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Tyler
Asked: 2012-03-06 08:45:30 +0800 CST

How do you keep track of your company computers?

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I wondering what programs or systems everyone is using to keep track of their computers at their company. Spiceworks seems like complete overkill for something as simple as saying Joe is using Laptop #45234

Currently this company has around 70 computers, no general ledger, no list of equipment and half of the computers are field computers that are not part of the domain. For now there is little to no budget until I can stress the importance of it enough to earn it value in the eyes of management.

logging

5 Answers

  1. Inventory management should be integrated with the General Ledger system. Depending on what GL you're using, there should be a module for inventory.

    If, however, you're saying that computer inventory is a non-asset, or expensed, then there should be a system for tracking computer/software issues, and there should be an inventory module from that.

    It's all about cost-benefit and how your computers are valued. We can give specific recommendations all day long, but what you need to know is

    1. your budget,
    2. your current system,
    3. integration possibilities, and
    4. ultimate goal.

    This is more of an internal-process than a process you should be asking a Q&A site. It's just not cut-and-dry. I speak from an accounting/auditing background, not an IT background.

    If you have a small company that doesn't need some complex system, then have an IT clerk keep an excel spreadsheet.

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  2. I, along with a few other colleagues from Cisco, are presently embarking on building an open source cmdb tool that will allow you to do this...for free. It's our way of "giving back".

    The project is just in the starting phase of planning what features and functionality will be needed. If any of you are interested, we would love to get your feedback on what the software should provide.

    Note that although we work @ Cisco, this will be a completely free tool not associated with Cisco Systems, Inc. We're just doing it for "fun" :-)

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  3. Best Answer

    Roll Your Own. I recently took over a small (~350 entries) inventory tracking system in Excel. What a nightmare! I've since merged the existing data into a custom access database to track location, configuration, installed software, etc. I then built a web frontend for the PHBs to view the inventory using ADOdb.

    You'll also need to purchase or create some inventory asset tags. Spend a little time considering the numbering scheme as you'll want it to be useful for the foreseeable future.

    These parts will be easy. Convincing management to implement a compulsory inventory update for your initial data will be more challenging.

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  4. We use RackTables to manage where systems are, what their hardware specs are, warranty information, IP address space, and so on. It's fairly extensible with regard to what kind of data you can stuff in it and track. Reporting is a little light.

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  5. If SpiceWorks is overkill, this might be too - but I thought I'd put it up anyway...

    Take a look at Open-AudIT. It's easy to use and you can associate a user with a PC.

    Caveat - I'm the author.

    Sample Report

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