of Entitlement A R I
Inputassettag onto new hardware A R I
Create assetsinthe CMDB A R I
Validate assetattributes A R I
Assignappropriate statusinCMDB A R I
Validate financialsonassetrecord A R I
Deploy/Financials
Activate licenses,contracts and/orentitlements A R I
Validate assetattributes(location,financials…etc.) A R I
Validate assetstatus A R I
Assignassetstousers A R I
Update the CMDB A R I
Manage/Move,Add, Change (MAC)
Ensure approvedchange request A R I
ModifyassetattributesinCMDB A R I
Planand organize routine maintenance A R C
Execute assetaudits A R C
Determine correctiveaction A R C
Initiate corrective action A R I
Execute corrective action A R I
Track asset history A R I
Transferassetsto new locations/stockrooms A R I

IT Asset Management
Retire/Dispose
Retire ordispose asset A R C
Update assetto disposed/retire inCMDB A R C
Harvest/Reclaimsoftware entitlements A R I
Generate disposal report A R I
R: Responsible,A:Accountable,C:Consulted,I:Informed
A spreadsheetisprovidedforyourongoinguse/modification:
3.2 PL Process Roles
It isexpectedthat PLwill confirmthe personnelnamesforeach ProcessRole priortoimplementationphase.

IT Asset Management
4 ASSET MANAGEMENT LIFECYCLE PROCESS OVERVIEW
Section 4 contains Best Practices found within the industry. Section 4.5 includes practices related to
PL gathered during the workshop.
4.1 Best Practices – Asset Management Lifecycle Process Overview
ID Activity Phase Description
1 Request Where the requestforan assetis initiated
2 Buy/Build/Stock Where the Buy / Build/Stock decisionisperformed
3 Acquisition Where acquisitionactivitiesare performed
4 Receive Where the receive activitiesare performed
5 Deploy Where the deployactivitiesare performed
6 Move/Add/Change Where move /add / change activitiesare performed
7 Validation Where data validationactivitiesare performed
8 Harvest Where harvestactivitiesare performed
9 Decommission Where the decommissionactivitiesare performed
10 Disposition Where the dispositionactivitiesare performed
Tools These identifythe variouscategoriesof toolsinvolvementinAsset
Managementprocesses. Theyinclude:
 Policies&ProcessDocumentation
 StandardsLists
 RequestSystem(s)
 Purchase System(s)
 Financial System(s)
 AssetManagementSystem(s)
 Software DeploymentSystem(s)
 DiscoverySystem(s)
 Contract ManagementSystem(s)
Each of these activity phases are further detailed below:
4.2 Best Practices – Asset Management Lifecycle Process Overview (phases 1-4)

IT Asset Management
1 - RequestPhase  Where the asset requeststarts and it includesapprovals
Triggers include:  Userneedsa Software or Hardware asset
 SupplyPoint inventoryreorder
ID Activity Task Description
1.1 RequestNewAsset Thistask initiatesthe requestforthe asset
1.2 Approve AssetRequest Thistask iswhere the assetrequestis approvedordisapproved.
- if requestisdisapproved,Requestorisnotified
1.3 Approve Architecture Thistask iswhere the approvedassetrequestisreviewedforArchitectural
approval.
- if requestisdisapproved,Requestorisnotified
Tools/Data for activity include:  Policies& ProcessDocumentation – to support the activities
 RequestSystems– to support Requestinputs, approvals and workflow
 Standards List – to provide organizational standards information
2 - Buy / Build/ Stock Phase  Where the Buy / Build / Stock decisionisperformed
Triggers include:  An approved AssetRequest

IT Asset Management
2.1 DeterminingSourcing Thistask determinedhow tofulfill the AssetRequest–choicesinclude:
Buy or BuildorStock
2.2 AssetinStock? Thistask iswhere the determinationif requestedassetisinstock.
- if Yes,proceedto task2.3
- if No,thenproceedtotask 3.1
2.3 Secure fromstock /
inventory
Thistask iswhere the requestedassetiscollectedfromstock/inventory
2.4 Update AssetRepository Thistask iswhere the assetrepositoryisupdated
- thistask connectstoPhase 5
 AssetManagement System(s) – to support inventoryinformation
3 - AcquisitionPhase  Where acquisitionactivitiesare performed
Triggers include:  An AcquisitionRequest
3.1 Create AcquisitionOrder Thistask determinedhow tofulfill the requestforthe asset – choices
include:BuyorBuildor Stock
3.2 Approve Acquisition
Order
Thistask iswhere the determinationof whetherthe assetistobe ordered.
- if assetisto be ordered,thenproceedtotask3.1
- if assetisto come fromstock/inventory,proceedtotask2.3
 AcquisitionSystem(s) – to support the acquisitionprocess(creation
and approvals)
4 - Receive Phase  Where receive activitiesare performed
Triggers include:  Assetarrives (hardware or software)
4.1 Receive Asset Thistask iswhere the assetisreceivedintoAIG
4.2 Update AssetRepository Thistask iswhere the assetrepositoryisupdated
4.3 Approve Payment? Thistask iswhere the determinationif the receiptrequiresapayment
approval to be completed
- if Yes,the go to Task 4.4

IT Asset Management
- if No,go to Phase 5
4.4 Approve Payment Thistask is where the paymentapproval activitiesisperformed
- thistask connectstoPhase 5
 RequestSystem(s) – to support Requestworkflow
 AcquisitionSystem(s) – to support the acquisitionprocess(receiving)
 Financial System(s) – to support FixedAsset,ifrequired

IT Asset Management

IT Asset Management
5 - DeployPhase  Where the deployactivitiesare performed
Triggers include:  Input from Phase 2 (assetin stock/inventory)
 Input from Phase 4 (assetreceived)
5.1 RequestDeploy Thistask iswhere the Requesttodeployanassetisreceived
5.2 PerformBuild/Configure
AssetSteps
Thistask iswhere the assetisbuilt/ configuredandreadiedfor
deployment
5.3 PerformDeployAsset
Steps
Thistask iswhere the assetisactually deployed
5.4 Update AssetRepository Thistask iswhere the assetrepositoryisupdatedbasedonthe actions
 Standards List – to provide organizational standards informationAsset
ManagementSystem(s) – to support inventoryinformation
 Software DeploymentSystem(s) –to support the build/configure and
deploymentactivities
6 – Move / Add / Change Phase  Where the Move/Add/Change activitiesare performed
Triggers include:  MAC request(hardware or software)
6.1 RequestMAC Thistask iswhere the MAC activityisrequested
6.2 Approval Required? Thistask iswhere the determinationif anyapprovalsare requiredforthe
MAC activity
- if Yes,thenproceedtotask 6.3
- if No,proceedto task6.4
6.3 Approve MACRequest Thistask iswhere the approval forMAC activityisapproved
6.4 PerformMAC Steps Thistask iswhere the actuallyMAC activitiesare performed
 Software DeploymentSystem(s) –to support the build/configure and
deploymentactivities

IT Asset Management
7 – ValidationPhase  Where the validationactivitiesare performed
Triggers include:  ValidationRequest
 Audit Request– external
 ReviewRequest– internal
7.1 RequestValidation Thistask iswhere the Validationactivityisrequested
7.2 ApprovalsRequired? Thistask iswhere the determinationif anyapprovalsare requiredforthe
Validationactivity
- if Yes,thenproceedtotask 7.3
- if No,proceedto task7.4
7.3 Approve Validation
Request
Thistask iswhere the approval forValidationactivityisapproved
7.4 Review&Validate Asset
Repository
Thistask iswhere the AssetRepositorydataisreviewedandvalidated
7.5 PerformReconciliation
Steps
Thistask is where the reconciliation(entitlementstodeployments) activity
isperformed
7.6 Document& Report
Results
Thistask iswhere the resultsof the reconciliationisdocumentedand
reported
 Discovery System(s) – to support the inventoryactivities

IT Asset Management
8 – Harvest Phase  Where the asset harvesting/reclaimingisperformed
Triggers include:  Harvest (MAC) Request
8.1 RequestHarvest Thistask iswhere the Harvest(MAC) activityisrequested
8.2 Determine Harvest
Candidates
Thistask iswhere the determinationif whichassetsare candidatesfor
harvest
8.3 Perform
Harvest/ReclaimSteps
Thistask iswhere the harvesting/reclaimingactivitiesare performed
 Software DeploymentSystem(s) –to support software harvesting

IT Asset Management
9 – DecommissionPhase  Where assetdecommissionactivitiesare performed
Triggers include:  Decommission(MAC) request
9.1 RequestDecommission Thistask iswhere the Decommission(MAC) activityisrequested
9.2 Determine
Decommission
Candidates
Thistask iswhere the determinationwhichassetsare candidatesfor
decommissioning
9.3 Approval Required? Thistask isto determine if approvalsare requiredforDecommission
activities
9.4 Approval Decommission Thistask iswhere the decommissioningof assetsisperformed
9.5 PerformDecommission
Steps
Thistask iswhere the decommissioningactivitiesare performed
10 – DispositionPhase  Where dispositionactivitiesare performed
Triggers include:  Disposal (MAC) request
10.1 RequestDisposal Thistask iswhere the Disposition(MAC) activityisrequested
10.2 Determine Disposition
Candidates
Thistask iswhere the determinationif whichassetsare candidatesfor
disposition
10.3 FixedAsset? Thistask isto determinationif the assetis partof FixedAssets?
- if Yes,proceedto task10.4
- if No,proceedto task 10.5
10.4 Approve FixedAsset
Disposition
Thistask iswhere the dispositionof aFixedAssetisapproved.
10.5 PerformDisposal Steps Thistask iswhere the disposition activitiesare performed
10.6 Update AssetRepository Thistask iswhere the assetrepositoryisupdatedbasedonthe action
10.7 File Disposition
Documentation
Thistask iswhere the DispositionDocumentationgetfiled –includingthe
certificationof destruction
 Financial System(s) – to support FixedAssets

IT Asset Management
4.5 PL – Asset Management Lifecycle Processes / Business Use Cases
Use Case #1: As the Financial Operations,ServerAdmin,andDesktopAdminteams,Iwanttohave and
produce accurate data forannual software vendorcontracttrue-ups,sothe organizationremainsin
compliance witheachvendor.
Use Case #2: As a systemadministratorandFinancial Operations teammember, Iwantconfirmationthat
systemchangesdon’tadverselyimpactexisting license compliance withanyvendor,sothe organization
remainsincompliance witheachvendor.
Use Case #3: As an Infrastructure orApplicationsteammember,Iwanttosee the relationshipsbetween
configurationitems,sothe organizationcanassessthe riskandimpactof any eventorchange upstreamand
downstreamthroughtechnologyplatforms.
Use Case #4: As a Financial Operationsteammember,Iwanttobe able to allocate the cost of technology
servicestobusinessorganizationssoIcan assess andreportthe true cost of ownershipof aservice/sub-
service.
Use Case #5: As a Businessmanager,Iwantto see the refreshscheduleforthe hardware assignedtoeachof
my directreports,soI can planmy resourcesaroundthe change.
Use Case #6: As an Infrastructure Adminmanager,Iwanttoreport onend-of-life datesforall relevant
hardware componentsthatmyteammanages,so I can plan,disposition,warrant,andrefreshthe hardware
on an appropriate schedule.
Use Case #7: As an Infrastructure Admin teammember,Iwantto see the detailsof eachextendedwarranty
contract so I can assessthe accuracy of the numberof devicesonthe extendedwarrantyinvoices.
(Note:Duringthe implementation,we’ll initiallyfocusonreconcilingHPinvoices,but the processshouldbe
the same for all vendors)
Use Case #8: As an Infrastructure Adminmanager,Iwanttoproduce a monthlymetricsreportwithdata
relevanttothe CIOreport,so I can easilyproduce mycomponentof thisreport.
(Note:The initial implementationtoinclude onlythe metricsforthe CIOreport)
Use Case #9: As a Serveradmin,Iwant to see the relationshipbetweenserversandthe monitoringsystem, so
I can confirmwhichserversare beingmonitored.
Use Case #10: Asa Financial Operations teammember,Iwanta drillable reportonthe contracts with
upcomingcontract renewal dates, andbe notifiedonce percontract,soI can proactivelyact & renewthe
contracts where needed.
Use Case #11: Asan Infrastructure admin,Iwantto see the locationandownerfor eachasset,so I can
manage any operational activitiesrequiredforthatasset.
Use Case #12: Asan Infrastructure admin,Iwantto see an exceptionreportlistingall unknownand
unidentifiedassets,soIcan investigate eachtodetermineitsdetailsanduse.
Use Case #13: Asan Infrastructure admin,Iwantto define aprocessto investigate andreconcileeach
unknownandunidentifiedasset,soIam clear onhow to disposition eachasset(i.e., coveranylicensing
impactsfromthe assetchange).
Use Case #14: Asa LoadingDock user,I want to receive anddispose assetsviabarcode scannersoI can
quicklyinputthe dataintothe systemandcontrol these processesappropriately.
Use Case #15: Asan Infrastructure orFinancial Operationsuser,Iwanttodefine aprocessformanaging
assetsthroughtheirlifecycle,soassetscanbe accountedforat all times.

IT Asset Management
5 ASSET MANAGEMENT PROCESS GUIDE
ServiceNow has assembled the following review of IT Asset Management related processes as part of
the ServiceNow Asset Management methodology and process integration overview. The Process
Guide is based on the full lifecycle management of IT assets. This lifecycle is identified within 6 Asset
Towers: Governance, Fulfillment, Auditing, Active Asset Management, Disposition, and IT Financial
Management. Below is a diagram that depicts the asset management towers and their associated
components.
Various topics are contained within each Asset tower; these topics create the individual tower. For
example, the Governance Tower contains topics related to Policy Management, Education &
Training, Reporting, and Security. The procedures that shape an organization’s IT Asset Management
capability are identified within each topic and are referred to as “Components.”
The Process Guide will focus on these Topics and Components as they are organized by Asset Tower.
Each Topic is defined with additional details related to onsite observations and related ServiceNow
technology. Where available a readiness assessment is provided based on ServiceNow
implementation (ISO Tiered Implementation) recommendations.
The primary objectives of the Process Guide are to rationalize and reduce IT costs, reallocate
underutilized IT resources, and streamline IT business processes.
ServiceNow completed an onsite Asset Workshop to validate PL’s strategic goals, processes,
workflows, and organizational capabilities. Using the workshop information an analysis is completed
Governance
Policy Management
Processes
Education &
Training
Reporting
Security
Fulfillment
Purchasing
Receiving
Contract
Management
Lease/Warranties
Maintenance
Vendor
Management
Auditing
Scanning /
Discovery
Inventory
Management
Data Delta
Management
Internal / External
Auditing
Compliance
ActiveAsset
Management
IMAC (Install Move
Add Change)
Break Fix
Model Management
Usage Management
Asset Optimization
Disposition
Harvest / Cascade
End of Life /
Disposal
Regulatory
Management
Data Security
Validation
IT Financial
Management
Total Cost of
Ownership
Business Service
Costing
Budgeting /
Forecasting
Depreciation
Cost Allocation /
Chargeback

IT Asset Management
to determine the Infrastructure design, technology configuration; data capture, and process
requirements to help maintain the asset lifecycle. This information captured here in the ITAM
Process Guide has the following goals:
 Help technicians become more effective and efficient by giving them accurate, complete IT
asset management information
 Help manage procurement, and budgeting more effectively
 Proactively manage compliance efforts
 Maximize the use of IT resources by identifying and redeploying underutilized assets
 Help to control IT costs and more accurately plan for future IT needs
5.1 Governance
The Governance Tower within the ServiceNow Asset Lifecycle Management methodology accounts
for the impact IT Asset Management has on the business.
Organizations make decisions, allocate resources/returns, execute responsibilities and undertake risk
management, whether financial or otherwise, with an objective of protecting and promoting the
interest of the shareholders, management, board of directors and the employees.
An effective IT Asset Lifecycle management program executes on these objectives with technology
that supports the transparent and efficient use of information. The following Topics are critical to the
success of an effective ITAM Governance effort and foundational to both short and long-term
success.
The ServiceNow Governance Tower is broken into 5 Topics: Policy Management, Processes,
Education & Training, Reporting, and Security. Below are details of each topic area as discovered
during onsite efforts with ServiceNow.
5.1.1 Policy Management
Definition: Policy Management as it relates to IT Asset Lifecycle is the foundation and first step in
efforts of performing IT Asset Management. A Use Policy should include language that clearly
identifies responsibilities, personal use of company assets, unauthorized hardware/software,
optimization, retirement, and internal control rights.
Effective policy language includes identification of responsibilities, and approval requirements.
Internal personnel should be able to reference the asset request fulfillment and life-cycle
management policies and all other Asset Management developed policies at their convenience.
After an acceptable policy is created it should function for several months before revisiting the
process to determine whether or not the policy is working. Establish a process by which the review
continues over time. The first review should be conducted four months after initial implementation.
If the policy requires adjustment, do so, and then re-evaluate again in six months after the
adjustment. If the policy or procedure does not require adjustment, permit it to operate for six to
twelve months, and then conduct the second review. Revisit and update policies (if necessary) as
necessary.

IT Asset Management
The following steps provided by the International Association of IT Asset Managers (IAITAM) support
the development of polices that are relevant, enforceable and understandable.
Educate Establish that there is a general issue that affects everyone, though it can affect some
employees more directly than others. Do some research and include information on how
the issue impacts all the employees’ day-to-day job functions. Next, explain why the
issue is important and how establishing a policy is a prudent step to decrease
unnecessary exposure in the workplace. Relating this background information helps
employees who are not directly involved understand the issue better.
Develop The next step is to create a functional, practical and useful policy. Open dialog between
opposing viewpoints should be encouraged. A committee should be formed to discuss
any issues and develop the appropriate policy for the organization. Policies from industry
leaders can be used as a template and altered to fit the organizations particular need.
Implement Once a need is determined for a particular policy and it has been developed, the next
step is implementation. Rollout of the policy requires transition time. There will be some
adjustment for employees, which is why it is very important that employees understand
the reasons/need for the particular policy.
Evaluate Once implemented, policies should always be reviewed periodically to monitor their
effectiveness and relevance. Having a policy in place without follow up is not sufficient.
Policies will always need fine-tuning. Have in place a procedure for periodic review.
Create a Policy Review Board/Team.
ServiceNow Support: The ServiceNow platform can support policies by providing transparency into
the effectiveness of said policies and reporting on discrepancies related to internal service level
agreements.
5.1.1.1 Observations:
A policy has been drafted internally at PL and is considered work in process.
5.1.1.2 Recommendations:
Continue work on the policy, incorporating the recommendations above and the information
referenced in the “Educate”, “Develop”, “Implement”, “Evaluate” framework defined above.
5.1.2 Processes
Definition: IT Asset Management business practices are process-driven and matured through
iterative and focused improvements. Most successful IT Asset Management programs are integrated
throughout the organization, involving everyone at some level, such as end users (educating on
compliance), budget managers (redeployment as a choice), IT service departments (providing
information on warranties), and finance (invoice reconciliation, updates for fixed asset inventories).
The Gartner Group identifies a successful IT Asset Management program as 80% Process and 20%
Technology. The best technology will fail without successful process.

IT Asset Management
An effective IT Asset Management process includes all stakeholders in their definition while the
supporting technology utilizes automation where available to support the goals of the said process.
Manual procedures lead to breakdown in the effectiveness of efforts and the trustworthiness of
related data.
IT Asset Management related processes should include all efforts of lifecycle management for all in-
scope assets. Such lifecycle management efforts include the following:
 Product Model Management
 Request Management
 Procurement
 Contract Management
 Inventory Management
 Deployment Management
 Compliance Management
 Disposal Management
 Financial Management
Each process should identify related roles and have regular reviews (minimum review annually).
These processes should have a centralized repository that supports global training and the
knowledge of said processes. Additionally, the format of these processes should be consistent
throughout the organization and follow as closely as possible the PMCI standard.
ServiceNow Support: The ServiceNow platform provides for the management of any type of asset
and includes modules for the support of all lifecycle efforts from Product Model Management
through Disposal Management.
A maturity assessment has been completed and – came in at “repeatable”. Processes are not
generally written down, but more driven by institutional knowledge. Target process maturity for all
processes is agreed to be a 3: written down, trainable, repeatable. Protective wants to bring data
sources into ServiceNow.
Create a steering/governance committee to drive standards for how ITAM is performed.
Establish an IT Asset Center of Excellence (COE) Team with responsibilities for overseeing the
management of the IT Asset Lifecycle Processes throughout PL as well as across the entire
organization. Additional activities would include, but not limited to, those associated with Software
Asset Management (SAM), Financial Management (ITFM), Infrastructure Management, and PC
Management.

IT Asset Management
a. The COE should oversee global training of said processes in a manner that provides
consistency of process throughout the organization.
b. Create KPI’s that support the use of said processes.
c. Identify key metrics that identifies the continued value of said processes
d. The COE should have the responsibility to validate localized/distributed efforts to ensure
activities conform to established policies and processes.
e. Utilize the best practice processes provided in this document (Section 4) as a framework for
the creation of a full Asset Lifecycle Management process within PL.
f. Utilize the Roles & Responsibilities with related Activities found in the RACI provided in this
document (Section 3).
g. Establish a central Asset Management Team that reports to the COE and tasked with
performing the activities outlined by the COE as part of the RACI (Section 3). This team should
consist of a minimum of 4 FTEs for an organization the size and maturity of PL.
Empower the COE to establish a global process for IT hardware and software asset management.
a. Enable the ability to localize the global IT hardware and software asset processes by creating
and documenting local procedures based on the global processes. These processes and
procedures should support the business unit needs but they should also be shared with all
BU’s and the COE so all areas can benefit standardized processes.
b. The COE should have the responsibility to validate localized efforts to ensure activities
conform to established policies and processes.
Identify a centralized location or focal point where these ITAM processes and localizations are
maintained and accessible to the organization. Communicate/publish this location to the
organization.
a. A Best Practice is to have an internal ITAM website where their processes are identified and
links to them are available to individuals within the organization.
Center of
Excellence
ITAM
Team
Infrastructure
Management
PC/Laptop
Management
Software Asset
Management
Finance
Security
Support
Vendors

IT Asset Management
Review the established processes and update/revise them to take the integration of ServiceNow into
account.
Empower the various business units to modify these processes to take into account specific
requirements they may have, but make sure they are documented and controlled.
Communicating and making these Software Asset Management processes readily available is a must
have in order to have all within PL be aware they need to be followed.
5.1.3 Education & Training
Definition: An effective asset management environment includes an understanding of the risk and
value associated with the management of IT assets. This understanding must be communicated
openly and effectively to all levels of the organization. Such effort begins with executive support and
permeates the entire staff. A best practice occurs when staff at all levels is informed, understood and
proactive in the optimization of IT assets.
ServiceNow Support: The ServiceNow organization provides training resources for topics including
System Administration, Asset Management, Configuration Management, and more. Publicly available
Wiki and Community websites provide documentation and peer support. Regional in-person
gatherings of user groups called SNUGs (ServiceNow User Groups) occur on a regular basis with the
goal of knowledge transfer.
Additionally, the ServiceNow Knowledge annual meeting of ServiceNow users and engineers provides
resources for training and knowledge transfer.
Within the ServiceNow platform there are multiple capabilities to manage and associate knowledge
to activities and assets.
This was the lowest score on the maturity assessment. Need to formalize training activities as part of
the implementation of the Asset Management module, including training all levels of the IT
organization (down to Techs) as to the work they’ll do in the system.
Formalize and document the processes before starting to build training plans.
5.1.4 Reporting
Definition: Effective Asset Management technology consists of value based reporting through
filtered lists and dashboards. Asset reporting requirements drive the data discovery and retention
requirements of IT Asset Management. Understanding the needs of stakeholders helps in developing
the critical data elements of an IT Asset Repository.

IT Asset Management
Often the data found in an IT Asset Repository is based on “what can be done” rather than “what
should be done”. Reporting requirements from stakeholders identify “what should be done” within
an effective IT Asset Management repository. That said reporting requirements become a critical
aspect of IT Asset technology implementation and ongoing evaluation.
As stated in the Process definition above, “Most successful IT Asset Management programs are
integrated throughout the organization, involving everyone at some level integration with
stakeholders.” It is imperative that reporting needs of all stakeholders are identified and understood
both in the creation and sustainability of the IT Asset Lifecycle
ServiceNow Support: The ServiceNow platform has the ability to present, filter, configure and export
any list of assets and/or configuration items within the default display.
In ServiceNow, a report can be a list, chart, or calendar-based view of data in a particular table. Use
reports on homepages to display key information to different users. You can also publish reports to a
URL that can be sent out through email. ServiceNow also offers a range of predefined reports that
pertain to applications and features like incident management and service catalog requests. If none
of these meet your needs, you can create your own reports at any time.
Additional details can be found on the ServiceNow wiki at ServiceNow Creating Reports.
A considerable amount of manual reporting currently exists.
With the implementation of Asset Management in ServiceNow, the goal is to help automate these
well-defined, but manual, reporting processes.
5.1.5 Security
Definition: Security is the practice of defending information from unauthorized access, use,
disclosure, disruption, modification, perusal, inspection, recording or destruction. IT Asset
Management has the ability to support Security efforts due to effective processes and the mass
amount of discovery data available.
Access to ITAM data for subject matter experts (SME’s) is critical. Yet control of said access is just as
critical. It is important to consider the controls to Asset and Configuration Item data in a manner that
helps keep data fresh, accurate, and useful. Utilize automation to populate data where available thus
eliminating manual data intervention. Additionally, ensure said data is editable by appropriate SME’s.
It is not best practice to let Network Infrastructure SME’s create/edit Database CI’s. Thus an effective
management of security through roles within the various data elements is critical to long-term data
accuracy.

IT Asset Management
ServiceNow Support: The ServiceNow platform fully supports ACLs in the managed of individual
tables and table attributes. These ACL’s provide for the secure management of data.
Without specific action to prevent it, all of IT is going to see all information for all Assets.
Specific work will be required during the implementation project to define requirements by asset
type and who has access to that data.
One note: IT cannot see Networking assets, only Networking Team and Laura/Kim
5.2 Fulfillment
The Fulfillment Tower within the ServiceNow Asset Lifecycle Management methodology accounts for
the processes from request through delivery of IT Assets including Vendor Management.
With a focus on the asset supply chain and the management of said supply chain an effective IT Asset
Fulfillment program identifies the right asset for the right purpose within the organization while
maintaining standards throughout vendor management. Ineffective supply-chain efforts lead to
rogue asset activity that can increase organizations financial risks.
5.2.1 Procurement
Definition: IT procurement is the series of activities and procedures necessary to acquire information
technology (IT) products and services.
IT procurement involves both strategic and administrative responsibilities. Day-to-day tasks may
include conducting market research, negotiating pricing, establishing terms and conditions for
services, resolving invoice discrepancies and communicating the status of purchases with internal
customers.
An IT procurement process, formal or informal, exists in every organization that acquires information
technology. As users of information systems increasingly find themselves in roles as customers of
multiple technology vendors, this IT procurement process assumes greater management significance.
In addition to hardware, operating system software, and telecommunications equipment and
services - information resources traditionally acquired in the marketplace - organizations now turn to
outside providers for many components of their application systems, application development and
integration, and a broad variety of systemmanagement services.
ServiceNow Support: ServiceNow has specific capability to manage the asset procurement process
including the following:
 Request Management
 Procurement
 Financial Management

IT Asset Management
Current state process is “we buy when the closet goes down” - what is bought is not tied into user
provisioning today.
Develop a notice/trigger for incremental purchases based on when the inventory levels hit a set
minimum.
Create an organizational mandate prohibiting off-the-shelf purchasing. This provides for a process
that is controlled and standard.
5.2.2 Receiving
Definition: The legal responsibility of an asset often begins upon the receipt of said assets. In today’s
business assets can be physical and/or digital making the receiving and documenting activities more
complex.
An efficient environment is able to receive new assets against a specific purchase and relate said
asset to both the original purchase and the new asset record within the organizational repository.
The old world of receiving assets at “the dock” is not lost but electronic and real-time requirements
have complicated receiving activities.
Planning for receiving – what will arrive and when it will arrive – is as critical as recording details. The
recorded details must be accurate and without manual errors.
ServiceNow Support:
Within the ServiceNow Platform, Assets can be received and added to the system when they are
delivered to a stockroom.
Stockrooms are places where physical assets are received and assigned. When stock is low on a
particular asset, stock rules can either notify an asset/procurement manager or automatically
transfer inventory from one stockroom to another. Stockrooms are separate, standalone entities in
the Asset Management application.
ServiceNow can integrate with barcode scanners for efficient input of receiving efforts (data)
eliminating the risk of manual errors.
Today, John counts all inbound product, which requires considerable manual back-and-forth
conversations.
As part of the ServiceNow Asset Management implementation, many of the currently manual steps
can be automated. It is also recommended that Protective develop and implement exception
processes as part of the Asset Management implementation. Finally, the closer aligned that the

IT Asset Management
receiving processes are between organizations/asset classes, the easier it will be to implement.
Consider some business process redesign to that effect.
5.2.3 Contract Management
Definition: A contract is a written or oral legally binding agreement between the parties identified in
the agreement to fulfill the terms and conditions outlined in the agreement. A prerequisite
requirement for the enforcement of a contract, amongst other things, is the condition that the
parties to the contract accept the terms of the claimed contract. Historically, this was most
commonly achieved through signature or performance, but in many jurisdictions - especially with the
advance of electronic commerce - the forms of acceptance have expanded to include various forms
of electronic signature.
IT Contracts can be of many types, e.g. service contracts, software licenses, maintenance, warranties,
lease, insurance, and more.
Identifying and relating contracts to assets and configuration items allows for the simplification of
efforts such as warranty management, lease management, and software license management.
ServiceNow Support: Within the ServiceNow platform is the ability to manage Contracts. A contract
is a binding agreement between two parties. Contracts contain detailed information such as contract
number, start date, active status, terms and conditions, renewal information, and financial terms.
Contract Management in ServiceNow is active by default.
Contract Management integrates with Cost Management module within ServiceNow to associate
contracts with costs and determine the total cost of ownership.
PL will focus contract management in ServiceNow on maintenance agreements, not for MSAs, etc.
Aim for simplicity – providing only the contract information needed within the IT organization. In this
case, that means bringing in the information Financial Operations needs for maintenance
agreements and the operational details IT users require.
5.2.4 Lease/Warranties Maintenance
Definition: Lease and Warranty maintenance is based on contracts between two parties with defined
term and conditions.
In particular to lease management an organization can obtain access to technology assets with little
upfront cost. Asset managers need to be able to track leased items and relate them to specific
contracts with specific terms and conditions concerning the lease.

IT Asset Management
Additionally, any dates needed related to the lease or warranty need to be tracked with associated
contacts both internally and externally to the organization. Notifications are needed with regards to
the associated dates.
ServiceNow Support: The ServiceNow platform can manage the full lease/warranty contract lifecycle
including dates and related asset/CIs.
John currently goes to the HP site to confirm whether a device is under warranty, and end-of-life
status.
A device’s warranty and end-of-life status should be captured in ServiceNow, which is available out of
the box. For several different classes/types of hardware, there is a nice to have request to screen
scrape the vendor’s website to gather warranty end dates (SmartNet for Cisco, HP, etc). This can be
considered as a custom integration as part of the implementation project, or as a phase 2 type
request.
5.2.5 Vendor Management
Definition: Vendor Management relates to the active and ongoing evaluation of the business
relationship between a customer and all publishers, resellers, vendors and distributors detailed in a
contract management repository.
Vendor Selection, Vendor Performance Evaluation & Tracking, and Vendor Development are the
widely recognized pillars of a successful Vendor Management Policy
Effective Vendor Management enables organizations to optimally develop, manage and control
vendor contracts, relationships and performance for the efficient delivery of contracted products and
services. This can help clients meet business objectives, minimize potential business disruption, avoid
deal and delivery failure, and ensure more-sustainable multi-sourcing, while driving the most value
from their vendors.
ServiceNow Support: The ServiceNow platform provides tools for defining and monitoring these
vendor contracts.
Additionally, if the vendor management team has negotiated underpinning contracts attached to
service level agreements, these can be defined and automated using the Service Level Agreements
(SLA) Plugin. Underpinning contracts define and monitors the guarantees. Within ServiceNow, these
are fully integrated into the Service Level Management system.
As with the Contracts tower, the contractual relationships captured within ServiceNow will be
focused only on maintenance agreements.

IT Asset Management
IT Vendors should be maintained in ServiceNow so that relationships with assets and other objects in
ServiceNow can contain the vendor information.
5.3 Auditing
An information technology audit, or information systems audit, is an examination of the
management controls within an Information technology (IT) infrastructure. The evaluation of
obtained evidence determines if the information systems are safeguarding assets, maintaining data
integrity, and operating effectively to achieve the organization's goals or objectives. These reviews
may be performed in conjunction with a software audit, internal audit, or other form of attestation
engagement.
IT Asset Management (ITAM) auditing allows for organizations to understand the “what” and
“where” of IT Assets. A proactive effort with supported processes reduces the cost of 3rd party audits
by as much as 700%.
5.3.1 Scanning and Discovery
Definition: An inventory control system is a set of hardware and software based tools that automate
the process of tracking inventory. The kinds of inventory tracked with an inventory control system
can include almost any type of quantifiable technology good, including software, database instances,
computers, networking equipment, and any other item that organizations may purchase and utilize.
Modern inventory control systems are almost exclusively based on barcode technology for scanning
and agent/agentless software for network-enabled discovery. Though barcodes were initially
developed to automate the process of grocery store checkout, their ability to encode a wide variety
of alphabetic and numeric symbols makes them ideal for encoding technology assets. Inventory
control systems work in real-time using wired and/or wireless technology to transmit information to
a central computer systemthat serves as a discovered repository.
Though agent-based solutions are often considered “Discovery” tools, the fact is these solutions can
only inventory known machines for which the agent is installed. By definition, discovery occurs from
outside a known environment. The fact that an agent-based solution does not “discover” a new asset
outside of its installation eliminates it as discovery tool. The value of agent-based solutions is in the
recording of data such as usage information unavailable to agent-less solutions.
Additionally, the use of the ISO/IEC 19770-21 Software Identification (SWID) Tag can be utilized in the
discovery process, and some major vendors are already using them within their software
applications. These SWID Tags are XML files that contain details related to the specific software
application that is installed.
Other areas where these SWID tags are beneficial include:
 Platform Stability - Determining the variety of software installed within the environment,
including the number of versions of particular software, is particularly important if your
1 See Appendix C for more regardingISO/IEC 19770-2 software assettagging

IT Asset Management
organization is required to test new critical applications against all known applications within
the environment. Interoperability and sociability testing answers questions such as: Do
multiple VPN clients cause any issues? Do multiple versions of Internet Explorer cause issues?
Are there rogue installs of an application happening?
 Security Decision-Making Based On Risk Assessment - Accurate software inventory enables
you to determine if there is software with known security risks installed within your
environment. It answers questions such as: Do all Windows XP installations have all the
critical patches installed? Are there unauthorized (or unwanted) software applications such as
peer-to- peer file sharing or hacking tools installed anywhere on the network? Armed with
accurate information, you can make better decisions, and ensure that your security policies
are enforced.
 Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity Planning and Operations - An accurate software
inventory allows you to determine the locations of business-critical software installations. In
turn you can ensure their data is being fully backed up, and ensure that both the software
and the data are available in a disaster situation or crisis.
ServiceNow Support: The ServiceNow Discovery application finds computers and other devices
connected to an enterprise's network. When Discovery finds a computer or device, it explores the
device's configuration, provisioning, and current status and updates the CMDB accordingly. On
computer systems, Discovery also identifies the software that is running and any TCP connections
between computer systems. Discovery creates all the relationships between computer systems (such
as an application on one server that uses a database on another server).
ServiceNow can integrate with barcode scanners for efficient input of receiving efforts (data)
eliminating the risk of manual errors.
ServiceNow supports the ISO/EIC 19770 Software Asset Management standards including the
discovery and retention of the ISO xml file details.
No process for defining unknown and unidentified assets currently exists. Switches/routers will likely
be manually discovered even after the implementation project; Rich’s spreadsheet will be used to
upload these devices.
Consider implementing integration to SCCM and vCenter for more streamlined discovery processes.
5.3.2 Inventory Management
Definition: Inventory Management is a systemfor tracking IT inventory levels, orders, and deliveries.
Companies often use inventory management software to reduce their carrying costs. The software is
used to track products and parts as they are transported from a vendor to a warehouse, between

IT Asset Management
warehouses, and finally to a retail location or directly to a customer. Inventory management
software is used for a variety of purposes, including:
 Maintaining a balance between too much and too little inventory.
 Tracking inventory as it is transported between locations.
 Receiving items into a warehouse or other location.
 Picking, packing and shipping items from a warehouse.
 Keeping track of product sales and inventory levels.
ServiceNow Support: Within the ServiceNow Platform, Assets can be received and added to the
system when they are delivered to a stockroom.
Stockrooms are places where physical assets are received and assigned. When stock is low on a
particular asset, stock rules can either notify an asset/procurement manager or automatically
transfer inventory from one stockroom to another. Stockrooms are separate, standalone entities in
the Asset Management application.
Life cycle management for physical assets is not a clean process and different across different asset
classes.
Standardize life cycle management processes prior to the ServiceNow implementation (or, agree to a
standardized model during ServiceNow Requirements/Discovery Workshops) so that a single process
can be implemented with the Asset Management Go-Live.
5.3.3 Data Delta Management
Definition: Data Delta Management, or Data Validation, is an Asset Management activity out of
necessity vs. choice. Many organizations spend up to 75% of IT Asset FTE effort on validating the
accuracy of IT Asset data.
Organizations need a process and supporting technology that can increase data accuracy while
reducing the manual effort of data validation. Said validation should focus on critical non-
discoverable elements of an asset record such as Owner/User, Location, Status, and etc.
ServiceNow Support: The Data Certification plugin within ServiceNow manages scheduled or on-
demand validations of CMDB data. Information is added to the CMDB by Discovery, by importing
from third-party tools, or manually. For regulatory or procedural reasons, information in the CMDB
needs to be checked for accuracy and certified. The person or team responsible for certification can
define what information should be verified and the verification schedule. The schedule then
generates a checklist for verifying the data. Individuals assigned to certification tasks answer a series
of questions to verify the data.

IT Asset Management
Data certification can be performed against specific fields on specific tables. Based on the
certification schedule, certification tasks are automatically created and assigned. For example, a
certification can be set up to validate key information fields (such as Operating System and CPU
count) on all Windows servers located in Chicago and automatically be assigned to the appropriate
team member.
BDNA data validation is being considered as an option to normalize asset data.
Define rules for each asset state to assess whether assets in that state need to be discovered.
Define a process to disposition unknown and unidentified assets.
5.3.4 Internal / External Auditing
Definition: An IT Asset audit is a comprehensive review of an organization’s adherence to regulatory
or contractual guidelines.
What, precisely, is examined in an IT Asset audit will vary depending upon whether an organization is
a public or private company, what kind of data it handles and if it transmits or stores sensitive
financial data. For instance, SOX requirements mean that assets must be cataloged. Healthcare
providers that store or transmit e-health records, like personal health information, are subject to
HIPPA requirements. Companies that transmit credit card data are subject to PCI requirements. In
each case, the organization must be able to demonstrate compliance by producing an audit trail.
GRC (governance, risk management, and compliance) enables CIOs to quickly show auditors that the
organization is in compliance and will not be subject to costly fines or sanctions.
ServiceNow Support: The ServiceNow Platform can provide the needed audit details from supporting
manual or automated sources.
An SOP appears to be in place now, but based on manual processes.
Once ServiceNow Asset Management has gone live, use ServiceNow as the base data source to begin
to automate the existing processes.
5.3.5 Compliance
Definition: Software Asset Management (SAM) is the business practice of using people, processes,
and technology to systematically track, evaluate, and manage software licenses and software usage.
A strong SAM program can help an organization:
 Reduce costs: reduce the amount of money your organization spends on software.
 Improve compliance: be audit ready with your most used vendors.
 Control inventory: identify what you own and maintain an accurate database.
 Remove unused software: delete old and unused versions of software.

IT Asset Management
 Simplify software requests: develop a process for employees to request software.
 Reduce vendor list: logically reduce and consolidate the number of software vendors used.
 Identify needs: create an accurate list of the software your organization requires.
ServiceNow Support:
Software Asset Management is a full-featured application for tracking and
controlling software licenses. Features include:
 Overview page showing key compliance information in graphs.
 A variety of license types for software models.
 Ability to manage software suites.
 Ability to manage upgrade and downgrade software licenses.
 Ability to manage unallocated/unused software licenses.
 Software counters for reconciliation.
 Software discovery models for normalization.
 Software License Entitlement2 feature to assign a license to a person
or machine.
Inbound software asset names are not clean and include redundancies. Reporting is not streamlined
and very difficult to create.
Consider a data normalization service (BDNA was mentioned previously for this purpose).
Consider including capabilities in compliance reporting that takes into account two versions of the
same software installed on the same machine
5.4 Active Asset Management
Active Asset Management represents those activities traditionally performed within IT Service
Management.
When Asset Management has visibility into the ITSM activities then optimization of the asset lifecycle
may occur. The cost associated with the service management activities of an asset can be up to 70%
of the total cost of said assets. Thus the value in Active Asset Management can be the visibility into
the total cost of ownership and subsequent optimization activities to mitigate costs.
5.4.1 IMAC (Install, Move, Add, Change)
Definition: IMAC covers all day-to-day activities associated with the scheduling and installation of
hardware and software, changes to configuration, de-installation and relocation of equipment,
including connectivity testing, data transfer and user orientation.
2 Not to be confused with PL PO Software Entitlement. Refer to Glossary Appendix B

IT Asset Management
The objectives of this process are to install equipment with a minimum disturbance of the day-to-day
operation and to provide the end-users on-the-spot familiarization with the equipment. Activities
concerning hardware relocation or de-installation, and changes to configurations should be
performed as scheduled and to the agreed standards, with minimum loss of end-users’ productivity
time.
ServiceNow Support: The ServiceNow platform supports the performance of IMACs through the
standard IT Service Management capabilities. All efforts can be tracked to a configuration item (CI)
that is then related to an Asset. All efforts, when related to a CI are reportable in mass based on the
CI, Asset, Product Model, and any related attribute (data element).
Server:
Want to provide better impact analysis and reporting of the change, but no process change required.
Desktop:
Gerry gets a spreadsheet from Facilities with a person’s old and new locations and executes IT
components of the move from that. Desktop moves are not part of IT CAB; instead they are
managed via a weekly facilities meeting. Weekly move sessions planned and executed on a
scheduled basis.
Consumables:
Handsets and headsets are tracked with equipment IDs, but once they are deployed, hard to manage
location (when an employee moves or offboards)
Document the existing IMAC processes prior to Asset Management implementation.
5.4.2 Break Fix
Definition: An ITSM process whereby technical support for computers, servers, networks, software,
etc. are performed. There may or may not be a written contract for the charges, however all parties
have agreed to the terms. This can be the most expensive form of technical support.
Asset Managers can track the associated costs related to the inventory of parts, frequency of break-
fix activity per product model, and cost of resources. As activities related to break-fix are performed,
they are associated to Incident and/or Problem tasks.
The aggregation of related details helps identify the 70% post purchase costs traditionally associated
with Assets.
ServiceNow Support: The ServiceNow platform supports the creation and management of Incident
and Problem records through the standard IT Service Management capabilities. All efforts can be

IT Asset Management
tracked to a configuration item (CI) that is then related to an Asset. All efforts, when related to a CI
are reportable in mass based on the CI, Asset, Product Model, and any related attribute (data
element).
Protective has an open issue around relating a CI to an incident for break-fix purposes
Report break/fix performance against asset and supplier, as an input to vendor performance
reporting.
5.4.3 Model Management
Definition: Models are specific versions or various configurations of an asset (hardware and
software), for example, a MacBook Pro 17" or Adobe Acrobat Pro 9.
The management of models refers to the activity of identifying and certifying standards associated to
the products supported within an organization. The following are Model Management activities that
IT Asset Management may perform or participate in:
 Certification – Testing hardware and/or software within the environment to determine its
feasibility, usefulness, and/or capability
 Product Standards – List of those hardware and/or software models that are supported within
the organization. An asset not on the supported list may or may not incur extra effort/fees
related to support
 Consolidation – The support of many product models has a direct cost to an organization.
Visibility of the product models and subsequent management can reduce related costs.
ServiceNow Support: The ServiceNow platform contains a dedicated environment for the
management of models as “Products” within the Product Catalog. The product catalog is a set of
information about individual models. Models are specific versions or various configurations of an
asset. Models published to the product catalog are automatically published to the service catalog.
The service catalog includes information about goods (models) and services. A model may be listed
more than once if the model is available from multiple vendors.
Asset managers use the product catalog as a centralized repository for model information. A detailed
and well-maintained product catalog can coordinate with service catalog, asset, procurement,
request, contract, and vendor information.
Model categories within ServiceNow are defined groups of assets, consumables, product bundles,
and configuration items. Using the categories, you can control what each category creates when a
model associated with the category is selected.

IT Asset Management
Currently no way to onboard and offboard an entire model category at once.
Build a link between CI Category and Model Category to enable Discovery to capture asset
information.
Define a process to determine standard models to purchase; similarly, define a process to end of life
a standard model.
5.4.4 Usage Management
Definition: Usage management and monitoring relates to the status of a network's hardware and
software assets. Desired Status includes last use, historical use, and current use.
An IT Asset Manager utilizes Usage Management to determine waste. Said waste can relate to
hardware and software while identifying opportunities for optimization. Understanding how an asset
is utilized and to what extent can help qualify need and alternative resources.
Additional value from Usage Management is in support of harvesting and/or cascading of IT Assets;
identifying when an asset is underutilized and helps to reassign the asset to a more appropriate
need.
ServiceNow Support: The ServiceNow Platform can integrate with discovery technology to load and
report on asset use. After relating use to existing asset and business service records reports can be
run to identify opportunities for optimization.
Employee offboarding process does not current facilitate harvesting of that employee’s licensed
software.
Define a process to harvest software during employee offboarding.
5.4.5 Asset Optimization
Definition: Asset optimization is the strategy of obtaining the most optimal use of the organization’s
hardware and software assets. However, asset optimization strategies must also take into account
other organizational requirements such as security, access control, etc. where those concerns may
out weight the benefits of asset optimization options.
Examples of asset optimization strategies include:
• The practice of consolidating database instances on a certain server to reduce the number of
required licenses

IT Asset Management
• Determining the breakeven point of licensing an application by Client Access License (CAL)
verses by processor, and when the advantage of the chosen license type changes, adjust the
deployment of licenses to provide greater advantage to the organization
• Determining where and when shared resources provide the organization the better option –
VM’s, Clustering, etc.
• Co-locating software on certain servers to reduce the licensing of access points to outside the
organization
• Licensing software at the parent organization level so sub-organizations can take advantage
of pooled licenses
ServiceNow Support: The ServiceNow Platform has plug-ins for license compliance and within the
SAM plug-in, license counts and over- & under-licensing counts can be reported on by software
model and by vendor across the models that are licensed for within the firm’s contracts. After
relating use to existing asset and business service records reports can be run to identify opportunities
for optimization.
The topic of asset optimization in Protective’s environment, with high use of application virtualized
and non-persistent desktops, will require more conversation during the implementation project.
Consider automatically uninstalling software that is not used within a configurable time threshold.
5.5 Disposition
Disposition is the process of maximizing the value of unused or end of life assets through effective
reuse or divestment. Both large and small organizations practice asset disposition at some level with
the end goal of obtaining the greatest possible return from the asset.
Asset Disposition is also used to describe the process of liquidating excess inventory of healthy
companies, refurbished items and equipment returned at the end of a lease.
Asset Disposition can also refer to the task of recovery of assets that have been wrongfully taken
stolen, fraudulently misappropriated or otherwise disposed of to remove them from their rightful
owner.
5.5.1 Harvest / Cascade
Definition: Harvesting and Cascading refer to the reuse of IT Assets.
Harvesting refers to the recovering of a software license from a computer where the software is
completely removed and the software license is returned to a pool of available licenses.
Cascading refers to the recovery of hardware and reassignment of said hardware to a new
user/function.

IT Asset Management
ServiceNow Support: The ServiceNow platform supports the identification of underutilized assets
through the integration of discovery mechanisms. Reports can be performed that can identify last
use and other valuable details needed to identify assets for Harvesting and Cascading.
Additional ServiceNow capabilities include Orchestration where triggers can initiate a workflow to
install/uninstall software.
Harvesting appears to be a manual opportunistic process today. Does not appear to be strong
processes in place to confirm that all available licenses that are not being used, are centrally known
and available for another user.
Define a process to harvest an employee’s software upon offboarding
Consider automatically uninstalling software that is not used within a configurable time threshold.
5.5.2 End of Life / Disposal
Definition: End of Life / Disposal occurs when assets eventually the end of their useful lives. Assets
then need to be retired and disposed of in a secure, economic and environmentally responsible
manner.
There are many types of disposal including donation, internal employee sale, recycle, external sale,
and etc. Regardless of the disposal type there are many disposal companies that can assist with end
of life activities.
The key to best practice disposal includes the following
 Work with certified disposal agencies
 Receive disposal documentation that confirms disposal activities
 Wipe/erase hard-drives prior to disposal
 Validate disposal activities (don’t just trust agencies – see for yourself)
ServiceNow Support: The ServiceNow platform identifies Disposal details on each asset record. Base
elements of disposal include Disposal Reason, Scheduled Retirement, Retired Date, Beneficiary, and
Resale Price. Additional elements may be added as needed.
Protective uses US Micro as the disposal company. There is one process for both server and desktop
disposal.

IT Asset Management
Consider integration to US Micro’s systems so Protective can reconcile what you think is disposed, is
actually disposed. Regardless of the decision around whether or not to integrate with US Micro, the
process of disposal should be documented.
5.5.3 Regulatory Management
Definition: Regulatory management refers to the understanding and implementation of regulatory
requirements, either internal and external, associated to organization’s hardware and software
assets within the disposition phase.
Integration between IT, Legal, security, human resources and other teams within the organization is
essential to identifying the associated regulatory requirements. It is critical for the organization to be
able to provide documented evidence for fulfilling required regulatory actions.
ServiceNow Support: The ServiceNow platform has a legal hold process and can be integrated into
the SAM process for industry specific regulatory requirements. Additional elements may be added as
needed.
A legal hold process exists today, both for current employees, and for off-boarded employees.
Consider custom ServiceNow integration to more tightly integrate the legal hold process in
ServiceNow into Asset Management to enable seamless legal hold functionality.
5.5.4 Data Security
Definition: Data security refers to the practice of ensuring the data on organization’s hardware
assets within the disposition phase is properly protected. This includes protection of the data
through: encryption and/or access control methodologies; certified removal of the data from asset
storage devices and/or components (especially hard drives and memory); and even removal of the
asset storage devices and/or components (mainly hard drives and memory).
Examples of data security best practices include:
• Ensuring all laptops have their hard drives encrypted
• Ensuring all assets identified for disposal have they internal hard drives and/or other storage
media properly erased or removed prior to disposal – this includes computers, printers, multi-
functional and mobile devices
• Ensuring mobile devices with access to organization information (including email and data)
are capable of remote erasing if lost, stolen or otherwise no longer required access to the
information.

IT Asset Management
Security processes are robust today. Drives are encrypted as per normal organizational process.
Document the current data security processes. Consider building or enhancing remote erase
capabilities if they don’t exist today, as this piece of the topic was not discussed in the workshop.
5.5.5 Validation
Definition: Validation is the final step within the disposition phase. This is a critical element – you
cannot just trust – you need to validate what was intended to happen actually happened.
This includes: ensuring the accuracy of data (status, location and other details) related to the assets
within the disposition phase was accordingly updated; ensuring any data on these assets was
properly secured (data has been properly removed from hard drives and/or storage devices or those
devices destroyed; have been wiped or destroyed.
Any activity from a 3rd party related to Disposition should include a Certificate of Disposition (COD)
for each and every disposed asset. Vendors should be certified with US Government & ISO Standards
of Disposition.
Validation also includes the random visit/checks of disposal vendors to ensure the activities promised
are the activities performed.
Destruction is done on site.
Document the current policy/process. One open discussion should be held before progressing into
the implementation project: Will Protective need to store certificates in ServiceNow?
5.6 IT Financial Management
Financial Management is the process of planning, analyzing, directing, and controlling costs. The goal
is to have an accurate account of what an organization is spending in order to maximize resources
and control spending.

IT Asset Management
Financial Management for IT is one of five components in the ITIL Service Delivery area. It determines
the costs of services and provides financial accounting support to ensure expenditures fall within
approved plans and those funds are well spent.
The role of Financial Management varies depending upon the view of IT within the company. Some
companies view IT as an expense center, some as a profit center, and some as a cost-recovery center.
However, in all cases, Financial Management supports the "business" of IT.
Financial Management activities include:
 Providing oversight of all IT expenditures
 Ensuring funds are available for planned events
 Providing detailed financial information for proposed initiatives
 Influencing the use of IT assets to maximize the return on IT investments through chargeback
systems
 Tracking current expenditures against the budget
5.6.1 Total Cost of Ownership
Definition: Total Cost of Ownership, or TCO, is the purchase price of an asset plus the costs of
operation. When choosing among alternatives in a purchasing decision, buyers should look not just
at an item's short-term price, which is its purchase price, but also at its long-term price, which is its
total cost of ownership. The item with the lower total cost of ownership will be the better value in
the long run.
The post purchase cost of assets can reach 70% of the Total Cost of an Asset. Understanding these
costs is critical to business decision-making.
ServiceNow Support: The ServiceNow Platform contains the Cost Management capability. Cost
management tracks configuration item costs. The costs can be allocated to business units and used in
reports. Specifically, cost management enables these features:
 Using rate cards.
 Defining configuration item (CI) costs.
 Tracking one-time costs for CIs.
 Processing recurring CI costs to generate expense lines.
 Distributing bulk costs to multiple expense line sources.
 Tracking costs related to tasks and projects.
 Aggregating configuration item costs and charging the total cost to a business service or
application
 Allocating expense lines to business units with flexible allocation rules.
 Tracking planned and actual budget costs by cost center.
TCO management is handled elsewhere and is out of scope of ServiceNow. The only component
required is allocating asset costs fromwithin ServiceNow, to the organizations that use them.

IT Asset Management
None noted – asset cost allocation is a clear organizational imperative around this project, and will
be a major driver of value for Protective.
5.6.2 Business Service Costing
Definition: The goal of Financial Management is the understanding of costs as they relate to the
Business Services provided by the organization.
When tasked with the decision to maintain and/or migrate services, it is critical to understand the
true cost of said services. Business Service Costing pulls all of the TCO related to individual assets and
relates them to the services the organization provides.
Such activities help organizations plan and optimize for the future.
ServiceNow Support: The ServiceNow platform contains the Service Portfolio Management
capability. Service Portfolio Management addresses three core business needs:
 The plugin can be used to document the various business services offered using a
standardized, structured format. This list of offerings can be offered to the user base in a
consumer-friendly catalog.
 Once services are defined, the system will start automatically tracking performance against
defined availability commitments. If outages are reported, the platform handles availability
tracking.
 Once service offerings are documented and performance is being tracked, the information
can be relayed in real-time performance gauges available to end-users.
When implemented with the Cost Management capability ServiceNow can track Business Service
costs with their related configuration items.
ServiceNow supports a related hierarchy to identify the complete view of a business service and its
related components such as applications, application instances, databases, servers, virtual servers,
and etc. A typical hierarchy may appear as follows:

IT Asset Management
Currently, the linkage of business services to major software pieces that have cost is not defined for
Protective.
The definition of Business Services can be tricky/non-obvious for some organizations. We
recommend a rationalization effort to confirm if any business services overlap or are no longer
required, given Protective has so many (~500 in Production) due to corporate acquisitions.
Fully implement CMDB and CI relationships, to the business service level, to provide full end-to-end
visibility into the components that support each business service.
5.6.3 Budgeting / Forecasting
Definition: Budgeting enables an organization to plan future IT expenditure, thus reducing the risk of
over-spending and ensuring the revenues are available to cover the predicted spend. Additionally it
allows an organization to compare actual costs with previously predicted costs in order to improve
the reliability of budgeting predictions.
application

IT Asset Management
ServiceNow will simply enable the budgeting process, but this will largely take place in another
system.
During the implementation project, focus on building reporting that is clean and minimizes the
amount of work required to prepare, so the overall Budgeting process can be as clean as possible as
well.
5.6.4 Depreciation
Definition: For accounting purposes, depreciation indicates how much of an asset's value has been
used up. For tax purposes, businesses can deduct the cost of the tangible assets they purchase as
business expenses; however, businesses must depreciate these assets in accordance with IRS rules
about how and when the deduction may be taken based on what the asset is and how long it will
last.
ServiceNow Support: The ServiceNow Platform can identify and manage depreciation in support of
IT Finance.
The base instance includes the Financial Management application menu with several modules
including Depreciation, Fixed Assets, Expense Lines, and Cost Centers.
ServiceNow can calculate depreciation for a fixed asset using a choice of depreciation schedules. This
can help IT coordinate with the corporate fixed asset system to report correct valuation and book
value
Not in scope of the implementation, as this function will continue to occur in another system even
after Asset Management is implemented
None noted – out of scope.
5.6.5 Cost Allocation / Chargeback
Definition: Understanding how and why IT customers use services is critical to service planning as
well as effectively managing costs and optimizing resources for business needs. IT managers are
responsible for costly and complex assets of the company; they need to know how IT resources are

IT Asset Management
utilized. They increasingly need to be able to provide reports to non-technical managers, to
continually align IT resources with business activity.
It is essential to have an understanding of IT resource usage when allocating scarce IT resources and
talking too managers and internal users. Using IT chargeback is the best way to change end user
behavior.
In addition to being perceived as fair and accurate, a chargeback system also helps optimize IT
investment utilization. An analogy is the electricity company that charges more during peak usage in
order to spread the load more evenly during the day, thus utilizing the electrical grid systembetter.
application
Expenses can be allocated to a business entity that is responsible for the expense. This is not
considered charge-back or billing but could be used as a source for billing. The primary purpose of
expense allocation is to represent the consumer of the process that has incurred some expense. This
can be accomplished by defining expense allocation rules.
Desktop and phone allocated by user
Others are allocated via used by business service
Continue to drive cost allocation as the organizational imperative it appears to be. No other
recommendations noted.

IT Asset Management
6 ServiceNow Configuration Requirements
The following identifies foundational configuration elements for the implementation of IT Asset
Management within ServiceNow.
6.1 ServiceNow Plugins
Plugins provide additional optional functionality that administrators can activate within a ServiceNow
instance. Refer to this URL for additional plugins available and more in-depth information about
each plugin https://wiki.servicenow.com/index.php?title=List_of_Plugins
The following Plugins are recommended for consideration within the PL instance of ServiceNow in
support of IT Asset Management:
Name Description
ExtendedCMDB Addsadditional 144 tables(includingPersonal Computer) for
use withinthe CMDB.
FieldNormalization Addscapabilitytonormalize fieldvalues.
My Assets My Assetspluginprovidesuserswithself-service accessto
theirownassets, contracts,and requests.
Procurement Procurementmanagerscanuse the Procurementapplication
to create purchase ordersand to obtainitemsforfulfilling
service catalogrequests.Procurementoffersthe abilityto:
• Track service catalogrequests
• Create and manage purchase orders
• Create and manage transferorders
• Receive assets
Software AssetManagement Providesthe capabilitytodosoftware assetmanagement,
includesreconciliationof entitlementstolicenseincluding
those fornamedusers,workstation, andenterprise software
agreements.
NOTE: this pluginshould be reinstalledaftera change to or
additionof a discoverytool.
6.2 Model / Class (Product Catalog)
The ServiceNow Product Catalog is critical to the implementation of Asset Management and related
lifecycle elements within the ServiceNow platform.
The product catalog is a set of information about individual Models. Models are specific versions or
various configurations of an asset. Models published to the product catalog are automatically
published to the service catalog. The service catalog includes information about goods (models) and
services. A model may be listed more than once if the model is available from multiple vendors.
Keep the following in mind when working with product catalog:
 A product catalog item can be linked to multiple vendor catalog items or a single model.
 A model can only have one product catalog item.
 A vendor catalog item can only have a single product catalog item.

IT Asset Management
Asset managers use the product catalog as a centralized repository for model information. A detailed
and well-maintained product catalog can coordinate with service catalog, asset, procurement,
request, contract, and vendor information.
The following depicts the basic ServiceNow model-class-asset relationships:
6.3 Models
Models are specific versions or various configurations of an asset. Models are used for managing and
tracking assets through various ServiceNow asset applications, including Product Catalog, Asset
Management, Software Asset Management, CMDB, and Procurement. Model definitions can be
based on vendor-provided criteria (for example, the manufacturer name Apple MacBook Pro) or a
custom abstraction (for example, Graphic Designer Workstation).
A model can be in one or more model categories. For example, a laptop can be a computer and a
server. Model definitions specify whether the model creates an asset, a configuration item, or both.
On a hardware model record, compatible hardware models can be added.

IT Asset Management
For details on creating a new Model please visit the ServiceNow Wiki at Creating New ServiceNow
Models.
The Display Name of a model is a combination of data attributes; Manufacturer and Model Name.
Thus for the creation of a Model these two data elements should be required for consistency in the
naming convention.
Consumables are assets that are not tracked individually, but as a group of the same model with one
or more of the following traits:
 Same location
 Same state
 Consumed by the same asset (typically as accessories or parts)
 Common consumable assets are computer mice and computer keyboards.
Consumables follow a slightly different life cycle than other assets.
6.4 Asset Class
The default asset classes are Hardware, Software License, and Consumable. These general classes
can be used to manage a variety of assets. If the general classes are not appropriate for a specific
group of assets, consider creating a new asset class. For example, a fleet of cars could be tracked in a
custom asset class named Vehicle. Before creating new asset classes, analyze business needs to see if
the general classes can be used. A large number of asset classes can be difficult to maintain.
Built-in functionality allows you to use asset classes:
 for financial tracking
 in a model bundle
 as a pre-allocated asset
It is recommended that PL utilize the default asset classes within ServiceNow.
6.5 Configuration Item Class (Model Category)
Model categories are defined groups of assets, consumables, product bundles, and configuration
items. For example, create separate model categories for printers, servers, software, and computers.
Using the categories, you can control what each category creates when a model associated with the
category is selected. The categories also define the relationship between a CI class and an asset class.
A model category can be related to many models and a model can be related to many model
categories. For example, a specific model of a computer can be a computer and a server.
PL will need to compare existing Categories with recommendations noted below
SN Product Category Asset CI SN Notes
Accessory alm_hardware cmdb_ci_acc PleaseReview

IT Asset Management
Business Service cmdb_ci_service
Circuit cmdb_ci_circuit
Communication Device alm_hardware cmdb_ci_comm
Communications Device - currently being
used for Telecom Network Devices
Computer Peripheral alm_hardware cmdb_ci_peripheral review sub categories and rationalize
ESX Server alm_hardware cmdb_ci_esx_server
Generator alm_hardware u_generator
Group with Datacenter, Consider table
name that aligns with standard
(u_cmdb_ci_)
IP Router alm_hardware cmdb_ci_ip_router
IP Switch alm_hardware cmdb_ci_ip_switch
Linux Server alm_hardware cmdb_ci_linux_server
Panel alm_hardware u_panel
Consider tablename that aligns with
standard (u_cmdb_ci_)
PDU alm_hardware cmdb_ci_pdu
Personal Computer alm_hardware cmdb_ci_pc_hardware change to Personal Computer
Printer alm_hardware cmdb_ci_printer
Rack alm_hardware cmdb_ci_rack
Server Chassis alm_hardware cmdb_ci_chassis_server
UPS alm_hardware cmdb_ci_ups
6.6 Asset and Configuration Item Status
ServiceNow tracks the Lifecycle State and Configuration Status of Assets. An Asset record will display
an Asset State where a Configuration Item (CI) will display a Status.
Asset states and corresponding substates can be used to accurately track assets at a detailed level.
Good asset information helps with reporting, controlling assets, and lowering costs. For example,
accurately recording missing items using the Missing state and the Lost and Stolen substates enable
you to run reports and analyze the information in order to lower costs.
The Status fields on the two forms, asset and configuration item, are synchronized so that status
changes made on one form trigger the same status update on the corresponding form, ensuring
consistent reporting. (As a best practice, ServiceNow, Inc. recommends updating status on the asset
form.) All state fields are synchronized as well. State fields are mapped to their most logical
counterpart on the other table. For example, for a hardware asset set to state In Stock - Pending
disposal, the corresponding CI is set to In Disposition with no substate.
6.7 Asset States (install_status)

IT Asset Management
The following states and substates are default for ServiceNow. It is recommended that PL utilizes
these default states and substates and merges their existing states and substates to align with the
defaults as best as possible.
State Available Substates Notes
On order None Asset has been ordered but not received.
In stock Available, Reserved, Defective,
Pending repair, Pending install,
Pending disposal, Pending transfer,
Pre-allocated
Asset is stored in a stockroom. Substate
indicates if it is possible or recommended to
put the asset into use.
In transit Available, Reserved, Defective,
Pending install, Pending disposal,
Pre-allocated
In use None Available only for non-consumables.
Consumed None Available only for consumables.
In maintenance None Asset is being repaired or undergoing
maintenance.
Retired Disposed, Sold, Donated, Vendor
credit
Setting an asset to a Retired state is
recommended for asset end of life. Only
delete asset records that were created
erroneously.
Missing Lost, Stolen
6.8 CI Statuses (install_status)
The following status and substatus are default for ServiceNow. It is recommended that PL utilizes
these default statuses and substatuses and merges their existing status and substatuses to align with
the defaults as best as possible.
CI-Install status Available CI SubStatus
In Stock Available
In Stock Reserved
Pending Repair blank
Pending install blank
In Stock blank
Pending Repair Repairable
Pending install Reserved
In Stock Disposable
In Stock Pre-allocated
Installed In use
In maintenance blank
Retired blank
Retired Scrapped
Retired Sold
Retired Donated

IT Asset Management
Retired Credit
Absent blank
Absent Lost
Stolen blank
6.9 Asset & CI State/Status Synchronization
The Status fields on the two forms (Asset and CI) are synchronized so that status changes made on
one form trigger the same status update on the corresponding form, ensuring consistent reporting.
(As a best practice, ServiceNow, Inc. recommends updating status on the asset form.) All state fields
are synchronized as well. State fields are mapped to their most logical counterpart on the other
table. For example, for a hardware asset set to state In Stock - Pending disposal, the corresponding
CI is set to In Stock with no substate.
Below are the synchronization mappings from Asset to CI State/Status:
Asset State Asset substate
CI-Install
status
On order None
In Stock Available In Stock
In Stock Reserved In Stock
In Stock Defective Pending Repair
In Stock Pending repair Pending Repair
In Stock Pending install Pending install
In Stock Pending disposal In Stock
In Stock Pending transfer In Stock
In Stock Pre-allocated In Stock
In transit None In Stock
In transit Available In Stock
In transit Reserved In Stock
In transit Defective Pending Repair
In transit Pending install Pending install
In transit Pending disposal In Stock
In transit Pre-allocated In Stock
In use None Installed
In maintenance None In maintenance
Retired None Retired
Retired Disposed Retired
Retired Sold Retired
Retired Donated Retired
Retired Vendor Credit Retired
Missing None Absent
Missing Lost Absent
Missing Stolen Stolen
6.10 Naming Conventions & Data Normalization
Naming conventions are important for the normalization of data within the ServiceNow platform.
Often naming conventions are not enough and additional assistance is needed to help normalize
data. The following are best practices and recommendations for the normalization of data and
naming conventions.

IT Asset Management
6.11 Naming Conventions
The following are best practices as they relate to naming conventions related to IT Asset
Management in ServiceNow.
PL will need to compare existing naming conventions with best practices noted below
Hardware Models:
Hardware Model Display Name is a combination of the Manufacturer Name and the Model Name.
For example if a Model has a manufacturer of Dell and a Model Name of Optiplex 760 then the
Display Name for the Hardware Model record will be Dell Optiplex 760.
ServiceNow, by default, will utilize the Hardware Model Display Name when referencing Assets, CI’s,
Catalog Items, and Contracts. Thus retention of the ServiceNow naming convention for Hardware
Models is important.
Software Models:
Software Model Display Name is a combination of the Manufacturer Name, Model Name, and
Version. For example if a Model has a manufacturer of Adobe, a Model Name of Acrobat Pro, and a
Version of 9 then the Display Name for the Software Model record will be “Adobe Acrobat Pro 9”.
ServiceNow, by default, will utilize the Software Model Display Name when referencing Software
Licenses, Software Counters, Catalog Items, and Contracts. Thus retention of the ServiceNow naming
convention for Software Models is important.
Asset Record:
Asset records Display Name is a combination of the Asset Tag and the Model ID (Display Name). For
example if an Asset record had an Asset Tag of C67893 and a Model ID (Display Name) of Dell Inc.
XPS 14z then the Asset record Display Name would be “C67893 - Dell Inc. XPS 14z”.
6.12 Data Normalization
Field Normalization includes two features: normalization and transformation.
Normalization forces the ServiceNow platform to convert different forms of the same field value to a
single, accepted value automatically. By forcing a field to use a simple, recognizable description for
multiple variations of the same thing, normalization can eliminate duplicate records and make
searches easier. In addition to reconciling different forms of the same value in fields, normalization
can be configured to adjust queries automatically to return normalized results.
Transformation enables an administrator to transform raw field input into standardized values that
are more meaningful to an organization. An example of a standardized value might be to round RAM
size in configuration items to a whole number, such as 4000 MB instead of 4112 MB.

IT Asset Management
Transformations are controlled by parameters and conditions and can be configured to return
transformed values in queries.
6.13 Integrations
ServiceNow integrates with many third party applications and data sources. Two types of
integrations are listed:
 Base systemintegrations use ServiceNow plugins and include CMDB, Change Management,
Incident Management, Problem Management, Single Sign-on, and User Administration.
 Custom integrations are implemented through your ServiceNow Professional Services
Consultant
The ServiceNow platform is based on service-oriented architecture (SOA), in which all data objects
can use web services to access bi-directional data-level integration. The interface is also direct and
dynamic because all modifications to existing objects and all new objects are automatically published
as a Direct Web Service. A more indirect web service creation and usage can be achieved through
Mapped Web Service where a transform map is used to gather incoming web service data into the
final tables. Finally, an advanced Scripted Web Service technique is available for defining process-
based web services, where data is irrelevant, but serves more as a trigger for a process or a
composite of actions that execute at the server.
Additionally the platform offers a rich interface for loading external data using import sets. Using this
feature, you can load from various data sources such as HTTPS, FTPS, and SCP using file formats such
as XML, CSV, and Microsoft Excel XLS files. Information can also be pulled from a data source using a
direct JDBC connection, provided the network connectivity allows.
Information can be pulled from the platform to an external platform using an ODBC Driver.
Forms, lists, and reports on the platform can be accessed directly using a URL, which facilitates
integration on the UI level between two or more web applications.
6.14 MID Server
PL may require a MID Server for Asset data integrations. The Management, Instrumentation, and
Discovery (MID) Server is a Java server that runs as a Windows service or UNIX daemon. The MID
Server facilitates communication and movement of data between the ServiceNow platform and
external applications, data sources, and services.
6.15 Web Services
HTTP-based Web Services allow diverse applications to talk to each other. ServiceNow supports both
inbound (provider) and outbound web service consumer services. PL will utilize Web Services to
communicate with some integration points.
Web Service Data Format Types - The following standard data format types are supported by
ServiceNow via the HTTP protocol:

IT Asset Management
 SOAP - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SOAP
 JSON - http://json.org/
 CSV - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comma-separated_values
 EXCEL - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Excel_file_format#File_formats
 XML - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML
 PDF - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_Document_Format

IT Asset Management
7 SERVICENOW IMPLEMENTATION
ServiceNow recognizes the complex nature of IT Asset Management and the need for a successful
implementation of technology in support of ITAM processes. Based on industry standards, best
practices, and real-world experience the Implementation of ServiceNow follows a methodology that
combines organizational goals with practical reality.
7.1 Implementation Methodology
ServiceNow follows the International Standards Organization (ISO) recommendations for tiered
implementation of best-in-class IT Asset and Software Asset Management environments.
Tier 1
Good data isa prerequisite forgoodITAM& SAM. A commonmanagementobservation
that applieshere isthat“youcannot manage whatyou donot know”.Thistieralso
providesthe basisfordemonstratinginventorymanagementandlicense compliance,
whichis typicallyahighprioritymanagementobjective.
Tier 2
In practice,practical managementbeginsafterthe organizationhasrecognizedthe issues
resultingfromnothavingtrustworthydata.The organizationrecognizesthe extentof the
risksit facesas well asopportunitiesforimprovementandsavings.Thistierincludes
targetinganddelivering“quickwins”made obviousbytier1.
Tier 3
Buildingonthe foundationof the previoustwotiers,thistierdrivesthe integrationof
ITAM& SAMintooperational ITSMprocesses.The resultisimprovedefficiencyand
effectiveness.
Tier 4
Thistieraddressesthe more advancedanddemandingaspectsof full ITAM& SAM,
includingitsfull integrationintostrategicplanningforthe organizationincludingbutnot
limitedtoBusinessService ManagementandFinancial Management.

IT Asset Management
Implementation Tier with The ServiceNow Asset Management Methodology
The ISO Implementation tiers relate to the Towers within the ServiceNow Asset Management Best
Practices Methodology. Based on the Asset Management activities being performed and/or
implemented within an organization a current capability and an implementation roadmap may be
identified.
Tier 0 Governance:
Before implementation of Asset Management activities, organizations should address best practices
related to Governance as outlined in the ServiceNow Asset Management Methodology. The critical
foundational elements include Policy with Roles & Responsibilities, Processes, and
Education/Training.
Tier 1 Trustworthy Data:
Good data is a prerequisite for good ITAM & SAM. A common management observation that applies
here is that “you cannot manage what you do not know”. This tier also provides the basis for
demonstrating inventory management, reporting, and license compliance. Technology requirements
include an Asset Repository with effective and usable data (Models, Assets, Configuration items) that
can be readily transformed into knowledge.
Tier 2 Practical Management:
The focus of Tier 2 efforts within the ServiceNow Asset Methodology is specific to Fulfillment and
Auditing. An organization should have Discovery, Contract Management, and Software Compliance.
Technology requirements include hardware/software discovery, software purchase record
repository, contract terms & conditions repository, and warranty/maintenance attributes.

IT Asset Management
Tier 3 Operational Integration:
The integration of the ITAM Lifecycle throughout the organization including ITSM is critical for
efficiency and effectiveness. Identifying and managing the “use” of assets in the field helps to locate
opportunities for optimization. Technology requirements include Service Catalog, Procurement, and
Vendor Management.
This tier also provides the bases for demonstrating Financial Management within Tier 4.
Tier 4 Strategic Conformance:
Tier 4 addresses the more advanced and demanding aspects of full ITAM. Elements of Tier 4 include
full integration into strategic planning for the organization including but not limited to Business
Service Management and Financial Management. Technology requirements include Financial
Management, Costing (rate cards), Contract Financials, and CMDB Relationships.
Planning for Implementation:
The Tiered approach is best implemented using the following phased activities:
Note: While each Phase builds on one another, the prior Phase does not have to be completed
before the next Phase begins.

IT Asset Management
7.2 PL Current Capability Summary
The following is a summary of finding related to an appraisal of current capability in the performance
of IT Asset Management. This assessment is based on 2 days of onsite effort and a review of best
practices with the PL team. Specific observations can be found in Section 5 of this document.
Capability Score: The total capability scoring for PL is a 1.8 out of 4 (24/50).
This score is a bit under 50% due to some key Activity items in Tier 0 and Tier 1 that must be
accomplished and therefore more weighted. Overall, impressive for the organization as a whole and
on the right path for future successes.
The following are Capability recommendations for PL:
I made an attempt to be fair in the scoring. While it is true that you have control over the
processes that underlay the data for analysis, by not having documented procedures and an
automated way for various ITIL staff to be able to gather that data in a coherent and expedited
manner, the scores were skewed in a way that great efforts should be made to review ALL of the
activities for not only improvements but integrations where the work has already been done in
definition but needs publishing and adherence to compliance for the organization.
7.3 Tier 0 Governance Capability
Unperformed (4/10) - The PL organization has performed 4 of 10 activities within Tier 0 Governance.
It is recommended that PL establish and assign Roles & Responsibilities for ITAMactivities. The
assignment of roles and responsibility will enable PL to move forward with recommended best
practices.
Tier 0 Activity Performed
Centralized Asset Use Policies Yes
Shared Asset Processes Yes
Shared Asset Procedures No
Processes Reviewed for Intended Outcome Yes
Standard Process/Procedure Format No
Industry Training in ITAM No
Local User Group Participation Yes
End User Training on Asset Policies & Procedures No
Established KPI's for IT Asset Lifecycle Management No
Roles & Responsibilities identified for ITAM Activities No
7.4 Tier 1 Trustworthy Data

IT Asset Management
Unperformed (5/10) - The PL organization has performed 5 of 10 activities within Tier 1 Trustworthy
Data. It is recommended that PL establish an enterprise wide capability for discovering and validating
IT Assets in a manner that ensures visibility throughout the Enterprise.
Centralized Repository for Assets (including financial/contractual data) No
Standardized Hardware & Software Models Yes
Centralized Inventory Management Yes
Centralized ITAM Reporting No
Internal Enterprise-wide Discovery Yes
Visibility of all Asset Across the Organization No
Acquisition Details of All Assets Yes
Status/State of All Assets No
Established KPI's for Data Accuracy No
Automation of Data Population Yes
7.5 Tier 2 Practical Management
Unperformed (5/10) - The PL organization has performed 5 of 10 activities within Tier 2 Practical
Management. It is recommended that PL focus on Software Asset Management capabilities through
automation and compliance views.
Validated Discovery of PC Software Throughout the Enterprise No
Validated Discovery of Datacenter Software Throughout the Enterprise Yes
Software Catalog No
Contract Repository Yes
Contract Terms & Conditions Repository Yes
Contract Lease/Warranty/Services Dates Recorded Yes
Contracts Related to Assets and/or Configuration Items No
Centralized Software Purchase Record Repository (Entitlements) Yes
Centralized Software Compliance View No
Established KPI's for Software Compliance No
7.6 Tier 3 Operational Integration
Unperformed (5/10) - The PL organization has performed 5 of 10 activities within Tier 3 Operational
Integration. It is recommended that PL establish integration between the Asset Repository and
Lifecycle Management Elements – Catalog, Purchasing, and CMDB.
CMDB No

IT Asset Management
CI to CI Relationships No
Incident/Problem Reporting for Vendor Management Yes
Centralized Service Catalog Yes
Centralized Purchasing Yes
Integrated Service Catalog to Purchasing No
Integrated Service Catalog to Asset Repository No
Integrated Purchasing and Asset Repository Yes
Integrated Asset Repository and CMDB No
Established KPI's for Asset Purchasing Yes
7.7 Tier 4 Strategic Conformance
Unperformed (5/10) - The PL organization has performed 5 of 10 activities within Tier 4 Strategic
Conformance. It is recommended that PL establish Tiers 0-2 before full implementation efforts
related to Tier 4.
Business Service Mapping in CMDB No
Financial Costing for Configurations Yes
Rate Cards for Services Yes
Rate Cards for Contracts Yes
Rate Cards for Activities Yes
Integrated Total Cost of Ownership Reporting No
Integrated Budgeting/Forecasting Reporting Yes
Depreciation Management No
Chargeback/Showback No
Established KPI's for Financial Management of Assets No

IT Asset Management
7.8 Implementation Roadmap
The following implementation roadmap has been assembled for the successful implementation of
Asset Management Processes and Technology. This roadmap is provided based on the current
capability of PL (Section 7.2) as well as the goals of the organization. This roadmap is a practical
implementation recommendation based on best practices and experiences.
7.9 Roadmap Overview
The primary goal of the Asset Workshop was to identify opportunities to establish and utilize best
practices for Asset Management. ServiceNow utilizes the workshop to identify the current capability
of PL in support of recommendations for implementation.
The effort of implementing Asset Management with any organization carries a delicate balance
between process and technology. The industry identifies that a successful Asset Management
capability is based on 80% Process and 20% Technology.
7.10 Process Roadmap
The Process Roadmap is assembled based on the Best Practices of Asset Management (Section 4) and
the Capability Summary (Section 7.2).
Process Technology
Capacity
Management
Demand
Management
Software Asset
Management
Hardware Asset
Management
Policies
Shared Processes &
Procedures
Education &
Training
Roles &
Responsibilities

IT Asset Management
Process Elements - The following elements are needed for the performance of IT Asset Lifecycle
Management as they are related to the ISO Implementation Tiers.
o Governance
o Active Asset Management
o Fulfillment
o Auditing
o Disposition
o Financial Management
Capability - The Capability results (Section 6.2) for PL are as follows:
Tier / Activity Score
Tier 0 – Governance 0.4
Tier 1 – Trustworthy Data 0.5
Tier 2 – Practical Management 0.5
Tier 3 – Operational Integration 0.5
Tier 4 – Strategic Conformance 0.5
Total Capability Score (out of 4.0) 1.8
Process Roadmap Implementation Recommendation – 4 Phases
It is recommended that PL focus on the following elements as a roadmap to Asset Management Best
Practices:
o Phase 1 – Tier 0 & Tier 1 in support of Asset Management Implementations
o Phase 2 – Tier 2 after Phase 1 and in support of Software Asset Management
Implementations
o Phase 3 – Tier 3 after Phase 1 and in support of Service Catalog and Optimized Configuration
Management
o Phase 4 – Tier 4 after efforts of Phases 1-3
7.11 Technology Roadmap

IT Asset Management
The Technology Roadmap is assembled based on the Best Practices of Asset Management (Section
4). Practical experience has identified the need for a prescriptive and phased approach for Asset
Management. This roadmap is intended as a guide for PL.
Technology Elements & Restrictions:
The following elements are needed for the performance of IT Asset Lifecycle within ServiceNow:
o Service Catalog
o Asset Management
o Software Asset Management
o Extended CMDB
o Financial Management (with Cost
Management)
ID Element Restrictions
1 Service Catalog
Service Catalog will require the use/management of Models for
standard assets (hardware/software). Additionally, Service Catalog
will require workflow fromthe Request& Acquisitionprocess.
2 AssetManagement
Use/managementof Modelsforstandardassetsisneeded.Asset
detailsare requiredinordertouniquelytrackandrelate provisioned
assets.
3
Software Asset
Management
Discoveryis requiredforSoftware Asset Managementperformance.
4 ExtendedCMDB
Capacity & Financial Managementis dependent upon a fully built out
CMDB. The current CMDB does not have a complete picture of the
environment. Additionally, best practice follows the lifecycle
creation of records where an Asset exists BEFORE the creation of a
Configuration Item. The CMDB needs all relationships completed
fromCI to CI to Services.
• Requisition
• Provisioning
• Automated Workflow
• Model Management
1. SN Service
Catalog
• Model Management
• Asset Repository
• Costing
• Contract Ts&Cs
2. SN Asset
Repository • Software Entitlements
• Enterprise Discovery
• Software Counters
(Compliance)
3. SN SoftwareAsset
Management
• Configurations
• CI to CI Relationships
• Application/Service
Chunking
4. SN CMDB
• Total Cost of Ownership
• Business Service Costing
• Expense Allocations
• Budgets
• Chargeback/Showback
5. SN Financial
Management

IT Asset Management
5
Financial
Management
Performance of Financial Management requires the fully built
Service Catalog, Asset Management, Software Asset Management,
and ExtendedCMDBenvironment.
Technology Roadmap Risks
The implementation of Asset Management within PL carries risks. Some of those risks are listed
below:
 The large number of non-persistent desktops and high level of application virtualization
will need to be reviewed closely during the implementation timeframe
 The split of financial capabilities between ServiceNow and other tools is conceptually easy
to understand, but will need to be mapped to ServiceNow functionality to confirm the
proper way to build this split into the system, to enable cost allocation through
ServiceNow but not other financial functionality
Technology Roadmap Implementation Recommendation – 4 Phases
The Asset Management Roadmap enables the performance of IT Asset Management in a phased
approach. The implementation phases allow for rapid returns on effort without the monumental
effort and expense.
It is recommended that the 5 technology elements of Asset Management be implemented in the
following phases:
o Phase 1 – Trustworthy Data: Asset Repository and CMDB optimization
o Phase 2 – Practical Management: Full IT Asset Management with Software Asset
Management
o Phase 3 – Operational integration: Integrated Service Catalog with models for lifecycle
management
o Phase 4 – Financial Management

7.11.1 ServiceNow Asset Management Technology Implementation Phases
The following details are provided in support of the recommended Technology Roadmap. The
Implementation details are created to help scope and document the stories needed for
implementation activities.
Note: These sections will be discussed for future planning as the SACM components are further
planned for all of the following sections in this topic.
7.11.1.1 Phase 1 ServiceNow Asset Management Launch – Trustworthy Data
Phase 1 of the ServiceNow IT Asset Management Launch within PL will focus on baseline
configurations with data accuracy. A baseline configuration utilizes OOTB data elements and
capabilities of ServiceNow, which allows for a rapid start to implementation efforts.
7.11.1.1.1Scope
The recommended Scope of Phase 1 includes a primary focus on Trustworthy Data with the
following activities:
 Asset Repository build
 Core CMDB build (including integration to 3rd party discovery tools)
7.11.1.1.2ServiceNow Plugin Activation (For Stories)
Pending detailed requirements discussions, the following plugins are recommended in support of
Phase 1:
 Extended CMDB
 Field Normalization
7.11.1.1.3ServiceNow Configurations (For Stories)
In support of a rapid implementation, ServiceNow recommends the use of default configurations
for IT Asset Management including OOTB data attributes. After the launch of Phase 1 and the
resulting trust in the provided asset data then activities may begin to optimize the ServiceNow
environment as desired.
The following configurations are recommended within Phase 1:
 Manufacturer Data Normalization
 Hardware/Software Model Name Data Normalization
 Data Certification on critical Asset data element such as “Assigned To”
 Class & Model Category Mapping
 Status
7.11.1.1.4Data Mapping
Detailed data mappings within ServiceNow from PL will be discuss at a future date. These
mappings will be created with the input and guidance of PL during the onsite implementation
workshop and subsequent discussions.

Process Guide Page 78 of
120
7.11.1.1.5PL Activity
The following areas have been identified as key requirements for PL and require a critical focus
on trustworthy data in Phase 1. It will be imperative to assemble appropriate asset details prior
to and during launch activity. The use of discovery technology as a primary source of truth for
Asset data will expedite data onboarding and improve data accuracy.
The following are recommended Data Activities:
 Rationalize discovery data – review asset discovery sources and consolidate where
possible. Data overlap can create data integrity issues when multiple sources of truth are
creating/updating Asset records.
 Gather/Validate Critical Data Elements – Implementation of IT Asset Management will
need information related to Locations, Users, Departments, Cost Centers, Company,
Manufacturers, and Vendors. If these details are part of data integration efforts then a
data sampling will be needed to validate prior to integration completion. For Software
Asset Management data will be required related to base/starter Software License
purchase record details.
 MID Server Implementation – A MID Server is required for many integrations.
 Class Mapping - Final mapping of Class structure for Model Categories.
 Model Data Onboarding – With so many IT Asset Management elements reliant on Model
Data it will be crucial to have this data organized at kickoff so implementation can occur
shortly after.
 Field Normalization – may be performed with Model Data Onboarding as normalization
often begins with Manufacturer and Model normalization.
 Integration Activity – After Model Data Onboarding is complete then integration to
discovery (sources of truth) may be performed. Rationalization should be completed prior
to implementation activities. Integration may create asset records that are not already
seen within the ServiceNow environment. Allowing discovery/integration technology to
create records facilitates a quicker phase launch as well as utilizing a source of truth.
 Hardware Data Onboarding – After integration Activity is complete then additional, non
discoverable, data elements can be loaded for each Asset/CI
 Data Certification – After hardware data is fully loaded then Data Certification
configuration can occur.
 Process Testing & Validation – After hardware data is fully loaded then process testing
may begin.
7.11.1.1.6Integrations Activity (For Stories)
PL will integrate ServiceNow Asset Management with multiple points. Two types of integrations
are listed:

120
 Base systemintegrations use ServiceNow plugins and include CMDB, Change
Management, Incident Management, Problem Management, Single Sign-on, and User
Administration.
 Custom integrations are implemented through your ServiceNow Professional Services
Consultant
7.11.1.1.7Required Foundation Data Elements (For Stories)
The following Foundation Data Elements are required in the management of Asset Data within
ServiceNow including Status, Cost Center, Company, and Location:
Model Categories – ServiceNow recommends utilizing the detailed Product Category mappings
provided by ServiceNow and embedded in section 6.5.
Update the table below as needed during the planning stages for implementation
SN Product Category Asset CI SN Notes
Accessory alm_hardware cmdb_ci_acc
Business Service cmdb_ci_service
Circuit cmdb_ci_circuit
Communications Device - currently being
used for Telecom Network Devices
Computer Peripheral alm_hardware cmdb_ci_peripheral review sub categories and rationalize
ESX Server alm_hardware cmdb_ci_esx_server
Generator alm_hardware u_generator
Group with DataCenter, Consider table
name that aligns with standard
(u_cmdb_ci_)
IP Router alm_hardware cmdb_ci_ip_router
IP Switch alm_hardware cmdb_ci_ip_switch
Linux Server alm_hardware cmdb_ci_linux_server
Panel alm_hardware u_panel
Consider tablename that aligns with
standard (u_cmdb_ci_)
PDU alm_hardware cmdb_ci_pdu
Personal Computer alm_hardware cmdb_ci_pc_hardware change to Personal Computer
Printer alm_hardware cmdb_ci_printer
Rack alm_hardware cmdb_ci_rack
Server Chassis alm_hardware cmdb_ci_chassis_server
UPS alm_hardware cmdb_ci_ups
Asset State & Sub-State – ServiceNow recommends utilizing the Asset Lifecycle States provided
by ServiceNow and documented below.

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State Available Substates Notes
On order None Asset has been ordered but not received.
In stock Available,Reserved, Defective, Pending
repair,Pending install,Pendingdisposal,
Pending transfer,Pre-allocated
Asset is stored in a stockroom. Substate indicates if it
is possibleor recommended to put the assetinto use.
In transit Available,Reserved, Defective, Pending
install,Pendingdisposal, Pre-allocated
In use None Availableonly for non-consumables.
Consumed None Availableonly for consumables.
In maintenance None Asset is being repaired or undergoing maintenance.
Retired Disposed,Sold,Donated, Vendor credit Setting an assetto a Retired state is recommended
for assetend of life.Only delete assetrecords that
were created erroneously.
Missing Lost, Stolen
CI Status – ServiceNow recommends utilizing the CI Lifecycle Status OOTB as documented below.
CI-Install status Available CI SubStatus
In Stock Available
In Stock Reserved
Pending Repair blank
Pending install blank
In Stock blank
Pending Repair Repairable
Pending install Reserved
In Stock Disposable
In Stock Pre-allocated
Installed In use
In maintenance blank
Retired blank
Retired Scrapped
Retired Sold
Retired Donated
Retired Credit
Absent blank
Absent Lost
Stolen blank
Cost Center – Cost Center will be utilized as the primary Cost Center attribute. Final validated
data is needed from PL for the population of the Cost Center table within ServiceNow. The
following is recommended for implementation:
SN Attribute SN Notes
Name Populate names of Cost Centers (currently just codes)
Code Cost Center Code
PL to provide Cost Center Data during implementation project

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Company & Department – Identifying the organizational structure through the use of the
Company & Department attributes is critical for IT Asset Management. ServiceNow recommends
a hierarchy to identify the institutional structure with the associated BU’s.
PL to provide Company Hierarchy Data during implementation project
Location – Location data is critical for accurately identifying the physical location of assets. This
data is needed to for both ITAM and ITSM. Unlike HR related data that identifies location for
People, Asset needs to identify locations of IT Assets including those found in Data Centers, IT
Closets, Stockrooms, and etc. The following is recommended for implementation:
Validate all the non-user related locations (current locations based on facilities records)
PL to provide Location Hierarchy Data during implementation project
7.11.1.1.8Roles and Activities
PL will need to identify who will be responsible for IT Asset Management and related activities. As
stated in Section 5.1.2, it is recommended that an Asset Center of Excellence teambe created for
the management and oversight of Enterprise Asset Activities with localization of enterprise
processes.
The following Activities should be validated and mapped to Asset Management Roles within PL.
Activities
ProcessPlanning and Request
Produce AssetManagementPlan
Define what'sinscope (Models. etc.)
Determine selectionguidelines
PerformAudit
Baseline AssetandCMDB
Procurement
Manage Vendors
Add/Remove newvendors
Add/Remove newModels
Evaluate appropriate attributes
Stockroom / Receiving
Receive newasset
InputassetTag onto newhardware
Create assetsinthe AssetRepository
Validate AssetAttributes
Assignappropriate statusin the AssetRepository

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Validate financialsonassetrecord
Deploy/ Financials
Activate Licenses,Contractsand/orEntitlement3
s
Validate assetattributes(Location,financials...etc.)
Validate assetStatus
Assignassetstousers
Update the AssetRepository
Manage / Move, Add,Change (MAC)
Ensure approvedChange Request
Modifyassetattributesin the AssetRepository
Planand organize routine Maintenance
Execute assetaudits
Determine correctiveaction
Initiate corrective action
execute corrective action
Track asset history
Transferassetsto newlocations/storerooms
Retire / Dispose
Retire ordispose asset
Update assetto Disposed/Retire in the AssetRepository
Generate Disposal report
7.11.1.1.9Reporting (for Stories)
The following reports were identified as desired for PL:
 Reporting to support annual software vendor contract true-up
 True cost of ownership of a service/ sub-service
 Hardware refresh schedule for each direct report of any given manager
 End-of-life dates for all hardware components that my team manages
 Monthly metrics report with data relevant to the CIO report
 List of contracts with upcoming contract renewal dates
 Exception report listing all unknown and unidentified assets
7.11.1.2 Phase 2 ServiceNow Practical Management – SAM and Expanded Hardware Asset
Management
Phase 2 of the ServiceNow IT Asset Management Launch within PL will focus on Practical
Management of the activities performed during Phase 1. Activities identified in Phase 1 but
unable to be implemented will be brought into Phase 2.

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Note: ServiceNow does not assume an immediate rolling release from Phase 1 to Phase 2. PL
may delay Phase 2 efforts while managing the organizational changes related to Phase 1.
Alternatively, PL may combine Phase 1 and Phase 2 efforts or elements thereof.
7.11.1.2.1Scope
The recommended Scope of Phase 2 includes a primary focus on Practical Management with the
 Holdover – Any efforts discovered from Phase 1
 Full IT Asset Management
 Software Asset Management
7.11.1.3 Phase 3 ServiceNow Operational Integration – Service Catalog
Phase 3 of the ServiceNow IT Asset Management Launch within PL will focus on Operational
Integration. Operational Integration is the focus on efficiency with the IT Asset Management
services.
7.11.1.3.1Scope
 Integrated Service Catalog
 Model lifecycle management
7.11.1.4 Phase 4 ServiceNow Strategic Conformance
Phase 4 of the ServiceNow IT Asset Management Launch within PL will focus on Strategic
Conformance. Strategic Conformance is the focus on Financial Optimization.
7.11.1.4.1Scope
 Total Cost of Ownership
 Business Services level cost allocation

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Appendix A: Document Conventions
Symbol Description
Processstart / endpoint: Representsthe startingandendingpointof the
process.
ProcessActivity/Task: Presentsanactivityortask that needstobe
accomplishedto produce aspecificoutcome.
Predefinedexternal processororganization: Indicatedacontributionfrom
an external processororganization.
Decision:Indicatesthata questionneedstobe answeredinorderto
determine the inordertoidentifythe followingActivity/taskinthe process.
The answersare indicatedonthe differentconnectorsattachedtothe
decisionbox.EveryanswerislinkedtoanassociatedActivity/task.
SystemAction or Function: Indicatesthatan action isbeingperformedinthe
systemasan outputof the previousactivityandaninputto the next.
Off-page reference:Indicatesareference toanotherdiagramwithinthe same
process.The numberof the referenceddiagramisindicatedinthe shape.
On-page reference:Indicatesalinktoanotheractivitywithinthe same
diagram.
Association:Representedbyadotedor dashedline,it indicatesan
associationora relationbetweenthe connected,processes,tasksoractivities.
Sequence flow:Isrepresentedwithasolidlineandarrowhead,andshowsin
whichorderthe activitiesare performed.

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Appendix B: Glossary of Terms and Acronyms
Term Acronym Definition
Alert
A notificationthatathresholdhasbeenreached,somethinghas
changed,or a failure hasoccurred.Alertsare oftencreatedand
managedbysystemmanagementtoolsandare managedbythe
eventmanagementprocess.
Assessment
Inspectionandanalysistocheckwhetherastandardor setof
guidelinesisbeingfollowed,thatrecordsare accurate,or that
efficiencyandeffectiveness requirements are beingmet.
Asset
Anyresource or capability.The assetsof aservice providerinclude
anythingthatcouldcontribute tothe deliveryof aservice.Assetscan
be one of the followingtypes:management,organization,process,
knowledge,people,information,applications,infrastructure or
financial capital.
Attribute
A piece of informationaboutaconfigurationitem.Examplesare
name,location,versionnumber,andcost.Attributesof CIsare
recordedinthe configurationmanagementdatabase (CMDB).
Back-out
An activitythatrestoresaservice or otherconfigurationitem toa
previousbaseline.Back-outisusedasa formof remediationwhena
change or release isnotsuccessful.
Baseline
(ITILContinualService Improvement) (ITILServiceTransition) A
snapshotthatis usedas a reference point.Manysnapshotsmaybe
takenand recordedovertime butonlysome will be usedas
baselines.Forexample:
▪ An ITSMbaseline canbe usedasa startingpointtomeasure
the effectof a service improvementplan
▪ A performance baselinecanbe usedto measure changesin
performance overthe lifetimeof anIT service
▪ A configurationbaselinecanbe usedas part of a back-out
planto enable the ITinfrastructure tobe restoredto a
knownconfigurationif achange or release fails.
Business
Services
An IT Service thatdirectlysupportsaBusinessProcess,asopposedto
an Infrastructure Service,which isusedinternallybythe ITService
Providerandisnot usuallyvisibletothe Business.The termBusiness
Service isalsousedtomeana Service that isdeliveredtoBusiness
CustomersbyBusinessUnits.
Category
A namedgroupof thingsthathave somethingincommon.
Categoriesare usedtogroup similarthingstogether.
Change
The addition,modification,orremoval of anythingthatcouldhave
an effectonIT services.

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Change
Advisory Board
CAB
A groupof people whosupportthe assessment,prioritization,
authorization,andschedulingof changes.A change advisoryboardis
usuallymade upof representativesfromall areaswithinthe IT
service provider,the business,andthirdpartiessuchassuppliers.
Change
Management
CHG
The processresponsibleforcontrollingthe life cycle of all changes,
enablingbeneficial changestobe made withminimumdisruptionto
IT services.
Change Record
A record containingthe detailsof achange.Each change record
documentsthe life cycle of asingle change.A change recordis
createdfor everyrequestforchange.
Change Request See RequestforChange.
Configuration
Record
CI Record
A recordcontainingthe detailsof aconfigurationitem.Each
configurationrecorddocumentsthe lifecycle of asingle
configurationitem.Configurationrecordsare storedina
configurationmanagementdatabase andmaintainedaspartof a
configurationmanagementsystem.
Configuration
Type
CI Type
A categorythat isusedto classifyconfigurationitems.The CItype
identifiesthe requiredattributesandrelationshipsfora
configurationrecord.CommonCItypesincludehardware,
document,anduser.
Classification
The act of assigninga categoryto something.Classificationisusedto
ensure consistentmanagementandreporting.CIs,incidents,
problems,andchangesare usuallyclassified.
Closed
The final statusin the life cycle of anincident,problem, orchange.
Whenthe status isclosed,nofurtheractionistaken.
Closure
The act of changingthe statusof an incident,problem,orchange to
closed.
Configuration
Item
CI
Anycomponentorotherservice assetthatneedstobe managedin
orderto deliveranIT service. Informationabouteachconfiguration
itemisrecordedina configurationrecordwithinthe configuration
managementsystemandismaintainedthroughoutitslife cycle by
service assetandconfigurationmanagement.
Configuration
Management
Database
CMDB
A database usedtostore configurationrecordsthroughouttheirlife
cycle.The configurationmanagementsystemmaintainsone ormore
CMDBs. Each CMDB storesattributesof CIsand relationshipswith
otherCIs.
Configuration
Management
System
CMS
A setof tools,data,and informationthatisusedtosupportservice
assetand configurationmanagement.The CMSis part of an overall
service knowledgemanagementandincludestoolsforcollecting,

120
storing,managing,updating,analyzing,andpresentingdataaboutall
configurationitemsandtheirrelationships.The CMSalsoincludes
informationaboutincidents,problems,knownerrors,changes,and
releases.Itmaycontaindata aboutemployees,suppliers,locations,
businessunits,customers,andusers.The CMSis maintainedby
service assetandconfigurationmanagementandisusedbyall IT
service managementprocesses.
Configuration
Record
A recordcontainingthe detailsof aconfigurationitem.Each
configurationrecorddocumentsthe life cycle of asingle
configurationitem.
Continual
Service
Improvement
CSI
Ensuresthat servicesare alignedwithchangingbusinessneedsby
identifyingandimplementingimprovementstoITservicesthat
supportbusinessprocesses.The performance of the ITservice
provideriscontinuallymeasuredandimprovementsare made to
processes,ITservices,andITinfrastructure inordertoincrease
efficiency,effectiveness,andcosteffectiveness.
Customer
Someone whobuysgoodsorservices.The customerof an IT service
provideristhe personorgroup whodefinesandagreestothe
service level.The termisalsosometimesusedinformallytomean
user,forexample,‘Thisisacustomer-focusedorganization.’
Diagnosis
A stage inthe incidentandproblemlife cycles.The purpose of
diagnosisistoidentifyaworkaroundforanincidentorthe root
cause of a problem.
Effectiveness
A measure of whetherthe objectivesof aprocess,service,oractivity
have beenachieved.Aneffectiveprocessoractivityisone that
achievesitsagreedobjectives. Seealso KeyPerformance Indicator.
Efficiency
A measure of whetherthe rightamount of resource hasbeenused
to deliveraprocess,service,oractivity.
Emergency
Change
A change that mustbe introducedassoonas possible,forexample
to resolve amajorincidentorimplementasecuritypatch.The
change managementprocessnormallyhas aspecificprocedure for
handlingemergencychanges.
Employee Self
Service
ESS
A module inServiceNow thatallowsuserstomake requests,view
articles,logincidents,andsearchthe knowledgebase througha
user-friendlywebsite calledthe EmployeeSelf-Service Portal (ESS
Portal).
Entitlement(s) Numberof rightsto be grantedby a software license
Event
A change of state that hassignificance forthe managementof anIT
service orotherconfigurationitem.The termisalsousedtomeanan
alertor notificationcreatedbyanyITservice,configurationitem, or

120
monitoringtool.
Impact
A measure of the effectof anincident,problem,orchange on
businessprocesses.Impactisoftenbasedonhow service levelswill
be affected.Impactandurgencyare usedto assignpriority.
Incident
An unplannedinterruptiontoanIT service orreductioninthe quality
of an IT service.Failureof aconfigurationitemthathasnot yet
affectedservice isalsoanincident.
IT Asset
Repository
The IT AssetRepositoryprovidesasingle,centralizeddatabase that
storesand tracks organizational assetsphysicallyandfinancially
Key
Performance
Indicator
KPI
A metricthat isusedto helpmanage anIT service,process,plan,
project,or otheractivity.Manymetricsmaybe measured,butonly
the most importantof these are definedaskeyperformance
indicatorsandusedto activelymanage andreportonthe process,IT
service,oractivity.Theyshouldbe selectedtoensure thatefficiency,
effectiveness,andcosteffectiveness isall managed.
Known Error KE
A problemthathasa documentedrootcause anda workaround.
Knownerrorsare createdandmanagedthroughouttheirlife cycle by
problemmanagement.Developmentgroupsorsuppliersmayalso
identifyknownerrors.
Major Incident
The highestcategoryof impactfor an incident.A majorincident
resultsin significantdisruptiontothe business.
Metric
Somethingthatismeasuredandreportedtohelpmanage aprocess,
IT service,oractivity.
Policy
Formallydocumentedmanagementexpectationsandintentions.
Policiesare usedtodirectdecisionsandto ensure consistent
developmentandimplementationof processes,standards,roles,
activities,ITinfrastructure,andsoon.
Post-
implementation
Review
PIR
A reviewthattakesplace aftera change or a projecthas been
implemented.Itdeterminesif the change orprojectwassuccessful
and identifiesopportunitiesforimprovement.
Priority
A categoryusedto identifythe relative importance of anincident,
problem,orchange.Priorityisbasedonimpactand urgency,andis
usedto identifyrequiredtimesforactionstobe taken.Forexample,
the SLA may state that priority2 incidentsmustbe resolvedwithin
12 hours.
Problem
A cause of one or more incidents.The cause isnotusuallyknownat
the time a problemrecordiscreated.The problemmanagement
processisresponsibleforfurtherinvestigation.
RACI RACI A model usedtohelpdefinerolesandresponsibilities.RACIstands

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for responsible,accountable,consulted,andinformed.
Release
One or more changesto in IT service thatare built, tested,and
deployedtogether.A singlerelease mayinclude changesto
hardware,software,documentation,process,andother
components.
Requestfor
Change
RFC
A formal detailedproposal forachange to be made.The termis
oftenmisusedtomeanchange recordor the change itself.
Restore
Takingactionto return an IT service tothe usersafterrepairand
recoveryfroman incident.Thisisthe primaryobjective of incident
management.
Risk
A possible eventthatcouldcause harmor lossor affectthe abilityto
achieve objectives.A riskismeasuredbythe probabilityof athreat,
the vulnerabilityof the assettothatthreat,and the impact itwould
have if it occurred.
Role
A setof responsibilities,activities,andauthoritiesassignedtoa
person or team.A role isdefinedinaprocessor function.One
personor teammay have multiple roles.Forexample,asingle
personmaycarry outthe role of configurationmanagerandchange
manager.
Root Cause The underlyingororiginal cause of anincident orproblem.
Root Cause
Analysis
RCA
An activitythatidentifiesthe rootcause of an incidentorproblem.
Root cause analysistypicallyconcentratesonITinfrastructure
failures.
Service
A meansof deliveringvalue tocustomersbyfacilitatingthe
outcomescustomerswanttoachieve withoutthe ownershipof
specificcostsandrisks.
Service Desk
The single pointof contact betweenthe service providerandthe
users.A typical service deskmanagesincidentsandservice requests,
and alsohandlescommunicationwiththe users.
Service Level
Measuredand reportedachievementagainstone ormore service
level requirements.
Service Level
Agreement
SLA
An agreementbetweenanITservice providerandacustomer.A
service levelagreementdescribesthe ITservice; documentsservice
level requirements,andspecify the responsibilitiesof the ITservice
providerandthe customer.
Service
Management
A service-orientedapproachtomanage applications,infrastructure,
and processes.
Service Manages the lifecycleof one ormore IT services, providesleadership

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Manager by developingBusinessCases,product linestrategiesandschedules,
performsservice cost managementactivities,andmanagesvarious
and perhapsconflictingobjectives.
Service Request
A formal requestfromauser forsomethingtobe provided,for
example,arequestforinformationoradvice;toreseta password;or
to install aworkstationfora new user.
Software
License
Entitlements
Definingthe people ormachinestowhichaspecificpurchased
software licenseisassigned.Assetmanagersallocate alicense to
entitle auseror machine touse the license
Stakeholder
A personwhohasan interestinanorganization,project,orIT
service.Stakeholdersmaybe interestedinthe activities, resources,
or deliverables.Stakeholdersmayincludecustomers,partners,
employees,shareholders,owners,orothers.
User
A personwhousesthe IT service ona day-to-daybasis.Usersare
distinctfromcustomers,assome customersdonot use the IT service
directly.
Workaround
Reducingoreliminatingthe impactof an incidentorproblemfor
whicha full resolutionisnotyetavailable,forexample,by restarting
a failedconfigurationitem.Workaroundsforproblemsare
documentedinknownerrorrecords.Workaroundsforincidentsthat
do nothave associatedproblemrecordsare documentedinthe
incidentrecord.

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Appendix C: ISO/IEC 19770-2 Software Asset Tagging
Adobe wasthe firstmajorsoftware publisherthathasimplementedasoftware identificationtag. Adobe
implementeditssoftware tagpriortothe finalizationof the ISO/IEC19770-2 standard,and therefore does
not conformto it.However,Adobe'staggingdoesprovide the abilityfororganizationstoaccurately
identifyinstalledAdobe software.Adobe introduceditssoftware taggingwiththe CS4productline.
Advocates for software tagging
Adobe,CA,Microsoft,ModusLink, Symantec,EMC,IBM
Software Publishers and Software
Microsoft- Basic tags(Product,Version,Tag Creator,Publisher,Licensor,UniqueID,EntitlementRequired)
 Win8, WinServer2012
 Office 2013, SQL Server2012, Visual Studio2012
 Lookingat addingpatchesforoldersupported/active software
Symantec- Certified tags(everything thing in basic tag but is normalized,consistent,digitally signed,and
used acrossany toolsand any organization and any reporting systems. Also includessecurity requirements
- manifestforinstall files and runtimefiles)
 Enterprise tools - Control Compliancesuite,EndpointProtection,Netbackup,OpsCenter,etc.
Adobe - Non-normalized tags(Adobeimplemented itssoftwaretag priorto the finalization of theISO/IEC
19770-2 standard and thereforedoesnotconformto it)
 Creative suite productsfromCS4
AnypublishersusingInstallShield2012 install scripts - varies
Physical Platforms supported
Windows,Macintosh,Linux,andUnix
Who is using the ISO/IEC 19770-2 standard?
TagVault.org- http://tagvault.org/ - TagVault.orgisthe registrationauthorityforinternationalstandard
ISO/IEC19770-2 software identificationtags(SWIDtags).
WG21/TG 21 - http://www.19770.org/ - WorkingGroup(WG) 21 is the ISOworkinggroupresponsiblefor
SAMstandardsdevelopment. Technical Group(TG) 21 isa mirrorof WG 21 and is part of the US
standardsreviewandcreationorganization
DMTF - http://dmtf.org/ - DesktopManagementTaskForce (DMTF) enableseffective managementof IT
environments.The organizationiscomprisedof industry-leadingmembercompaniesthatcollaborate on
the development,validationandpromotionof infrastructure managementstandards.

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Appendix D: Asset Management Process Overview
The following Process Overviews are provided as best practice baselines for general IT Asset
Management processes in line with ITIL’s view of IT Asset Service Management.
1 Asset Management Process Activity Overview (Best Practice Level Stack)

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2 Asset Management Planning and Design (Best Practice Level Stack)

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3 Procure Asset Activity (Best Practice Level Stack)

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4 Receive Asset Activity (Best Practice Level Stack)

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5 Manage Asset Activity (Best Practice Level Stack)

120
6 Dispose Asset Activity (Best Practice Level Stack)

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Appendix E: Roles Associated with ServiceNow Implementations
The following is a guide to the various roles and responsibilities commonly used during the
implementation of ServiceNow. These are only meant as a guide and not as an absolute.
1 Customer Resources
The following are details related to customer resources:
Customer Resources Responsibilities
PROJECTSPONSOR Senior Manager who has overall responsibility for the project success.The Project
Sponsor sets the vision.
SENIOR STAKEHOLDERS Executive Management who take partin Steering Committee meetings and provide
adviceto the project team.
PROJECTMANAGER Individual responsiblefor all projectmanagement activities including
communicatingprogress and mitigatingissues and risks.This person is also thekey
point of contactfor Customer project team, and coordinates with the ServiceNow
Engagement Manager. On average, the Project Manager dedicates between 40%
and 75% of their time to the project.
PROCESS OWNERS Individualswho have decision-makingauthority for process definition and tool
requirements definition and approval for each of the processes implemented
within the ServiceNow product. On average the time commitment of the Process
Owners varies between 10% and 25% of their time for the duration of the project.
TECHNICAL RESOURCES Customer will supply required technical resource(s) with ITIL, web services xml and
JavaScriptexpertiseto accommodate the scope of the Project and to supportthe
configuration of any in-scopeintegrations,includingbutnot limited to the
following:
 Role: Active directory administrator,Activities:Assistancewith LDAP
integration
 Role: Email administrator,Activities:Assistancewith in-bound / outbound
email configuration
 Role: Network engineer, Activities:Assistancewith firewall and network
configuration"
 Role: Server hostingadministrator,Activities:Assistancewith Mid Server
configuration
 Role DB/System Administrator/Owner,Activities:SME Assistancewith each of
the required data sources outlined in Section 2 - Integration Scope
 Role: Integration architects,Activities Resource(s) with ITIL and JavaScript
expertise to accommodate the scope of servicepurchased and to provide
supportfor the agreed integration with Web Services and XML experience.

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The Technical resources areresponsiblefor the completion of integrations
(Consume/Publish) from the 3rd party tools with guidanceprovided by
ServiceNow’s Architect and/or Integration Consultant(s). On average the time
commitment of the Technical Resources varies between 25% and 40% of their time
for the duration of the project.
SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR Customer will supply certified ServiceNow system administrators to accommodate
the scope of the Projectand to take an active rolein supportingServiceNow in the
configuration of the ServiceNow tool with guidance provided by ServiceNow’s
Architect and/or Sr. Consultant(s). On average the time commitment of the System
Administrators varies between 75% and 100% of their time for the duration of the
project.
2 ServiceNow Resources
The following are details related to ServiceNow resources:
ServiceNow Resources Responsibilities
PRACTICE MANAGER The ServiceNow Executive Sponsor (PracticeManager) will providesupportfor
the Engagement Manager, assistwith major issues/escalations,remove obstacles,
participatein planningthe scope, assess any scopechanges, review major
deliverables,and participatein the project gate reviews and steering committee
events.
The ServiceNow Executive sponsor will work with the Customer Executive Sponsor
and Project team to govern overall projectrisk,recommend opportunities to
optimize cost/benefits and focus on the realization of benefits for the overall
project.
ENGAGEMENT MANAGER ServiceNow Engagement Manager will facilitateprojectplanning,provide
implementation expertise, confirmthe Statement Of Work is being adhered to,
allocateappropriateresources fromServiceNow, manage escalations,and actas a
singlepointof contact for the duration of the Project. The ServiceNow engagement
manager will facilitateatminimum a weekly status or update call to ensure the
Project is progressingappropriately.
TECHNICAL CONSULTANTS ServiceNow will providetechnical consultant(s) to help with application
configuration and assistwith knowledge transfer to Customer resource(s).
INTEGRATION EXPERT ServiceNow will providean integration expert to assistwith integrations defined
above.
BUSINESS PROCESS
CONSULTANT
The business process consultantwill driveprocess definition,re-engineering,
improvement and gap analysisof current and future processes together with
Customer process owners, key Customer sponsors and stakeholders.

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Appendix F: Configuration Management Process Overview
The concepts described in this guide are aligned with ITIL 2011 and may reference capabilities that are
dependentuponotherServiceNow applications.These referenceswill be notedby blueitalicized font.
This document assumes that the ServiceNow Discovery product is available and that the Enterprise CMDB
plugin has beenactivated.
1.1 Overview
A process is defined as a set of linked activities that transform specified inputs into specified outputs,
aimed at accomplishing an agreed-upon objective in a measurable manner. The configuration
management process definition laid out in this document further breaks down these activities into actions
and the role(s) responsible fortheirexecution.
This document also describes how ServiceNow supports the configuration management process to
identify, record, audit and verify assets and configuration items including their versions, baselines,
components,attributesandrelationships.
There are strong inter-process relationships between configuration management and the other IT service
management processes. Configuration management and the CMDB are the foundation to integrated
ITSM processes, and should be considered at the very beginning of any IT service management
transformationeffort.
A configuration item (CI) is any component or other service asset that needs to be managed in order to
provide an IT service. Information about each CI is stored in a configuration record within the
configuration management database (CMDB). The configuration management process is responsible for
managingthe life cycle of all configurationitemsandtheirrelationshipswithone another.
1.3 Process Goal
The primary goal of the configuration management process is to support efficient and effective service
management processes by providing accurate information about configuration items. This enables users
of that information to make better decisions, and more effectively support the objectives and
requirementsof the business.
1.4 Process Objectives
The objectivesof the configurationmanagementprocessare to:
 Ensure that IT managedassetsare identified,controlledandproperlycaredthroughouttheir
lifecycle.
 Identify,control,record,report,auditandverifyservicesandotherCIs,includingversions,
baselines,constituentcomponents,theirattributesandrelationships.

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 Accountfor, manage andprotect the integrityof CIs,throughthe service lifecycle byworkingwith
change managementtoensure thatonlyauthorizedcomponentsare usedandonlyauthorized
changesare made.
 Ensure the integrityof CIsand configurationsrequiredtocontrol the servicesbyestablishingand
maintaininganaccurate and complete CMDB.
 Maintainaccurate configurationinformationonthe historical,plannedandcurrentstate of
servicesandCIs.
 Supportefficientandeffectiveservicemanagementprocessesbyprovidingaccurate configuration
informationfordecision-makingpurposes.
1.5 Relationship with Other Processes
Process Relation Description Input Output
Incident
Management
The CMDB containsdetailsof the infrastructure vital to
efficientincidentclassification,initial support,investigation
and diagnosis.
X
WhenCI recordsare identifiedasinaccurate,incidentrecords
are createdandassignedtoconfiguration managementfor
correction.
X
Problem
Management
CI detailsandrelationshipinformationaidsinrootcause
analysis,impactevaluation,andsolutiondevelopment.
X
Problemrecordsare linkedtorelevantCIrecord(s). X
Change
Management
The CMDB provides change management with the necessary
information for the assessment of the risk and impact of
proposedchanges.
X
New,changedordisposedconfigurationitems. Change
managementensuresthatthe informationrelatedto
impactedCIsisupdatedproperlyfollowingthe
implementationof achange.
X

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1.6 Principles and Basic Concepts
Policies
Configuration management policies are needed to establish the objectives, scope and principles that
govern the process and should be considered with the change management and release and deployment
managementpoliciesbecause theyare socloselyrelated.
Configuration Management policies will be very dependent upon the organization’s business drivers,
contractual requirements, and on compliance to applicable laws, regulations and standards. Areas that
are typicallyaddressedbypoliciesare:
 The need to comply with governance requirements, such as Sarbanes-Oxley, ISO/IEC 20000, or
COBIT
 The need to deliver the capability, resources and warranties as defined by service level agreements
and contracts.
 The level of control andrequirementsneededfortraceabilityandauditability.
 The requirement to maintain adequate configuration information for internal and external
stakeholders.
 Level of automationtoreduce errorsand costs.
Security Considerations
Data securityisa crucial aspectof configurationmanagementandthe CMDB. In additiontobeing
effective,securitycontrolsshouldbe easilymaintainedandscalable. The ServiceNow platformprovidesa
numberof methodsforsecuringdataincludinguser accesscontrol listrules,datapolicies,contextual
security,anddomainseparation. See SecurityBestPractices inthe ServiceNow Wikiforadetailed
descriptionof the variousdatasecurityfeaturesavailable tosupportthe configurationmanagement
process.
Process Roles
Each role is assigned to perform specific tasks within the process. Within a specific process, there can be
more than one individual associated with a specific role. Additionally, a single individual can assume more
than one role within the process although typically not at the same time. Depending on the structure and
maturityof a process,all rolesdescribedmaynotexistineveryorganization.
The followingdescribesthe typical rolesdefinedforserviceassetandconfigurationmanagement.
Role Description
Process Owner
A Senior Manager with the ability and authority to ensure the process is rolled outand used
by the entire IT organization.
Responsible and Accountable for:

120
 Definingthe overall mission of the process.
 Establishingand communicatingthe process mission,goals and objectives to all
stakeholders.
 Resolvingany cross-functional (departmental) issues.
 Ensuringconsistentexecution of the process across theorganization.
 Reporting on the effectiveness of the process to senior management.
 Initiatingany process improvement initiatives.
Configuration
Manager
Responsible for:
 Managingthe day-to-day activities of the process.
 Gathering and reporting on process metrics.
 Trackingcomplianceto the process.
 Agreeing and definingthe serviceassets thatwill be treated as configuration items.
 Definingthe structure of the configuration management system, includingCI types,
namingconventions, attributes and relationships.
 Ensuringthe integrity of the configuration management system, includingthe CI
data model and relationships.
 Definingand coordinatingConfiguration Analystactivities and responsibilities.
 Planningand managingsupportfor Configuration Management tools and processes.
Configuration
Analyst
This rolesupports (and takes direction from) the Configuration Manager as the primary
‘representative’ for a specific CI category.
Responsible for:
 Contributes to definingthe structure of the configuration management system,
includingCI types,naming conventions,required and optional attributes and
relationships.
 Records and maintains CIs (within scope) in the CMDB.
 Trainingstaff in configuration management principles,processes and procedures.
 Performing configuration audits.
CI Owner
The CI Owner is responsiblefor the supporting,maintaining,controllingand updatingof a
specific CI or CIs.The CI owner is accountablefor all activities thatdirectly affectthe actual
CI. This roleis also responsiblefor all ITSMprocess activities associated with the
maintenance and support of the CI.
Stakeholder
All persons who have an interest in the information contained in the CMDB. Stakeholders
may includeemployees, customers, partners, CI owners, and others.
Change
Management
 Ensure that a change request is used for any change to an existingCI attribute or
when a CI is added to the CMDB.
 Ensure that information in Requests for Change (RFC) are accurate.
 MatchingRFCs againstaffected CIs.
 Validatingall scheduled changes occur.

120
 Notifying configuration management that changes are complete.
RACI Matrix
Rolesandresponsibilitiesare assignedtospecificprocessactivities.
ID Activities
ChangeManagement
CIOwner
Stakeholders
ConfigurationAnalyst
ConfigurationManager
ProcessOwner
CFG Process Planning and Design
CFG P.1 Produce Configuration Management Plan C C R A/R
CFG P.2 Define CMDB Structure C C R A/R
CFG P.4 Determine CI Selection Guidelines C C R A/R
CFG P.3 Populate CMDB C A/R
CFG P.4 Perform Initial Audit C R A/R C
CFG P.5 BaselineCMDB I I A/R I
CFG 1.0 Configuration Identification
CFG 1.1 Evaluate New CI Type to be Created C R A/R
CFG 1.2 Assign Unique Identifier R A/R
CFG 1.3 Specify Relevant Attributes C R A/R
CFG 1.4 Specify AppropriateRelationship(s) C R A/R
CFG 1.5 Publish New CI Type I R A/R I
CFG 2.0 Configuration Control
CFG 2.1 ValidateUpdate Request C A/R
CFG 2.2 ValidateCI Attributes I A/R
CFG 2.3 Review Invalid Attributes A/R C
CFG 2.4 Update CMDB I A/R
CFG 3.0 Status Accounting and Reporting
CFG 3.1 Authorize or Reject Report Request I R A/R
CFG 3.2 Create or Update Configuration Management Report R A/R
CFG 3.3 Generate Configuration Management Report R A/R
CFG 3.4 DistributeConfiguration Management Report I R A/R
CFG 4.0 Verification and Audit
CFG 4.1 Approve Verification & Audit Request A/R
CFG 4.2 Execute Audit A/R C
CFG 4.3 Reconcilewith CMDB A/R
CFG 4.4 Determine Corrective Action A/R I
CFG 4.5 InitiateCorrectiveCMDB Action A/R
CFG 4.6 Execute Corrective Action I A/R
R: Responsible, A: Accountable C: Consulted,
I: Informed

Process Guide
Configuration Management Activity Description
1.7 Process Overview
Figure 1: Process Overview

Process Guide
Process Overview Activity Description
ID Activity Description
CFG P
Process Planning
and Design
The configuration management team and key stakeholders decide what level of
configuration management is required to support the services delivered by the
organization and how this level will be achieved and document this in a configuration
management plan. While this activity is usually performed once (when the process is
first being implemented), it is good practice to periodically review the configuration
management plan to ensure that the process remains relevant to the support needs of
the organization.
CFG
1.0
Configuration
Identification
This activity determines the scope and criteria of CIs to be included in the CMDB. This
includes the modeling of the infrastructure to determine what CIs will look like and how
they are related to each other. It also includes establishing naming conventions,
enterprise taxonomy and CI selection criteria.
CFG
2.0
Configuration
Control
Configuration control is the activity responsible for ensuring that only authorized and
identifiable CIs are in the infrastructure and that there is a corresponding accurate and
complete CI record representing the CI in the CMDB. Updates to the CMDB are
governed by Configuration Control activities.
Unauthorized changes are forwarded to change management for instructions on how to
proceed. Discrepancies and errors in the CI configuration are forwarded to the CI Owner
for resolution.
CFG
3.0
Status Accounting
and Reporting
This is the production of reports on the current, past and future status of the
infrastructureand the CIs under the control of configuration management.
CFG
4.0
Verification &
Audit
This activity involves the review and verification of the physical existence of CIs to check
that they are correctly recorded in the CMDB. When discrepancies are found,
configuration management consults change management for instructions on what
corrective action to execute. There are two possible actions, update the CMDB to reflect
what is actually in theinfrastructureor change the CI to match the CMDB.
CFG C
Continuous
Service
Improvement
Ongoing activities to regularly measureand monitor the efficiency and effectiveness of
the process and identify, plan and implement improvements.

Process Guide
1.8 Process Planning and Design
Figure 2: Process Planning and Design
In order for configuration Management to reflect enterprise goals and objectives, it is
important that a set of stakeholders be identified from a representative cross section of the
organization. This stakeholder group should include members with both a good appreciation
for the business needs, as well as some knowledge of the technical aspects of managing the
configurations of the IT infrastructure.
Process Planning and Design Activity Description
ID Tasks Description
CFG
P.1
Produce
Configuration
Management
Plan
A configuration management plan will be unique to each organization and is based on the
level of detail needed to support the services it provides. Following is an example of
content that can be included in a configuration management plan:
Scope
 Applicableservices
 Environments and infrastructure
 Geographical locations
Requirements
 Link to policy,strategy
 Link to business,servicemanagement and contractual requirements
 Summarize requirements for accountability,traceability,auditability
Policies

Process Guide
 Industry standards,e.g. ISO/IEC 20000
 Internal standards,e.g. hardwarestandards,desktop standards
Organization
 Roles and responsibilities
 Change advisory board
 Authorization for establishingbaseline,changes and releases
Processes and Procedures
 Configuration identification
 Version management
 Establishmentand maintenance of configuration baselines
 Procurement and retirement of CIs
 Reference implementation plan (data migration and loading, training and
knowledge transfer, etc.)
 Relationships and interfaces with other processes and groups (fixed asset
management, projects, suppliers and sub-contractors,etc.)
 Baselineand auditcriteria and procedures
CIs
 Naming Conventions
 Categorization
 Attributes
 Relationships
CFG
P.2
Define CMDB
Structure
 Defining the CMDB structure is a key activity that contributes in making the CMDB a
powerful decision support tool. It is important that the appropriate level of CI information
be properly defined and agreed upon by the various stakeholders in each organization.
See Appendix C for a representation of the defined CMDB structure.
 The CMDB structure will contain the various CI classes and their relationship to one
another in the delivery of a service. These relationships are used within ServiceNow to
create Business Service Management (BSM) maps that can be used to analyze the impact
of a change or an incident, evaluate the risk associated to a proposed change, and to build
a logical model of the infrastructure. See Figure 3 below for an example of a BSM map.
Also see Defining CI Relationships in the ServiceNow Wiki for a recommended approach to
definingCI relationships.
CFG
P.3
Determine CI
Selection
Guidelines
The selection of CIs and level to which they are defined and controlled are very important
decisions to be made in the design of the CMDB. CIs can be selected by applying a top-
down approach, considering whether it is sensible to break down a CI into component CIs
or not. Configuration information that is collected at too granular a level, or in too much
detail, may cost more to collect and maintain that the value it provides. CI information is
valuable only if it facilitates the management of change, the control of incidents and
problems, or the control of assets that can be independently moved, copied or changed.
CFG
P.4
Populate CMDB
 This activity involves the creation of CI records in the CMDB for each CI that has previously
been identified as part of the initial CMDB build. Consult the following ServiceNow Wiki
articles to evaluatethe different ways for importingdata in the CMDB:
 Getting Started with Agentless Discovery in the ServiceNow Wiki describes how
the Discovery plugin can collect information on network-connected hardware, the
different applications and software that runs on that hardware and the
relationshipsbetween all of the items found.
 Importing Data Using Import Sets in the ServiceNow Wiki provides information on
how to integrate data with existingexternal CMDBs or by simply usinga CSV file.

Process Guide
CFG
P.5
Perform Initial
Audit
To ensure the accuracy of the imported data in the CMDB, perform an initial auditbased
on samplingcriteriaas outlined in theconfiguration management plan.
Examples of samplingcriteria could be:
 A predefined percentage of each CI category and their attributes to be
captured
 Only certain CI types or classes
 Integrity of the relationshipsbetween CIs related to predefined service(s)
The results of the auditshould be compiled and a report on the accuracy of the initial
CMDB data should be submitted to all identified stakeholders for review.
CFG
P.6
Baseline CMDB
To facilitatethe trackingof the different changes that will bemade in the CMDB, itis
recommended that a baselineof the audited CIs be made before moving the initial data
into the ‘production’instance.
Consultthe BaselineCMDB articlein the ServiceNow Wiki for more details and instructions.

Process Guide
Figure 3: Business Service Management Map example

Process Guide
1.9 Configuration Identification
Figure 4: Configuration Identification
Configuration Identification Activity Description
ID Tasks Procedure Primary Role Input Output
CFG
1.1
Create New CI
Evaluate the request and
determine the new CI type to
be created based on the CI
selection guidelines
documented in the
configuration management
plan.
Configuration
Manager/
Coordinator
Change request
Configuration
management plan
New CI type
identified
CFG
1.2
Assign Unique
Identifier
 Assign a unique identifier to
the new CI type identified.
Configuration
Manager/
Coordinator
New CI type
identified
New CI type
with assigned
unique
identifier

Process Guide
CFG
1.3
 Specify Relevant
Attributes
Identify the necessary
attributes for the new CI type.
Consultthe Reference Fields
articlein the ServiceNow Wiki
for more information on
creatingreference fields on a
table record.
Configuration
Manager/
Coordinator New CI type with
assigned unique
identifier
Defined
attributes for
new CI type
CFG
1.4
Specify Appropriate
Relationships
Specify the appropriate
relationshipsrequired for the
new CI type.
Configuration
Manager/
Coordinator
Defined attributes
for new CI type
New CI type
associated
with
appropriate
relationships
CFG
1.5
Publish New CI
Type
Publish thenew CI type in the
production CMDB.
Configuration
Manager/
Coordinator
New CI type
associated with
appropriate
relationships
New CI type
published

Process Guide
1.10 Configuration Control
Figure 5: Configuration Control
Configuration Control Activity Description
CFG
2.1
Validate Update
Request
The configuration manager
receives a request to enter a
new CI record or update an
existingCI record.
Authorized requests are
prioritized and forwarded to a
configuration management
analystfor further processing.
Rejected requests are returned
to the requestor with an
explanation of the rejection.
In the caseof new CIs identified
by Discovery,verify that an
authorized request exists to
justify the presence of the
discovered CIs.
Configuration
Manager
Assigned task from
a request for
change (RFC)
New CI identified by
Discovery
Valid
request
ready to be
processed
Or
Rejected
request
CFG Validate CI For new CI requests, validate Configuration Valid request ready New CI

Process Guide
2.2 Attributes that the proposed CI attributes
meet the requirements of
configuration management as
defined in the configuration
management plan.
If all the proposed CI attributes
meet the criteria,the request is
approved for updatingthe
CMDB.
For CI attributes that fail to meet
the configuration management
plan criteria,rejectthe request
and inform the CI owner with
proper instructions.
Analyst to be processed ready to be
created in
the CMDB
Or
CI with
invalid
attributes
identified
CFG
2.3
Review Invalid
Attributes
 Review the submitted
instructions for definingproper
CI attributes and submit a new
request.
CI Owner
CI with invalid
attributes identified
Revised
attributes
CFG
2.4
Update CMDB
 Publish thevalid and authorized
CI data into the CMDB.
New CI ready to be
created in the
CMDB
New CI
published in
the CMDB
1.11 Status Accounting and Reporting
Figure 6: Status Accounting and Reporting
Status Accounting and Reporting Activity Description
CFG
3.1
Authorize or Reject
Report Request
Review the submitted
report request and
validateif the request is
for an existingreport or
gauge.
Requester
New
configuration
management
report request
Valid or
invalid report
request
CFG
3.2
Create or Update
Configuration
Management Report
For valid requests,create
new configuration report
or gauge as requested.
Configuration
Manager/
Coordinator
Valid report
request
New
configuration
management

Process Guide
See the CreatingReport
ServiceNow Wiki article
for more information and
detailed procedures.
report or
gauge
CFG
3.3
Publish Configuration
Management Report
 Publish thecreated
report or gauge and send
the provided link to the
requester.
Configuration
Manager/
Coordinator
New
configuration
management
report or gauge
Published
report or
gauge
accessibleby
requester
1.12 Verification and Audit
Figure 7: Verification and Audit
Verification and Audit Activity Description
CFG
4.1
Authorize or
Reject
Verification
Request
A request for verification & audit
is reviewed and approved or
rejected by the Configuration
Manager. Rejected requests are
returned to the requester with
an explanation.
Configuration
Manager
Request for
verification &
audit
Authorized
verification & audit
request
Or
Rejection

Process Guide
information sent to
requester
CFG
4.2
Execute
Audit
Depending on the scope of the
verification or auditrequest, the
Configuration Analystperforms an
auditvia physical inspection or
Discovery.
ServiceNow also employs several
mechanisms by which data in the
CMDB may be certified. See
Appendix D for a discussion of
these techniques.
Configuration
Analyst
Authorized
verification &
auditrequest
Documented results
from verification &
audit
CFG
4.3
Reconcile
with CMDB
 Review the compiled results from
the auditand compare with CI
record information found in the
production CMDB.
Configuration
Analyst
Documented
results from
verification &
audit
Reconciliation with
production CMDB
results
CFG
4.4
 Determine
Corrective
Action
 If discrepancies existbetween the
information contained in the
CMDB and the actual CI(s),there
are two possibleactions to take:
 Update the CMDB to reflect
what was verified in the
infrastructure
 Change the CI to match the
information in the CMDB The
task of correction is passed to
the CI Owner.
Configuration
Analyst
Reconciliation
with
production
CMDB results
CMDB information
to be corrected
Or
CI to be modified to
reflect information
in CMDB
CFG
4.5
 Initiate
Corrective
CMDB Action
 Update the CMDB so that the CI
record matches the ‘as is’CI
configuration in the
infrastructure.
Configuration
Analyst
CMDB
information to
be corrected
Corrected CMDB
discrepancies
CFG
4.6
 Execute
Corrective
Action
 Change the configuration of the
actual CI so that it matches the
CMDB CI record.
CI Owner
CI to be
modified to
reflect
information in
CMDB
CI matching
information in
CMDB CI record
Process Control
Process controls are the policies and principles that provide direction over the operation of processes and
define constraintsorboundarieswithinwhichthe processmustoperate.
Name Description
Audits The frequency of configuration audits

Process Guide
Name Description
Policies
Policies and criteria for the inclusion of a component and its attributes in the
CMS.
Security Policies Security policiesgoverningaccess to the CMS.
Data Exchange Policies
Policy and criteria for the exchange of data between the CMDB and other
configuration management repositories.
Scope
The scope of the configuration management process.Includes identification of
what is included in and what is excluded from the Configuration Management
process.
Change Management
Policies
Change Management Policies and procedures.
Management Reports The frequency and distribution for regularly produced management reports.
DatabaseBackups Frequency of CMS, CMDB and DSL housekeeping activities (i.e.,backup,archive)
Systems Management
Architecture
The architectureprovidingdirection on how Systems Management tools and
processes areto be selected, designed and integrated
1.13 KPIs
KPIsare bestrepresentedastrendlinesandtrackedovertime. Theyprovide informationonthe effectiveness
of the processandthe impactof continuousimprovementefforts.
KPI/Metric Purpose
Quality and accuracy of configuration
information
Measure of how well an accurateand complete
configuration management system is established and
maintained.
Increasein re-use and redistribution of under-
utilized resources and assets
Accounting for, managingand protecting the integrity of CIs
throughout the servicelifecycle
Reduced number of exceptions reported during
configuration audits
Accounting for, managingand protecting the integrity of CIs
throughout the servicelifecycle
Number of RFCs without correspondingCI
updated in CMDB
Measure of how well an accurateand complete
configuration management system is established and
maintained.
1.14 Reports & Homepage Gauges
There are numerous default reports available in ServiceNow that can be used to generate charts, publish to a
URL, or schedule to be run and distributed at regular intervals. Users can also create custom reports. See
CreatingReports inthe Wiki formore detail onthiscapability.
In addition to reports, each user can create a personal homepage and add gauges containing up-to-the-minute
information about the current status of records that exist in ServiceNow tables. See Customizing Homepages
inthe Wiki fordetails.

Process Guide
Appendix G: Data Certification and Verification
There are multipleapproachesthatcanbe takentohelpensure thatdata inthe CMDB is accurate. These
methodscanbe appliedtodatamanagedby Discovery,if internalcontrolsrequire it,butare usuallyappliedto
undiscoverable datasuchas special relationships,CIownership,oranyotherpeople-relatedinformation.
 Data Certification - Datacertificationmanagesscheduledandon-demandvalidationsof CIdatathat has
beenaddedtothe CMDB by the ServiceNow Discoverytool,byimportingfromthird-partytools,or
manually.Forregulatoryorprocedural reasons,informationinthe CMDBneedstobe checkedforaccuracy
and certified.The personorteamresponsibleforcertificationcandefinewhatinformationshouldbe
verifiedaswell asthe verificationschedule.The schedulethengeneratesachecklistof tasksforverifying
the data. Individualsassignedtocertificationtasksansweraseriesof questionstoverifythe data. For
example,acertificationcanbe setup to validate keyinformationfields,suchas OperatingSystem andCPU
Count,on all WindowsserverslocatedinChicagoandassignthe taskstothe appropriate teammember
automatically.
Data Certificationmanagesthe tasksassignedtospecificindividualswhoare responsible forphysically
verifyingthe datainquestion. Datacertificationcanalsobe performedagainstspecificfieldsonnon-CMDB
CI tables.
 Compliance - Complianceisasetof toolsthat enable administratorstocertifyServiceNow dataforvalidity
and correct anydiscrepanciesfound.Compliance offers theseoptionstosuitan organization’ssizeand
requirements:
o DesiredState – Thisapplicationconductsscheduledoron-demandauditsof CMDBdata to
determine whichconfigurationitems(CI) matchadesiredstate.The certificationprocesscan
meancheckingserverstoensure thattheirphysical resources,suchasCPUspeedor memory,
complywithcertainstandards,orensuringthatall critical businessserviceshave amanager,
supportgroup,and approval group. The administratorresponsibleforcompliance creates
template definitionsof desiredstatesandthenschedulesanaudittocheck CIsagainstthe
definition.The auditresultsidentifyCIsthatpasscertificationanditemize the discrepanciesof
those that fail.ServiceNow thenautomaticallygeneratesfollow-ontaskstotrack the process
of adjustingthe CIstothe desiredstate.
o Architecture Compliance –Thisapplicationmanagesscheduledoron-demandreviewsof
CMDB data to determinewhichCIsmatchexpectedattributes.The compliance auditscheck
serverstoensure thattheirphysical resources,suchasCPU speedormemory,complywith
certainstandards.
The administratorresponsibleforcompliance createstemplatedefinitionsof expected
attributesandthenschedulesanaudittocheckCIs for compliance.The auditresultsidentify
CIs thatpass certificationanditemize the discrepanciesof those thatfail.ServiceNow
automaticallygeneratesandassignsfollow-ontaskstotrackthe processof gettingthe CIs
back intocompliance.

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SACM Workshop Best Practice and Road Map Implementation Process Guide - PL Corp Dec 2015