Learning about Asset Management - Documentation for BMC Helix ITSM: Asset Management 21.3

StageDescription

Procurement

You can procure  licenses by using the BMC Helix ITSM: Asset Management workflows provides workflows. Use the BMC IT Business Management product to help manage the vendor evaluation and selection process before procurement.

Storage of software license inventory and entitlements

You can store information about contracts and software licenses. Using license types, you can capture the rights applicable to each type of software license. BMC Helix ITSM: Asset Management is installed with standard license types, including enterprise, site, and per-copy license types. However, you can configure custom license types..

Deployment

After an asset is received, BMC Helix ITSM: Asset Management integrates with the BMC Helix ITSM: Change Management application to trigger the appropriate deployment process.

Discovery

Typically, you populate BMC Helix CMDB by discovering deployed software and other assets. You can use the BMC Atrium Discovery and Dependency Mapping (BMC Atrium Discovery) product to populate CI data. BMC Atrium CMDB provides reconciliation and normalization based on the DML and Product Catalog. The DML translates discovery scan data into normalized software titles and descriptions. This normalization enables more accurate and efficient matching of discovered software to licenses.

Analysis of software license compliance

The License Engine links the entitlements (recorded in software licenses) with the CIs in BMC Helix CMDB. The License Engine measures compliance by using the rules for the applicable license type. If you need to create your own license types, you use a wizard to build the rules that define compliance criteria. Dashboards, alerts, and reports help you to identify and analyze compliance issues.

Maintenance and supportYou can set up maintenance schedules for your assets. Through the integration with BMC Service Support, you can view the history of incidents associated with an asset.

Retirement and software license harvesting

When a computer goes out of service, the software license is reclaimed for future use. BMC Atrium Discovery updates the software CI in BMC Helix CMDB. The License Engine then determines that the license is available.

Software License Management

By using Software License Management (SWLM), you can automatically link software CIs with the applicable software license certificates.