ServiceNow is an IT service management SaaS solution that operates in the cloud. It’s one of the key elements of ITIL that can be divided into the Configuration Management Database (CMDB). In this blog post, let’s unravel some of the secrets of the ServiceNow CMDB and learn more about how you can change your business’s IT for the better.

Understanding the ServiceNow CMDB
Essentially, the ServiceNow CMDB is the central database of configuration items or CIs in an organization’s context of IT environment. The CI can be as simple as a piece of hardware such as a server or router can be a CI as can be an application software, or even a business process. It thus becomes easier for the other teams in the IT department to make informed decisions, and in general for IT to become a more efficient service provider.

While using the ServiceNow CMDB has multiple benefits, some of the most important ones are listed below:

Improved Visibility:
The CMDB provides a lookup to all your IT assets and shows you the life cycle of each element from its conception to its offloading. It makes it easier to tell the potential risks, the constraints, and where improvement could be effected on.

Enhanced Change Management
The CMDB proves to be vital in performing change management exercises as indicated in this paper. When documenting relationship between CIs, one can determine the effect of change and also make sure that they do not affect the IT environment.

Streamlined Incident Management:
CMDB can assist IT personnel in finding out the cause of the incident by offering information of the effected CIs. This also helps in fast tracking the processes of resolving disputes and ensures minimal disruption to businesses.

Effective Problem Management

The CMDB also allows an organization to capture details of various incidents that occurred in their systems, and from this, they can be able to deduce other issues occurring in the systematic pattern. If these causes are eliminated, IT teams facing similar situations in the future will not fall for the same traps that led to these problem, and system instabilities may also be reduced.

Improved Asset Management

By using the CMDB, one is in a position to see the inventory of the IT assets with supporting features like location, ownership, and maintenance. This information is very useful in improving how assets are used, in cutting expenses and in meeting legal necessities.

A general guide in the implementation of the ServiceNow CMDB
Implementing the ServiceNow CMDB involves several key steps:

Define Your Scope
Which CIs are to be included in the CMDB should be identified. This will depend with the individual organizational requirement and need at that specific time.

Create CI Classes
There is a need to define the attributes and the relationships for each type of CI. This will help to make sure that the right information is collected to support the operations of your IT from the CMDB.

Populate the CMDB
Collect information from different sources like, the hardware asset number and store it in the CMDB in form of current and accurate information such as software license agreement, configurations among others.

Integrate with Other Systems
Integrate the CMDB with other IT applications ( e. g., IT Service Management applications, IT asset management) to avoid data duplication and Integrations.

Establish Governance Processes
Put in place protocols that should be followed when dealing with the CMDB as far as data quality is concerned, change management and security measures.

Additional Considerations

Data Quality
Purity of data records contained in the CMDB is critical and must be achieved to maximize the functionality of the tool. Recurring ones such as data cleansing and validation should nonetheless be conducted.

Customization
This ServiceNow CMDB can be further configured to cater for the needs of the organization. This may concern new fields, assignments, and reports to meet company’s needs and requirements.

Training and Adoption
Among them, the most critical in making the overall training process for IT staff sufficient to achieve maximum results in CMDB implementation. It is necessary to make sure that the employees know what advantages can be gained from the use of a CMDB and how to realize these advantages to the optimum.

In conclusion the ServiceNow CMDB is a very functional tool that can bring about a great improvement to how the IT operations are done. The CMDB consolidates the configuration details in order to support improved decision-making, greater efficiency and improved service quality. Thus, ServiceNow CMDB if implemented and equally optimized offers organizations a competitive edge and business success.

Author Bio
Gautham is a CMDB servicenow expert at Royal Cyber. With 4 years of experience in the field, Gautham has a deep understanding of how to use ServiceNow CMDB to improve IT service management. In this guest post, Gautham will share his insights on how to effectively use ServiceNow CMDB to achieve your business goals.