Hardware Asset Management

Asset Repository - is a database/software application that is used by the IT asset management team for the purpose of logging, tracking, and storing asset records and related information.

 

Asset tag - is a unique physical, alphanumeric barcode label that is applied to hardware assets for the purpose of tracking and identification.

 

IT Asset Manager - is a member of the IT asset management team that is responsible for managing the IT assets of an organization.

 

Reconciliation - is the process where two sets of records are compared against each other to validate the accuracy of the inventory.

 

Warranty - is a contract agreement between a manufacturer, and an organization that promises the repair or replacement of an asset when it becomes damaged.

 

ITAM is concerned with process that support asset lifecycle. ITSM is concerned with processes that support the service lifecycle and the lifecycle of support cases.

 

ITSM ensures timely delivery of essential services and support for the enterprise, while ITAM discovers and tracks the hardware and software assets for those services and optimizes the overall value, costs, and compliance across the asset lifecycle.

 

Correlating asset information with incident and problem management helps you assess why certain devices consistently fail. By doing so, you can manage the overall risk proactively instead of trying to fix each device as it fails, adding unnecessary costs and downtime in the process.

 

Change execution might impact configuration items. Therefore, the first step in change management is to perform risk analysis. Integrating ITAM within change management mitigates risk and change process is defined properly based on this.

 

ITAM enables proactive service management by identifying, classifying, and managing assets irrespective of their location. Service desk personnel need detailed information about their user's software and hardware. ITAM helps service desk personnel to identify trouble ticket patterns developing within specific software versions and hardware models.

 

Plan - interaction with projects and HR team to capture requirements. Approval from respective BU owners. Coordingating with prorucrement teams and initiate the purchase process for assets not in inventory. Use the service request management process for asset requests.

 

Acquire - Purchase manager is responsible for procurement of the requested asset. Warehouse and ITAM team coordinate with the purchase manager and vendor to receive a complete shipment. Warehouse team initiate asset tagging upon receival. Finance department is informed with proof of receipt.

 

Stock - proactively reclaim assets from exiting employees. Retrieve unused assets. Receive updates from field technicians and maintain stock. Asset manager is responsible for updating the status in AMDB.

 

Deploy - Management of the asset while it is deployed and active. Manage deployed assets within service management processes. Trigger processes such as SR or change management to initiate and manage modifications to the managed assets.

 

Maintain - ITAM provides information to change team regarding asset location, change impact, and configuration details. Service desk is involved in handling IMAC's and reassigning of assets. Asset management helps the incident team with relevant information to evaluate asset health with details of past incident records. Coordination with field technicians to receive break fix updates. Vendor involvement for hardware issues for assets under warranty.

 

Disposal - The final stage of asset lifecycle is disposal. When an asset reaches its end of a useful life, it can be treated as a surplus, or otherwise is considered as an under performing asset. disposal should be treated in the perspective of the effects of the decision on service delivery and any departmental responsibilities. Any organization, in either public or private sector, will need to deal with asset handling. Recognizing asset's value, future value, and costs are essential, therefore developing a strategic asset management plan is highly preferred and required. There are already different systems, methods, software, and standards which are used to manage different types of assets.

 

Reconcile inventory assets against deployed assets. Reconciliation is a critical process for determining and tracking discovery, ownership, value, acceptable use, protection, and disposal of information relatred assets. Specify which discovery sources can update class attributes. Manage the disposal or asset refresh process. System or hardware that is used in the course of business activities. A well executed refresh plan delivers cost savings and enhanced work efficiency. Data validation process: remove duplicate or irrelevant observations, fix structural errors, filter unwanted outliers, handle missing data, and validate the data.

 

The physical infor is collected using the discovery and inventory sources to accept data that shows what is deployed. The second component of ITAM is the financial data. This data is often collected from a purchasing system or from a purchase order. The third component of ITAM is the contract data. This data is often collected from the reseller.

 

The very first step in the hardware asset lifecycle is planning and determining if assets are available for redeployment. Following the submission of an asset request via the SR management process the requested asset is procured from an identified and approved vendor. This phase of the asset management process deals with receiving the ordered asset and tagging it. This phase deals with sub processes such as break/fix, IMAC, status change, contract renewal, asset depreciation and end customer billing. Once asset reaches its end of life, the last process is to retire it. On retirement assets are disposed properly as per the local rules and regulations. The disposal phase covers preparing the asset, coordinating with the disposal vendor for asset pick up, and disposal at the vendor site.

 

Following are the essential steps in the asset tagging process: identify the asset type and category, assign a unique identification number, determine the type of asset label required, enter the asset and all associated information in your asset tracking system, affix asset tag to the item, and implement data verification process.

 

Audits are conducted to measure the accuracy of asset inventory and investigate, reconcile, and eliminate the causes of significant errors. There are electronic and physical audits. There are different sampling methods used. Random sampling with diminishing population using the 1/12 of the inventory. Random sample with a constant population with a 95% confidence factor.

 

There are three methods of selecting data for audits. Record to floor, floor to record, and wall to wall audit. On record to floor, auditor selects sample data from an asset repository and sends it for comparison with field scanning data. On floor to record, an auditor randomly selects field scanning data and sends it for comparison with asset repository. For wall to wall audit, preparing baseline data to be uploaded to AMDB/CMDB, complete site due for asset refresh, and data accuracy is a concern for that location.

 

Evergreen process provides a proactive approach to track and monitor asset accuracy throughout the lifecycle of an asset. It is an ongoing process which helps us to identify the issues as quickly as possible and remediate them before they impact the business.

- Duplicate serial numbers or asset tags

- Missing username from installed assets

- Missing location/warranty/PO

- Non-deployed status, but asset has active scanning

- Asset installed but no current scan date

- Assets disposed but scanning

- Assets marked lost or stolen but active scan

 

Discovery finds application and devices on your network, and it is configured to update the CMDB/AMDB with the information it finds. A discovery tool can be agent-based or agentless. We usually collect the following information using the discovery tools.

- Device location

- Device serial number

- Login user

- Device make and model

- hardware configurations like disk size and ram amount

- Operating system

- Applications installed on the device

 

- SCCM tool

- Active Directory Reports

- Antivirus Reports

 

 

Asset reconciliation is an important part of asset management. It is the capability of reconciling the data from the asset management database with other multiple data sources to avoid discrepancies. the following activities need to be carried out to achive data integrity after reconciliation.

- Arrange for data from many reliable data sources

- Identify the common attributes among the data sources

- Normalize the data in each of the sources to remove inconsistencies

- Run comparisons of the various data sources

- Accept and include successful reconciliation data

- Analyze and take corrective action for unsuccessful reconciliation data

- Repeat the process till a high level of data integrity is achieved