Our "asset management" is a Google Sheet and I'm not even embarrassed anymore
Posted by Particular_Ear_914@reddit | talesfromtechsupport | View on Reddit | 13 comments
Started as IT admin at a 200 person distributed company. Asked about our asset tracking system during onboarding.
"Oh yeah, it's in the shared drive. Really comprehensive spreadsheet."
This "comprehensive spreadsheet" has:
- 47 laptops marked as "somewhere in California"
- 12 entries that just say "John's laptop (which John?)"
- One MacBook Pro listed as "probably dead but maybe just sleeping"
- 3 different tabs with conflicting information
- Last updated 8 months ago
Found out we've been paying insurance on equipment that was returned 2 years ago. Also discovered we apparently own 15 monitors but nobody knows where they are.
CEO keeps asking for "better visibility into our IT assets" while I'm over here playing detective trying to figure out if Sarah in marketing actually has 2 laptops or if someone fat-fingered the spreadsheet.
Anyone else managing distributed IT with the technological sophistication of a lemonade stand?
KaiZerPrime_6904@reddit
We were in the exact same boat until we switched to growrk last year. Actually tracks everything automatically instead of relying on people to update spreadsheets that nobody looks at. Night and day difference.
GetSecure@reddit
and management tells you that they want you to focus on AI this year to improve efficiencies.
or we could just stop using Excel for everything.
jooooooooooooose@reddit
And youre also a real estate agent?
InfiniteTree@reddit
Their comments are now hidden 😂
jooooooooooooose@reddit
Oh they hid the post too lol
Unusual-Fish@reddit
Hopefully his company knows someone who can automate their asset management system.Â
https://www.reddit.com/r/growmybusiness/comments/1n6ni3g/clients_complain_my_business_feels_too_automated/
dreaminginteal@reddit
???
binaryhextechdude@reddit
I made the mistake as a very green newbie of seeing a disordered asset spreadsheet and eagerly telling the boss I'd take it on.I grew to hate that spreadsheet.
chriscringlesmother@reddit
More IT departments than you think bud. It’s shocking how little most businesses actually give a shit……until stuff starts going missing that is.
ecp710@reddit
Are your devices managed? If not, that should be step 1. That should help build a bulk of your inventory. If they're already managed (or some/most), you'll probably need to clean up some of the ones that haven't checked in for a while, then hunt them down manually.
Conditional access would help a bit here as well to help make sure everyone is on a managed device. Notify, notify, notify that resources x,y,z will only be accessible on a managed device starting on x date. If someone can't work you'll be hearing from them. Obviously this requires buy in from management, but shouldn't be a hard sell since you're killing 2 birds with 1 stone.
To find whatever remaining devices are out there, work with finance. Pull invoices, emails, orders, whatever to try and track stuff down. Also, don't be afraid to reach out to users. "Hey John, I saw you got this laptop originally, then you got a replacement, what happened to the old one?". It's manual and it sucks but devices for 200 users isn't that bad.
Last but not least, once you're done this exercise, develop policies/processes for hardware/software procurement and asset management. The sooner you get this under control the easier it will be, but you need to keep on top of it. I mention software as well because if you're planning on being there a while/the company is growing, I guarantee you that will come up in the future.
There's a million ways to go about this, with varying levels of cost. These are just a few ways that I've found successful in the past.
WasSubZero-NowPlain0@reddit
Our asset management is "if it's online, you can find it, maybe".
Particular_Ear_914@reddit (OP)
Lmao
Harry_Smutter@reddit
Ours used to be like that when I started my current position in 2016. Come late 2018/early 2019, we finally got an asset management platform. The spreadsheet was such a nightmare because my old boss kept whacking months worth of data >.>