My Services in Snow Automation Platform

Title

In most implementations of Snow Automation Platform (AP) the Software store is the most used feature. The solution supports the lifecycle of software where users can

Order the software
Maintain the software (by extending or renewing subscriptions)
Cancelling the software

The ordering of software is pretty easy to understand. The reason for software showing up in AP is that they are published in Snow License Manager and then synced to AP, making it possible to order the software.
But what about maintaining and cancelling the software? For allowing a user to cancel a software AP needs to know that the user actually owns the software. There are two ways that AP can know this (where number 2 is the used and preferred solution for software):

By saving an instance of the ordered service - When a user orders a software, AP stores the information. And when the user goes to Manage – My Services, it will display Services that the user have ordered in the past. This is great when you cannot lookup the information in another system. In the software example, it actually is possible to lookup the information (see below). But let’s say that you have built another type of service where users can order fancy pens. You probably do not have a system where you store this type of information. The workaround is that when you build this service, you select the “Instantiate” button. Meaning AP will store all instances of pens that a user has ordered.

Once added, you can connect whatever edit and cancel workflows you like to it. In this example ordering re-fills.

As you might realize, this is not always the best solution. Just because I once ordered something in AP, it does not automatically mean I still have it. And what about things I ordered in the past? Before my company implemented AP?

By asking another system - When a user goes to Manage – My Services, AP asks other systems of services a user owns. This could be for example:

Snow License Manager for displaying software assigned to the user
The asset system for displaying hardware that the user owns
Office 365 for showing and handling licenses assigned to the user
ServiceNow for displaying and handling tickets assigned to the user
And so on…

By asking another system for information on services that the user owns we always get up to date information. Also, it does not matter if the user has placed the order of the service in AP or in another system. If you can look it up, AP supports the handling of the software, hardware or whatever.
What does this really mean? It means that you have a really powerful tool where you can collect information from different systems and show them in one place. Then, you can build custom workflows to those services, for example

Extend subscriptions
Renew subscriptions
Report stolen or lost phones and computers
Manage permissions on project areas that you own

How do you do this for yourself? You use something called Inventory Services in AP. It’s basically a PowerShell script where you ask other systems for information. By returning your answers in a managed and pre-defined manner, they will be displayed by AP and you can then start connecting custom actions and workflows to it.

The inventory service result:

The Software Inventory service is delivered out-of-the-box when implementing AP with the SAM Automation book, meaning it’s really not much you have to worry about. But, hopefully this article help you understand the model behind what you see.

Writing your own Inventory Services is considered to be pretty advanced configuration of AP. Not impossible, but it is recommended to book a session with Snow Services to get a quick start.

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Product

Snow Automation Platform

Solution Area

Services

Version

3.x

Visibility

Guest

URL Name

My-Services-in-Snow-Automation-Platform

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Case id: 00001065