Hardware assets should have asset tag Product Success Playbook Handle hardware assets without asset tag A step-by-step guide to analyze and remediate issues with asset 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: Fix Play - Auto generation of asset tag Play 3: Fix Play - Assets created from CI Play 4: Fix Play - Asset data population Data Governance References<optional> Summary Goal of this Playbook Asset tags are important to identify and track the assets belonging to an organization. This playbook will help identify assets without asset tags and help you to fix it. Details about this playbook Author Bibu Punnachalil Reviewer Emir Eminonvic Date 06/28/2023 Addresses HSD # HSD0012196 Applicable ServiceNow Releases All Releases Prerequisites Time Required Approximately 4 to 16 hours (depending on your environment) Audience Asset ManagerProcurement TeamServiceNow Administrator Problem Overview Asset tag is the primary identifier for asset inventory to the organization. Due to issues with asset intake/creation/import process, the asset tag may not get filled. Lack of asset tags affects the organization in cost management, financial management and also may impact support teams in asset tracking. Executive Summary How this playbook can help you achieve business goals This playbook helps in improving your asset management operations to become cost efficient, increase ROI and helps in better forecasting How this playbook is structured This Playbook will guide you through 5 plays. Play 1 (a review data play) helps you review the list of assets without asset tagPlay 2 (a remediation play) provides steps for ServiceNow auto generation of asset tagPlay 3 (a remediation play) provides an approach for asset tag population from discovered CIsPlay 4 (a remediation play) Provides the approach for asset tag population from barcode/RFIDPlay 5 (a data governance play) lists the guidelines and processes for continuing to ensure your MID Server issues are minimal Problem Analysis Upstream Causes Asset records are ideally created as part of procurement step in the asset lifecycle. Due to issues in creation of asset record(from Advanced Shipping Notice or through a receiving function) the asset tag information is missed.CI discovery is not populating asset tag. Asset tag is generally not a discoverable attributeAsset creation business rule not properly appliedCustomizations of asset creation rules Downstream Consequences Data Consequence Potential corruption or duplication of asset dataData lookup queries might not workList views with multiple, and identical, records all listed togetherRelationship lookup between CI and asset is difficult Operation Consequence Operational teams are burdened with workaround for looking up assetsPhysical asset verification process may become cumbersomeDifficulty in financial reporting & forecastingIdentification of asset causes operational inefficiencies and may require external processes (eg, physical lookup of tags) for supportResults in a poor user experience. Remediating and managing records with missing data interferes with achieving business objectives and achieving ROI App Consequence Empty (unpopulated) asset tags can: Lack of simple asset identification may affect Procurement, SAM, GRC, Security and HR applicationsAsset reports will be harder to understand due to missing names Impact on Your Business Empty asset tags 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 tasksDelay in asset lifecycle decisionsDifficult to identify & prevent thefts Audit Compliance Audit completenessRegulatory compliance Poor Infrastructure visibility Difficult to lookup assets Process automation errors and inefficiencies Data AccuracyIntegrity 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 SummaryThe table below lists and summarizes each of the remediation plays in the playbook. Details are included later. 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 Navigate to the asset list Fix Play - Asset tag auto generation What this play is about Asset tag auto generated in ServiceNow Required tasks Follow the steps to make the asset tag autogenerated in ServiceNow Fix Play - Assets created from CI What this play is about Asset records created from configuration items and discovery Required tasks Choose and complete one or more of the described methods. Fix Play - Asset data population What this play is about Asset tag is not recorded during the procurement process 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 asset tag is not created Play 1 - Review your data What this Play is about This play lets you review asset records that have empty (unpopulated) asset tags. Required tasks Go to Navigator Asset Portfolios Hardware AssetsExpand the filter and provide condition for Asset is Empty Group By Model Category (If Model Category is not available , click on personalize columns and add Model category in to list view) Play 2 – Fix Play : Make Asset tag auto generated by ServiceNow What this Play is about Asset tags are expected to be generated during the procurement phase and provided to ServiceNow through the integration with the procurement tool. If procurement is being done through ServiceNow and asset tags needs to be autogenerated below approach could be used Required tasks Option 1: Make Asset tag auto generated by ServiceNow Create a new auto number on asset table Navigate to system Definition Number Maintenance Click on New Select the table as alm_hardware and provide prefix and rest of the data in form ' Submit will create a new number(u_number) field in the database Copy the auto generated number to Asset tag field Open the data dictionary of Asset Tag Field Go to the default value tab and enter the default value as “javascript:current.u_number;” New Asset records created will have the Asset tag auto generated Option 2: Use the serial number to be used as the asset tag. Create a business rule to update the asset tag with the serial numberSet the conditions so that the business rule will run when serial number is changed 3. Set the action to update asset tag with serial number Note: Using serial number for asset tag is not recommended as there is possibility of duplication, vendor errors and manual errors. Play 3 - Fix Play: Assets are created from CIs through discovery What this Play is about Discovery creates CIs in CMDB and based on the mapping configuration to asset, the asset records are created. Discovery may not be able to populate asset tag unless certain adaptions are done to the configuration Required tasks Asset tag may be stored in BIOS or in Registry KeyDiscovery patterns/probes can be adapted to retrieve and populate it in CMDB Note : In case the asset tag is not getting auto generated from assets created through CIs from SCCM import or from discovery, in the Asset - ci mapping have a condition such as 'Asset tag' is ’not empty' Play 4 - Fix Play: Asset tags not scanned What this Play is about Asset records are expected to be created from Advanced Shipping Notice or through a receiving function. Due to some issue in the process or manual error the asset tag information is not recorded Required tasks Use of Barcode(if possible with RFID) attached to the assets Evaluate the asset data population steps in ServiceNow to ensure that the asset tag information is updated with barcode Data Governance What this Play is about This play provides an approach for monitoring and managing missing asset tags Required tasks A formal asset tagging scheme when asset is received to affix a physical asset tag label to the physical deviceRerun Play 1 periodically to check for any new assets getting created without “Asset Tag” Congratulations You have completed this Product Success Playbook.