What if I told you that, despite your good intentions of investing in a configuration management database (CMDB) to better manage your IT assets, you probably won't see strong results?
That would sting a bit, right?
You invest time in building out systems of record and complex workflows to attempt to keep that asset data up-to-date. You’ve also invested in additional modules to cover every asset category. You've been patiently waiting for the day you can consider that database complete and accurate.
All of that has required significant manual effort to make sure workflows are functioning as intended and asset details within your CMDB actually reflect reality.
To achieve the ROI you expect, you need to change the way you approach CMDB hygiene. You need a way to achieve a high level of accuracy without heavy, manual efforts.
Simply put, you need Oomnitza.
Oomnitza’s IT Asset Management (ITAM) platform complements your existing investment to deliver 90%+ accuracy within your CMDB without tedious, manual efforts.
In this blog, we’ll look at:
- Why so many enterprises end up with bad data
- The reasons manual attempts at data accuracy fall short (and hinder true ROI)
- How Oomnitza and ServiceNow work better together for stronger CMDB hygiene and data accuracy
The Data Accuracy Issue in Your CMDB
The problem here is twofold.
For one, maintaining data accuracy within a static CMDB is nearly impossible. Whether it's due to disjointed systems that do not talk to each other, duplicate data records, or overly complex configurations that prevent easy data normalization, there’s no shortage of reasons you end up with low CMDB accuracy.
It's not surprising, then, that only 25% of enterprises feel they get actual value from their CMDB. When accurate data is the foundation for automation, better decisions, and security alignment, you can’t expect to see any ROI in your ServiceNow investment until you have a way to access better, more up-to-date asset information.
If you're thinking, “It can’t really be that big of a deal, right? A bit of bad data can’t have that big of an impact,” consider this.
- Without full visibility into every lifecycle stage, devices outside traditional tracking purviews become vulnerable to cyberattacks and non-compliance. You can almost expect hefty fines and other financial consequences.
- If IT lacks key asset data as they try to resolve an incident, they waste time looking for it, cutting into the employee’s productivity and potentially leaving gaps in patch responses. Both of those impact your bottom line.
Need a more concrete example?
A manufacturing customer who shuttered a business unit needed to reclaim 2,500 assets they used to run that business. Unfortunately, they hadn’t applied the previous six ServiceNow upgrades in a row because their CMDB was so heavily customized, and the upgrades to the ServiceNow software would have broken their custom Configuration Items (CIs).
In the end, the organization couldn’t recover the 2,500 assets because they didn’t know their location and users, creating a serious compliance problem.
What compliance problems result from inaccurate asset tracking? Organizations face regulatory fines, audit failures, and potential legal liabilities when they can't demonstrate proper control over their IT assets.
Now you might be thinking that you can work around these issues and establish the data accuracy you need to realize greater value from your CMDB with a bit of elbow grease.
Here’s the thing, though…
The Problem with Manual Hygiene Maintenance
Now, for the second part of the problem.
Let’s say you pop into your CMDB once every few days to update records. You might ask: How often should I manually update my CMDB data? The reality is that manual updates can never keep pace with the constant changes in your IT environment. You take a few hours to compare the details of one system to another, determine what needs to be changed in your CMDB, and port those details over by hand.
But surprise! Almost as soon as you enter one piece of asset data, something else changes on one of those systems. Because IT environments are dynamic—with assets changing status, location, and configuration constantly throughout each day—your CMDB can become outdated almost immediately.
Why does my CMDB go out of date immediately after I update it? Because IT environments are dynamic, with assets changing status, location, and configuration constantly throughout each day.
Since it happened after your initial check, that database becomes out of date and incomplete. If someone references that data before your next manual refresh, they might be using the wrong information and experience financial, security, or change management issues.
Manual CMDB maintenance rarely achieves full accuracy. Moreover, doing this by hand directly goes against the value you intended to see from your database.
You built this system of record so that you can have all of your asset data in one place for easy reference. You wanted a single source of truth that your IT team could reference for faster, more efficient IT asset management.
If your team is taking time out of their days to manually update asset data to maintain data hygiene within your CMDB, it's not just a matter of not realizing your ROI. In reality, you're in the same place you started at pre-database, except now you have a much higher price tag attached to your efforts.
Oomnitza aims to solve this challenge by empowering ServiceNow customers to gain high data accuracy with a much lighter lift.
Oomnitza Delivers a Better ServiceNow CMDB
At Oomnitza, we recognize the critical role of data hygiene in maximizing your CMDB’s value. Rather than replace your existing ServiceNow investment, Oomnitza’s ITAM platform makes your workflows smarter and more accurate.
We aim to help ServiceNow customers more easily maintain accurate data to gain visibility into their full asset landscape and fill critical gaps that impact financial, security, service, and incident management.
When you connect ServiceNow with Oomnitza, you get:
An Easy-to-Deploy, Bundled Platform
As the platform enables bidirectional communication between your CMDB and your IT, security, and business systems, you can have a fully operational, complete database in a matter of weeks.
Plus, our ITAM platform covers every asset category, from hardware and software to cloud assets and more.
Continuously Normalized Asset Data
That manual heavy lift you're looking to avoid? It's a thing of the past with Oomnitza’s ServiceNow integration.
Oomnitza natively and automatically collects, normalizes, and enriches IT asset data to build a single source of truth within your CMDB. You get 90%+ data accuracy without lifting a finger.
User-Friendly Automation Tools
Gone are the days of needing to spend additional money on professional services or third-party consultants. Our drag-and-drop workflow automation tool allows you to build out custom workflows in our platform.
Besides avoiding extra costs to support CMDB hygiene efforts, this allows your team to quickly self-service, saving them time and increasing productivity in other areas of asset management.
Full Asset Lifecycle Visibility
Oomnitza doesn't just track and manage IT assets that fall within traditional ITAM purviews. Our platform tracks asset data at every lifecycle stage, from forecasting to final depreciation, even off-network devices.
With the often overlooked areas covered, you can make stronger decisions around IT security and cost savings.
Out-of-the-Box Discrepancy Reports
Tired of guessing where an asset lives within your different systems or finding out too late that you’re missing key data fields in asset records?
Pull reports within Oomnitza that instantly show where an asset lives and any missing data fields that need addressing. The platform will then write back to those systems to constantly ensure up-to-date asset data.
Better Together: See the Power of Oomnitza + ServiceNow
Maintaining strong CMDB hygiene doesn't need to—and shouldn’t—be an arduous task that still doesn't yield high accuracy despite heavy manual efforts.
By enhancing your ServiceNow investment with Oomnitza’s ITAM platform, you can achieve the near-perfect accuracy you need to boost confidence, automate workflows, and maximize ROI across your entire IT asset landscape.
Learn how the integration works here.
Want to see it in action? Schedule a demo with our ServiceNow team.
