ServiceNow CMDB Reviews

I use ServiceNow CMDB as an admin in a big European company with over 10,000 people, managing more than 10,000 servers along with 500 to 1,000 different business and application services. We also have automatic discovery of the servers, network devices, and some automatic discovery of services as well. I use it for different processes including Incident Management and Change Management, and some data from ServiceNow CMDB is utilized in financial management.

ServiceNow CMDB includes various automation features, and I'm quite satisfied with how they work. The overall automation engine in ServiceNow allows for different ways of discovery and service mapping depending on the source of the data, such as tag-based mapping for cloud services and dynamic groups. ServiceNow provides many mechanisms to automate or semi-automate the intake process and relate the data into necessary domains. The Integration Hub also offers out-of-the-box service graphs, which enable integration from external sources, either semi-automated or automated, based on your needs.

ServiceNow CMDB serves as a fundamental part of ITSM in ServiceNow, and while you can utilize ITSM processes with a very basic CMDB, achieving the full potential of ServiceNow requires at least somewhat good data in ServiceNow CMDB for effective impact analysis, root cause analysis, customer impact, proactive notifications, and major cases. To reach higher levels of maturity in ServiceNow, such as run or fly, a very good ServiceNow CMDB is essential.

There is probably room for improvement in ServiceNow CMDB. I'm so immersed in projects and solving direct customer issues that I don't think too much about potential improvements. Maintaining an accurate and up-to-date ServiceNow CMDB can be challenging due to incoming data from various sources, but ServiceNow has been developing small AI components to help with data discrepancies and deduplication recently. They have also improved integrations with other tools, providing many out-of-the-box integrations to different monitoring tools and CMDBs, which previously required coding experience for custom integrations. They are moving towards a more low-code or no-code approach, which is part of their goal as a company.

ServiceNow CMDB has been a part of my work for about six or seven years now.

The level of support can vary; sometimes I get really good support, and sometimes not, but I'm not sure what affects this variance. When I mention support, I mean when I open a case on the support portal.

Neutral

I have used alternatives to ServiceNow CMDB. If I can pick one alternative, HP CMDB would be the closest.

The biggest difference is that ServiceNow is a fully-fledged cloud tool, while HP, until a couple of years ago, mainly did on-premises installations. HP had several different tools such as HP IT Service Manager, HP Asset Manager, and HP CMDB, which needed integration to receive the complete functionality available in ServiceNow. With ServiceNow, all modules are integrated within one system, making maintenance considerably easier compared to HP's separate tools, which required more complicated integration processes.

When I first started using ServiceNow CMDB, the initial deployment was easy, as I joined a team that already had a CMDB and I was transferring data from another system. It was straightforward, as long as the process and organizational ownership are sorted out. Technically, the first steps are easy, and with the Pareto principle, about 80 or 90 percent of devices and services inside ServiceNow CMDB can be integrated with rather little effort, although some edge cases may require experienced coding resources.

Pricing is all over the place. That is one of the comments I can make regarding pricing. It's different for different modules, with various pricing models such as per licensed user or per transaction. New modules can introduce new pricing logic, making it challenging to estimate costs. It often becomes a negotiation between ServiceNow and clients, especially larger clients, and while it's not their strongest point, many vendors face similar pricing complexities.

The most important maintenance task for ServiceNow CMDB is ensuring the data is current and not stale or duplicated; if the data becomes too problematic, people stop trusting ServiceNow CMDB as a source of truth. A good governance process needs to be established for data import, with clearly defined data owners. ServiceNow offers mechanisms for CMDB health management, such as data certification and KPIs. Overall, it's not very hard to maintain from the tool side if organizational aspects are sorted out.

Regarding pricing, it is sometimes different for different modules with various ways of pricing such as per licensed user or per transaction. New modules can change the pricing logic, making it challenging to estimate costs, often leading to negotiations between ServiceNow and clients, especially for larger organizations. It is not their most brilliant aspect, and similar to other vendors, I don't think they are worse than others in this regard.

I would rate this product an 8 out of 10.

Public Cloud

Other

I primarily work with ITSM, HR, SPM, AI, Now Assist, CMDB, and CSDM modules, covering almost all of these areas.

I use the integration with ServiceNow CMDB with all the processes that we have implemented for the customer and with some other third-party solutions.

Now Assist is the most important feature in ServiceNow that I have found valuable.

I use its data normalization, which depends on the project.

I use the automation features, and the implementation depends on the project. Sometimes I help our customers implement more automation on the processes that they have.

Almost all customers have reduced their response time, which is the most important benefit. We have brought tasks that previously took more than 30 minutes or one hour of execution down to a few minutes. Working with the flow designer with new flows, new automation, and sub-flows, everything related to that increases more autonomy in the process.

I believe that related to the solutions in the Now Assist platform, we can put more autonomy on that. Some reconciliation can be automated. AI Assist is the current improvement now. I don't have anything to improve for the future at this moment, but I would like to use the features of AI to increase and integrate with other third parties in the customer if needed, and create some autonomy on that. However, this is something that is rolling now.

A few months ago, I was thinking about how we can integrate with new solutions of AI, like Claude and Gemini, and bring a unified integration. Now with Moveworks, which is a new solution for ServiceNow, the UI integration with that makes it difficult to put more improvements on that and see other future enhancements. Now it is the moment to work with Moveworks and see what the future holds. It is difficult now because we are rolling out that solution.

I have been working with ServiceNow CMDB for more than 10 years.

ServiceNow CMDB is very intuitive and user-friendly. ServiceNow is designed to help people, not to complicate their work. It is easy to work with ServiceNow CMDB.

It is very easy to integrate with ServiceNow CMDB. With the REST API and SOAP, everything is standard to use. It depends on the third party in these cases, and the other factor is with the module. It is very out-of-the-box, so there are no concerns about that.

I would rate their technical support as five out of five because I have experience with other platforms, including BMC and Vantage, among many others. Not in the last three years, but based on my experience from the beginning, ServiceNow has the best technical support.

I am not working with anything by BMC anymore.

I used to work with BMC about five years ago.

I help customers evaluate their CMDB health. We use the CMDB health to make that analysis, to see the relationships, what is missing with the processes they have, and any mis-ownership issues. So, we use ServiceNow CMDB health for that and create dashboards with reports related to it, but this depends on the business and the requirements from the customer.

Some metrics that I track with ServiceNow CMDB are related to changes, including what kind of changes we made in ServiceNow CMDB. The increase in ServiceNow CMDB by classes is the most common metric. But again, this depends on the customer's needs.

I believe the pricing is very competitive because we have huge value with ServiceNow compared with other solutions. The price is high, that is correct, but the value is the most important factor, and we can deliver that. The price is not a concern with ServiceNow.

Their marketing strategy is very strong. We have great support for that as partners. They help a lot, and we can communicate from ServiceNow to our customers through our partnership. That is amazing.

For TRH, we are a partner, a reseller, and a service partner. I believe it is just missing the build partnership with them.

The licensing model is normal now, but comparing it with other players on the market, I believe in some points it could be improved with a few adjustments, but it is easy to work with currently. The licensing model works for me.

I would rate my overall experience with ServiceNow CMDB as a five on five.

I mostly deal with ServiceNow CMDB, orchestration, and also project management with ServiceNow. I also provide support for operations in Jira.

In ServiceNow CMDB, the most valuable features are the integration with external tools to gather and store asset data. We use it to collect all our software applications and our servers' characteristics. User workstations and mobile phones are also managed in ServiceNow CMDB.

The automation features in ServiceNow CMDB include orchestration and automation, as well as the workflow that is already present in this software.

We have put in place governance on ServiceNow CMDB, and there is a team who checks the data quality and asks users and contributors to clean or update their data if it is not correct. We have put in place metrics and use Power BI to connect with ServiceNow to collect this data and put in metrics to measure the quality of the data.

I would like to improve ServiceNow CMDB through better implementation and parameterization. ServiceNow has capabilities, and I wonder if they have included some AI capability to detect data that are not correct and alert the user. I have not investigated this, but I would like to see if there is this type of capability to notify users and asset owners that there is a problem with their data.

I have been dealing with ServiceNow CMDB for more than ten years. I started to build it because when we made benchmarks to choose an ITSM tool, we elected ServiceNow because we saw that there are more functionalities and more capabilities that fit with our needs at that time.

I have experience with ITSM tools. I have experience with ServiceNow, which I know well. I also know Jira because we used it for some projects.

The pricing of ServiceNow products is suitable for large companies. It is a bit expensive for medium ones, but for a large company, we can say that it is correct and adjustable. Regarding the capability of ServiceNow and the features, I think the price seems to be correct.

ServiceNow CMDB is better for larger companies. They may also have a ServiceNow team, but they have to try to open their software to also fit with medium companies because they may need to start with this, but the price is too high for them.

When I was an architect, I used to check if I could get some API integration features to connect with our old asset management tools to move data into ServiceNow CMDB. This was already helpful because it avoided us migrating data manually.

I am a consultant, not a reseller. I used to work for a company, but now I am a consultant.

There is project management, ServiceNow CMDB, and orchestration features. Today, we have integrated it with our AI tools. Deploying and including AI features can be a good thing for these tools. If it is already embedded in these tools rather than an external one, AI can also be included in this software to make it more efficient and powerful.

I would rate ServiceNow CMDB as a nine out of ten and can recommend it to a company, specifically a large company.

My main use cases for ServiceNow CMDB involve effectively managing CIs in an organization's IT landscape, which can span a wide array of assets, from end-user computers to telecommunications systems. Essentially, it serves as a centralized repository for capturing and monitoring all the assets utilized within a typical office setup, encompassing servers, network equipment, and more. This repository is where all this crucial information is stored.

One of the most valuable aspects of ServiceNow CMDB is its user-friendly interface and high degree of customization at the user level.

In terms of potential improvements, while I haven't encountered significant issues in my experience, I believe there could be room for enhancing customization capabilities. Specifically, expanding the rules for customizations could be beneficial. It might be valuable to grant certain permissions to power users, who fall between regular users and administrators. This would help distribute the workload and empower users to make minor modifications without overburdening the administrators with every small change.

I have been using ServiceNow CMDB for almost five years.

I would rate the stability of the product as a seven out of ten.

I would rate the scalability of the product as a six out of ten. It has some limitations. In our company, we have about 20 to 25 people using ServiceNow CMDB, including junior-level staff, team leads, subject matter experts, and administrators, all together.

In comparison to BMC Remedy, which I transitioned from when changing departments, ServiceNow offers a more user-centric approach. Both systems fundamentally fulfill the same purpose, but what sets ServiceNow apart is its effective management of CIs. This feature is particularly noteworthy and makes the transition worthwhile.

My advice to new users is that choosing the right ITSM software, like ServiceNow CMDB, depends on your specific organizational requirements. It is similar to buying a car; there are numerous options, and the choice should be based on factors such as your budget, the effort you are willing to invest, and the level of support you need. Selecting the right software isn't a decision to rush; it involves researching available options and finding the best match based on your organization's needs. I would suggest researching both the advantages and disadvantages of ServiceNow online and considering it as an option. I have worked with BMC Remedy for years, and I have noticed that ServiceNow, especially its user interface, has improved significantly. However, keep in mind that when a tool is being updated to meet current market needs, it goes through stages of development, which may take time to reach its full potential. This is similar to how traditional automakers have entered the electric vehicle market. So, while ServiceNow could be a good choice, it is important to do your homework to ensure it suits your specific requirements. Overall, I would rate ServiceNow CMDB as a seven out of ten.

Private Cloud

We use ServiceNow CMDB to manage assets and automate related tasks that were previously performed manually. We've integrated CMDB with our EDR solutions to discover assets, allowing us to use ServiceNow to support incident management. 

About 15 people use CMDB to manage assets throughout the business, but it is also used by incident and request managers. The change management team is part of that. In total, we have around 75 to 100 people directly interacting with the CMDB. 

We were previously using spreadsheets to keep track of everything. ServiceNow CMDB has enabled us to consolidate all this information into one place, which helps with audits and reporting. It also improves visibility. 

ServiceNow CMDB could be easier to use. Beginners don't always understand the features. It would be helpful if ServiceNow offered more training or self-guided courses where people could learn to leverage the platform better. I've used ServiceNow for a long time, but I see new users struggling with these processes. There's a steep learning curve. 

I have used ServiceNow CMDB for four years. 

ServiceNow CMDB is highly stable. It doesn't seem buggy. We seldom have issues after updates. 

I'm impressed with ServiceNow's scalability and flexibility. As your team builds confidence, you can leverage it to handle more processes.

I rate ServiceNow support eight out of 10.

Positive

The setup was pretty straightforward on the development side, but I don't think the expectations of the user community are properly set. There is a gap between what the development side is doing, and what the user community expects. 

For example, my company has used ServiceNow for several years. When I joined, they weren't using it for much besides change management. That was easy to set up and configure. It was immature but fairly usable because no other processes had access to CMDB. It was easy, but their knowledge of what to do with CMDB was underdeveloped. 

We redeployed it in nine months, but we're still building. I wouldn't say that the deployment is complete because we haven't finished service mapping yet. We spent nine months fixing old problems and ensuring discovery is dependable. A team of about six people is working on the deployment, including architects, developers, subject matter experts, and process owners. 

I rate ServiceNow CMDB two out of 10 for affordability. I'm generally unhappy with their model for licensing and support.

I rate ServiceNow CMDB nine out of 10. 

We use it to support change management.

The CMDB for us is fed by our discovery tools, and it lets us be able to track the changes that we make to any incidents or escalation points that we have associated with a CI.

In general, the pain points are related to ServiceNow. There is a lack of development. ServiceNow is not a true configuration management tool. So, a lot of development is needed to get it to be the kind of tool that you would like it to be. It serves as a platform, and you only get out of it what you invest in terms of development. So, CMDB on its own isn't quite robust until you actually have a CMD project to make it robust. The same thing is there with asset management and all other parts of it. Out of the box, it's not competitive with a like-for-like application. 

It's pretty robust, but there is the limitation of implementing the ITSM functions in the tool.

I have been using this solution for five years.

It is very stable.

It is scalable. There are about 50 people who are using this solution. We have two specific groups. We have managers who own the stack and the configuration items, especially as it relates to change management. There are also the support teams and the technical teams that maintain them, whether it's through servicing them or making sure it's up and available. So, these are the two specific teams that tend to interact with ServiceNow CMDB the most.

Their support is very good and strong. They are usually able to help. I haven't had any problems with getting solutions.

Its initial setup is complex.

You should have your processes already in place so that you can design them in ServiceNow, and you definitely need a knowledgeable implementation team.

I'd rate it a 7 out of 10. If you compare it to another CI application, it's definitely a much heavier lift to get started, but it's a platform. So, your CIs now feed into your incident management and change management. The more you do in the platform, the better you're able to leverage it all together over time.

Public Cloud

I use ServiceNow CMDB in my company to deal with areas like incidents, problems, and change management.

I use ServiceNow CMDB in my company to deal with all the equipment inventories and our infrastructure, along with all the CIs attached to the different things, like maybe if you are involved in the area revolving around incidents, service requests, or change requests.

With ServiceNow CMDB, the properties of the servers and CIs are important as you use them in our organization, and if any changes happen, then we need to update that immediately, and then we can recall whatever changes are made on CIs and track them. The aforementioned details consist of the feature my company uses the most in ServiceNow CMDB.

I don't currently see any problems with ServiceNow CMDB since everything works fine.

If I click on some particular CIs at the moment, all the information related to that CI appears by default. Right now, if there is something in our company we need to generate with the report, we can click on any of the searches for CI options, and all the relevant and recent incidents, changes, or anything that has happened should come on to at the bottom of the list displayed by the tool, which would be nice. If you select any CI, the associated applications with that CI should also be made available for users since, currently, the tool lacks such a feature.

I have five to six years of experience with ServiceNow CMDB.

It is a stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution an eight to nine out of ten.

It is a scalable solution. Scalability-wise, I rate the solution an eight to nine out of ten.

There are around 10,000 users of the solution in my company.

My company already has a technical team to solve our problems related to the solution. Maybe the technical team in our company will reach out to ServiceNow's technical support team for help.

The product's initial setup phase was simple.

The solution is deployed on the cloud.

The product price falls on the higher side of the spectrum.

The user interface of ServiceNow CMDB is fine since you can customize it depending on your needs.

I recommend the product to others who plan to use it, as the solution's prices are okay.

I rate the overall product an eight out of ten.

I am an SME specialist, and we primarily work with government customers who use ServiceNow systems. When they require a CMDB specialist, I am assigned to those sites.

We have customers who deploy the solution on-premises, while others use the ServiceNow cloud.

The issue with UCMDB is that it lacks integration with other solutions, particularly with service management components. On the other hand, ServiceNow excels in integration and is considered the best tool in the market for this purpose. Although it may not be as proficient in discovery as some other tools, its actual integration capabilities surpass all others.

The discovery process and service mapping could be improved. I prefer a more comprehensive approach to discovery and simplified service modeling.

Technical support has room for improvement.

I have been using ServiceNow CMDB for one and a half years.

I would rate the stability a seven out of ten. The discovery process with ServiceNow occasionally fails, and it is quite challenging to identify the cause. There are no clear indications, but restarting the mid servers usually resolves the issue. This problem may stem from pro servers, mixed servers, or various applications.

I would rate the scalability as an eight out of ten. The only drawback is the performance issue we encounter when scaling up.

The technical support is not great.

Neutral

The initial setup is complicated, but compared to other solutions, it is not more difficult. I would rate the deployment an eight out of ten.

The deployment process typically takes around three to four hours. The solution includes a built-in wizard to assist with the deployment, with the only challenging step being the mid-server phase.

I would rate ServiceNow CMDB an eight out of ten. While it remains a strong product, there is still room for development in terms of discovery and service modeling to catch up to its competitors. Nonetheless, it is currently the best option available.

In some instances, our clients are medium-sized businesses, but the majority are at an enterprise level, with thousands of users.

Overall, ServiceNow CMDB is the best option in the market due to its seamless integration with other systems. However, it is not the best discovery tool. UCMDB is a superior discovery tool, but it lacks integration and does not work well with other parts.

Private Cloud

Other

CMTB is an excellent configuration management tool that helps keep track of all configuration items across departments and organizations. The solution is also integrated with ServiceNow, making it easy to raise incidents, changes, and problems.

The most valuable feature of ServiceNow CMDB is that it provides transparency and tracking of CI usage across multiple process owners or service owners. This allows for change deployments and problem tickets to be tracked on a single dashboard.

The reporting function could be more advanced and has room for improvement. The reporting should have additional visuals, graphs, and bar charts. The reporting dashboard needs to be more user-friendly and support online reporting.

Features insights and artificial intelligence are indigenous. However, ServiceNow does not have an AI model, so there should be voice support and a voice ticket logging mechanism, so people can see that a server is not functioning and provide a description of the issue. ServiceNow should still log the ticket, even if the server has been down for a long time. I would like to have AI support added to the next release.

I have been using the solution for the year.

I give the stability an eight out of ten.

I give the scalability a seven out of ten.

We have 170,000 people using the solution in our organization.

I contacted technical support when we were trying to configure the workflow. I believe there was an issue with the way we were setting it up. Workflows and CMDB mapping with existing infrastructure items and also segregating application, CIS, and infrastructure. The support I received was very knowledgeable and very prompt in helping.

Positive

The initial setup is easy for people who have experience in IT. People without an IT background may find it difficult to understand how mapping works and how different workflows are related, but with a little bit of experience, it is easy to manage.

I give the solution a nine out of ten.

The CMDB is usually down for around 20 minutes during a major release or upgrade. This downtime can vary depending on the day but is usually around 15 to 20 minutes.

I recommend ServiceNow as it provides complete tracking of services. We can assess if services are meeting the required standards, and the people working in the departments can track their work through requests, incidents, and changes. The solution provides visibility and compares visibility on our IT service management.

Public Cloud

Microsoft Azure

We primarily use ServiceNow for asset management. We feed our on-prem and cloud inventory into ServiceNow CMDB. We also use it for event management together with Micro Focus Operations Bridge Manager. 

One important element is automation. We can back up and manage multiple configurations. It also enables password self-service. 

We have various service levels and SLAs for our customers like platinum, gold, etc. Each SLA has an associated hardware and computing configuration. We cannot define that in ServiceNow for each customer. For example, a customer with 100 servers might be in the platinum category while a client with 25 would be in gold. 

We use Terraform for infrastructure automation on the cloud. The logical mapping in ServiceNow needs to be improved. The logical mapping is limited to the OS layer. I installed a database and one application on top of that. 

I have used ServiceNow CMDB for five years.

I rate ServiceNow eight out of 10 for stability. 

ServiceNow CMDB is easy to scale. We have options. About 700 customers use it. 

I rate ServiceNow support five out of 10. We need to contact them when we want to customize the product for our customers. That takes a little time. Under our support agreement, we get a fast response if we have other issues, but the customization requests take longer.

Neutral

Setting up ServiceNow CMDB is straightforward. 

I rate ServiceNow eight out of 10 for affordability. The pricing is optimal. 

I rate ServiceNow CMDB nine out of 10.

On-premises