Murugs
As many of us can attest, been there, done that...
Asset management is a three part venture...
- physical
- database
- administration - policies and procedures
...and it does require work, and a bit of an investment
Many companies have millions invested in IT so protecting their assets is a reuirement.
Asset management not only protects your investment but it also allows you the decision maker to make decisions -- how old is my equipment, do I need to upgrade, how much will it cost, what does engineeringg have for workstations, which department needs a better printer, anybody left using a courier typewriter....
PHYSICAL
On the cheap, a lable printer - works fine, but as has been mentioned, these tags can be removed. Follow a standard naming convention.
On the quality side, bar codes with a numeric, sequential number. An alph-numeric is better. These labels are controlled!
Assets are labeled by the techs in pairs! One person lables and the other documents (but it keeps them honest -- sorry guys and gals, I have seen it where a tech has been a little say liberal with procurement of retired assets.)
Consider a labeling scheme...
- workstations, W000001, W000002...
- monitors, M000001...
For larger companies, you might include the site...
- WNY00001 - workstation in NewYork
- SSF00001 - switch in San Fransico
...and yes, it is a good idea to upgrade the BIOS tag or asset tag field with the asset tag.
...and yes, it is useful, but not required to give the (workstation) machine name the same as the asset tag. (Another reason why alphnumeric is better) This means you can browse machine names on the network and get a fair idea of your assets.
DATABASE
Either purchase or build a database for management of the assets. Tivolli, as mentioned is good. There are others. I prefer to build my own because a good asset management database should tie into the support database. And it needs to be relational (meaning don't use Lotus Notes - (I like Notes, but it is not a relational database which is real, real bad when you have a dynamic multi-table environment)
You want your database to...
- capture essential data - serial number, device type, specifications ... and owner
Your want your database to provide info on...
- what assets are deployed
- assets pruchased from where for how much
- warranty expiration date
- how many of this type or that type are deployed (500 or less MHz PC's, 15" colour monitors) - use this to determine if you upgrade the operating system, do you need to upgrade the hardware - if so, how many
- assets that have had hardware problems -- great for determining problem models and manufacturers
- count and value of disposed assets
...and security. Site leads can only manage their assets type of thing.
ADMINISTRATION
- you need clear guidelines in the deployment, movement / redployment, removal and disposal of assets
- the techs have follow these procedures -- or your database will get out of whack
- end users must be trained not to move assets themselves - yes they can do it, but will they update your dataabase.
- physical inventory every 1 or 2 or 3 years.
...Lastly, think it through
Labeling assets is a royal pain. I have seen it where a major company re-did their assets three times in two years because they messed up (non-technical people making technical decisions)