For large professional services organizations, hardware asset management is rarely top of mind until it starts getting in the way.
At Ballard Spahr, laptops are not just devices. They are core tools for attorneys, staff, and operations teams working under tight timelines, strict compliance expectations, and high client demands. But as the firm prepared for a major laptop refresh scheduled for May 2025, long-standing challenges in asset visibility and lifecycle management became impossible to ignore.
Inconsistent processes, limited automation, and a CMDB weighed down by duplicate and orphaned records made it difficult to answer basic questions with confidence: what assets existed, where they were, and which were approaching end of life. Manual, swivel-chair processes filled the gaps, but they weren’t scalable, and they weren’t sustainable.
Ballard Spahr’s challenges spanned both hardware asset management and the CMDB.
On the HAM side, laptop lifecycle management lacked consistency across procurement, deployment, refresh, and disposal. End-of-life planning was reactive rather than proactive, making it difficult to prepare for a firmwide refresh without introducing operational risk.
At the same time, CMDB integrity issues compounded the problem. Data archiving configurations had resulted in duplicate CI records and orphaned assets, undermining trust in the system of record. With no automated imports or integrations in place, teams relied on manual reconciliation to keep records usable, which is an approach that became increasingly fragile as the environment grew.
The risk wasn’t theoretical. Without intervention, the upcoming laptop refresh would be forced through the same constrained processes that created the problem in the first place.
Ballard Spahr partnered with CoreX to establish a durable, scalable foundation for hardware asset management and CMDB integrity using ServiceNow.
The engagement centered on three tightly aligned workstreams:
First, targeted CMDB remediation addressed the root causes of duplication and orphaned records. Existing archival rules were reviewed and corrected to prevent recurrence, while structured deduplication restored confidence in the CMDB as a reliable source of truth. A high-level CMDB roadmap provided clarity on what needed to come next.
Second, ServiceNow Hardware Asset Management DeployNow was implemented as a foundation, not a customization-heavy rebuild. CoreX configured HAM using out-of-the-box capabilities wherever possible, establishing standardized processes for stockrooms, hardware models, catalog-driven requests, bulk ordering, loaner assets, transfers, and disposal. Asset and CI synchronization ensured alignment between operational data and configuration data.
Finally, mobile enablement and asset audits brought accuracy closer to the point of action. Using ServiceNow’s Mobile Agent, fulfillers could manage tasks and perform inventory audits directly from mobile devices, supporting cleaner data and more reliable inventory counts without introducing custom tooling.
Throughout the engagement, weekly working sessions, structured workshops, and iterative reviews ensured that configuration decisions aligned with real operational needs, not theoretical best practices.
By the time the solution reached go-live, Ballard Spahr had moved from fragmented, manual asset tracking to a centralized, standardized hardware management foundation.
Laptop lifecycle management was no longer dependent on individual knowledge or ad hoc processes. Assets could be tracked from procurement through disposal, with clearer visibility into inventory, ownership, and end-of-life timing, a critical capability ahead of the planned 2025 refresh.
The CMDB, once undermined by duplication and orphaned records, was stabilized and positioned for future automation and integration. Trust in the data improved, reducing the need for manual reconciliation and enabling teams to rely on the platform for decision-making.
Just as importantly, the organization was equipped to sustain the solution. Training and knowledge transfer ensured that internal teams could manage and extend the platform, while governance structures supported consistent asset management going forward.
Hardware asset management doesn’t fail loudly. It erodes quietly, through workarounds, spreadsheets, and assumptions that hold until they don’t.
By investing in a strong ServiceNow HAM foundation and addressing CMDB integrity at the same time, Ballard Spahr positioned itself to move forward with clarity rather than constraint. The result was a platform that can scale with the firm’s needs, reduce operational friction, and support better decisions over time.