ServiceMax Installed Product Management: Building a 360° Asset View
How the Installed Product record works in ServiceMax Core, how Asset 360 for Salesforce does the same job on the standard Asset object, and how to set up the hierarchy, entitlement, preventive maintenance and field change orders so technicians and service managers see one complete record for every machine you service.
Key Takeaways
- In ServiceMax Core, an Installed Product is one unit, or a collection of units, delivered and installed at a customer's location. It drives entitlement, material movement and service delivery.
- ServiceMax Asset 360 for Salesforce does the same job on the standard Salesforce Asset object and other native Field Service objects, so the data model you implement depends on which ServiceMax product you run.
- A 360° asset view combines identity, location, hierarchy, coverage, history, condition and open actions on one record. Each depends on data someone has to load and keep current.
- Entitlement, preventive maintenance and recall campaigns all search the installed base. If serial numbers, accounts or locations are wrong, all three give wrong answers.
- Start with the installed base data and the coverage rules, then automate. ServiceMax installs no pre-configured auto-entitlement rules, so every rule is a design decision.
We first published this guide in July 2025. This version is rebuilt from PTC's current ServiceMax documentation and Salesforce's object reference. It separates ServiceMax Core from Asset 360 for Salesforce, which the earlier version blended together, and removes the unsourced statistics and illustrative case studies. It also adds what the earlier version left out: record design, interactive entitlement, condition-based maintenance, product service campaigns and a rollout sequence.
ServiceMax installed product management is how a service organization records every machine it has sold or services, where that machine is, what it is made of, what covers it and what has been done to it. This guide is for service operations leaders, field service managers, Salesforce admins and IT teams at growing and mid-market companies that service equipment such as manufacturing machinery, medical devices, printers or building systems. Enterprise service organizations will find the same design applies at a larger scale.
What Is Installed Product Management in ServiceMax?
Installed product management in ServiceMax is the practice of keeping one record for every product unit installed at a customer site, tracked by serial number, lot or batch number, or product number, and using that record to decide coverage, schedule maintenance, move parts and plan service. Every work order, warranty and contract points back to it.
PTC's ServiceMax Core documentation defines an Installed Product as one or a collection of product units delivered to a customer and installed at the customer's location. The record drives three things: entitlement, material movement and service delivery. That is why it is the foundation of any 360° asset view: if the installed product is wrong, the coverage check, the parts shipment and the technician's history are wrong too.
Some background on the vendor: PTC completed its acquisition of ServiceMax on January 4, 2023, and today sells two products: ServiceMax Core and ServiceMax Asset 360 for Salesforce. Both put the asset at the centre of field service, but they store it differently.
ServiceMax Core or Asset 360: Which Installed Product Model Are You On?
ServiceMax Core stores the installed base in its own Installed Product object (SVMXC__Installed_Product__c). Asset 360 for Salesforce is built natively on Salesforce Field Service and uses the standard Asset object instead. The concepts match, but the object names, configuration tools and admin skills differ, so confirm which one you run before designing anything.
| Capability | ServiceMax Core | ServiceMax Asset 360 for Salesforce |
|---|---|---|
| Installed base record | Installed Product (SVMXC__Installed_Product__c) | Standard Salesforce Asset |
| Hierarchy | Parent and Top-Level lookups, no limit on levels | Asset Hierarchy views on Parent Asset and Root Asset |
| Condition data | Technical Attributes | Asset Technical Attributes, which can take IoT and sensor data |
| Process configuration | Service Flow Manager (SFM) | Service Process Manager (SPM), inside the Salesforce Flow framework |
| Coverage | Auto-entitlement and interactive entitlement | Entitlement Engine on cases, work orders and return orders |
| Preventive maintenance | PM plans: time, frequency or condition based | Asset 360 or Salesforce maintenance plan templates |
| Recalls and upgrades | Field Change Order (FCO) | Product Service Campaign (PSC) |
| Delivered as | ServiceMax product | AppExchange package |
Sources: PTC's Asset 360 overview and standard object list, and the ServiceMax Core help pages linked in each section below. PTC notes that some of the native objects Asset 360 uses apply only to customers with a Salesforce Field Service license, so check licensing before you plan on them.
The rest of this guide uses "installed product" for the record in both products, and names the Core or Asset 360 feature where they differ.
What Does a 360° Asset View Show in ServiceMax?
A 360° asset view shows, on one record, what the machine is, where it is, what it is part of, what covers it, what has happened to it, what condition it is in and what is planned for it. In Asset 360 that view is the asset hierarchy, the asset timeline and technical attributes; in Core it is the Installed Product record and its related lists.
Identity
Product, serial or lot number, and the customer's own asset tag, so support can find the unit by whichever number the caller reads out.
Location and owner
Account, contact, location and sub-location, plus install, order and shipping dates and the ERP sales order number.
Hierarchy
The parent and top-level unit, and every assembly and component below it, so a fault can be traced to the part that failed.
Coverage
Warranty dates and the latest service contract and contract line, so everyone sees whether a visit is covered or billable before it is booked.
History and plans
Past work orders, returns and parts, and the maintenance work scheduled ahead. Asset 360's asset timeline shows past and future activity together.
Condition
Technical attributes such as software version, hours run or meter readings, entered by technicians or updated from connected equipment.
The same view reaches the field. PTC's Asset 360 mobile features add service coverage, asset hierarchy, asset timeline and technical attributes to the Salesforce Field Service mobile app, and the Asset 360 Console gives call centre agents the asset and its entitlements in one place.
How Should You Structure ServiceMax Installed Product Records?
Decide four things before you load a single record: how each product is tracked (serial, lot or product number), how deep the hierarchy goes, which location and account each unit belongs to, and which external IDs link it to your ERP. These decisions shape entitlement, maintenance and recalls, and they are expensive to change after go-live.
On Asset 360 the same decisions apply to the standard Asset object, which has a SerialNumber field, Parent Asset and Root Asset fields, and an AssetLevel field that is 1 for the root and 2 for its children. Swapping one unit for another is recorded with an AssetRelationship of type Replacement, Upgrade or Crossgrade, so the history of the old unit isn't lost.
How Does ServiceMax Check Entitlement Against an Installed Product?
When a case or work order is created, ServiceMax's entitlement engine checks the installed product's account, location and contact against active warranties and service contracts, then writes the coverage it finds onto the work order. This can run automatically with rules you configure, or interactively, with the user choosing between matching contracts.
- Auto-entitlement. Switched on in the Entitlement Verification module of the configuration profile, it fills the work order's warranty and contract fields when it succeeds, as described in Performing auto-entitlement.
- No rules out of the box. Auto-entitlement rules are defined separately for cases and work orders, and ServiceMax installs none: every rule must be built for your contract terms.
- Interactive entitlement. A user looks up the serial or lot number, selects Check Entitlement, sees every matching warranty and service contract with its SLA terms, and picks one, according to the work order entitlement process.
- Asset 360. The Entitlement Engine runs on cases, work orders and return orders. Contract and Warranty Automation helps users choose the best coverage when several results match, and Service Threshold shows how many entitled services are used and left.
PTC positions automated entitlement as the way to stop giving away free labour, parts and loaners on work that should be billed. That only holds if contracts are loaded against the right installed products. If coverage is held at account level and never linked to units, the engine has nothing precise to match. On standard Salesforce objects, an Entitlement can be based on an asset, product or service contract and can reference an AssetWarranty, which holds warranty terms with exclusions and extensions.
How Do Installed Products Drive Preventive and Condition-Based Maintenance?
ServiceMax preventive maintenance (PM) plans generate work orders against installed products, either on a calendar or frequency schedule, or when a measured condition is met, such as hours run or units produced. Condition-based plans read technical attribute values on the installed product, which technicians enter or connected equipment updates.
Time and frequency-based plans
CalendarBest for: contracted visits and regulatory inspections on a fixed interval.
PM plans can be created for accounts, locations, service contracts or installed products, with schedules, tasks and parts, and a service contract can carry any number of them, according to PTC's preventive maintenance overview. Service Flow Manager mappings copy values from the plan template and the source record into each PM plan.
Condition-based plans
UsageBest for: equipment that wears with use rather than with time.
Condition-based PM plan templates create work orders from one or more conditions, with values from manual entries or technical attributes updated by IoT. The scheduler compares each condition with the actual attribute value on the related installed product and, when it matches, creates a PM work order linked to the plan. PTC's own example is servicing a printer every 10,000 prints.
On Asset 360, maintenance runs on native Salesforce Maintenance Plans, which can generate work orders per asset ahead of the next suggested maintenance date, alongside Asset 360's own plan objects for condition-based work, as shown in PTC's maintenance plan data model. Condition data lives in AssetAttribute records, defined by AttributeDefinition.
The practical constraint is the reading, not the rule. A usage-based plan is only as reliable as the meter values reaching the installed product. If readings depend on technicians typing them in after each visit, plan for gaps, or automate the capture, as in the case study in section 12.
How Do Field Change Orders and Product Service Campaigns Use the Installed Base?
Field change orders (in ServiceMax Core) and product service campaigns (in Asset 360) search the installed base for every unit affected by a recall, modification or upgrade, then create the work to fix them. They are the clearest test of installed base quality: a campaign can only reach units the system knows about.
- ServiceMax Core. A Field Change Order covers field changes, modifications, recall management and upgrades. It finds the affected installed products regardless of where they sit in a hierarchy, and locates affected serialized or batched inventory too. FCO searches can filter on technical attributes, such as every unit running a given software version, and criteria can be bulk uploaded.
- Asset 360. A Product Service Campaign uses Salesforce's native ProductServiceCampaign and campaign item objects. A dynamic search finds affected assets and creates campaign items, and the campaign can then create work orders, return orders, cases or opportunities.
Test campaign criteria in a sandbox against a copy of the installed base before you run them in production. A filter that is too broad sends technicians to units that don't need work; one that is too narrow misses units that do, which matters most in a safety recall.
How Do ERP and IoT Data Reach the Installed Product?
Shipment and sales order data usually comes from the ERP and creates or updates installed products; condition data comes from connected equipment and updates technical attributes. Both need a reliable key, normally the serial number plus an external ID, so each message lands on the right unit.
Orders, shipments and serial numbers
When a serialized unit ships, the ERP sends the product, serial number, customer, ship-to site and sales order number. The integration creates the installed product and stores the ERP's ID in the external-ID field, so later shipments, depot returns and replacements update the same record.
Readings and alerts
Asset 360's technical attributes can consume IoT, telemetry and sensor data and keep a history of attribute changes. Send readings at the frequency your maintenance rules need, not every reading the machine produces.
Technician updates
Technicians correct locations, add components and record attribute values on mobile. Decide which fields they may change and which only the ERP may change, so one system doesn't overwrite the other.
A correction to the earlier version of this post: it described an "Installed Product Lookup" feature with an External Unique Key for routing IoT events. We could not find that feature in PTC's current documentation, so we have removed it. The documented building blocks are the external-ID fields, the serial number, and technical attributes. Twopir connects ServiceMax and Salesforce Field Service to ERPs and other systems; see our Salesforce Field Service integration services.
Where Do Installed Base Projects Go Wrong?
Most installed base projects fail on data and ownership, not on configuration: units that were never recorded, hierarchies built deeper than anyone maintains, coverage held at account level, and two systems editing the same fields. Each of these quietly breaks entitlement, maintenance or recalls later.
What Is the Right Sequence for Implementing Installed Product Management?
Implement in this order: confirm the product and data model, audit and load the installed base, configure coverage and entitlement, then automate maintenance and campaigns, and only then roll out to mobile and dashboards. Each step depends on the one before it, and automating ahead of the data multiplies the errors.
- 1
Confirm the model. ServiceMax Core or Asset 360, the Salesforce Field Service licenses you hold, and which system owns each installed base field.
- 2
Design the record. Tracking mode per product, hierarchy depth, locations, and external IDs.
- 3
Audit and load. Reconcile ERP shipments, spreadsheets and existing records, remove duplicates, and backfill missing serial numbers in a sandbox first.
- 4
Configure coverage. Load warranties and contracts against units, then build and test the entitlement rules, since none are pre-configured.
- 5
Automate maintenance and campaigns. Time-based plans first, condition-based plans once readings arrive reliably, and a test recall campaign.
- 6
Roll out to the field. Mobile access to hierarchy, coverage and attributes, then dashboards for service managers.
How Do You Measure the Value of a 360° Asset View?
Measure the data first and the service outcomes second: installed base completeness and accuracy, then entitlement coverage, preventive maintenance compliance, first-time fix rate and recall completion. Take a baseline before go-live, because the outcome measures only move once the data underneath them is right.
| Measure | What it tells you | Where the data comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Installed base completeness | Share of shipped serialized units with an installed product record | ERP shipments compared with installed products |
| Record accuracy | Location, account or hierarchy corrections made by technicians | Field history on installed products |
| Entitlement coverage | Work orders auto-entitled versus checked by hand or left blank | Work order warranty and contract fields |
| Unbilled covered work | Visits billed or written off against the coverage they should have had | Work orders, contracts and invoices |
| PM compliance | Planned maintenance completed on time | PM plans and their work orders |
| First-time fix rate | Whether technicians arrive with the right history and parts | Work orders and repeat visits |
| Campaign completion | Affected units fixed, and how fast | FCO or product service campaign items |
PTC publishes vendor averages for ServiceMax customers: a 23% increase in technician productivity, and 25% higher service revenue and 12% higher equipment uptime, according to the ServiceMax Core product page. These are vendor claims without a published method, so use your own baseline to set targets.
How Does Twopir Consulting Help With ServiceMax Installed Product Management?
We start with the installed base data and the entitlement rules, configure ServiceMax against your real contracts and asset data rather than a demo org, and extend it where the standard product stops. Twopir Consulting is a Salesforce Partner and HubSpot Partner. We implement, rescue, optimize, and integrate complex CRM and revenue systems for growing, mid-market, and enterprise organizations.
- ServiceMax implementation and extension. ServiceMax Core and Asset 360 for Salesforce, work orders, entitlements, preventive maintenance, depot repair and returns, and ERP integration. See our ServiceMax services.
- Salesforce Field Service asset and maintenance design. Asset hierarchies, service contracts, entitlements and maintenance plans on native Salesforce Field Service. See Salesforce Field Service asset and maintenance management.
- Manufacturing service. Installed base, service and ERP handoffs for equipment makers. See Salesforce for manufacturing.
Case study: machine runtime tracked on the installed product
Salesforce + ServiceMaxProblem: technicians logged machine usage by hand after every work order, and nobody could see utilisation trends.
For a manufacturing client, we built an Apex trigger that runs when a work order closes, finds the previous work order for the machine, and records the runtime between them, storing only valid, positive values. A Lightning Web Component dashboard on each Installed Product shows usage by day, with month, year and custom date filters, and field mapping sits in Custom Settings so it can change without code. Manual meter-reading entry stopped, and the dashboard updates whenever a work order closes. Read the ServiceMax utilisation dashboard case study.
For related reading, see our guide to Salesforce Field Service.
The Bottom Line
A 360° asset view in ServiceMax is not a screen you switch on. It is the result of an accurate installed base, coverage linked to each unit, and processes that keep both current. Get those right, and entitlement, preventive maintenance, recalls and mobile all work from the same trusted record.
- 1
Confirm whether you run ServiceMax Core or Asset 360, and design for that data model.
- 2
Decide tracking mode, hierarchy depth, locations and external IDs before loading data.
- 3
Load and clean the installed base, then link warranties and contracts to units.
- 4
Build entitlement rules deliberately; none come pre-configured.
- 5
Automate maintenance and campaigns once the data and readings are reliable.
Get Your Installed Base Into Shape
On a 30-minute discovery call, a Twopir consultant will review how your installed products, contracts and maintenance plans are set up today, and where a 360° asset view is breaking down.
Schedule a Discovery CallFrequently Asked Questions
In ServiceMax Core, an installed product is a record for one product unit, or a collection of units, delivered to a customer and installed at the customer's location. It is tracked by serial number, lot or batch number, or product number, and it drives entitlement, material movement and service delivery.
ServiceMax Core stores the installed base in its own Installed Product object and configures processes with Service Flow Manager. ServiceMax Asset 360 for Salesforce is an AppExchange package built natively on Salesforce Field Service: it uses the standard Asset object and other native objects, and configures processes with Service Process Manager inside Salesforce Flow.
PTC states there is no limit to the number of levels in a ServiceMax installed product hierarchy. Each record points to its parent and its top-level unit. In practice, model only the levels at which you replace parts and track failures, because every level adds records that must be kept accurate.
No. ServiceMax installs no pre-configured auto-entitlement rules. You define separate rules for cases and work orders to match your warranty and contract terms. Users can also run interactive entitlement, which lists every matching warranty and service contract for a serial number and lets them choose one.
Yes. Condition-based PM plans create work orders when conditions are met, such as hours run or units produced, using technical attribute values entered manually or updated from connected equipment. PTC's example is servicing a printer every 10,000 prints. Time and frequency-based plans are also supported.
ServiceMax Core uses Field Change Orders to find every affected installed product, including serialized or batched inventory, and create the work for field changes, modifications, recalls and upgrades. Asset 360 uses Product Service Campaigns on Salesforce's native objects, which can create work orders, return orders, cases or opportunities for each affected asset.
PTC. It completed its acquisition of ServiceMax on January 4, 2023, and now sells ServiceMax Core and ServiceMax Asset 360 for Salesforce.
References
Every product fact in this guide comes from PTC's ServiceMax documentation and product pages, or from Salesforce's developer documentation and Trailhead, checked in November 2026. Features and packaging change, so confirm current details with PTC and Salesforce before you plan a project.
- PTC: PTC completes acquisition of ServiceMax
- PTC: ServiceMax Core
- PTC: ServiceMax Asset 360 for Salesforce
- ServiceMax Core Help: Installed Product
- ServiceMax Core Help: Building the installed product hierarchy
- ServiceMax Core Help: Service Flow Manager
- ServiceMax Core Help: Performing auto-entitlement
- ServiceMax Core Help: Auto-entitlement rules
- ServiceMax Core Help: Work order entitlement process
- ServiceMax Core Help: Preventive maintenance
- ServiceMax Core Help: Condition-based PM plans
- ServiceMax Core Help: Field Change Order
- ServiceMax Core Help: Field Change Order use cases
- Asset 360 Help: About ServiceMax Asset 360
- Asset 360 Help: Standard objects used
- Asset 360 Help: Asset 360 Console
- Asset 360 Help: Maintenance plans data model
- Asset 360 Help: Product Service Campaign
- Asset 360 Help: Product service campaign types
- Asset 360 Help: Asset 360 mobile
- Salesforce Developers: Asset
- Salesforce Developers: AssetRelationship
- Salesforce Developers: AssetAttribute
- Salesforce Developers: AttributeDefinition
- Salesforce Developers: Entitlement
- Salesforce Developers: AssetWarranty
- Salesforce Developers: MaintenancePlan
- Salesforce Developers: ProductServiceCampaign
- Trailhead: Track customer assets
