Service Asset Lifecycle

The Service Asset Lifecycle value path enables you to manage service assets from initial procurement to retirement, as shown in the following illustration and described in the sections that follow. If applicable, this lifecycle can include the harvesting of underutilized software licenses.

This section contains the following topics:

Illustration of Service Asset Lifecycle

This value path provides:

Software licensing and compliance tools
Integration with change management and incident management processes through BMC Service Support applications
Integration with the BMC Atrium Configuration Management Database (BMC Atrium CMDB) product and other inventory tools
Integration with vendor management
Integration with discovery
Integration with provisioning through the BMC BladeLogic Client Automation product
Reporting and analytics

BMC Atrium CMDB includes a common Definitive Media Library (DML) and Product Catalog. It provides the common repository for all configuration items (CIs).

Tip

For information about configuring this value path, see Configuring Service Asset Lifecycle.
For information about using the BMC Asset Management application, see Managing assets.

Procurement

BMC Asset Management provides workflows for procurement, including receiving. Integrations are available so that you can integrate with e-procurement systems. Use the BMC IT Business Management product to help manage the vendor evaluation and selection process before procurement.

Capturing software license inventory and entitlements

You can store information about contracts and software licenses. License types give you the flexibility to capture the rights applicable to each type of software license. BMC Asset Management is installed with standard license types, including enterprise, site, and per-copy license types. However, you can configure license types to support your custom agreements.

Deployment

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

Discovery

Typically, you populate BMC Atrium 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.

Analyzing software license compliance

The License Engine links the entitlements (recorded in software licenses) with the CIs in BMC Atrium 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 support

You 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 Atrium CMDB. The License Engine then determines that the license is available.