Asset tracking stickers

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Zerowig@reddit

Asset tagging devices is standard practice for any organized organization.

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This is right, and the piece OP is missing: the case for physical tags isn't tracking what you already know. It's what happens when the person who knows leaves. "I know what equipment is issued to who because I do it" works until you're on PTO, change roles, or the company grows past one person handling it. Physical tags turn tribal knowledge into a system that survives turnover. The other angle: auditors doing fixed asset verification want to see a label on a device that matches a record. Your Intune dashboard doesn't satisfy that requirement.

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harley247@reddit

Do serial numbers not exist anymore or something? And if you look at any Dell or Lenovo device, they arleady have QR Tags on them.

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angrydeuce@reddit

Well, if its an hp, its probably written in Grey lettering on a silver chassis and I have to use my phone to take a picture and zoom even when im holding the thing in my hand because HP is fucking stupid. Plus the serial is on the bottom of all laptops and you know how much end users enjoy physically moving... We asset tag everything because its easier to just get a 6 digit number then a phonetic "1...H as in halapeno (what??), uhhh...8, M as in Mancy...K as in Knight..." Yeah, asset tags all the way. But qr codes, nope. I actively train people *not* to scan any qr codes. We would not deploy asset stickers with QRs.

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MBILC@reddit

Do you not have inventory software that can already tell you devices a user is using / logged into? So you do not have to ask a user "what is your device name?"

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angrydeuce@reddit

Yes we do, however that can be a challenge when someones account does not exactly match what you would expect it to be and can cause issues. For example, Azure domain join using FirstLast instead of FirstInitialLast, and oh your name isnt Amy in Azure its Amylynn, or their name is Chuck but their email is Charlie and their given name is Charles, or theyre on a computer using a service account and cant figure out that *that* is the name we need, not *their* name... Asset tags are completely unambiguous. But we can look up devices by dozens of different parameters so if tag is worn we have options.

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harley247@reddit

When I'm helping an end user, I don't ever look at the bottom of their laptop to get this information. That is only used when I physically need to take it back with me for repair. Everything else is managed in our asset tracker, by user, hostname, serial, mac, etc. When someone submits a ticket, I already have all the information about the PC they're sitting at before I even approach them. But if I need it, our image automatically puts the s/n in the about system dialog without having to flip the laptop or needing admin privileges.

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RotundWabbit@reddit

Just spit on the serial, it'll glisten and you can see it perfectly.

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william_70@reddit

Well a lot of times those serial numbers can run off on laptops or at least partly so or be so small that you can’t read them without a magnifying glass or glasses

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MBILC@reddit

Why not just use a proper inventory management system that already collects device serials, hardware specs, primary logged in user? Intune, et cetera... Why add a sticker, how often do serial numbers wear off the bottom of laptops these days, let alone desktops??

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NoyzMaker@reddit

It helps if they also ever get stolen. Hard to pawn a laptop with a "Property of the Federal Government" sticker on it

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bobdobalina@reddit (OP)

These re in autopilot. Locked bios, encrypted and their hardware hash is married to the tenant.

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NoyzMaker@reddit

I get it. Just telling you the reasons why these asset stickers exist but you obviously have your heels dug in on this stance.

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MBILC@reddit

Which can just be heated up and removed anyways...

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NoyzMaker@reddit

Not for all but yes there is always a way.

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Dizzy_Feedback7025@reddit

This is right, and the piece OP is missing: the case for physical tags isn't tracking what you already know. It's what happens when the person who knows leaves. "I know what equipment is issued to who because I do it" works until you're on PTO, change roles, or the company grows past one person handling it. Physical tags turn tribal knowledge into a system that survives turnover. The other angle: auditors doing fixed asset verification want to see a label on a device that matches a record. Your Intune dashboard doesn't satisfy that requirement.

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mattberan@reddit

The way you post implies that your current situation is perfect. So **why do they want to buy and place stickers**? If there is no reason to: don't. If you're still losing equipment OR it's not following processes because of lack of desire to update records and automation can fix that... Well - I'd add SOMETHING. QR, Bar, RFID - SOMETHING so that people can identify, count and move assets through the process. It might not get a laptop mailed home after a thief nabs it - but it also might...

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bobdobalina@reddit (OP)

I've been here 20+ years and have only ever "lost" equipment to damage... I've had like 3 RMAs in the past 10yrs this isn't "for IT" processes...it's for asset tracking for planning a business continuity disaster recovery plan for insurance auditors. 50% of my user base is remote and all purchases go through me.

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mattberan@reddit

Then I would think it would be WAY more cost effective to simply implement a process that your auditors will agree is sufficient and forego the stickers completely. Good process + Good data = way better than a sticker to most of those people anyway.

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hellofairygodmotha@reddit

What do the QR codes link to? Who will be managing that? Have you explained this is taken care of in Intune and adding a second layer of asset management will only get messy if it is in 2 different areas? What exactly do they need that they can’t get from Intune? You can export all of the devices if they need that or create a power shell script that will update a spreadsheet every day if needed

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Zerowig@reddit

Intune is not a hardware asset management solution. For one, not all tracked hardware assets can even be in Intune.

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MBILC@reddit

OP noted they have an MDM/RMM system that already tracks all of this.

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Zerowig@reddit

Right. And I’m saying anyone that thinks MDM’s and RMMs can fill the role of a hardware asset management system, would be wrong. That’s fine though. Asset Management isn’t really a technical function. This is a Sysadmin sub, so it makes sense OP and others here don’t understand this.

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bobdobalina@reddit (OP)

I understand some...tell me if 50% of my users are nation wide remote, what good does a sticker do when we have 1 IT guy and 1 asset guy with a "special" QR scanner? Its crazy ...okay if he wants to say auditors are going to scan all the onsite equipment in an audit..? its for a disaster plan....like if shit burns up or a huricane wipes us out.

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digitaltransmutation@reddit

This is often an initiative that comes from the finance department rather than any technical need. They want to know what the company has purchased, how much it costs, and how long it has been in service for so they can calculate depreciation. Where I am we document everything that costs more than $100. I like intune but it doesn't seem to have a way to get info about monitors, door controllers, cameras or other non computer doodads. We also prune MIA devices from intune and entra for security reasons, but that isn't the same as actually the same as getting rid of them, the company still owns them and they need to be tracked.

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bobdobalina@reddit (OP)

It's specifically for a disaster recovery plan.

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bobdobalina@reddit (OP)

They're adopting AssetPanda or one of its competitors ...they haven't quite chosen yet but one of these will be the solution. The project manager in charge will be managing it as I understand... Yea I can create all kinds of imaginable automation's

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Hollow3ddd@reddit

Do you actually go around and physically scan these PCs? If not, that isn’t necessary?

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bobdobalina@reddit (OP)

Our sales teams are nationwide. I'm as. one man IT department

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Hollow3ddd@reddit

I mean, it would work if someone goes around and scans them. As a note, you need to make sure you print them out with the right ink or they rub right off with heat. Bottom laptop isn’t a good place for them unless you ensure there is a good clear plastic coat above the ink after printing. A few inventory systems like lansweeper and Freshservice has QR codes associated with assets. No need to actually scan them unless one drops off. Prob good for on site office admin to task out. A sticker is only good if you require and enforce scanning. Or else it’s just a useless sticker.

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SetylCookieMonster@reddit

There is definitely still a case to be made for asset tags. They are useful to quickly identify assets, to retrieve lost assets (and shows auditors your org has a process in place for this scenario), and to mark each asset as having been added to your IT asset management database. Because not every asset has a serial number, or even not one that's easy to access, asset stickers let you tag everything consistently.

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william_70@reddit

I really think asset tags are needed often when something fails somewhere like first thing is to try and determine what device it is. Especially if this is say a community device or general piece of equipment like a router at a remote office. Also if you use asset tracking software this can help facilitate giving hr access to it and assist in the recovery of company property. Some people have hr hand out or ship equipment to users.

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Mackerdaymia@reddit

Don't know how big your organisation is, but at some point you'll look up a device and Intune will tell you it's registered to Person X. So you'll try and contact Person X but you'll be informed that they left the organisation months ago and after digging around their old device is in a draw/being used by an intern/nobody knows. And then you'll realise why asset tagging and tracking (outside of your own knowledge and that of Intune) is important.

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bobdobalina@reddit (OP)

They're in autopilot other users are not permitted by policy. they're specifically assigned to the users and can only be enrolled by those users. When when an employee is terminated, HR alerts us and we have a process to attend to

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davy_crockett_slayer@reddit

Asset tags via stickers on devices is standard practice.

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MBILC@reddit

For laptops/desktop these days can all be done digitally and most ticket system integrate into any known system to pull asset information for said user, assuming people log into said devices with their work account. Now monitors and such, sure, maybe need something but this should also be tracked a point of deployment, sounds like this company may of lost track of items at some point and now finance or another department wants a full inventory done.

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davy_crockett_slayer@reddit

Most enterprises I've worked at uses physical tickets. Makes it easy to scan for asset databases. They would throw the stickers on tables, chairs, monitors, etc. Even on the room itself (door frame) so you would know the assets that are supposed to be inside the room. This was for a school board with 25K+ staff and students.

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NoyzMaker@reddit

QR codes can be useful for scanning inventory to transfer things. This is pretty common with any asset management tool. Especially for end users submitting a ticket via their mobile device they can just scan the QR code and it pushes all pertinent data in to a ticket for submission. Or a walk up tech can scan the device and it takes them to the asset history of related issues.

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whitoreo@reddit

What asset management software do you use?

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NoyzMaker@reddit

We use ServiceNow but seen similar patterns in other tools.

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MBILC@reddit

HaloITSM ties into Intune and associates any devices the user has logged into using their work account, I presume most support systems do that these days and tie into most known MDM/RMM systems, so little reason to require a physical QR code... And OP noted they have an MDM/RMM system already in place, so this is purely theater...

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no_your_other_right@reddit

If it's not written down somewhere you don't already have "tracking". "I know what equipment a user has because I sent it to them" is not asset tracking. This is standard practice.

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bobdobalina@reddit (OP)

Its literally written in the RMM database we can pull live reports.

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MBILC@reddit

This when there are many software solutions, many of which companies already have (Intune for example) all of this info exist already and associates users with devices they have logged into.

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SysAdminDennyBob@reddit

Why would you care? My laptops already have stickers on them from the factory. The serial number is on a sticker. It has an Intel vpro sticker, and a Windows sticker. Plus, this hardware will only be around for 5 years before I yeet it onto a pallet in the storage room. It's simple busywork, whatever. Pay me. If you give me $$$,$$$ a year and want me to peel stickers all day, sign me the fuck up. Cattle not pets.

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bobdobalina@reddit (OP)

Good question. Mostly beacuse of my initial reaction that it'll mean I now need to go back to touching all equipment. Even just handing it to the asset manager for sticking on his stickers before shipping it to remote users. He's calling sales people and scheduling them to come to the office for him to stick stickers on their tablets and laptops.

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Beneficial-Gift5330@reddit

BC you use things other than laptops and having a standardized asset tagging system is way easier than managing 15 different types from 12 different vendors.

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skylinesora@reddit

Because people enjoy doing work that's productive and enjoyable. Busy work peeling stickers is the opposite for many of us

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SystemHateministrate@reddit

We have constant issues of not getting power supplies for laptops returned. Manager had us spend dozens of collective manhours tagging, getting the equipment signed for, and then scanning and naming these forms. Hated it the entire time and kickstarted my job search. And no, the power supplies are still not being returned. With the time we wasted on this project, we could've bought a brand new power supply for 50+ laptops.

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skylinesora@reddit

Yup, we don't track accessories. It's a waste of time and a huge waste of money. The amount of power supplies we lost over the years cost a lot less than the amount of hours it would cost itemizing and tracking them... and still not even getting them back

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kona420@reddit

Laptops, desktops, and monitors already have burned in serial numbers that you can retrieve digitally, and on most enterprise equipment it's barcoded on as well. The only way I'd be on onboard is if we were baking in a service URL tied to that primary identifier.

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Javlin@reddit

> We already have tracking.... Nope. You do. The company doesn't. You really want to die on this hill? Buy some asset tags...

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bobdobalina@reddit (OP)

They bought a thermal transfer printer for this and are having remote sales people come to the office to put them on the equipment...I find this crazy...no im not going to fight it to death I was just hoping to find a reasonable argument against touching everything already very traceable within our MDM/RMM.

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dlongwing@reddit

Tell them you already have stickers on all the laptops and they only need to track other assets like monitors. Point them at the factory default stickers if you're challenged on this, and then export a live report of asset and ownership from your existing systems. Pitch it like you're saving him a ton of time and work. "The great news is this is already done for all our computers and we only need to track devices that aren't in the system.

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Omnia-Manage@reddit

Completely agree, if your tooling is already doing the heavy lifting, stickers are just theatre. The real problem is usually that the data exists but it's scattered across Autopilot, Intune, your RMM and nobody has a unified view, so management reaches for physical solutions because they can actually see them. We had the same frustration internally and ended up building something to pull it all together, it syncs from your RMM and MDM, unified asset register, compliance and device health all in one place. Been testing it for a while now and it's working really well. Just starting to open it up to others if anyone's curious: [omnia-manage.co.uk](http://omnia-manage.co.uk)

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Few-Office-1111@reddit

Why not use the serial numbers?

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whitoreo@reddit

Our serial numbers are black letters and numbers on black tape. They are nearly impossible to read.

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Nakenochny@reddit

Asset tracking is often a requirement for state and local taxes, the organization is required to pay taxes on each item every year, and if an audit is done and your org is found to be lagging on tracking/paying taxes a big fine is often levied. We just had to do this recently. So this likely has little to do with IT.

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Hobbit_Hardcase@reddit

There's already a sticker with a unique number on it. You can even set the Computer Name to include it.

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RCG73@reddit

This is a communication issue. Find out the root cause problem that the company (or person) is trying to solve. If Intune can solve it to their satisfaction Yay. If not find out why not and adapt. Sucks but such is the nature of the beast. Just be happy they didn’t put you in charge of the qr codes

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RedJets@reddit

What asset tracking system will you use?

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Beneficial-Gift5330@reddit

If you’re not doing asset tags I guarantee you you’re not managing the hardware assets properly. Tagging is part of the crawl phase for implementing HAM

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