Integrating your Software Asset Management application with the Box service enables you to track your software subscriptions and to reclaim unused licenses.

Important: Minimize security risks and protect information by granting access only to the necessary user or API permissions.
Table 1. Minimal user permissions
Process Required user role in the Box application Authentication scopes
Download subscriptions Co-Admin with Manage users permission Manage users
Pull user activity Co-Admin with Run new reports and access existing reports permission Manage enterprise properties
Reclaim subscription
  • Co-Admin with Manage users permission
  • Co-Admin with View users' content permission
  • Manage users
  • Read all files and folders stored in Box
  • Write all files and folders stored in Box

For additional information on the Box service, see the Box Community.

Create a Box application

Create an application on the Box Platform.

Before you begin

Box Role required: Refer to the Minimal user permissions table.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to the Box Developer Console and sign in to your account.
  2. On the My Apps page, select Create New App.
  3. Select Custom App.
  4. On the Authentication Method page, select Standard OAuth 2.0 (User Authentication).
  5. Enter an application name, and then select Create App.
  6. On the Configuration page, obtain the Client ID and Client Secret.

    You’ll need to copy and paste these values into your ServiceNow instance in the following steps.

    Note: Your Client ID and Client secret are sensitive. Don’t share them.
  7. Enter https://instance.service-now.com/oauth_redirect.do as the Redirect URI, where instance is the name of your ServiceNow instance.
  8. Select the following application scope check boxes:
    • Read and write all files and folders stored in Box
    • Manage users
    • Manage enterprise properties

    These scopes enable the integration to get a list of users, get user activity, and reclaim unused subscriptions.

  9. Select Save Changes.

Create a Box integration profile

Create an integration profile to track software subscriptions and optimize licensing for the Box service.

Before you begin

To create a Box integration profile, request the Software Asset Management - SaaS License Management plugin (sn_sam_saas_int) from the ServiceNow Store.

ServiceNow Role required: sam_integrator or admin

About this task

If you’re using Software Asset Workspace, the option to create the Box integration profile in Core UI is inactive.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to the integration profile.
    InterfaceAction
    Core UI
    1. Navigate to All > Software Asset > SaaS License > Direct Integration Profiles.
    2. Select New.
    3. Select Box Integration Profile.
    Software Asset Workspace
    1. Navigate to License operations > User Subscriptions > Direct integration profiles.
    2. Select New.
    3. Select Box from the drop-down list.
    4. Select Continue.
  2. On the form, fill in the fields.
    Table 2. Integration Profile form
    FieldValue
    Display name Name of the integration profile. For example, Box Integration
    Client Id Client ID for the OAuth application created in the SaaS admin account.
    Redirect url URL of the OAuth provider that you're redirected to after authentication. This value is automatically populated.
    Client secret Password associated with the client ID.
    Profile type Type of integration profile. This value is automatically set to Box Subscription.
    Analyze user activity from You can choose to start analyzing data from the current date or from up to 60 days in the past. Choosing a date in the past enables you to detect stale subscriptions without waiting in real time because you can see subscriptions that haven't been used recently. Because choosing a date in the past increases the amount of data that is analyzed, it could take several hours for you to be able to view the results.
  3. In the Process configuration section, review the required user roles or API permissions specified in the Vendor configuration field for each process to minimize security risks and optimize SaaS licenses.
    Note: For more information about the required roles and scopes, see Minimal user permissions table.

    • The Download subscriptions check box is selected by default and you can't clear it.

    • The Download Activity check box is selected by default. If you clear it, the activity scheduled job SAM - Refresh <displayname> Events isn't created.

      In the Analyze user activity field, you can also select the date and time starting from when you want to analyze the user activity. By default, you can analyze user activity up to 60 days prior to the current date and view events performed by individual users from the time you create this profile.
      Note: Software Asset Management pulls the events from the time that you start analyzing user activity irrespective of the profile creation date.
      You can modify this value in the Last activity threshold field of your software reclamation rules. For more information, see Review a software reclamation rule.

    • The Reclaim subscriptions check box is selected by default. If you don't want to reclaim subscriptions, you can clear this check box. If you clear it, the removal candidates are created but the reclaim subscription subflow isn't triggered or the reclamation process isn't initiated.

  4. Select Submit.
    Your ServiceNow instance creates a draft integration profile.
  5. On the integration profile, select Get OAuth Token.
    Note: For the role required to perform this step, refer to the Minimal user permissions table.
  6. In the pop-up window, select your Box admin account and select Allow.
    Note: When user subscriptions are reclaimed, files from the reclaimed accounts are transferred to the admin account selected in this step. This account can be a different admin account than the one used to set up the integration. If you transfer files to a new admin, you can select the Get OAuth Token related link again at any time to select a different admin account. After selecting a new admin, you can reclaim the old admin account to transfer all of their files to the new admin, including all previously reclaimed user files.
  7. On the integration profile form, select Validate Connection to verify the connection and credential details of this integration.

    Validating the connection verifies the Download Subscriptions and Calculate Activity APIs, but not the Reclaim Subscriptions APIs.

  8. After the connection is validated, select Publish.
  9. In the Publish Confirmation dialog box, select OK.
    Note: If you clear the Download Activity check box after the integration profile is validated and scheduled jobs are created, you must revalidate the connections because the following events occur:
    • The Status field on the integration profile form changes to Draft.
    • The Validate connection button shows up on the form.
    • The current SAM - Refresh <displayname> Events job gets deleted.

Result

You can view events performed by individual users up to one year prior to the current date. For more information, see Review a software reclamation rule. Software Asset Management pulls the events from the time that you start downloading user subscriptions irrespective of the profile creation date.

What to do next

After the integration connects, your ServiceNow instance automatically creates software models, reclamation rules, and software subscriptions that are refreshed daily.

If you want to set up multiple integration profiles with unique connections, create child aliases to manage different configurations and settings for each integration profile. For more information, see Create a child alias to set up multiple integration profiles.

Review all automatically generated reclamation rules to reclaim user subscriptions. For more information, see Review a software reclamation rule.

Create software entitlements for the automatically generated software models to track used software against owned software.
Reconciliation also runs on your subscriptions as a scheduled job or on-demand. You can view your reconciliation results in the License Workbench (Software Asset Management classic application) or the License usage view (Software Asset Workspace). Use these results to determine your license compliance position and to remediate any non-compliance.