Exploring the Zurich Release: What’s new in the Asset Management modules?

The new features are designed to improve usability, automation, and strategic decision-making. While the platform has seen some user interface improvements to enhance navigation and clarity, this post focuses on the features we find most interesting.

1. Asset Audit Response - Workflow and compliance management 
A completely new module introduced in Zurich, Asset Audit Response helps organizations manage audit findings more effectively. It provides structured workflows for responding to asset audits, ensuring accountability and traceability. This is especially useful for regulated industries or organizations with frequent internal or external audits.

2. Cloud Cost Management - Azure billing enhancements
Microsoft Azure users will benefit from two major updates:

• Faster data retrieval using the Azure Export method, which improves performance when pulling cost and usage data.
• Enhanced support for Microsoft Azure MCA contracts, allowing for more accurate tracking and management of cloud spend under Microsoft’s Modern Commerce Agreement.

These updates make cloud cost management more efficient and better aligned with Microsoft’s evolving billing models.

3. Enterprise Asset Management - Hierarchies and analytics
Zurich introduces powerful new capabilities for managing physical assets:

• Hierarchical asset grouping lets you organize related assets into groups and subgroups. This enables consolidated reporting, clearer dependency mapping, and more streamlined maintenance workflows.
• New analytics help assess the condition of assets, supporting smarter lifecycle decisions and proactive maintenance planning.

These features are especially valuable for facilities, manufacturing, and infrastructure-heavy organizations.

4. Hardware Asset Management (HAM) - Employee self-service tracking
Employees now have more ways to support asset tracking. They can scan and confirm which assets they’re using or have received, helping reduce ghost assets and improve inventory accuracy.

This self-service capability is ideal for hybrid work environments and distributed teams.

5. Software Asset Management (SAM) - Optimization, licensing and integration updates 
Zurich delivers a rich set of updates, especially for organizations managing Microsoft software:

Microsoft-Specific Enhancements

• Smarter license reclamation for Microsoft 365, factoring in product usage, mailbox storage, and OneDrive storage to identify downgrade opportunities more accurately.
• Automated identification and licensing of Microsoft SQL Server high availability configurations.
• Support for Microsoft Hyper-V virtualization, including cluster-based licensing assignments.
• Flexible licensing assignment for Microsoft software deployed on clusters.

These updates help optimize Microsoft licensing and reduce compliance risks.

Other SAM Improvements

• Exclude specific SaaS subscriptions from license calculations, offering more flexibility in managing entitlements.
• SAP HANA integration for monitoring database memory usage.
• VMware vSphere licensing support for both Standard and Essentials Plus editions.
• Content dashboard analytics for deeper insights into your software content library.
• Bulk user allocation management using group allocations.
• Enhanced License Usage view and Effective License Position (ELP) reporting, giving you better visibility into compliance and optimization opportunities.
• Lifecycle risk management for software products based on optional or add-on support.

These features collectively make SAM more useful in the day to day operations of the Software Asset Management team.

Final Thoughts - Efficiency and visibility gains 
The Zurich release is a strong step forward for ServiceNow’s Asset Management capabilities. Whether you're managing hardware, software, cloud spend, or enterprise assets, these updates offer better control, visibility, and efficiency. While we’ve highlighted the features we find most impactful, there are many more enhancements including GUI improvements that my be of interest to you or your organization.

If you're exploring Zurich in your own environment, give us a call. We can help you find the right options for you organization.