How to get more value from your Configuration Management Database (CMDB)

This is part two of a short series of articles about CMDB best practices. Below, we talk about how you can build a good CMDB that delivers real business benefits.

How will a good CMDB benefit my MSP?

The POPX platform is built on top of ServiceNow. Many ServiceNow - and POPX - customers have found significant value from investing in a CMDB. Indeed, ServiceNow research notes that a healthy CMDB combined with using ServiceNow ITSM results in:

• 38% faster incident resolution
• 82% few failed changes
• 40% reduction in IT costs

These huge benefits come from having a reliable, trustworthy and structured CMDB. If a service desk agent knows they can rely upon the information, then can spend less verifying and checking, and more time helping the customer.

What should my CMDB do?

Many organisations struggle with their CMDB strategy. Some try to take an all-encompassing approach, and “boil the ocean”, never delivering a result. Yet the opposite must be avoided too. The CMDB must support your business needs and deliver meaningful improvements. The first step is often the hardest.

So, using a Goldilocks metaphor, how do you avoid the hot and cold porridge and go straight for the one that’s just right? Don’t try to do this on your own. Engage with business stakeholders and find out where your CMDB can make a significant difference. 

For example, are you being hit with big penalties for software licence non-compliance? Or are you having too many service outages? If so, which services are affected and what’s the impact on productivity? Are your customers fed up because their issues are bouncing around between customer support teams? Perhaps you’re starting a cloud migration and need to know which services to move first - and how to move them. 

As you work through each problem, consider thinking about each from different perspectives:

• Quantified benefits - for example, how much money will you save?
• Amount of effort - what’s the return on investment and do you have the resources?
• Timeline - will this deliver a quick win for your business?
• Risk - how complex is it, what could go wrong, and what are the unknowns?
• Support from the business - is someone asking for this and are they willing to go to bat for it?

How do I get started with my CMDB?

A good CMDB is built over time. It is not possible to make a CMDB perfect, but making it good enough is certainly possible with the right approach. While having an understanding of what you want to achieve is important to build the business case, getting started is also important.

POPX has helped many customers deploy a CMDB that delivers real value. We recommend following this 3-step approach, and have materials, processes and expertise ready to help you if needed.

Step 1) Crawl: make the plan, and get buy in

Ensure that what you want to achieve is clear, and documented, and that you have the right plan for success. Important is making sure that your use-cases are clear, and aligned to your business goals. Do you want to go wide, and include all CIs, including those in internal, development and testing environments? Or do you want to focus on production, and those supporting your customers' services?

Once you know what you want to achieve, rally the team. Can you make someone the CMDB owner? Empower them to set the policies, make decisions and create the plan. Most MSPs that POPX talks to have rather federated teams made up of many acquisitions. Bringing the teams together is important for a good result.

Step 2) Walk: get the data

POPX recommends ServiceNow Discovery. It automatically searches your network, looking for devices. When it finds something, it creates CIs, and where possible, creates the relationships too. Because it is automated, and can run every day, it is a key way to keep the data fresh and correct. And it collects a lot of useful data! 

Some of our customers have used it to find servers running older, out of date versions of Microsoft Windows, others have found that their previous Excel based lists were woefully out of date.

Further, all POPX customers have invested in their monitoring solutions, from PRTG to LogicMonitor and more. They’ve spent years refining them, making their results accurate (if occasionally verbose). And each alert often comes with a good source of CI information. So the POPX platform can create a CMDB “on the fly” with the freshest possible data.

It is important to note that there will be some data that cannot be automatically discovered, including service descriptions, business capabilities and goals. These attributes will need to be manually populated and maintained. 

Step 3) Fly: make it relevant and connected

A well maintained and structured CMDB provides significant benefits, but it must also be maintained and kept focused on your business goals. By using the common service data model (CSDM) guidance from ServiceNow, you can store a wealth of information beyond the typical technical information.

For example, POPX has helped customers to effectively store contract and entitlement information (do your customers get 10 database clones per quarter or 10 change requests each month?), and then use this data to understand the level of revenue leakage. Are you over-servicing your customers? 

This information likely comes from your CRM systems, and a product catalogue integration will make sure information captured during the sales process seamlessly flows into the POPX service system. POPX has built robust integrations with many CRM and CPQ systems, with Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics the most common.

How to get help with your CMDB plan

While there is a great deal to think about, don't let this put you off and make sure you get help from people who have done this before. The benefit of working with a managed platform provider like POPX is that we don’t just talk - we do.

Our platform is ready to go, and we will help you through each step to ensure you get maximum business value. Contact us today to get started!