The Department of the Air Force has developed a new dashboard designed to monitor software usage in real time and customize licensing across the enterprise, a move officials say will improve efficiency, reduce waste, and support a unified digital experience for airmen and their families.
The platform was developed under an enterprise licensing agreement for ServiceNow that consolidated 55 contracts into a single vehicle, reducing costs and improving visibility across the service.
Tauf Chowdhury, enterprise architect for SAF-AM in the Department of the Air Force, said the dashboard helps leaders track licensing activity and allocate resources more effectively.
“To really optimize the usage of ServiceNow across the entire landscape … those licenses [have] to be utilized efficiently across the board,” Chowdhury said today during the ServiceNow GovForum 2026 conference.
The dashboard provides detailed data on software use, including which commands and accounts are using specific modules and products. A visual status indicator – using green, yellow, and red signals – helps leaders quickly assess usage levels and potential issues.
Chowdhury said the department is identifying subject matter experts and domain champions across the ecosystem to host capabilities on the platform, allowing other organizations to build on those tools while sharing the enterprise licensing model.
Chowdhury said the tool also supports long-term planning by helping organizations forecast their licensing needs ahead of the federal fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.
“What it really does is enable everyone to see not only what they’re currently using, but to also forecast what they’re going to need for the next fiscal year,” he said.
While some processes are still handled manually, Chowdhury said the improved data visibility is already helping teams manage licenses more effectively and could pave the way for increased automation in the future, including the potential use of artificial intelligence and workforce automation tools.
The effort, he said, represents a long-term foundation rather than a one-time deployment.
“It’s not enough to just slap the technology in,” Chowdhury said. “You definitely need the governance in place, the guardrails in place, to make sure that the process works. This is going to be the standard and the foundation moving forward.”
Expanding customer relationship management
In a separate panel discussion, Chowdhury highlighted efforts to expand customer relationship management (CRM) capabilities to improve interactions between government agencies and citizens.
One challenge involves providing access to systems for users who do not possess a common access card (CAC), which is typically required to log into secure government platforms.
Officials said ServiceNow has emerged as a viable platform for enabling those interactions while leveraging existing investments in the system.
As the Air Force works to consolidate multiple ServiceNow instances across the enterprise, architects must also address security requirements associated with Impact Level 4 and Impact Level 5 environments.
Lower-level environments are often needed to support external access for airmen’s families, academic partners, and industry collaborators who cannot log into higher-security systems.
Chowdhury encouraged organizations to begin discussions with information security teams early when planning external access.
Overcoming cultural and technical barriers
Chowdhury said the biggest challenge in modernizing government systems is not technology but change management.
Introducing new platforms often requires agencies to rethink long-standing practices and move away from siloed systems designed solely for internal users.
“The hardest thing is change,” he said. “Getting folks to think about government systems outside of the silos, outside of the four walls of government that they currently have.”
By demonstrating outcomes and encouraging collaboration across organizations, the department has begun shifting that mindset, he said.
Chowdhury added that modern enterprise platforms make it easier to deploy capabilities more quickly than in the past, when systems often took years to implement and then remained in place for decades.
“We’re improving those capabilities and improving the experience for the airmen,” Chowdhury said. “Getting more optimized into some of these solutions opens the door for more innovation.”