Asset Management and the Service Catalog Working Together
Initially, the tool manufacturer GEDORE, based in Remscheid, simply wanted to speed up the deployment of its approximately 600 computers. The result was a comprehensive asset management process. To achieve this, Frank Heisig, IT Infrastructure Team Leader, and Jan-Felix Kind, IT Service Catalog Manager, combined Consulting4IT’s Mobile Asset Lifecycle Management (MALM) with Matrix42’s Service Catalog—albeit not quite as the developers intended.
Asset management isn’t for beginners. “You don’t see the benefits until it’s up and running,” says Heisig. “Before that, all you see is the work.” That’s why, although GEDORE purchased the entire Matrix42 suite about four years ago, it initially implemented only the Service Desk, as that was expected to pay for itself quickly.
To install the approximately 600 computers for GEDORE employees in Germany, the team—which at the time consisted of just four people—initially used “True Image” from Acronis, relying on images and paper checklists. The tool was easy to use, but the process was very time-consuming. They could barely manage to deliver three to four computers to customers per week, reports Jan-Felix Kind. This was all the more critical given that GEDORE had decided a little over two years ago to lease its computers—with a 36-month term. The administrators would barely have finished the installation before the next update was already due. Heisig’s dry comment: “It just didn’t add up.”Instead of signing a lease agreement with significantly longer but less economical terms, the team leader recalled that he already had an installation automation tool in-house with Empirum from Matrix42: “At least that saved us the first ten minutes per PC.”
Already entered when placing the order
Unfortunately, the productivity gains were offset by the fact that the process was more labor-intensive than the imaging method. “There are few people who have fully mastered this,” Heisig noted: “Anyone can reinstall existing computers, but setting up a new computer requires a bit more experience. Unfortunately, however, this is the norm under the lease agreement.”
The infrastructure specialist found a way out of the dilemma during a training session hosted by Matrix42 Platinum Partner Consulting4IT: “We spoke with colleagues there who are doing something similar.”
As other clients of the Waldbronn-based consulting firm confirm, the training sessions are not only designed to expand knowledge but also to facilitate networking with IT specialists from other companies.
Those colleagues used Empirum to fully automate hardware installation. “We adopted it, but made a few changes,” Heisig reports: “For example, we didn’t want the system to decide on its own which computer to install automatically. That’s why we very quickly chose MALM from Consulting4IT.” The software was developed by the Matrix42 partner as an add-on. It allows all components of the IT environment to be scanned using mobile devices and managed in the Matrix42 Suite’s asset management system without having to enter serial numbers.
Automatically booted via PXE
The plan was to use MALM for incoming goods inspection and then trigger the installation process. But data collection actually begins much earlier. GEDORE has agreed with its hardware supplier, Dell, that Dell will send the information from the delivery note to the customer as a data record and configure the computers’ BIOS accordingly. “The investment pays off for us,” notes Heisig. The devices can already be added to asset management—with the status “in transit”—as soon as they are shipped by the manufacturer. When they arrive, the workflow implemented in Matrix42 determines, after scanning the barcode, whether it recognizes the device. If so, the status is set to “Ready for Installation.”
Asset labels and tracking forms are also generated automatically. The program required for this was written by Moritz Duisberg, a first-year apprentice. Heisig says, “Our employees don’t necessarily need to have attended university; they receive solid technical training here, provided they have the necessary understanding and skills.” The installation is fully automated. It takes the administrators a full three minutes; that’s the maximum time it takes to open the box, remove the device, and connect it to the network. The asset management system knows what needs to be installed where, and the computer is provisioned with the operating system (currently Windows 10) and associated software via PXE during its first boot.
Confusion is almost impossible
“Actually, there’s no need to go to the machine anymore; instead, we could install it at any of our locations without any IT intervention,” says Kind. The scan with MALM is essentially just the trigger that starts the process. “MALM is the interface between the physical and digital worlds—or between business and technical information.” To deploy the software, the system administrators have prepared workshop carts from the in-house tool manufacturing department. There, they connect up to twelve computers at once, wait until the installation is complete, and then store the devices individually in separate drawers, where they await deployment. Of course, only after they have been scanned and their status set to “Available.”
Scanning the barcode is primarily for verification purposes. “The goal is to avoid as many errors as possible,” Heisig explains. If someone makes a mistake now, it will be noticed by the next step at the latest, because the workflow won’t accept the device.
Mistakes used to happen frequently, explains Heisig: “Every quarter, we buy large quantities of computers that look very similar and have nearly identical serial numbers. Today, we have tracking slips on every computer showing the current status, and all the information is printed in a machine-readable format via barcode.”Just as new devices arrive every three months, old computers are also replaced quarterly. The lessor notifies us three months in advance which devices need to be returned. So it’s important to know where each machine is located. “Anything we can’t find, we have to report as lost and pay for,” explains Heisig: “That’s pretty uneconomical.” Once every computer is recorded in asset management, these problems are a thing of the past.
Assignment to end users is also largely automated. Anyone who needs a computer orders it through the Service Catalog. The catalog forwards the request to the respective supervisor. Once approved, the software assigns a device to the user—naturally, the one that was installed first, meaning it has been in storage the longest.After the user is notified, the computer is patched a total of three times to ensure it is truly up to date. “Otherwise, the patching would only happen once the computer was on the user’s desk, and they certainly wouldn’t be happy about that,” explains Heisig: “We definitely don’t want our customers—that is, our colleagues and employees at GEDORE—to have a bad experience with the new hardware right from the start.”
Real-time inventory as an immediate goal
MALM enables continuous inventory tracking of hardware assets. To do this, field service employees simply need to scan all devices each time they enter a room. MALM could even use an NFC (Near Field Communication) chip to automatically detect the location and room number, thereby displaying, for example, all devices that should be there according to asset management records. However, the move toward continuous inventory tracking via field service is still a long way off at GEDORE. “Thanks to remote management, we’re out in the field too infrequently for that.” Moreover, after introducing MALM, he initially had entirely different concerns. With asset management, he essentially had to start from scratch.
“The master data was in such poor shape that on our first attempt, 15 to 20 percent of the devices were unidentified. But that also showed us just how important the project was. Monitors, in particular, are often replaced without the administrators even knowing about it.” To get the inventory in order, GEDORE hired local high school students before implementing MALM to record all devices and their locations. “Thanks to MALM, we were able to streamline the process so much that we could conduct an inventory of an entire location with just one summer intern. Now we have state-of-the-art asset management,” says Heisig happily: “All we need to do now is make sure that everyone who walks into an office quickly scans the devices.”
Who needs which license—and why?
Building on its asset management system, GEDORE now plans to introduce license management as well. “We know what we have, but not what we need,” says Heisig. “And so we end up buying more licenses than necessary.” Of course, one could follow the “rule of three”: one license per computer, meaning a new computer means a new license. But eventually, you reach a point where there’s already a license available even for new computers, because software licenses often outlive the computers themselves. Furthermore, the team leader adds, it would be helpful to track who requests and receives which licenses—and, above all, what they need them for. That’s why GEDORE recently posted a job opening for a license manager. Matrix42 has its own module for license management. MALM provides it with the physical information. “Without valid asset data, there’s no clean license management,” Heisig knows. The license numbers are imported and automatically assigned to the computers.
Test for a seamless process
As Heisig admits, however, there are still a few parts of the process that haven’t been fully tested: “When we return the leased equipment, we have to wipe the data first. We’ve already established this deletion process in such a way that it shouldn’t cause any problems when we return 150 computers at once—which will happen in about a year. It works for the few devices we’re currently replacing; the big test is still ahead of us.”
According to GEDORE’s guidelines, a computer at the end of its lifecycle must first be taken offline for two weeks before the workflow can classify it as “ready for disposal.” Often, for example, users still need to access the contents of the old computer shortly after a transition. “But I want to have to touch the computer as little as possible,” insists Heisig. That’s why all PCs should be identifiable without a lengthy search. When the returned PC is put into storage, a tracking slip is automatically generated and printed in MALM after the scan, which can be affixed to the PC; the script was created by the trainee Duisberg. The system administrator therefore only receives a prompt to connect the PC after the lockout period has expired. If they confirm the task, the PC is automatically and securely wiped and removed from Active Directory and Empirum.
Every month, a report is automatically generated listing all deleted PCs. It can be used directly as a return list. This ensures that no one forgets to remove scrapped or returned PCs from fixed assets, the domain, or Empirum. “Thanks to MALM, we were able to streamline the process to the point where we could conduct an inventory of an entire location with just one summer intern. Now we have state-of-the-art asset management,” explains Heisig.
Comprehensive Service Catalog
When a user returns their old computer, they almost always receive a new one. This handover process is currently being mapped within the system. There are, of course, certain data and programs that the user wants to transfer to the new device. To facilitate this, Heisig and his team have created a checklist—within Matrix42’s own Service Catalog, which they are essentially repurposing for this purpose. The user checks off what they will still need in the future. The necessary “services” are automatically executed based on this list. “Actually, the Service Catalog was supposed to be just a kind of service accelerator for us,” Heisig reflects: “So we initially viewed it purely from a technical perspective; we weren’t aware of the business advantage at all at first.” That has clearly changed: “When you use the Service Catalog this way, you can create the asset and have the booking information included right away. That means less effort for everyone, more transparency for the user and the cost center manager, and far fewer errors overall.” With the creative use of the Service Catalog, GEDORE is thus closing the final gap in the process from “user should receive” to “user returns the device.” The drive structure, the assignment of permissions on network drives, and the onboarding of a new employee were also implemented using the catalog tool. After the employment contract is signed, the HR department initiates the process—the rest happens automatically.
IT can finally get to work
This takes a huge load off the IT department. It no longer has to deal with routine tasks that keep it from focusing on more important matters. For example, the HR department receives a questionnaire that it must complete, and the automated system behind it creates a user account or updates the user’s master data.
Heisig comments: “The HR department now handles the work itself without even really realizing it. In the past, we first had to get approval from HR and then implement everything manually afterward. In reality, the effort for HR was the same.” Sometimes it’s just good to stray from the paths laid out by the manufacturer. Heisig and Kind got the initial spark for their clever solution from Matrix42 partner Consulting4IT. And that was a lucky coincidence: “We had a different partner before, but they didn’t have time for us when a problem arose,” Heisig sums up: “Consulting4IT made clever use of this opportunity. And it wasn’t until afterward that we realized what we’d been missing before—namely, expert process consulting.”
About GEDORE
From wrenches to complete workbenches: Since 1919, GEDORE Werkzeugfabrik GmbH & Co. KG, headquartered in Remscheid, has been manufacturing tools to the highest quality standards. The company is now represented in 70 countries and, with more than 16,000 different tools and approximately 2,300 employees worldwide, generates annual sales of nearly 200 million euros. The company name is an acronym for Gebrüder Dowidat Remscheid. A descendant of the company’s founders, Karen Dowidat, is still part of the three-member executive board.