With a rise in Remote work conditions, manual physical asset verification has become complex and inefficient. Furthermore, with attrition and dependency on physical labor, timely physical asset verification has become almost impossible to achieve. 

The need for Asset verification

All enterprises conduct periodic physical Asset Auditing of their IT Infrastructure through every financial year. Organizations need to maintain proper records of assets and refresh the records at reasonable intervals. The audit is done to prevent discrepancies in the books caused due to corrupt ITAM/SCCM agents or even the absence of actual physical assets. To summarize Traditional physical asset verification seems to be challenging and inefficient due to the following reasons:

∙       Availability of Skilled employees in geography

∙       Untimely Rescheduling

∙       Travel time between location

∙       Downtime for end-users

∙       ITAM Teams are short Staffed

Yet, the right set of tools clubbed with an efficient ITAM can overcome the aforementioned challenges and minimize the physical asset verification burden.

Mitigating challenges with ITAM

Even with the presence of various ITAM and SCCM tools that already report the asset details, discrepancies seem to appear in the books. This may be caused due to corrupt ITAM/SCCM agents, and/or the absence of physical assets calls for physical verification. Traditionally, the scope of a physical asset verification agent revolves around a few pointers, namely: 

ITAM tools such as ServiceDesk Plus from ManageEngine, InvGate Service Desk, or Alloy Software ITAM help ITAM staff to manage end-user computers and ensure compliance management. ITAM tools do not possess the capability to physically verify a computer’s hardware. Not being able to verify hardware details can result in downstream losses. They can be caused by missing assets in the verification process or if done inaccurately or untimely. 

With recent developments, ITAM tools now have the potential to trace most of the hardware components attached to a computer when deployed over an end-user computer. ITAM tools can also be paired with a mobile application to read/scan the barcodes, and when done right, can also verify hardware components.

As per the recommendation of Gartner for the new age ITAM, it is essential to record data from various IT hardware components, but lack efficiency as it is normally done in the presence of ITAM team members over a remote session. Not so surprisingly, these challenges can be mitigated with the Anakage Platform.

New Age ITAM and physical asset verification

The Anakage platform works alongside existing ITAM and ITSM tools optimizing them to the full potential, including scope to verify hardware assets. Anakage platform comes with state-of-the-art self-help and proactive modules.

Agentless Physical asseet Verification done by users themselves: The Anakage self-help module helps IT to send a link from OnPrem server or certified Source to end-users users asking them to self declare their Assets periodically. Users can click on the link to download a lightweight Collector Exe which picks relevant Machine information and users can punch in the physical serial number and submit this completing a physical asset verification in less than a minute saving tons of cost and non-compliance to their organization.

Enable Asset Verification in Anakage’s Proactive module: The proactive module is an agent deployed over the end-users computer which proactively works on rules set and fixes end-user computers before users notice them. The proactive module sends a pop-up message on the screen with machine details and asks the users to punch in the Serial number and submit after verification. Upon failing to complete the verification, users could be taken out of the domain and be declared non-compliant as per company policy. The proactive module on-screen message comes with a limited number of snooze options. The end-users can use snoozes if they are in between important tasks.

On closing end

By using the right tools, the right way one can optimize business and IT processes. Important compliant tasks such as manual physical asset verification have become as easy as making one click by the user, not requiring additional ITAM team resources. New age tools like the Anakage Platform are here to put the Smart tech in Smart Working. 

Let us show you how easy it is to have all your IT assets verified and much more. Click here to learn more or here to connect with us.