Asset Management Asset Management Company History of modifications Company Name Date Version Changes made EasyVista Laurent SEYMAN 5/20/2016 1.0 Creation 2 easyvista.com Asset Management Company Summary A. The Asset management home page ...................... 5 B. Managing Equipment ............................................ 6 B.1. Unitary creation of equipment ............................................ 7 B.2. Creating catalog references ............................................... 8 B.3. Creating types .................................................................... 9 B.4. Creating manufacturers ................................................... 10 B.5. Relating attributes to a catalog reference ........................ 11 B.6. Bulk creation of equipment .............................................. 12 B.7. Generating Asset tags ...................................................... 13 B.8. Creating departments ...................................................... 14 B.9. Creating locations ............................................................ 15 B.10. Creating suppliers ............................................................ 16 B.11. Creating employees .......................................................... 17 B.12. Creating job functions ...................................................... 18 B.13. Completing employee information.................................... 19 B.14. Relating images to users .................................................. 20 B.15. Assigning equipment to employees .................................. 21 B.16. Relating equipment .......................................................... 22 B.17. Moving equipment ............................................................ 23 B.18. Merging equipment .......................................................... 24 B.19. Discarding equipment ...................................................... 26 B.20. Replacing equipment ........................................................ 27 B.21. Lending equipment .......................................................... 28 B.22. Sending equipment to repair ............................................ 29 B.23. Green IT ........................................................................... 30 B.24. Financial data ................................................................... 31 3 easyvista.com Asset Management Company C. Managing Software and Licenses ........................32 C.1. Software Management ..................................................... 33 C.2. Adding application ........................................................... 34 C.3. Licence Management ........................................................ 34 C.3.1. Creating licenses ....................................................................................34 C.3.2. Merging licenses .....................................................................................35 C.3.3. Managing software packs .........................................................................36 C.3.4. Covered licenses .....................................................................................37 C.3.5. Gap analysis by software model ...............................................................38 C.3.6. Gap analysis by software version ..............................................................39 C.3.7. Licenses by servers .................................................................................40 C.4. Rules for software detection ............................................ 41 C.4.1. Detection via a software package .............................................................41 C.4.2. Detection via a component detected by discovery .......................................43 C.5. Standard builds ................................................................ 44 D. Contract Management .........................................45 D.1. Creating contracts ............................................................ 46 D.2. The other contract menus ................................................ 47 E. Charge back ........................................................47 F. The references of the Asset Management module ...........................................................................48 G. More training classes ..........................................49 4 easyvista.com Asset Management Company A. The Asset management home page All of the elements relative to asset management can be consulted via the Asset Management module. On the initial homepage of the module, trends are present that display values calculated via automatically-launched queries. The date of the last calculation is displayed in one of the table's columns. Icons indicate whether the trend is good , medium or bad . The arrows and the colors indicate the major trends (improving, stable, or worsening). A trend with a sun and an orange arrow pointing upwards means that the trend is good but worsening. These trends may be hidden in the section that manages users' profiles: 5 easyvista.com Asset Management Company B. Managing Equipment Managing IT Assets is a complex process characterized by the presence of many information flows. Stock, for example can consist of new or already used hardware where different management rules will apply. During its life cycle, equipment may be assigned to several users and will probably be moved several times as well. Those movements need to be followed as well as all deployments and returns of repair or loan. Moreover, the management of contracts related to equipment, in particular those for leasing or maintenance implies a constant tracking of renewal dates. This is made easier in EasyVista by the presence of alerts informing that an expiry date is near. 6 easyvista.com Asset Management Company B.1. Unitary creation of equipment New equipment is created via the Equipment > Inventory menu, using the icon or the Delivery Reception wizard. Creating an item of equipment may be more or less complex depending on whether or not the model to be used is present in the equipment catalog. Use the creation wizard, to input the asset tag, model, serial number, and user name. The selection of a user will automatically complete the geographical location and the related administrative department (only in creation mode). (access: Asset Management> Equipment > Inventory > icon) 7 easyvista.com Asset Management Company B.2. Creating catalog references Now we will create a computer monitor which will be connected to our computer. Creating a new equipment reference is done in the Equipment Catalog by selecting a Type, a Manufacturer and entering a Model. If the type or the manufacturer are missing in the list of values presented, you should create them before generating the new equipment reference and equipment item in the inventory. (access: Asset Management> Catalogs > Equipment catalog > icon) Through the catalog, the following information may be set: Market price of the equipment item which will be presented by default, when ordering one. In this case, the field Available for Purchase should be checked Usage (years): for the calculation of the scheduled renewal date. Warranty period (months): for the calculation of the end of warranty date. Amount charged back: amount that is charged back each month to the cost centers Renewal value: current value of an equivalent model, in case an item of equipment is to be replaced. Used to plan the budget of equipment renewal. Buy Back value: used when purchasing equipment at the end of a leasing contract. Manufacturer Reference: reference in the manufacturer’s catalog, to facilitate order issuing. Start of availability: used for delaying the publication of a catalog’s items. End of availability: used for archiving catalog’s items. Default attributes: will be automatically included on new equipment records using this catalog entry. Regular supplier: limits the display of equipment models when issuing an order The elements for usage and energy consumption used for Green IT 8 easyvista.com Asset Management Company B.3. Creating types Categories are created via the References > Types menu, by selecting an existing article type: (access: Asset Management> References > Types > icon) … then enter a name for the new type: Note: you may enter the type’s label in the different languages by clicking the icon. 9 easyvista.com Asset Management Company B.4. Creating manufacturers We are going to add the Samtron manufacturer to the Manufacturers reference table. This operation is done through the References > Manufacturers menu. Two checkboxes specify whether this brand is related to hardware or software. Brand names for which Is Manufacturer is checked will be displayed under the Equipment Catalog. Brand names for which Is Publisher is checked will only be displayed under the Software Catalog: (access: Asset Management> References > Manufacturers > icon) Once created, the brand name can be related to the catalog reference of the monitor we wish to create. You’ll just have to enter a name for the model: (access: Asset Management> Catalogs > Equipement catalog > ) 10 easyvista.com Asset Management Company B.5. Relating attributes to a catalog reference Relating attributes to a catalog reference for peripherals compensate the lack of automatic detection of that equipment type. All related attributes will be inherited on the forms based upon these references in the equipment inventory. The relation is set by adding an attribute in the Default Attributes tab and by entering, if necessary, a value for that attribute: (access: Asset Management> Catalogs > Equipment catalog > product sheet > default Attributes tab > ‘ icon) If the attribute is not present in the list, it can be created using the References > Attributes menu or the New attribute wizard: Note: if we attach an attribute to a type of equipment, this will only be available for this type. To make the attribute available for other types, we will take care to associate it with the higher level (Equipment in the above example). 11 easyvista.com Asset Management Company B.6. Bulk creation of equipment In addition to unitary creation, it is possible to create equipment in bulk using the Delivery reception wizard (Asset Management > Equipment > Inventory). The advantage of this method compared to the previous method is that it offers to specify the financial information or attributes that will be present on the forms for the equipment generated. (access: Asset Management> Equipment > Inventory > Delivery reception wizard) The delivery site corresponds to a place that has been defined as a storage location (having the Stock field checked). The supplier and model should be selected from existing references. The suggested Purchase Price comes from the equipment catalog. The invoice, delivery and P.O. numbers will be displayed on the Financial Data tab of the detailed form of the equipment created via the wizard. The end of warranty is calculated by adding the warranty period specified in the equipment catalog to the delivery date. The checkbox restricts the display to articles whose regular supplier set on the equipment catalog is the selected supplier. 12 easyvista.com Asset Management Company B.7. Generating Asset tags The asset tags assigned to the equipment can be entered manually or generated automatically using the button . In this case a wizard makes it possible to define the root value, the increment and the number of positions: Note: when the uniqueness check is activated on the asset tag, take care to generate non-existing asset tags otherwise an error message will be displayed during the creation process. Besides the automatic generation, It is also possible to manually enter bar codes using the button . In this case, the Asset Tag column will be empty. In the final step, the button will create a record in the Inventory for the equipment with the status In stock. An email may be sent to the employee responsible for the stock entries. 13 easyvista.com Asset Management Company B.8. Creating departments The creation of departments is carried out via the Directory > Departments menu using icon. We will create a sublevel department called Training that is related to a root level Finance > Human Resources: (access: Asset Management> Directory > Departments > icon) Note: Departments follow a tree structure, with unlimited levels. To create a root department, just keep the parent department field empty at creation time. It is possible to change the connections between departments using the Reorganize wizard. 14 easyvista.com Asset Management Company B.9. Creating locations The creation of locations is carried out via the Directory > Locations menu using the icon. We will create a location named Brighton related to the parent location Europe/UK: (access: Asset Management> Directory > Locations > icon) Note: the number of sublevels is unlimited, but it is advisable to preserve an identical structure for all sites, such as Country, City, Building for example. Note: it is possible to assign a default status to a location. All equipment moved to this location will inherit this default status. Also check that the time zone and date format are entered properly. This property is important for date and time computing in service management. If we want this location to give rise to delivery receptions, the Stock box, which is present on the form or the creation wizard, must be checked. 15 easyvista.com Asset Management Company B.10. Creating suppliers Creating a new supplier is carried out via the Directory > Suppliers menu by adding a record with the icon. It is possible to specify the nature of the supplier and the appropriate currency in which exchanges with this supplier will take place. The location, when it is completed on the supplier's form, allows it to be masked from users who do not belong to the domain. (access: Asset Management> Directory > Suppliers > icon) With the Contacts tab, you can add supplier’s employees, specifying their address and function. New entries will be generated in the Employee table, having the supplier’s name as their company. Note: you can relate a supplier to a catalog reference to make him the potential supplier of the related equipment, software or consumables. 16 easyvista.com Asset Management Company B.11. Creating employees The creation of employees is carried out via the Directory > Employees menu using the icon. (access: Asset Management> Directory > Employees > icon ) Once the data entry is completed, you may validate the creation by clicking the button or assign equipment to the new employee by using the button. If this latter option is launched, only assets with the status In stock will be available for selection. We will select the first option since we want to create a location, department and function for the user first. The following summary will display: At this point, you may modify your entry by using the button or validate with the button. Note: the language parameter is very important as it is used when the user connects to the application. 17 easyvista.com Asset Management Company B.12. Creating job functions The creation of job functions is carried out via the References > Functions menu using the icon. We will create the job function Consultant: (access: Asset Management> References > Functions > icon ) Once we have completed the value entered in the form we may update the translations for the foreign languages via the icon. Note: the job function’s name should be entered in all languages used in the company, as the display of the interface is based on the language of the connected user. If a translated term was not entered for the user’s language, the one entered during the creation will appear between square brackets (displayed in the language the user used during the creation). 18 easyvista.com Asset Management Company B.13. Completing employee information Once the job function, location and department are created, you’ll be able to complete all information in the Employees form using the links located into the related fields: (access: Asset Management> Directory > Employee ) Note: when you enter the location or department, check that you expand the tree levels completely by clicking the icon , otherwise, the value of the currently selected level will be taken into account. Note: to quickly find the form used, we advise using the link present in the history. 19 easyvista.com Asset Management Company B.14. Relating images to users Each user can send an image/avatar in EasyVista. This image will be used in all sections of EasyVista where user names appear, such as certain grids: …or certain forms: In all cases, moving the mouse cursor over the miniature displays the image in a larger size: An image can be associated with a user form using the Change button present on the employee's form. This is accessible via the personal information zone located in the top left screen area, by clicking the icon then and 20 easyvista.com Asset Management Company B.15. Assigning equipment to employees Once the employee form is fully completed, you’ll be able to assign one of the equipment you have previously created. On the equipment’s inventory, you have the Install/Move wizard to help you through this operation: (access: Asset Management> Equipment > Inventory > view List) Note: by relating an employee to equipment it automatically assigns the location and department of the employee to the item of equipment At the end of this operation, you’ll have the possibility to send an informative mail. 21 easyvista.com Asset Management Company B.16. Relating equipment Relating equipment is done on the Inventory menu, either in the Related Equipment tab using the icon, or through the Attach Equipment wizard. The second method is preferable when you need to attach an item to a list of equipment (the wizard is also available on the equipment list). (access: Asset Management> Equipment > Inventory > view List > ‘Attach equipment’ wizard) Note: if the asset have not Main user, Attach Equipment display this screen: To cancel a relation, use the icon of the Related Equipment tab. There is no wizard allowing cancellation of multiple relations. It is possible to switch to the related equipment details with the icon. In this case, the related equipment’s details will be displayed in the upper part of the form. Lastly, to obtain the details of related equipment, click on the icon . Note: cancelling a relation between equipment does not affect the equipment itself. Only the relationship is disabled. 22 easyvista.com Asset Management Company B.17. Moving equipment Moving equipment is done with the Install/Move wizard. During this operation, the wizard allows you to change the user. If you do so, the item of equipment will be reassigned and its location will change to that of its new user: (access: Asset Management> Equipment > Inventory > view List > ‘Install/move’ wizard) If an item of equipment is related to other equipment, you may choose to reassign the latter as well, by checking the option. If the related equipment is not to be moved (default), you should cancel their relation with the moved equipment. Otherwise, you should make a multiple selection if they are assigned to the same new user. Note: a history of previous allocations of the moved equipment is kept. It is displayed in the Life Cycle tab. It is thus possible to follow its related events such as a change of location or user. 23 easyvista.com Asset Management Company B.18. Merging equipment When Discovery detects equipment that it is unable to reconcile with equipment that is already defined in the EasyVista Asset Management module, an inventory anomaly is generated and the detected equipment takes a new status called To Verify (The reconciliation is generally done by using the Asset Tag, the serial number or the network identifier). Starting from the list of Inventory Anomalies, 3 actions can be executed to update the inventory in the EasyVista Asset Management module: The detected equipment is related to equipment that is newly installed and was not received by using the standard reception process (Example: A printer that was purchased and installed directly by a user instead of using the available IT services.): Equipment needs to be added to the installed equipment under EasyVista in order to be managed in the equipment inventory; The detected equipment is related to equipment that should not be managed by EasyVista (Example: A laptop belonging to a subcontractor and not to the company): The equipment needs to be "discarded" from the equipment inventory; The detected equipment is related to equipment already managed in the EasyVista Asset Management module, but the reconciliation between the equipment items was not done (Example: Asset Tag not available or incorrect): The detected equipment needs to be merged with the existing equipment; if the software / attributes are different between these 2 equipment items, it is possible to select those that are really available and are managed by the EasyVista Asset Management module (access: Asset Management> Administration > Inventory anomalies) The wizard lets you search for equipment having a code, a serial number, a network identifier or a main user that is identical or empty: 24 easyvista.com Asset Management Company During the merge operation, the wizard offers to merge attributes and software: The Merge Equipment wizard is used to create a relation between detected equipment from the Inventory Anomalies and equipment that is already managed in the equipment inventory. The screen displays all software that is different between the two items of equipment: Select the software that is really installed on the equipment. If 2 equipment items have the same (or no software installed), a message is displayed informing that nothing is to be merged. A similar function exists for attributes: By clicking on the Merge the Equipment button: All software and all attributes that are checked are automatically assigned to the equipment to be merged; the equipment will keep its current status. The merged equipment is deleted from the asset table and will disappear from the list of inventory anomalies. 25 easyvista.com Asset Management Company B.19. Discarding equipment This operation can be done using the Discard wizard. This action is used to specify that an item of equipment does not belong to the installed Assets and should not be managed as active inventory. The discarded equipment will have a new status that will result in masking it to most of the users. It is not physically deleted but will be archived. The discard date is updated: Starting from this date, the equipment will only be displayed by activating the Archived filter on the Equipment Inventory list. A message may be sent to the employee responsible for the stock, specifying the reason for discarding the equipment: Note: only statuses for which Installed Assets is unchecked in the reference table of statuses (References > Status) can be affected by the discarded equipment wizard. 26 easyvista.com Asset Management Company B.20. Replacing equipment This action is carried out using the Replace wizard. We are going to replace the equipment we created at the beginning of this training with one of those we just generated. Only equipment having the In Stock status and related to the domain used will be proposed for the replacement. (access: Asset Management> Equipment > Inventory > view List > ‘Replace’ wizard) The replaced equipment can be returned to stock (you should have a storage location with the Stock field checked). The substitute equipment takes the place of the replaced one in all its relations to other equipment. 27 easyvista.com Asset Management Company B.21. Lending equipment The procedure is the same for lending and sending equipment to repair. Lending equipment is carried out with the On Loan wizard. The action can also be carried out starting from the equipment list, for a group of equipment lent to the same employee and being returned at the same date (equipment loan for an exposition). In the following example, we will lend a printer to a user: (access: Asset Management> Equipment > Inventory > view List > ‘On loan’ wizard) After the operation, the status of the equipment is set to Lent. The user who was lent the equipment becomes its main user and the Expected return date will take the value entered. The list of lent equipment is accessible via the Equipment > Loan Management menu. (access: Asset Management> Equipment > Loan management) When the equipment is returned, do not forget to launch the action Return of Loan/Repair in order to update the equipment’s status and re-initialize its Expected return date with a null value. If the new status of the returned equipment is Active, the user to whom the equipment was lent remains its main user. 28 easyvista.com Asset Management Company B.22. Sending equipment to repair This action is carried out through the Send to Repair wizard. On the detail form, the item of equipment takes the status In Repair, and the fields Last Repair by and Scheduled Return Date from Repair are filled. The main user remains unchanged. The list of equipment sent to repair is available under the Equipment > Repair Management menu. (access: Asset Management> Equipment > Repair management > ‘List’ view) Once the equipment is repaired and returned by the after-sales service, launch the action Return of Loan/Repair that will allow you to give a new status to the equipment. Only statuses considered as “active” can be selected: (access: Asset Management> Equipment > Repair management > ‘In repair’ filter) If the status is In Stock, the item of equipment is returned to stock where it is available for a new assignment. The main user disappears from the detailed form. If the new status is set to Active, the item of equipment is assigned to the employee who was responsible for it before the repair. 29 easyvista.com Asset Management Company B.23. Green IT Green IT designates the ecological management of computer-related items. EasyVista includes functions providing more precise information on the aspects concerning the electrical consumption of the installed base, and for controlling the aspects related to equipment recycling. All assets include, via the Consumption or Recycling tabs, information on electrical consumption and the management of recycling: (access: Asset Management> Equipment > Green IT > ‘list’ view) This information is inherited from the catalog form and is also visible in certain wizards. The Equipment > Green IT menu lets you monitor consumption using specific views (view by location) or recycling (view by list): (access: Asset Management> Equipment > Green IT > ‘location’ view) (access: Asset Management> Equipment > Green IT > ‘list’ view) A wizard lets you carry out consumption simulations for the installed base, showing the gain (or loss) in consumption when exchanging one or more items of equipment for others. 30 easyvista.com Asset Management Company B.24. Financial data The Equipment > Manage Finances menu displays a summary of equipment showing their purchase date, acquisition type and purchase price. Available break levels on the purchase date or acquisition type, offer a global view of the financial elements: (access: Asset Management> Equipment > Manage finance) The Equipment > Budget Renewals menu displays both the total monetary amount for renewals and number of equipment items to be renewed per month and year. The calculation of the scheduled renewal date of equipment is based upon its installation date and the expected life (in years) set in the related equipment catalog. Only equipment having a purchase date, a scheduled renewal date and a renewal value will display on this menu: (access: Asset Management> Equipment > Budget renewals) Note: It is possible to extend the useful life of equipment by launching the Extension of use wizard. 31 easyvista.com Asset Management Company C. Managing Software and Licenses Managing software and licenses is a more complex process than that used for equipment. According to the publishers and the products, there are administration modes that are individual, by volume, by site or by connection (license structures). To this we must add licenses supplied under OEM with hardware, forming part of a bundle or coming from an update (license types).EasyVista offers great flexibility by allowing the management of packs for particular software (like MS Office, for example). Catalog Licenses Software Software Package Variation Installed Installation Used s Configurations Equipment Scrap e Upgrad Archives 32 easyvista.com Asset Management Company C.1. Software Management In addition to the automatic collection of inventory information done by the Discovery inventory module in EasyVista, it is always possible to add software manually by using the icon on the Installed Software tab: (access: Asset Management> Equipment > Inventory >’List’ view >select form) It is interesting to attach software manually to equipment when the software cannot be detected by the Discovery inventory module. This may be the case for software that is not physically present on the scanned equipment or software that is used via emulations. Only manually added software may be deleted from the tab using the icon. During the integration of the Discovery data, only software that was detected during a preceding inventory will be impacted (modified or deleted) except for those that were added manually. If the license model is not available during the manual data entry, it should be added to the software catalog. By default, the software catalog only displays software that has the Monitored field checked. Note that the default filter of the software catalog is Managed Software: Note: software that is not managed (freeware for example) will not be taken into account in the statistics. 33 easyvista.com Asset Management Company C.2. Adding application Applications are programs which, instead of being associated with equipment, are attached to one or more users. In general, these are programs which are not physically installed on users' workstations, but which they access through an environment of the thin-client type (web or Citrix application). Users are associated with applications via the Applications tab on the Employee form by adding a record via the icon : (access: Asset Management> Directory > Employees >’List’ view >select form) The references for the software proposed come from the software catalog. Only the software that is monitored may be selected. The Citrix inventory module used as a complement to Discovery inventory can also automatically complete the information shown on this tab: Note: Applications can also be associated with employees using the data integration module. C.3. Licence Management C.3.1. Creating licenses Software and licenses need to be identified. Software is detected via the Discovery inventory and integrated into EasyVista. The software corresponds to applications installed on the inventoried workstations. It is detected by the use of a software library that includes the signature of current software available on the market. This library can be updated in order to add specific applications or software to meet a client’s needs. The list of attached software can be seen by using the Installed Software tab located in the Equipment > Inventory theme. 34 easyvista.com Asset Management Company Licenses correspond to contracts authorizing the use of software. Contrary to software, licenses need to be generated manually, using the menu option Licenses > Inventory. (access: Asset Management> Licenses > Inventory) Specifying a location for a license can limit its appearance to a domain. If no location is specified, the license will be automatically associated with the root of the current domain The model corresponding to the license to be created must exist in the catalog and the Monitored box must be checked. In this same catalog, the transfer wizard allows the inheritance of monitoring of software marked as such in Discovery. The advantage of associating a license with a location or an entity is that it allows it to be attached to a domain. The Licenses > Manage finances menu lists all purchased licenses. The Potential Savings menu allows users to measure gaps between installed and authorized software through purchased licenses. These gaps may be calculated taking into account the software version, or not. Gap analysis will be developed further in this document. A license is associated with a contract in a similar manner to that used to associate an item of equipment with a contract or via the Assign to a contract wizard. C.3.2. Merging licenses The Purchase Upgrade wizard allows upgrading licenses of a previous version with those related to a newer one. (access: Asset Management> Licenses > Inventory > list view) 35 easyvista.com Asset Management Company Let’s take the Illustrator software that is present 3 times in version 12. With the release of version CS5, we are going to merge the number of allowed installations in version 12 (50) on a unique license (CS5). Select the licenses to be merged before launching the wizard: After the operation is finished, one license in version CS5 with 50 installations allowed would have replaced the former three. The latter will be archived and will be displayed only if the Archived filter is activated. They are related to the new license but are excluded from the measures visible in the gap analysis. C.3.3. Managing software packs The license management module in EasyVista authorizes the constitution of software packs by relating several software items to one single software model, provided that the items are flagged as Monitored software in the catalog Asset Management > Catalogs > Software Catalog). It is possible to detail the contents of an MS Office 2010 license by attaching Outlook 2010, Excel 2010, PowerPoint 2010 and MS WinWord 2010 as components to it: (access: Asset Management> Catalogs > Software catalog > ‘publisher’ view) 36 easyvista.com Asset Management Company In this case, the creation of the Office 2010 Std license for 10 installations (Asset Management > Licenses > Inventory) will automatically result in creating the same number of installations for the attached license models of Visual Basic: (access: Asset Management> Licenses > Inventory) 10 C.3.4. Covered licenses The notion of covered licenses refers to the possibility of installing a version of the software that is prior to the version for which we purchased a license. The principle is: The following software are installed: We purchased the following licenses: Office 2010 10 Office 2010 20 Office 2007 15 Office 2007 10 Office 2003 7 Office 2003 10 Now, the Office 2010 license has a special feature of covering 2 previous Office versions (i.e. 2007 and 2003). Thus, the 20 purchased licenses will cover the 10 previous installations of Office 2010 and 15 previous installations of Office 2007. Despite the fact that there are 15 real installations of Office 2007 for only 10 purchased licenses, we are in compliance since they are covered by the Office 2010 surplus. This is how we realize this in EasyVista: (access: Asset Management> Catalogs > Software catalog > Usage rights tab) 37 easyvista.com Asset Management Company C.3.5. Gap analysis by software model The Gap Analysis report that can be accessed from the menu option Licenses > Potential Savings and the link reports a summary indicating the following for each model regardless of the version: The number of software installations (detected by the Discovery inventory module or entered manually) The number accessible by users (applications related to users) The total number accessible (installed + accessible) The number of licenses purchased (totals for the maximum number of authorized installations) The number of used installations (detected by the Usage module) The number of Standard Builds (number of systems related to standard builds on which the software is present): (access: Asset Management> Licenses > Potential savings > Gap analysis) Note: only software marked as Monitored in the software catalog and having a related license are displayed on this list. 38 easyvista.com Asset Management Company C.3.6. Gap analysis by software version The Gap Analysis report that can be accessed from the menu option Licenses > Potential Savings and the link reports a summary indicating the following for each software model taking into account the version: The number of licenses purchased (totals for the maximum number of authorized installations) The number of software installations (detected by the Discovery inventory module or entered manually) Gap between the number of purchased licenses and the number of installed software. This analysis takes into account covered licenses, which explains why the record corresponding to Visual Basic has a rainy cloud revealing a problem even though the gap is positive: (access: Asset Management> Licenses > Potential savings > Gap analysis by version) By clicking on the Visual Basic line, we observe that most of the versions of the software suffer from a shortcoming that is not covered by another version (in which case the symbol displayed on the VB line would be ). Note: license management is based on a scheduled alert that will be executed at regular time intervals to complete the table of results. 39 easyvista.com Asset Management Company C.3.7. Licenses by servers Some publishers of software for installation on servers supply licenses where the limitation is not expressed as a number of installations, but as the number of processors using the software. For example, this is the case for Oracle, whose licenses are expressed in number of processors. The aim is to manage these licenses not in terms of the number of installations, but by the number of processors, and to inform the client of the usage that is made of these licenses, as is currently the case for licenses having a maximum number of installations. The Processors tab located above the form for an item of equipment, allows specifying the number of processors and cores: (access: Asset Management> Equipment > Inventory > equipment form > processors tab) Note: the number of cores must be the total number. For example, two quad core processors will give a total of eight cores. New types of licenses may be selected for the licenses in the software catalog: The comparison between the number of licenses and the number of processors can be made using the reporting named Control of Server Licenses (Asset Management module, Reporting > Licenses menu). (access: Asset Management> Reports > Licenses > Control of server licenses > ‘by type’ view) 40 easyvista.com Asset Management Company C.4. Rules for software detection This functionality allows detection of the presence of software according to a combination of exe files or the presence of one or more components detected by Discovery. So that the new rules mechanism is active, the scheduled alert named Import software from Discovery must be activated (module Administration, menu Alerts > Scheduled alerts, folder Asset Management > Licenses): Please note activating this alert will empty the table of software! Only the software associated with a detection rule or marked as Monitored at the level of the catalog will be visible on the Installed Software tab located on the equipment's form in Asset Management. C.4.1. Detection via a software package The objective is to improve detection of software packages by overcoming the restriction: 1 software program detected = 1 software program present. Until now, software was detected by the Discovery inventory agent through the shortcut pointing to the main executable. Henceforth, package detection is via the definition of a detection rule from the Detection rules tab in the software catalog: (access: Asset Management> Catalogs > Software catalog >software form > Detection rules tab) In the example above, we notice that detecting a software program depends on the presence of three programs on the workstation: Word, Excel and Powerpoint It is possible to edit the detection rule using the icon visible in the grid: (access: Asset Management> Catalogs> Software catalog> software form> Detection rules tab> > Detected software tab) 41 easyvista.com Asset Management Company …then thanks to the dedicated wizard: Update the detection rule: Software is searched for by completing the fields Type/Publisher/Software then by clicking on . Once the software has been found, we use the button to position it in the list. Only software for which the Monitored box is checked in the catalog may be searched for. 42 easyvista.com Asset Management Company C.4.2. Detection via a component detected by discovery This method may be substituted for or used in addition to the previous method. It consists of using the following page in the detection-rule definition wizard to specify the family and the value of the component that must be used for the search: (access: Asset Management> Catalogs> Software catalog> software form> Detection rules tab> > Detected software tab> ‘update detection rule’ wizard> Next > Next) Note: it is important to check the box located next to the selected line before clicking the button , otherwise the item found will not be added to the list. Note: when several processing rules conflict, the system chooses the one that is the most "inclusive". For example, if Office Standard is detected through the presence of Word, Excel and Powerpoint executables, and Office Pro through the same executables, plus the presence of Access, the system will specify that Office pro is installed, but will not specify that Office Standard is installed as well. 43 easyvista.com Asset Management Company C.5. Standard builds Managing standard builds enables users to define the list of software that should be installed on a workstation depending on its use (a master). Ideally, all workstations with the same configuration should have the same software. The Software to Uninstall and Software to install reports allows comparison between what is really installed on the workstation and what should theoretically be installed. We will create standard build named Advanced. Software belonging to the configuration is added in the Details tab: (access: Asset Management> Catalogs> standard build catalog> Computer Configurations> Advanced form) Relating a selection of equipment to a standard build can be done by setting the corresponding field on the form, or using the Update wizard after selecting the equipment we wish to modify from the equipment list: (access: Asset Management> Equipment > Inventory) Note: only software marked as Monitored in the software catalog may be related to a standard build. 44 easyvista.com Asset Management Company D. Contract Management The life cycle of contracts starts with its signature and is completed by its expiration. Before the expiration date, the contract could be renewed tacitly or terminated with the provision that the notice and renegotiation deadlines are respected. The management of contracts relating to equipment, particularly for leasing or maintenance, presupposes close monitoring of renewal dates, which is facilitated in EasyVista by the presence of alerts giving warning of due dates. End Period of Renegotiation Notic e Start Alert s Signature A good contract management process respects these time constraints. It is the role of alerts that can be installed and triggered in EasyVista to help you to accomplish these tasks within the correct time frames. Moreover, the reports that can be accessed using the Contracts menu allow the fine tuning of the management of payments and renewals. 45 easyvista.com Asset Management Company D.1. Creating contracts The contract creation is done from the menu Contracts > Inventory, using an existing contract catalog. A contract needs to be attached to a reference. The addition of new references is carried out using the contract catalog: A contract may be assigned to an item of equipment in two ways: from the All contracts or Pending contracts tab on the equipment form using the icon from the Equipment > Inventory menu using the Link to a contract wizard (which is the method recommended for assigning several items of equipment to a contract) The attached contract is shown on the Contracts tab. Assets related to contracts are listed using the Assets tab on the Contract detailed form.. The employee who was designated as person in charge of the contract may list the contracts for which he is responsible via the tab Managed Elements of his employee detailed form. As well as equipment, it is possible to associate a contract with licenses or other contracts. 46 easyvista.com Asset Management Company D.2. The other contract menus The Payment Schedule displays, by period, the monthly installments of the contracts in progress. (access: Asset Management> Contracts> Payment schedule) The menu End of Lease Returns displays all equipment that need to be returned by the end of the leasing contracts for the months to come. The restitution date (scheduled end) is defined on the leasing contract related to the equipment. The drill-down layout makes it possible to go down to the detailed equipment level. The Update wizard that can be accessed from the contract list allows prolonging the term of a contract. The menu Contracts > Contract Renewal Decisions regroups the contracts for which a renewal decision is dubious, made or not yet taken. Lastly, the menu Contracts > Renewal Management displays, by date, the contracts that need to be renewed. Note: a scheduled alert allows the automatic transmission of emails before the contract expiration. With this intention, it takes into account the expiration notice. E. Charge back The Charge Back menu displays, by cost center, the total amount of the charge back to be carried out. This amount is calculated using the monthly charge back costs that are defined for each equipment item, contract, software or help-desk action record. You can access this information using the menu option Equipment > Inventory and open the Financial Data tab in the detailed equipment information page. (access: Asset Management> Charge back> Equipment) Through navigation it is possible to obtain the details for the equipment belonging to the cost center. It is also possible to charge back the same equipment to several cost centers by using different coefficients for the distribution of the charge back amount. To use this possibility use the Amount Charge Back tab. 47 easyvista.com Asset Management Company After this is complete, you can go to Asset Management > Charge Back > Equipment to see the results (shown in the screen shot above) The charge back amount defined for the equipment will be distributed between the various cost centers depending on the coefficients defined on the list. This way it is possible to charge back 1/4 of the amount to the cost center Finance and 3/4 to International Sales. The charge back coefficient will then be 25 and 75 respectively. Note: in addition to equipment, it is possible to charge back applications, contracts, actions and services. F. The references of the Asset Management module Acquisition Types: means used to acquire an asset, consumable, service Attributes: List of characteristics that can be related to equipment, locations or departments. Capacities: List of the labels related to capacities (CPU Usage, Disk Space, Memory Usage, Power…) Cost Centers: used to charge back the costs for equipment, consumables and services provided for employees. They allow a detailed follow-up of expenditures for each department that is attached to the cost center Countries: List of countries that can be related to locations, groups, suppliers Critical Level: Critical levels of equipment Currencies: to indicate the currency used in financial transactions Depreciation Rules: list of the different modes of distribution of costs related to the purchase of goods. Employee availability status: statuses that can be attached to employees Functions: List of the employees functions License Schemes: Types of schemes that can be related to the software catalog License types: types of licenses that can be related to the software catalog Main usage: main usages for servers Manufacturers: List of the manufacturers of equipment and publisher names Measurement units: measurement units for attributes Software detection rules: List of rules used for software detection States: List of states that can be related to locations Statuses: Statuses of equipment Supplier types: types that can be related to suppliers (Hardware, Software, Telecom…) Titles: Users titles Types: List of asset types of the Asset Management module VIP Level: VIP levels of employees Warranty types: types of warranty that can be related to equipment 48 easyvista.com Asset Management Company G. More training classes In addition to the Asset Management training, the consulting service offers the following EasyVista training sessions: EasyVista Discovery training: Installation, inventory deployment and the data integration into EasyVista EasyVista Usage training: Installation and use of the Usage module for the management of software utilization EasyVista Administration training: Definition of alerts, reports, import parameters, history settings and views … EasyVista Operation training: Incidents and service request management EasyVista Transition training: how to manage requests for change EasyVista Strategy training: Invoicing, budgets, investment requests EasyVista Extended CMDB/Design training: usage of the Configuration Management DataBase module, for the management of relationships between all components of the information system + impact and tracking EasyVista Project training: How to use the IT Project Management module EasyVista Service AppStore training: how to design enterprise applications 49 easyvista.com