ServiceNow License Types and Costs – Your Guide to Making the Right Choice in 2024

  • Last updated on: April 15, 2024
ServiceNow’s enterprise-wide cloud-based solutions enable organizations to automate repetitive tasks and gain complete visibility into their business operations. From ensuring effective IT service and operations management to transforming customer service and delivering exceptional employee experience, ServiceNow offers solutions that empower organizations to simplify processes across every department.

These solutions from ServiceNow are provided to organizations through a subscription-based licensing model, which means, organizations pay a yearly fee or once every 3 years to access the relevant products. An organization’s ServiceNow license costs would depend on the type and number of licenses it decides to buy for the required ServiceNow applications. The licensing model allows organizations to scale their software usage and optimize costs according to their needs and resources, promoting flexibility and cost-effectiveness along with a host of other advantages.

In this blog post, we will go over the types of ServiceNow licenses to help organizations get more clarity on the options and make informed decisions during their ServiceNow implementation.
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Different Types of ServiceNow Licenses

Each ServiceNow application comes with its own types & number of licenses. And ServiceNow offers these licenses under two different models – one is role-based user licensing and the other is the unrestricted user licensing model.
Under the role-based licensing model, licenses are categorized based on the roles that users of the platform would play while using each application. Organizations must go with a suitable license type based on the ServiceNow user roles.
Here are a few common types of ServiceNow role-based licenses:

Requester

Requesters are those who raise incident tickets or service requests, and access the knowledge base, among other requests through ServiceNow’s self-service portal. They can include employees, customers, or anyone who needs assistance from the IT team or service desk agents when they encounter technical issues or need support. The requester license type is free and is typically associated with applications such as ServiceNow ITSM and CSM (In CSM, requesters are called end-users).

Fulfiller

Fulfillers are those who resolve user requests, create records, modify records, and implement more such tasks on the ServiceNow platform. The fulfiller license provides users with complete admin access to the platform and its functionalities, making it one of the major ServiceNow license types in applications like ServiceNow ITSM and CSM. Service desk agents, the IT team, or other such support agents who would be actively working on tasks assigned to them on the ServiceNow platform should be provided with the fulfiller license.

Business Stakeholder

Business Stakeholders (also called Approvers in some cases) have more rights than the requesters but less than the fulfillers. In addition to raising requests for service issues, business stakeholders can approve or deny user requests and actions on the ServiceNow platform based on organizational policies and standards. Unlike the requester license, which is free, the business stakeholder license comes at a fee and is tied to almost all the ServiceNow applications, including ITSM.

Unrestricted User

ServiceNow also offers a simplified, non-role-based licensing model that classifies individuals as unrestricted users, allowing them to use the ServiceNow platform without any specific rules or limitations. The number of people who can use the platform without restrictions depends on the number of unrestricted user licenses that an organization purchases. This license type applies to all ServiceNow applications.

Recommended Reading: ServiceNow License Optimization: Why is it important to maximize value?

Purchasing the Right Mix and Number of ServiceNow Licenses

Selecting the right mix and quantity of ServiceNow licenses is crucial for organizations to effectively meet their specific operational needs. And to do that, organizations must have a clear understanding of their requirements. Factors such as the number of service desk agents, the number of individuals who would approve or deny requests, and the level of platform usage by the users, among others must be carefully assessed to determine the volume and type of ServiceNow licenses an organization would need to effectively meet their specific operational needs.

For example, if an organization wants to implement ServiceNow ITSM and has 100 service agents who would solve requesters’ queries and 30 professionals who would approve or deny the requests, it may have to purchase 100 ITSM fulfiller licenses and 30 ITSM business stakeholder licenses to meet its requirements.

ServiceNow licensing costs are determined by considering several factors such as the ServiceNow product/application suite and the packages (with different sets of functionalities), the types and number of licenses that an organization requires, and the industry and also the geography it is associated with. Finding the precise combination of ServiceNow licenses that aligns seamlessly with the organization’s business requirements is the key to managing licensing expenses effectively. To obtain the exact ServiceNow license cost, connecting with a ServiceNow representative or a ServiceNow partner would be the right choice. Typically, ServiceNow license costs range from $70 to $100 per user for an application.

However, it is essential to remember that the license cost is just one part of the overall cost of ServiceNow implementation. Other costs, such as consultation fee, setup and integration costs, and so on and forth, would determine how much an organization needs to spend for ServiceNow implementation. Read our blog post on ServiceNow Pricing to learn more about the costs involved in implementing ServiceNow including license costs.

Recommended Reading: What are the 3 Important Factors that Determine ServiceNow Pricing?

Looking for expert insights into ServiceNow licenses or aiming to streamline license management? 

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The Way Forward

As much as buying the right number and types of licenses is essential to get maximum ROI, what is equally important is making sure the licenses are utilized effectively. By leveraging tools such as ServiceNow Performance Analytics, ServiceNow Subscription Management, and KANINI’s License Workbench, organizations can effectively manage user roles and optimize license usage. Read our blog post on ServiceNow license optimization to gain more insights into how to optimize ServiceNow license usage.
If you are looking for expert guidance on purchasing the right number and types of ServiceNow licenses and making the best use of them, KANINI can help. Leveraging our deep ServiceNow expertise and the right tools, we enable our clients across diverse industries to make the right choices in their ServiceNow journeys. Contact us to learn more about our ServiceNow capabilities.

Author

Ravi Rajamani

Ravi is the ServiceNow Practice Lead at KANINI. He brings close to 18 years of experience in the IT industry and has strong program & project management skills spanning ServiceNow, Resource Management, Solution Design, and Service Delivery. He has a proven track record of helping enterprise customers leverage ServiceNow platform efficiently.

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