Inventory & Asset Management
The hardware and software purchased by companies, schools, and other organizations represents a significant investment, yet maintaining an accurate inventory of what has been purchased can be problematic. Inventories can be used in a variety of ways and primarily fall into two categories: compliance and planning.
Compliance:
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There are both internal and external pressures on IT departments to ensure compliance with a variety of laws governing the software residing on end users' computers. Sarbanes-Oxley requirements, manufacturer's licensing and copyright agreements, as well as the liabilities opened up by peer to peer file sharing applications demand that IT provide an accurate and up-to-date inventory of the computers being managed.
Planning:
- As a discipline, the goal of planning is to make sure that acquisitions and investments yield the greatest return possible. Machine replacement, software purchases and renewals, and component upgrades are a few examples where capacity and resource planning can reduce costs and more efficiently target the needs of your business, school, or organization.
Casper, Recon, and the JAMF Software Server (JSS)
- The JAMF Software Server (JSS) can receive inventory information through the automated discovery of network computers via Casper or at the local desktop computer using Recon. Once the collected data is entered into the JSS, it is available via a web browser for anyone who is authorized to access the server. If this information needs to be exported to other systems there are options for multiple file formats and popular help desk applications.
Powerful browsing and searching features allow inventory information to be as broad or narrow as needed. The ability to create smart groups based on inventory information means that you can apply actions to specific computers (for example: policy enforcement, remote deployment, and configuration management).
- Specific Inventory & Asset Management Features
- Search or browse hundreds of attributes about your computer environment:
- CPU, peripheral, network
- Application, OS, font, and third party plug-ins
- End user, department, building, room
- Vendor, warranty, purchase order, maintenance agreements
- Bar code, asset tag, last contact
- Role Based Access:
- Multiple users in different departments can be given different access levels based on function and need.
- LDAP Integration:
- End user information can be integrated via Active Directory, Open Directory, or any other LDAP directory service.
- Custom reporting:
- Reporting options allow you to collect and assemble data in ways that are meaningful to you.
- Inventory updates:
- Updates can be run as often or as infrequently as you choose and can be triggered by time, date, login, logout, or startup and can be applied to different groups, individuals, departments, or buildings.
"Finally there's an affordable OS X network management tool. Open Source solutions are free, but nothing beats a well-developed desktop management system like this. Casper has imaging, inventory, script deployment, OS customizing, and monitoring. We couldn't afford not to have it."
