When a discovery source finds software on a device, it creates a Software Installation record. The ServiceNow Software Asset Management (SAM) normalization process then immediately attempts to match this raw installation data to a Software Discovery Model. A discovery model is a normalized record that represents a specific version of a software product from a specific publisher (e.g., Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2019). This matching process is the crucial first step to standardize discovered software data before it can be reconciled against entitlements via a Software Model. If a matching discovery model doesn't exist, a new one is created.

A. Software Entitlement: Matching to an entitlement is part of the reconciliation process, which occurs much later, after the installation is associated with a Software Model.
B. Software Model: The installation is first matched to a Discovery Model. The Discovery Model is then linked to a Software Model, making this an indirect, subsequent step.
D. Application Model: This is a construct used in Application Portfolio Management (APM) to represent a business application, not a raw, discovered software installation.

1. ServiceNow Product Documentation, "Software discovery and normalization": "When software is discovered, a software installation record is created. The normalization process evaluates the software installation record to see if the discovered publisher, discovered product, and discovered version match an existing software discovery model." (ServiceNow, Tokyo Release, Software Asset Management Documentation, Chapter: Software discovery and normalization, Section: Normalization process).

2. ServiceNow Product Documentation, "Software discovery models": "A software discovery model is automatically created during the discovery process to identify and normalize the software installed in your environment... The normalization process compares the discovered publisher, discovered product, and discovered version fields on the software installation record with the publisher, product, and version on the discovery model." (ServiceNow, Tokyo Release, Software Asset Management Documentation, Chapter: Software discovery models).

3. ServiceNow Training Courseware, "Software Asset Management (SAM) Fundamentals On Demand": The course material on Normalization explicitly details the process flow where a Software Installation record is created, and the system's first action is to match it against the Software Discovery Model table (cmdbsamswdiscoverymodel) to normalize the data. (Module: Normalization and the Content Service).