Hardware or Software Catalog Items should have a matching Product Model - Product Knowledge

Hardware or Software Catalog Items should have a matching Product Model  Product Success Playbook

Hardware or Software Catalog Items should have a matching Product Model

A step-by-step guide to analyze and remediate hardware and software catalog item data

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: Analyze your CI records

Play 3: Fix Play

Play 4: Fix Play

Play 5: Fix Play

Data Governance

References

Summary

Goal of this Playbook

Goal of this Playbook is to fix Product Catalog Items which are missing Model information

Details about this playbook

Author Bibu Elias Punnachalil Reviewer Daniel Slocum Date 01/19/2022 Addresses HSD # HSD0010821 Applicable ServiceNow Releases All Releases Time Required Approximately 1 to 8 hours (depending on your environment) Audience

Configuration Manager or Configuration Management team

ServiceNow Administrator or Discovery Administrator

Problem Overview

A link from the Catalog Item to the Product Model is required when a Product Catalog Item is created. But, due to various reasons, enforcement of the mandatory value may be bypassed and a reference to a Product Model may be missing. IT Asset Management workflows extensively use Product Model data to complete sourcing and fulfilment tasks for Hardware and Software assets. A lack of model data breaks workflow driven automation, negatively impacts vendor interactions, increases request fulfilment wait times diminishing employee productivity, and precludes automatic creation of hardware and software assets as part of the procurement process.

Executive Summary

How this playbook can help you achieve business goals

Populating accurate model information in the product catalog can help your asset management process by:

Tying assets back to requests and fulfillment flows that initiated their procurement. Reducing operational cost Supporting regulatory compliance Increasing operational efficiency

How this playbook is structured

The first play (Review your data) shows you how many Product Catalog Items lack a populated Product Model reference. The second play (Analyze Play) helps you to analyze the Product Catalog Items without Model information. The third play (a fix play) helps you remediate any Product Catalog Items identified as missing a Product Model. The fourth play (an optional fix play) helps you repair the UI policy that enforces the Product Model attribute’s mandatory status should it have been altered. The fifth play (an optional fix play) helps you to fix the UI policy for making Model mandatory by making it applicable for tables extended from the Product Catalog Item table. The sixth play (Governance Play) identifies how to monitor and manage Product Catalog Items without a Model.

Problem Analysis

Upstream Causes

Product Catalog Items were created within the Hardware or Software Catalogs where the mandatory Product Model was not entered. Product Catalog Items with missing/unmatched model were imported using transform maps Product Catalog Items were loaded through integrations and have missing/unmatched model The UI Policy “Make Category and Model mandatory” is disabled, allowing catalog items to be created manually with a missing model.

Downstream Consequences

Data Consequence

Provisioned assets may be missing Model information Lack of model category, a related link from the Product Model, creates synchronization issues between the asset and CI Lack of model category causes Asset and CI record creation issues. Without the model category the correct Asset and CI Classes, that govern the tables into which assets and CIs are created cannot be derived. Operation Consequence

Vendor interactions are inefficient due to lack of model information Linking of skills and model not possible affecting work management Unable to utilize the substitution model functionality impacting quick asset allocation Unable to properly source hardware and software requests Unable to fulfil hardware and software requests without significant user intervention App Consequence

Missing model may impact Request Management, Asset Management, Contract Management, Service Catalog, Configuration Management and Vendor Management Impact on Your Business

Having model information can help business through,

Financial Optimization

Lack of model information will lead to increased costs based on missed support contract dates, incorrect warranties, etc. The ability to feed data into other systems and processes is made more difficult. Lease management processes efficiencies are degraded. Asset depreciation calculation depends on Model information in conjunction with purchase data.

Risk Compliance

Ambiguity of model data could introduce compliance issues with business and security policies regarding assets and software installations Duplication of model records impacts other applications such as Software Asset Management, Vendor Management, IT Service Management, and Contract Management. Assets having models which are past end of life might still be in use. Increase Operational Visibility

Asset can be wrongly selected based on duplicate or inadequate data severely impacting asset visibility. While the Asset Tag is the key identifier for asset records, the model information is critical to validating each asset during installs, moves, and changes. Engagement Questions:

Consider the answers to these questions:

Is it important for your business to be aware of the types and models of assets and configuration items? How do you decide when a new model is introduced to the Model Inventory? Do you have a Model Management Process? Is there a governance team making informed decisions? Governance can include an approval process for model onboarding and offboarding. Typical stakeholders include representatives from Procurement, Risk Management, Network Security, Asset Management, Vendor Management, and Configuration Management. Remediation Plays

Summary

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

Play Name

Play 1: Review your data

What this play is about

Query and view Product Catalog Records missing Model values within your instance to baseline your current state. Required tasks

Upload and run the report Play 2: Analyze Play

What this play is about

Analyze the data and configurations Required tasks

Perform checks according to the tasks listed Play 3: Fix Play

What this play is about

Guideline on how to approach the cleanup process Required tasks

Fill in the Model field Play 4: Fix Play (Optional)

What this play is about

If the UI Policy for making Model mandatory is disabled, then enable it /td> Required tasks

Activate the UI Policy Play 5: Fix Play (Optional)

What this play is about

Ensure the UI Policy for making Model mandatory is inherited to extended tables Required tasks

Activate Inherit property on the UI policy Data Governance

What this play is about

Includes guidelines and processes for managing missing Model data in Product Catalog Items Required tasks

Follow the instructions provided in the tasks

Play 1 - Review your data

What this Play is about

Review Product Catalog Items without Product Model values.

Required tasks

Download and import the report – “ Product Catalog without Model ” Below is a sample output when the report is run

Play 2 - Analyze your CI records

What this Play is about

This play helps you to analyze the report from Play 1

Required tasks

“Created By” and “Created” date can provide an indication of how a specific Product Catalog Item was created. If it was created through automation, determine if a solution can be placed inside the automation to lookup the Model reference. If these are created manually by a Catalog Administrator, identify if the UI Policy “Make Category and Model mandatory” is disabled To help prioritize the fix, the “Class” of the Product Catalog Item can be grouped to see which “Class” is missing the greatest number of Models If most of the records are in the Hardware or Software class, check if Play 5 can be implemented If “Price” of the Product Catalog Item is greater than zero, not having a Model may have impact on financial budgeting and reporting. Asset procurement process, vendor interactions and contract management may also be affected

Play 3 - Fix Play

What this Play is about

Once you have identified the Product Catalog Items to fix, update the Model information.

Note: Ensure that the reference Model is not duplicated. Refer to the playbook, How to de-duplicate hardware models and make the necessary corrections to reduce future maintenance efforts.

Required tasks

In the Navigator, go to Product Catalog --> Catalog Definitions --> Hardware & Software Items From the list of Product Catalog Items search for each item that needs corrected. Check for the Model field and fill the field with the correct Model. Note: For the items which were auto created, the Model field is read only. to make corrections for these records, toggle the value in the field “ Auto Created ” to false.

Play 4 - Fix Play

What this Play is about

Enable the “Make Category and Model mandatory” UI Policy if it was found disabled in the Analysis play.

Required tasks

In the Navigator, go to System UI -> UI Policies Search for the UI Policy with the short description “ Make Category and Model mandatory ” Open the UI Policy and toggle the Active field to enabled if it was disabled Save the record

Play 5 - Fix Play

What this Play is about

Enable inherit on the “ Make Category and Model mandatory ” UI Policy so future hardware and software catalog items created require the Model value be populated.

Required tasks

In the Navigator, go to System UI --> UI Policies Search for the UI Policy with the short description “ Make Category and Model mandatory ” Change the view to Advance Toggle Inherit field to make it selected Click Update to save the record

Data Governance

What this Play is about

Having an effective Model Management practice is essential for deriving more value from your Asset Management investment. The Asset Manager along with the Configuration Manager can ensure that the Model Management best practices are implemented and are constantly monitored for missing, duplicate or incorrect Model records are reduced. Before adding a model to ServiceNow, you should review the model with additional stakeholders such as Security, Tech Support, Software Asset Management, and others vested in making sure business systems and processes run efficiently, are cost effective, can be supported, and are not in conflict with other applications, hardware, or regulatory compliance.

Hardware and Software Service Catalog items must then reflect the requestable models within your computing environment. Each must have a valid link to an approved hardware or software product model.

Required tasks

Schedule the report provided in the Play 1 to run at regular intervals and perform corrective actions on new records. Document an internal policy that outlines a Product Catalog Item approval process

References

Model Management Blog

This set of blogs provide information on why Models are important and detail the concepts around Model Management

Role Model, or Why Model Management is Important

Congratulations You have completed this Product Success Playbook.