What it is (plain English)
Tracking physical IT assets — laptops, phones, servers, monitors — through their whole life: ordered, received into a stockroom, assigned to a person, moved, and eventually retired and disposed. It answers "who has what, what did it cost, and when does it need replacing?"
Problems it solves
- No reliable answer to "who has which laptop?"
- Assets lost, hoarded, or paid for after they're gone (over-leasing, missed disposals).
- Refresh cycles missed because nobody tracks age and warranty.
- Audit and finance can't reconcile IT hardware.
What must exist first
Platform Core Setup and CMDB Foundation — hardware assets pair with CI records; the asset (financial) and CI (operational) models work together.
What the customer needs to provide
- Your current asset data, however messy (spreadsheets, old asset tool, procurement records).
- Stockroom locations and how receiving works today.
- Procurement process and who owns it.
- Lifecycle decisions: refresh policies, disposal process, lease vs. own.
- A named asset manager accountable for the data.
Where it can go next
Software Asset Management (SAM) builds on the asset foundation for licenses; asset data feeds Incident Management and Change Management context; enterprise asset management (Enterprise Asset Management (EAM)) extends the model beyond IT.