Windward applied a phased approach of assess, analyze, recommend, and execute to deliver sustainable improvements. In the assessment phase, the team worked with stakeholders to identify pain points, review existing processes, and analyze the CMDB environment. During the analyze and recommend phase, Windward benchmarked practices against ServiceNow standards and its own experience, identifying improvements in governance, automation, and processes, which were prioritized into a backlog of user stories. In the execution phase, Windward conducted remediation sprints to implement fixes, validate improvements, and provide training, demos, and knowledge transfer to ensure long- term CMDB maturity.
Windward’s engagement delivered measurable improvements in three key areas:
Data Cleanup
- Retired 2,000 active CIs no longer
- Established governance policies for staleness, ownership, and discovery source.
- Implemented lifecycle policies to enforce retirement and record freshness.
Improved Discovery & Accuracy
- Reduced 1,100+ discovery errors by optimizing schedules, behaviors, and device type prioritization.
- Standardized and updated credentials, eliminating authentication failures.
- Proactively resolved discovery pattern failures and duplicate CIs using Discovery Admin tools.
- Integrated vCenter, enabling real-time VMware updates and more accurate CI data.
Metrics & Governance
- Established CMDB Health metrics (completeness, correctness, staleness, orphan, duplicate).
- Deployed attestation and certification policies to sustain ongoing data validation.
