Chapter 2: Basic Logistics and Inventory – Resume
Resume
Source: PDF File.
The chapter explains how to begin an asset management project through a basic inventory. It recommends defining the scope, identifying physical assets and their users, prioritizing hardware categories, and combining physical audits with information from employees, discovery tools, other services such as DNS, and even verifiable purchase records, such as purchase orders and invoices. The goal is not only to obtain a complete list, but also to ensure that each record is accurate and has a unique identifier, because the inventory supports software license control and subsequent processes.
Starting an asset management project with an inventory helps identify and classify hardware, gather information from users and technical sources, and assign unique identifiers.
Main ideas
- It is important to know what the organization owns:
- A basic inventory is the starting point for asset management.
- The inventory should indicate which assets exist, their characteristics, location, and primary users.
- Purchase records alone are not sufficient to identify all existing assets.
- An asset management project generates savings as it matures and consolidates information.
- The inventory should extend beyond purchase records, since legacy or undocumented technology may exist.
- It is advisable to divide the work by asset type and prioritize it according to the ease of auditing.
- Physical audits are essential, especially for end-user devices that are moved frequently.
- Employee and user participation, discovery tools, and services such as DNS provide additional visibility for identifying assets.
- Hardware control is necessary to properly manage software licensing risk.
- Data accuracy, including one unique identifier per asset, is essential to prevent duplicates.
