Inventory Management (Laptops/Desktops)

[Kelemvor]

Howdy,

We currently use a sucky excel spreadsheet to maintain inventory information for all our laptops and things at work. I'm wondering what everyone else might use that's a lot more elegant and useful?

We mainly have Dell Laptops and Microsoft Surfaces that we need to keep standard info like Service Tag, Warranty Info, Model Number, etc. We also need to be able to maintain info such as the Computer Name, who it's assigned to, notes on if things broke and got replaced, etc.

We need to be able to enter in information as we receive the equipment and before we ever use it so we know what we have in storage as well as what's deployed out to people.

Preferably something that's free would be great. Could be something online or something we download. I'm open to pretty much any ideas right now.

We have the whole Microsoft System Center suite so if something in there can do inventory tracking and include all the info we need, that'd be great.
Thanks!

 

[IGemini]

Database software like Microsoft Access or LibreOffice Base is what you're looking for. Should be able to start running off your existing spreadsheets if you chose. Thing is the learning curve is higher than most other office software.

 

[Kelemvor]

Well, I'd rather not have to create a whole database from scratch. Are there nice templates out there that I could use?

Otherwise I was thinking about trying Spiceworks but have never used it for inventory management type stuff before.

 

[cabri]

Database software like Microsoft Access or LibreOffice Base is what you're looking for. Should be able to start running off your existing spreadsheets if you chose. Thing is the learning curve is higher than most other office software.

Google link showing multiple options
YouTubes and other resources.

Access makes it fairly easy to set on up.
Main issue will be that # people using it at one time; It is best to have only one person at a time that is allowed to make updates.

 

[cabri]

Well, I'd rather not have to create a whole database from scratch. Are there nice templates out there that I could use?

Otherwise I was thinking about trying Spiceworks but have never used it for inventory management type stuff before.

The templates exists; but they will probalby want to be customized.

If you already have a spreadsheet; access can pull in the spreadsheet and setup the tables.

Then have a good time developing the front ends; everyone will have their own preferences.:hmm:

 

[Mushkins]

We use Spiceworks. Help Desk ticketing, inventory management, syncs with AD, and more.

And it's completely free.

 

[sonitravel09]

Syspro is amazing...You should really consider upgrading your ERP...

 

[TurboCooler]

Howdy,

We currently use a sucky excel spreadsheet to maintain inventory information for all our laptops and things at work. I'm wondering what everyone else might use that's a lot more elegant and useful?

We mainly have Dell Laptops and Microsoft Surfaces that we need to keep standard info like Service Tag, Warranty Info, Model Number, etc. We also need to be able to maintain info such as the Computer Name, who it's assigned to, notes on if things broke and got replaced, etc.

We need to be able to enter in information as we receive the equipment and before we ever use it so we know what we have in storage as well as what's deployed out to people.

Preferably something that's free would be great. Could be something online or something we download. I'm open to pretty much any ideas right now.

We have the whole Microsoft System Center suite so if something in there can do inventory tracking and include all the info we need, that'd be great.
Thanks!

http://www.filemaker.com/

If you can drag and drop you can make the database for yourself and share it with others and can even run on mobile devices.

 

[xSauronx]

We use Spiceworks. Help Desk ticketing, inventory management, syncs with AD, and more.

And it's completely free.

this is a great suggestion. do not do inventory manually. it is 2015 and that is a silly idea. take advantage of free products, existing products you have, or automated scripting to maintain consistency and avoid errors. why would anyone suggest starting a DB or spreadsheet from scratch in this day and age is beyond me. doing manual inventory for more than a few devices is bound to lead to errors.

i want to reiterate this: it is 2015. do not do manual technical tasks if you can avoid them.

spiceworks is great and can also inventory other network items [printers, switches, etc]. it will keep software inventory as well as hardware inventory, and allows for a lot of customizable reporting. All that *and* you get a ticketing system and some monitoring.

do you have managed Anti Virus? its likely that it already records inventory information on the hardware anyway. [ours is used as a quick reference on hardware info at times]

do you have remote control/management software [sccm, intune, goverlan, dameware, etc]? it probably can do reporting on any devices with the agent installed. [we use goverlan to do a fair bit of reporting]

anyway, spiceworks really is a great suggestion. dont run spiceworks on your pc, itll bog it down during scans and reporting. id suggest a VM and you will be happy with it