Hardware Assets should have unique asset tags Product Success Playbook Hardware Assets should have unique asset tags A step-by-step guide to analyze and remediate asset 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: Analysis Play - Identify Hardware Assets with non-unique asset tags Play 2: Devise asset tagging Data Governance References<optional> Summary Goal of this Playbook To help you identify and remediate asset records with duplicate asset tag numbers Details about this playbook Author Michael Walker Reviewer Emir Eminovic Date 12/27/2023 Addresses HSD # HSD0012251 Applicable ServiceNow Releases All Releases Time Required Approximately 1 to 8 hours (depending on your environment) Audience Asset Management teamServiceNow Administrator Problem Overview Asset tags helps your company to identify valuable property so that it can be tracked and accounted for. The costs associated with purchasing, replacing and disposing of hardware assets can only be effectively managed when the correct number, location and status of these assets is known. Non-unique asset tag numbers would reflect inaccurate counts of hardware and delegitimize any reporting or calculations intended to account for things like end of life, warranty status etc, total operating costs per location or even in the event of missing hardware, whom is assigned which device. Executive Summary How this playbook can help you achieve business goals This playbook provides guidance on how to find, correct, and avoid Hardware Asset records with non-unique asset tag numbers. Successfully managing your hardware assets will help to control costs so that your company can use those savings in other ways. How this playbook is structured This playbook guides you through a series of plays to identify and remediate duplicate Hardware Asset tag numbers: Play 1 helps you identify Hardware Assets with duplicate asset tagsPlay 2 helps you to devise a proper asset tagging schemeData governance discusses steps to take to avoid duplicate asset tag numbers for your Hardware Assets Problem Analysis Upstream Causes Common causes of Hardware Asset records with duplicate asset tag numbers include lack of governancelack of regular audit practicesmanual input processesmerging multiple asset systems without also re-numbering the asset tagsintegrations with external systems which have poor governance Downstream Consequences Data Consequence Some departments may rely on the asset tag for tracking an asset. When these are not unique, this can lead to confusion or misallocation of hardware Operation Consequence Confusion, and misallocation resulting from non-unique asset tags are all costs you will see within your operational groups (e.g., manual asset/CI reconciliation, ETL imports/exports, table cleanup, etc.).IT service actors are burdened and delayed in devising or employing alternatives to find accurate data on the fly if their trust is eroded by confusing asset information.Use of alternate sources of asset information and tracking can be difficult to stop once it has started.Inability to match hardware asset records with the actual devices degrades asset and financial management due to inaccuracies in hardware device counts, statuses, locations, users, and historical dependency of other ITSM processes on them.When your asset information and audit logs are seen by certain vendors as unreliable, there can be financial consequences involved by way of stipulations within annual maintenance or warranty contracts. App Consequence Inaccurate asset counts and/or audit trails put the cost saving benefits derived from the roll out of ServiceNow applications like Procurement, Software Asset Management, Hardware Asset Management, and Configuration Management at risk. Impact on Your Business The matching and uniqueness provided by asset records with correctly populated serial numbers help organizations improve and maintain things such as the following: Audit/Compliance Avoid the risk of fines, negative reputation, and even of imprisonment (S-OX, GDPR)* due to non-compliance with regulatory and contractual responsibilities.Support management accountability for internal controls and audit trails.Make physical devices visible throughout their asset life cycles (Request, Procure, Receive, Stock, Deploy, Monitor, Support, Move, Add, Change, Dispose), so organizations always know what is in stock, which assets belong to them, where they’re located and their users.Improve ability to properly manage warranties, contracts, vendor agreements, and software licenses. ROI Maintain visibility of investments, enabling better operational and financial management decisions, which in turn free up more budget to propel innovation and growth. Service value Alignment of assets to IT services and IT services to business needs, affording better service value and agility Lifecycle Management. Security Reduced risk of lost or inappropriate use of company materials Engagement Questions: Consider the answers to these questions: Are you currently using Hardware Asset Management?What process or criteria are you using to identify the correct physical asset records?Is there a documented process in place to address non-unique asset tags?Are you aware of any duplicate asset tags and if so, what was the cause(s)? Remediation Plays SummaryThe table below lists and summarizes each of the remediation plays in the playbook. Details are included later. Play Name Play 1 – Analysis Play - Identify Hardware Assets with non-unique tag Numbers What this play is about Identify Hardware Assets with non-unique tag numbers and determine the root cause(s) Required tasks Display a list of Hardware Assets requiring new asset tags Play 2 - Fix Play – Devise asset tagging What this play is about Devise a proper asset tagging scheme Required tasks Use the guidelines to ensure that the tagging scheme doesn’t create duplicates Data Governance What this play is about Take steps to prevent non-unique tag numbers within Hardware Asset records Required tasks Enable a Business Rule and establish a process for assigning asset tags Play 1 - Analysis Play - Identify Hardware Assets with non-unique asset tags What this Play is about Identify Hardware Assets with non-unique tag numbers and determine the root cause(s). Prerequisite(s): Import the Update Set with Script Include AssetTagHelper Required tasks Navigate to the Hardware Asset list by entering alm_hardware.list in the Filter Navigator and press <enter>Configure the condition builder to have the following query: Field name Operator Value Sys ID is javascript:AssetTagHelper.getDupes() Note: If the resulting list is blank, there are no duplicates. You can stop the analysis now. With a relatively small total number of assets, you can also start on this following step: Group the list by the Asset tag field to see which Asset tags have been repeated within your Asset Management database. (do not confuse this with your Configuration Management Database, for differentiation please see documentation here)Having grouped the list by asset tags, expand each asset tag value and click to open each Hardware asset to edit the Asset tag assigned. Be sure to double-check that the new tag number you are choosing to assign now is also unique.See the section titled: Devise / Implement an asset tag naming schema to come up with a unique tag numbering system, if needed.If you have a very large number of untagged or non-unique asset tags, you may need to split the work up according to device type or region – or both. Make an achievable action plan to get the work accomplished as time and resourcing permits.Once all your assets have unique tag numbers, this is play is complete. We recommend that you periodically re-check these and/or put governance tools in place to help assure conformity to your organization’s asset policy. Play 2 - Analyze your CI records What this Play is about The following list contains step by step instructions, intended to help you devise a working asset tagging schema. Note: These suggestions are not meant to take all use cases into account and should not be considered the last or final word on this topic. Required tasks Define purpose and scope of your tagging schema using steps such as the following:Decide if now is the time for implementing asset tagging.Assess existing scheme(s): Review any current tagging systems in use.Identify limitations and/or opportunities for improvement.Identify the processes that will be impacted by this change. Decide on the tag structure: Choose a fixed or variable length for the tags.Consider including a prefix or suffix to indicate asset type or location or even parent / child company or division. Select Unique Identifiers: Incorporate serial numbers or other unique identifiers.Ensure numbers are sequential and do not repeat. Incorporate what we have learned after having worked Play 1 above. Incorporate date information (if relevant) Consider including the purchase year or expected replacement year as part of the tag for lifecycle management.Assignment date can be helpful if users are entitled an update after a certain period. Consider Hierarchical Elements: Implement a hierarchical structure if there are asset sub-categories, using delimiters like dashes or dots.Remember to make sure the asset tagging tools provided to your field teams can print the tags they need them. Document the new naming scheme in detail, including examplesImplement Tagging Tools - Use a script to assign and track asset tags. Data Governance What this Play is about Take steps to prevent duplicate asset tags. Required tasks Perform steps in play 1 to keep check for duplicate asset tags.Perform regular audits to ensure that asset data is accurate. Congratulations You have completed this Product Success Playbook.