Catalog Items vs. Consumables
Adam_Dzyacky
Product Owner Contributor Monkey ✭✭✭✭✭
I'd be very interested to know specifically how people are making use of AM within their respective deployments with regards to the presumably heated debate of "is this a catalog item or a consumable?" And maybe debate is a strong word here, thorough discussion perhaps? As Wally Mead pointed out in his awesome AM How To videos - Catalog Items are something you want to keep specific tallies on (i.e. Serial Number) and Consumables are really all about quantity and less about their individual instance. It's with those two definitions I've always been quick to rationalize the following:
Consumables:
But what about a computer monitor? RSA tokens? It seems their are certain items that can go either way. Which somewhat leads into what I'd say is the pro and con of ITAM (at least for me) - it's whatever you/the organization wants to define it is. But of course, certainly open to I'm missing some other fundamental premise here which makes these lines more divisible.
With all of the above said, I'm more than eager to hear people's thoughts on these two basic concepts and the ideas you've used to rationalize where an item falls within your organization.
Consumables:
- mice
- keyboards
- display adapters
- surge protectors
- laptops
- desktops
But what about a computer monitor? RSA tokens? It seems their are certain items that can go either way. Which somewhat leads into what I'd say is the pro and con of ITAM (at least for me) - it's whatever you/the organization wants to define it is. But of course, certainly open to I'm missing some other fundamental premise here which makes these lines more divisible.
With all of the above said, I'm more than eager to hear people's thoughts on these two basic concepts and the ideas you've used to rationalize where an item falls within your organization.
2
Comments
Most companies I've worked with go with a unit cost threshold approach. ie anything over £100 is a HWA with a catalog item and anything less is a consumable.
However, in my opinion, if you make a rule like this, you'll end up breaking it anyway so it's better to review each item on a case by case basis and ask 'Do I need to track who has which specific unit by serial number or do I just need to know who has one and how many are left in the stock room?'
The other consideration is anything where you want to track specific units for security purposes such as RSA tokens so you know who is using which item or so you can demonstrate that units have been disposed of properly if needed.
What do others think?
If you have a policy that a hardware asset is anything over $1,000 then everything under that is a Consumable.
Personally, in most organizations that I come across I explain it that consumables can also be called "Non Serialized Assets"
A mouse does not have a serial number and therefore is a consumable.
A RSA Token has a dollar value and definitely has a serial number, so it is worth tracking as an Asset.
But, it's totally up to you and your organization.
I tend to think something like an RSA token would be considered a catalogue item but looking into the structure of AM, there is no remaining count for catalogue items. This is where my hesitation would be to go all the way to catalogue item. I would want to know the count of my remaining tokens so I'm guessing that is where your dilemma lies.
When it comes to monitors, I can think of it both ways but I would lean toward consumable since you can simply track how many monitors were deployed to the end user. That should be enough to track trends other than following the serial numbers (at least I would hope).
- Consumables – these are assets that you want to know about, however not fully track the lifecycle of. Items such as keyboards, mice, headsets, and so on. You want to know how many you have, maybe even who has individual ones, and when to order new stock, but aren’t interested in tracking the individual consumable itself
Hope this helps...Merle
I can get you access to one of our cloud trial environments, then you can screenshot to your heart's content
Cheers
Joe
Install and config guide already exists, now for part 2.
Yes pls! this would really help us in the implementation of the HW side of AM
Have something move in this subject?
Also i would like to ask how is the best way to solve problem with ordering printer toners. Now user choose printer and than color. Next warehouse service have table with printers and toners and choose right toner.
I would need that when user choose eg. Black toner for HP printer in warehouse they will have toner model eg. Black toner XFse3.
I was thinking to use Consumables but its not fit.
Mayby something related to Catalog Items or Extend Printer Class?