Handle empty name in asset records - Product Knowledge

Handle empty name in asset records  Product Success Playbook

Handle empty name in asset records

A step-by-step guide to analyze and remediate empty asset names

Table of Contents

Summary

Goal of this Playbook

Audience

Problem Overview

Executive Summary

How this playbook can help you achieve business goals

How this playbook is structured

Problem Analysis

Upstream Causes

Downstream Consequences

Impact on Your Business

Engagement Questions

Remediation Plays

Summary

Play 1: Review your data

Play 2: Fix Play

Play 3: Fix Play

Data Governance

Summary

Goal of this Playbook

IT Asset Management needs a way to uniquely identify asset records. Valid asset names are critical for using IT Asset Management features and other ServiceNow applications. Missing asset tag and model information results in empty asset names.

This playbook will help identify assets with name issues and help you to identify and fix the root cause. Details about this playbook

Author Bibu Elias Punnachalil Date 12/03/2021 Addresses HSD # HSD0010435 Applicable ServiceNow Releases All Releases Time Required Approximately 1 to 4 hours (depending on your environment) Audience

Asset Manager and Asset Management team Configuration Manager or Configuration Management team ServiceNow Administrator or Discovery Administrator

Problem Overview

The asset record’s Display Name value is auto populated as a combination of the Asset Tag and asset’s Model name. The Display Name value is used to identify the asset on records, lists, and reports throughout the ServiceNow platform. If the field is left blank (unpopulated), references to the asset record will appear “empty” degrading the user experience and causing additional effort to complete common IT Asset Management (ITAM) activities.

Executive Summary

How this playbook can help you achieve business goals

Having uniquely identifiable asset names will increase operational efficiencies and avoids potential errors in critical asset workflows. Human understandable asset names helps to improve the user experience across various asset related forms and build data integrity trust in the asset database. How this playbook is structured

This playbook guides you through a series of tasks or processes called plays. Plays help you identify asset records within your ServiceNow instance with empty (unpopulated) names, and how to remediate them. Each play is listed below:

Play 1: Review your data. Use this play to see a list of assets that have invalid or empty (unpopulated) names

Play 2: Analyze your asset records. Use this play to further analyze assets with invalid or empty (unpopulated) relationships to Configuration Item records (Cis)..

Play 3: Troubleshoot problems with the asset data population methods. This play also includes checking customizations related to baseline asset record population methods

Play 4: Fix Play - Troubleshoot problems with assets created from a CI have an empty Name value

Play 5: This is a data governance play that provides instructions on how to avoid creating assets with empty (unpopulated) names in the future

Problem Analysis

Upstream Causes

Invalid or empty (unpopulated) name fields for an asset could be a result of:

Poor ITAM processes. Ideally, assets are created as part of a Procurement step in the Asset Lifecycle. Creation of assets from an Advanced Shipping Notice or through a Receiving function will create the asset record properly capturing Asset Tag and Model details. CI discovery is not populating asset tag and model. Asset tag is generally not a discoverable attribute while the model can generally be captured from a CI. CI to Asset and/or Asset to CI record data synchronization is not working properly Asset is created from a CI which does not have model and asset tag information Asset creation business rule not properly applied Customizations of asset creation rules Calculate display name business rule disabled or modified

Downstream Consequences

Data Consequence

Potential corruption or duplication of asset data Data lookup queries might not work List views with multiple, and identical, records all listed as empty records Detailed asset reports will show assets without name which erodes trust in asset management system Relationship lookup between CI and asset is difficult Operation Consequence

Operational teams are burdened with workaround for looking up assets Physical asset verification process may become cumbersome Identification of asset causes operational inefficiencies and may require external processes (eg, physical lookup of tags) for support Results in a poor user experience. Remediating and managing records with missing data interferes with achieving business objectives and achieving ROI App Consequence

Empty (unpopulated) names can:

Lack of simple asset identification may affect Procurement, SAM, GRC, Security and HR applications Asset reports will be harder to understand due to missing names

Impact on Your Business

Empty asset names can erode your trust in asset management data. When your trust is eroded, your business is adversely affected in the following areas.

Increased Operational cost Operational team expends additional effort and time for common tasks Delay in asset lifecycle decisions Audit Compliance Audit completeness Regulatory compliance Poor Infrastructure visibility Difficult to lookup assets Process automation errors and inefficiencies Data Accuracy Integrity of Relationships Poor user experience Forms & list with empty asset names

Engagement Questions:

Consider the answers to these questions:

How are assets created or updated? How are asset tags managed? Is there a custom business rule for asset tags or names? Are the teams using asset management satisfied with the data?

Remediation Plays

Summary

The table below lists and summarizes each of the remediation plays, which follow in the playbook.

Play Name

Review your data

What this play is about

Continuing analyzing the records for your assets. This play provides a report which will list assets with empty names Required tasks

Run the report provided and analyze the output Fix Play - Asset data population

What this play is about

Asset records created through integration or data load using transform maps Required tasks

Choose and complete one or more of the described methods. Fix Play - Assets created from CI

What this play is about

Asset records created from configuration items Required tasks

Choose and complete one or more of the described methods. Data Governance

What this play is about

Describe the steps to monitor and govern Required tasks

Use the approaches provided so that new asset records without name is not created

Play 1 - Review your data

What this Play is about

This play lets you review asset records that have empty (unpopulated) names. This play includes a report which can be used to see these records.

With this play you are identifying the asset records with no name value. Download and load the report in your instance.

Once you download and import the report, navigate to Reports > View / Run and search for " Assets without name ". One report is for Hardware and the other Applications. These are the higher priority items for this metric.

Required tasks

Download and the “report xml” file attached to this KB to get the report. Import the report into your ServiceNow instance. Import instructions can be found here. 3. Run the report "Assets without name". Sample output is as shown below.

Play 2 - Fix Play

What this Play is about

Asset data population is not updating name,

Required tasks

Asset name is populated through a concatenation of the asset tag and the model name field. Check for breakdowns in process or automation that populates the Asset Tag and Model values upon record creation. Review your asset creation processes to validate Asset tags are captured by users or automation into ServiceNow when assets are created. Validate all asset records are linked to model records. Check the business rule, " Calculate display name " and verify that it is active. Check to see if this rule is inactive or customized. In the event there is a change, identify the reason for the change and plan for actions to revert to baseline. It is recommended to maintain baseline configurations as much as possible. In case asset data is populated through transform maps, check if the "run business rules" flag is active. If “run business rules” is inactive the calculation of the name value will not take place. Play 3 - Fix Play

What this Play is about

Asset created from CI which was created without model and/or asset tag information,

Required tasks

Check if the CI population process is updating the asset tag and/or model information. Playbook " Managed CIs with model entries " can help in fixing problems with model entries. Check the business rule, " Calculate display name " and verify it is active. Check to see if this rule is customized. If the business rule has been modified, identify the reason for the change and plan for actions to revert it back to baseline. It is recommended to the keep configurations at baseline as much as possible.

Data Governance

What this Play is about

Regularly monitor asset records without display name. This play explains how to run a specific report that identifies asset records with blank name values.

Required tasks

The report provided in play 2 above can be added to a homepage or dashboard for ready visibility of assets that don’t have name values. Add a check of the report to daily, weekly, or monthly ITAM team responsibilities to maintain data integrity. Implement a review step in your ServiceNow development process to reduce changes to the baseline ServiceNow configuration.

Congratulations You have completed this Product Success Playbook.