IT Asset Management software

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tUrbZ

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Hi there,

I'm looking for a free software program so that I can keep track of all the IT assets in my company.

Things like serial numbers, cpu etc.

Any thoughts?
 
Software is only going to help you SO far. Maintaining it is a constant effort, and one that is often neglected.

Depending on how large your organization is, the right person with an Excel spreadsheet and good pivot table knowledge might be all you need.

We are a Dell house, and in that we make extensive use of IT Assistant in our organization, which is great for keeping records current and doing tasks like firmware updates, etc.
 
R4tt3xx said:
Spiceworks :)
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I despise it as an asset management solution. My advice is and will always be a barcode system with real asset tagging software and tools, best done by an asset management firm. It's an IT department's biggest time waster and headache to keep tabs on assets.
 
teraside said:
I despise it as an asset management solution. My advice is and will always be a barcode system with real asset tagging software and tools, best done by an asset management firm. It's an IT department's biggest time waster and headache to keep tabs on assets.
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This, the municipality down here uses barcoded metal stickers for all their assets. Almost impossible to take off with the superglue they use. And it links to their database.
 
Racktables should cover most of what you need.
 
srothman said:
Software is only going to help you SO far. Maintaining it is a constant effort, and one that is often neglected.

Depending on how large your organization is, the right person with an Excel spreadsheet and good pivot table knowledge might be all you need.
.
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QTF --- I use this, http://www.kzsoftware.com/products/asset-management-software/ but unless you have somebody dedicated to this, it is always a hassle to update. I would say the best person to handle the assets is anybody in procurement as when they buy, they should be adding or updating the database or spreadsheet. No equipment leaves them before they have added it to the system.
 
Use a software based system that pulls serial numbers from the computers and inventories everything.
 
This is one of the areas where free is not necessarily the best route. Keeping it all up to date is more trouble than initially loading it.
You also need to make sure that it collects onformation about the software that you have loaded as that has license implications certainly with Microsoft.
CA has products that do the function but they do come at a price.
I will do a little more research for you but I believe that a working solution is going to cost you money.

Regards

Tim
 
RFCode...
Possibly the best implementation of RFID asset tagging you'll ever find :)
http://www.rfcode.com/

We use them to keep track of servers, as we ship them around the world from Datacentre to Datacentre. Probably overkill for your typical small office, but its also handy to keep an eye on theft. If the tag stops responding for a while, its worth going hunting for the hardware to see if it's still around.
 
Ok spent a bit of time last night looking around. SysAid has softwrae that will handle the issues you have and for up to 100 users it is free.
Moving up to one which is a purchase only option is Express. It will manage the product from purchase to disposal including licence management and if the software is being used.
For you turBz it is not free but you can have a free evaluation of up to 25 workstations to see if it will work out.
Let us know how you get on

Tim
 
Tim the Techxpert said:
This is one of the areas where free is not necessarily the best route. Keeping it all up to date is more trouble than initially loading it.
You also need to make sure that it collects onformation about the software that you have loaded as that has license implications certainly with Microsoft.
CA has products that do the function but they do come at a price.
I will do a little more research for you but I believe that a working solution is going to cost you money.

Regards

Tim
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Sorry Tim, I have to disagree with you there. I have been using OCS Inventory for quite a while to keep track of a network of 75 or so PC's and associated network equipment over several sites and it has served me quite well. The only maintenance I do is to install agents on the PC's and cleaning out duplicates or removed machines from time to time - I tend to do this manually but there is functionality to automate deployment and the system will detect things like duplicates via MAC address or serial numbers. The originators of OCS claim it is scalable (and used) to manage 1000's of devices (but I'll have to take their word on that.)

What OCS gives you is a snapshot of your environment at a given time. This is useful but it isn't designed to give a historical record of configuration and change. I am currently setting up an iTop server to work with OCS which also contains a helpdesk, CMDB, change management functionality etc. I've come across a couple of minor rough edges with iTop but overall I'm very impressed with it. It is also designed to allow integration with other programs such as OCS and Nagios.

Don't spend money on this type of software until you've checked out the open source alternatives. Products like Sysaid and Spiceworks look pretty slick but you quickly hit limitations with the licensing or get continually bombarded with emails and ads.
 
Our company utilised Centrastage during 2008-2011, back then you had to pay, today you will receive 500 Free licences to do remote services and asset management.

http://www.centrastage.com/features.html

OnDemand

Our innovative OnDemand offering gives you asset management and remote support for FREE, for up to 500 devices. If your primary focus is asset management – so you want to know what you've got, where it is and what it's running – try CentraStage OnDemand.

The good news is that the first 500 agents are completely free, plus we throw in free remote support. If 500 doesn't float your boat then give us a call. We can go as big as you need but we'd like a heads up.
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A similar but way more improved product is Kaseya and will probably cost you an arm and leg.

We moved away due to partner agreements and have agentless SaaS applications now. The only thing I don’t know about the above mentioned products is the capability to see other devices such as printers etc. Contact them and hear… Try Centrastage it served us good back in the day.
 
Have anyone here used GFI Max? I'm stuck between GFI and Centrastage.
 
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For manual capture i'd recommend Tracmor - tracmor.org
For capture with an agent i'd recommend OCS as someone recommended above. - http://www.ocsinventory-ng.org/en/

Tracmor - easier to use for manual parts / asset capture
OCS - automatically captures things like installed software / license keys etc etc but i've found that its not reliable on the hardware capture all of the time - which is why I prefer to do it manually. (I export from OCS in to Tracmor and then update Tracmor with the correct details if needed). I then use Tracmor to export to Excel and hand over to the bean counters when and if they need an asset report. I also use Tracmor to keep track of stock like our iPads that are booked out to staff (mobile library with our Amazon ebook collection)

If you're keen to try Tracmor i've written a walkthrough for installation on an Ubuntu Linux machine:
http://jerome.co.za/tracmor/
 
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