Hardware Asset Management (HAM) in ServiceNow

Hardware Asset Management (HAM) in ServiceNow is a module within the IT Asset Management (ITAM) suite that helps organizations manage their physical assets, such as servers, laptops, desktops, and other hardware devices, throughout their lifecycle. HAM ensures that organizations can track, maintain, and optimize the usage of hardware assets, improving cost efficiency, reducing risks, and maintaining compliance.
Key Features of ServiceNow HAM:

1. Asset Lifecycle Management
   • HAM enables tracking of hardware assets from procurement to disposal, covering stages such as acquisition, deployment, maintenance, and retirement.
   • Procurement: Assets are tracked from the moment they are purchased, including procurement details such as vendor, cost, purchase date, and warranty information.
   • Deployment: Once assets are deployed, they are assigned to users or locations, and their status is updated in real-time.
   • Maintenance: Tracks ongoing maintenance activities, including warranties, servicing schedules, and repair histories.
   • Retirement/Disposal: Assets that are no longer in use are retired, ensuring data sanitization and environmentally responsible disposal.
2. Asset Inventory and Discovery
   • ServiceNow HAM integrates with ServiceNow Discovery to automatically find and track hardware assets across the organization's network.
   • This automated discovery ensures up-to-date visibility of asset data such as model, serial numbers, configurations, and other asset details.
   • With Discovery, HAM can find devices like servers, desktops, laptops, network devices, and other hardware connected to the network.
3. Stockrooms and Inventory Management
   • HAM helps in managing stockrooms and inventory by allowing users to track hardware that is stored in different locations, ensuring proper inventory control.
   • This feature is useful for managing hardware that is in stock, under repair, or awaiting deployment.
   • It enables stock transfers, reservation of hardware for future use, and audits to ensure inventory accuracy.
4. Contract and Warranty Management
   • HAM helps track contracts and warranties related to hardware assets.
   • Users can monitor warranty expirations, renewal dates, and associated service agreements, reducing the risk of unexpected costs due to out-of-warranty repairs.
   • Automated alerts for warranty expiration ensure that actions such as contract renewal or warranty extension are timely.
5. Vendor and Supplier Management
   • HAM allows organizations to track vendor details, including procurement, performance, and service agreements.
   • Vendor relationships are important in ensuring that hardware assets are serviced and replaced according to the terms of the agreement.
   • Users can track vendor performance, including lead times for replacements, quality of hardware, and responsiveness to maintenance requests.
6. Asset Audits and Reconciliation
   • HAM includes auditing and reconciliation capabilities, allowing organizations to conduct physical audits to ensure hardware inventory data matches actual assets in stock or deployed.
   • Reconciliation: This feature helps identify discrepancies between the actual assets and the data in the system, ensuring accuracy in hardware asset management.
7. Software Compliance and Asset Dependencies
   • HAM integrates with Software Asset Management (SAM) to manage software licenses installed on hardware devices.
   • It helps track software usage, installations, and compliance with license agreements, ensuring hardware and software are aligned.
   • HAM also provides visibility into dependencies, such as which hardware assets are required for certain software or business services to run.
8. Financial Management and Cost Tracking
   • HAM enables tracking of financial details related to hardware assets, including purchase costs, depreciation, and ongoing maintenance costs.
   • This provides insights into the total cost of ownership (TCO) for each asset and helps organizations make informed decisions on asset purchases, upgrades, and replacements.
   • HAM also assists in budget forecasting by tracking asset costs over time.
9. Asset Refresh and End-of-Life Planning
   • HAM helps plan for asset refresh cycles by identifying hardware assets approaching end-of-life, ensuring organizations can budget for and plan upgrades or replacements.
   • It automates the asset retirement process, ensuring that retired assets are properly disposed of in accordance with organizational policies and environmental regulations.
10. Integration with Other ServiceNow Modules

• ServiceNow ITSM: HAM integrates with Incident, Problem, and Change Management modules to link hardware assets to incidents and problems, and track changes in the asset's configuration or status.
• ServiceNow CMDB: HAM integrates with the Configuration Management Database (CMDB), providing a holistic view of assets and their relationships to services and applications.
• ServiceNow SAM: Integration with SAM helps track software installed on hardware assets, ensuring license compliance and usage optimization.

Key Processes in ServiceNow HAM:

1. Hardware Request and Fulfillment
   • HAM supports hardware request and fulfillment workflows, allowing employees to request hardware via self-service portals, which then triggers the fulfillment process, ensuring the requested hardware is available and deployed to the user.
2. Asset Transfer
   • HAM manages asset transfers between employees or locations, ensuring assets are tracked as they move within the organization. The transfer process ensures proper updates to the asset's ownership and location data.
3. Maintenance and Support Tracking
   • HAM allows organizations to track scheduled maintenance and repair activities for hardware, ensuring that assets remain in good working condition. Maintenance activities are logged, and maintenance costs are tracked.
4. Disposal and Recycling
   • HAM manages the disposal and recycling of assets that have reached their end of life. It ensures that decommissioned hardware is disposed of according to organizational policies and regulatory requirements, including secure data wiping.

Reporting and Analytics:

• HAM provides robust reporting and analytics capabilities to give insights into hardware assets, including financial reports, asset lifecycle analysis, inventory status, and audit compliance.
• Reports can be customized to show key performance indicators (KPIs) such as asset utilization rates, total cost of ownership (TCO), and compliance with procurement or disposal policies.

Key Benefits of ServiceNow HAM:

1. Cost Savings: By optimizing the usage, maintenance, and lifecycle management of hardware assets, organizations can reduce unnecessary purchases and maintenance costs.
2. Increased Visibility: With real-time tracking of assets across their lifecycle, organizations have better visibility into asset performance, usage, and inventory levels.
3. Improved Compliance: Tracking warranty, contract, and compliance information ensures that organizations avoid unexpected costs and penalties related to expired warranties or non-compliance.
4. Risk Mitigation: Properly managed assets reduce risks associated with security vulnerabilities (e.g., unsupported hardware), legal risks (e.g., non-compliance), and financial risks (e.g., overspending on replacements).
5. Better Planning: By understanding hardware refresh cycles and end-of-life timelines, organizations can plan for future investments and avoid disruptions in operations.

Use Cases for ServiceNow HAM:

1. Global Asset Management: A multinational company can use HAM to track hardware assets across different offices and regions, ensuring a unified view of inventory, deployments, and compliance.
2. IT Hardware Refresh Cycle: Organizations can automate the tracking of assets approaching the end of their lifecycle, ensuring smooth transitions from old hardware to new systems without downtime.
3. Stockroom Inventory Management: An IT department can track available inventory in stockrooms to ensure timely fulfillment of hardware requests and prevent over-purchasing or stockouts.
4. Financial Auditing: Finance teams can track hardware assets, their depreciation, and cost of ownership over time, ensuring accurate financial reporting and budget forecasting.