Hardware asset management is the systematic process of tracking, managing, and optimizing the lifecycle of physical IT assets to maximize their value and minimize risks. Hardware assets are items with financial value whose management involves aspects such as inventory, contracts, cost, deprecation, warranty etc. In contrast, configuration items (CIs) represent components supporting IT service delivery whose operational attributes and relationships needs to be managed. Some items like computers and network devices are typically managed as both Asset and CI. Effective management of hardware assets is crucial for organizations to remain competitive in today’s rapidly changing digital landscape. ServiceNow Hardware Asset Management (HAM) offers a powerful solution which helps streamline asset tracking, automate asset lifecycle management, optimize costs, improve regulatory compliance etc.

Business Benefits

ServiceNow HAM revolutionizes the management of hardware assets throughout their lifecycle, from asset planning to disposal, delivering substantial benefits like those highlighted below:

• Cost Optimization: ServiceNow HAM gives visibility into asset inventory data, insights about the total cost of ownership for assets, better automation of asset operations, complete lifecycle management of assets, depreciation calculations, etc. This enables HAM teams to optimize costs by taking actions to improve asset utilization, reduce hardware maintenance expenditures, curb unnecessary purchases, avoid penalties related to non-compliance, etc.
• Compliance and Risk Mitigation: With its robust auditing and reporting features, ServiceNow HAM improves the capability of organizations to adhere to regulatory requirements, maintain accurate asset records, foster a culture of accountability, identify and mitigate risks related to assets, etc.
• Operational Efficiency: Streamlined asset tracking helps asset operations teams understand information like current location, user, model, warranty, end of life, contract end dates, etc. It helps to save time and effort for various activities like locating specific assets, identifying whether assets are still covered under warranty, tracking and renewing contracts before expiry, replacing assets before their end of life, etc. Faster identification of affected hardware and availability of various operational attributes of the asset in its associated configuration item record will help the support teams speed up incident management. Automated capture of asset data by scanning via mobile application enhances the efficiency and accuracy of operational activities like audits and disposals.
• Enhanced Visibility and Decision-Making: The real-time insights about asset status, usage, cost, etc., provided by ServiceNow HAM empower organizations with data-driven decision-making capabilities, enabling proactive planning and optimized resource allocation.
• Productivity and satisfaction improvements: The enhanced visibility and operational efficiency also translate into higher productivity for the asset operations teams, support teams, procurement teams, finance teams, asset managers, and end users. The availability of self-service catalogs to request assets and efficient management of incidents and requests by the support teams will reduce frustration and increase satisfaction for the end users.
• Sustainability Management: Timely maintenance and repair of assets help extend their useful life. Thus, it reduces the number of premature asset replacements and hence the frequency of e-waste generated from that. Implementation of a proper hardware asset disposal process followed across the organization will help to ensure that end-of-life assets are recycled or disposed of in an environmentally responsible manner, minimizing the release of hazardous materials into the environment.
• Cybersecurity improvements: Implementing mechanisms to prevent unauthorized access to asset information can reduce the possibility of data breaches. Effectively managing assets throughout their lifecycle should enable the assets to become less vulnerable to attacks. The presence of a proper asset disposal process which involves activities like backing up and subsequent wiping of software and data from the devices before disposal helps to prevent data losses or data breaches and the security and compliance issues resulting from those.

 Implementation Approach and Best Practices

Embarking on the ServiceNow HAM implementation journey involves a structured approach encompassing the following key steps:

• Assessment: Conduct a thorough examination of the current hardware asset management process and other related processes such as IT service management and configuration management. If the organization is already using ServiceNow, additionally analyze the current state of the instance. i.e. To understand the modules currently available on the instance, any existing configurations or customizations related to hardware asset management, data populated currently, various data sources, integrations, etc. If the organization is using some other asset management tool currently, analyze that tool to understand how it is configured, what data is populated, how is the asset operations managed through that tool, etc. The assessment will involve discussions with various stakeholders like asset manager, configuration manager, asset operations teams, procurement teams, finance teams, service management teams, legal teams, etc.
• Planning: Define the scope and objectives of your initial implementation of HAM. It should cover device types, models, business use cases, operational activities, etc. Prepare a detailed roadmap for the items that you plan to implement in the initial phase and a high-level roadmap of the items that you plan to implement as part of future scope. This roadmap should be revisited periodically and updated based on factors like the latest product features, process best practices, changes in the organization’s business objectives, etc. Based on the findings from the assessment and considering the scope of the initial implementation phase as per the roadmap, prepare a detailed project plan for the initial implementation.  
• Process definition: The to-be HAM process should be established after understanding the current state of the process and finalizing the scope and objectives of HAM implementation. The process flows should be defined and documented for all the relevant asset lifecycle management areas like asset forecasting, sourcing, procurement, receiving, stock management, deployment, maintenance, repair, replacement, retirement, disposal, etc. The process document should also cover all other important information like business objectives, roles and responsibilities for hardware asset management, governance structure, policies and procedures, integrations with other processes (configuration management, change management, incident management, service request management, etc.), reporting and KPIs, audits, contract management, etc. The process should be aligned with the ServiceNow OOB features as much as possible while ensuring that it meets the client’s business objectives from HAM implementation.
• Data Preparation: Foundation data like companies, departments, cost centers, locations, users, groups, etc. needs to be populated accurately. This may involve efforts to set up integrations and populate the required foundation data if the HAM implementation is part of a fresh ServiceNow instance implementation program. For implementation of HAM on an instance where these data are already in place, then just a review of these data followed by creating or updating missing information is sufficient (while giving higher priority to data that will be referenced in asset records). It is also important to finalize the model categories, models, and contracts that are in scope for the initial implementation. This scoping is critical for HAM licensing calculations as the calculation is based on the HAM resource categories for which we opt-in. Reviewing and enhancing the quality of CMDB data is important for the CI classes which have asset classes corresponding to them. For example, the Computer CI class (cmdb_ci_computer) is used to track the operational information of computer assets which are stored in the Hardware assets table (alm_hardware). So, it is important to reduce data quality issues like duplicate CIs in the Computer CI class.
• Plugin considerations: Only basic capabilities like Asset records tracking, Model records tracking, Stockrooms, Purchase orders, and Transfer orders are supported by the asset management features available in a base ServiceNow platform. For advanced capabilities like model normalization, content library, lifecycle dates automation, asset lifecycle automation, automated asset actions, enhanced mobile capabilities, asset dashboards, HAM workspace, etc, the HAM pro plugin (sn_hamp) is required. Use of this plugin is recommended as these are critical capabilities for effective hardware asset management. It is a paid plugin that can be activated only by ServiceNow personnel. Other recommended plugins for HAM that are not activated by default are Procurement, Cost management and Expanded Asset and Model Classes.
• HAM module setup: A high-level overview of important configurations and customizations to be performed on the instance is given below:
  • Activate the HAM pro plugin and any other supporting plugins required (E.g. Procurement)
  • Opt-in to the required resource categories. This determines which all model categories are normalized when the normalization job runs. End user computers, Mobile devices, Network Gear, and Server are the 4 resource categories available. The HAM licensing costs are calculated based on the resource categories which are opted in.
  • Configure the model categories and models as required. Populate any missing model data which is currently not present or automatically populated. The models which are approved for use in the organization should be made available in the Catalog for end users to order. Devices which need to be managed in bulk should be tracked as consumables (E.g. Inexpensive items like keyboard and mouse)
  • Enable Asset Action and Swapped CI on the related list of Incidents and Changes.
  • Review the OOB flows available for various asset operational activities like asset lifecycle management activities and contract renewals. Wherever required, create a copy of those flows with modifications to meet the organization’s business objectives.
  • Validate that catalog items required for asset lifecycle flows are active. If anything is inactive, enable them if that use case is in scope.
  • Populate the stockroom data and set up stock rules if needed. Make sure that a stockroom manager is assigned to each stockroom that is populated.
  • Ensure that normalization scheduled jobs are active and working properly. Opt-in to the HAM content service if you wish to send your asset data to the content service team. Execute the jobs to download data from the content library if you wish to kick-start normalization.
  • Please ensure that Asset-CI synchronization is active. Review the Asset-CI field mappings and status mappings, and only make changes to them if there is a valid business justification. Here are a couple of best practices to consider regarding CIs:
    • For all CIs with a corresponding asset record, it is recommended to update the Asset record to trigger changes to the synchronized fields on the CI record.
    • Keep non-asset CIs, such as IP addresses and ports, out of the scope of hardware asset management. They should only be managed as CIs.

• Data population and Management: If the organization is currently using another asset repository, take steps to migrate the asset data into ServiceNow. Ensure that only the asset records and attributes that are still relevant for the organization are migrated. Proper cleansing and mapping of data should be done to complete the migration. Appropriate methods like ServiceNow discovery or integrations using Service Graph Connectors (E.g. SCCM, JamF, Intune) should be used to automate the population of operational information of the assets into the CMDB. Ensure that configurations are in place to automate the synchronization of asset data with the corresponding configuration item’s data. The other types of integrations that may be required are integrations with procurement systems, shipping carrier systems, contract management systems, and vendor repositories (E.g. Fetching asset warranty from Lenovo). Monitoring the renewal dates of hardware asset contracts and completing their renewals before the expiry date is critical to avoid compliance, legal, financial, or business continuity risks. Hence the contract information should be populated in the Contract table (ast_contract) for all the contracts which apply to the hardware assets in scope. The contracts should be linked with the assets covered using the ‘Asset covered’ related list. Another important aspect to consider is configuring the appropriate access rights to asset-related data like product models, contracts, assets, reports, etc., based on the organization’s requirements to prevent unauthorized access to data.
• Workspace, Reports and Dashboards: Verify that the hardware asset workspace, hardware asset overview dashboard, asset management executive dashboard, contract workspace etc., are available and populated with data. Create custom reports and dashboards if required. Access to these various reports and dashboards should be configured so that only relevant stakeholders can access the data.
• Go-Live and Evaluation: Gather feedback from all the key stakeholders for the initial phase of HAM implementation done on non-prod instance. Make any changes if required. Then deploy the initial implementation of ServiceNow HAM organization wide. This can be implemented incrementally to production in multiple sprints in an agile manner.
• Training and Change Management: Contributions from all the people involved are essential for the success of the hardware asset management program. So, it is critical to implement a comprehensive training program tailored to different user roles and responsibilities. Develop and execute a robust change management strategy to foster user adoption and minimize disruption. Training documents should be created to train about the HAM process, governance, standard operating procedures, product features, asset data, reports, etc. The documentation should be kept in the ServiceNow knowledge base or an appropriate SharePoint repository accessible to relevant stakeholders. Customized training tailored to their roles should be delivered to various stakeholders like executives, governance teams, asset managers, asset operation teams, contract management teams, procurement teams, finance teams, incident management teams, configuration management teams, etc. It is also recommended to send periodic mailers about data management, HAM features, best practices, governance, etc. to appropriate stakeholders to reinforce their learning. Refresher training sessions should also be conducted periodically. All the relevant documentation should be periodically reviewed and updated if needed.
• Operations and Governance: The operational activities should be conducted on an ongoing basis as defined in the finalized HAM process document. Apart from the process flows and RACI defined in the process document, it is recommended to create detailed Standard operating procedures (SOPs) for asset operational activities and manage the SOP document in a common repository (E.g. ServiceNow knowledge base). Any new members joining the HAM operations team should be provided with a formal knowledge transfer and they should be given access to the repository containing all the relevant reference artifacts created for HAM. All the HAM-related plugins should be monitored periodically to ensure that they are updated to the latest version available. There should be strong governance as per the governance structure established as part of the process definition. Frequent meetings should be held between the key stakeholders to ensure proper governance.
• Continual improvements: Various asset management stakeholders like IT Asset Manager, HAM process owner, Asset operation teams, ServiceNow product owner, etc., should periodically review the current state of HAM implementation. Instance performance, incidents, defects, etc., should be frequently monitored to identify areas for improvement. Implement enhancements to deliver the remaining features outlined in the roadmap, any other features identified as improvements, and product features newly introduced by ServiceNow. Continual process improvements should also be performed periodically by considering the gaps identified and the latest process best practices. The process documents, SOPs, training documents, and any other HAM artifacts should be reviewed periodically and updated whenever any process or product changes are implemented.

Conclusion

An effectively implemented and managed Hardware Asset Management program is a strategic investment that empowers organizations to optimize asset utilization, enhance operational efficiency, and foster a culture of compliance. With the right approach, people, processes and a commitment to continuous improvement, ServiceNow HAM can transform an organization’s IT asset management practices, paving the way for better control, compliance, and cost savings.

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