THE CHALLENGE:
Complete, current, and accurate asset data is the foundation for IT infrastructure planning, maintenance, upgrade, and retirement tasks. The problem is that timely and accurate information is a moving target - sometimes literally, with more and more mobile and handheld computing devices making their way into the enterprise. |
Struggling to keep data current In an effort to build baseline asset data, some IT departments do a manual inventory, walking from desk to desk and entering hardware, software, and OS information into a spreadsheet, then issuing asset tags. If you have more than a few computers it's a long, boring task. If you have more than one location, the logistics can get ugly. To make matters worse, manual inventory can't account for the nearly constant changes in the modern computing environment. There are user application installs, semi-automated OS or browser updates, file deletions, or application uninstalls - not to mention users who swap RAM or exchange peripherals or change office spaces. It doesn't take long for computing asset and inventory information to become hopelessly out of date, requiring lengthy manual updates each and every time you need usable data. It's not a good use of your time and skills - an IT specialist deals with technical issues, not clerical tasks. Sorting and reporting Automated software tools can help IT staff gather hardware and software information directly from each computer and store it in a centralized database. More difficult is the problem of using asset data once it's been collected. A list of files or hardware attributes tells you little or nothing useful about your IT environment. You need not only predefined sorting and reporting tools, but versatile data query and export. It doesn't matter what data is collected if you can't get at it easily, interpret what you see, or report on it your way. You should be able to leverage asset data to solve more than one set of problems. Multi-platform complication If your enterprise supports multiple computing platforms, there are very few cross-platform solutions. While most vendors support Microsoft* Windows* environments, integrated NetWare*, Macintosh*, Linux*, Unix* and handheld support is varied at best. If you have to deploy multiple tools to solve one problem, you're right back where you started - spending too much time on administrative overhead and data aggregation, and not enough time doing IT tasks. Hardware retirement and lease tracking Many enterprises lease hardware to control costs. With a three-year lease term, that means IT exchanges 1/3 of their hardware every year. Tracking lease expirations and integrating new hardware into your asset database requires custom data tracking for each computer - including lease terms and company data. if that data isn't integrated with other asset data, IT is back to manual tracking. Again. There has to be a better solution. Return to top of page >> | 
