IT asset management - how to do it in Aptien
Welcome to Aptien. We'll walk you through the basics of managing and maintaining your IT assets and other operational information. So that you know what is and is not possible in the system. What you can do and how you can do it. Where it will help you, what it will make easier and where its limits are. Aptien will help with common operational processes, and with your responsibility for managing IT assets. It will enable you to:
- manage and plan the maintenance of IT assets and equipment
- keep track of when and how assets were acquired with attached contracts and documentation
- keep track of key dates for audits, inspections or maintenance of IT assets
- keep an operational overview of all types of IT assets, their location and inventory - who has them and where they are
- manage the issue and accountability of IT equipment - who is responsible for what
- plan purchases of IT assets
- In the system you can see all the IT asset relationships at a glance and online. The system will also allow you to create and manage tasks and activities that arise from IT asset management, or perhaps keep minutes of activities or meetings that relate to a particular piece of property.
What is Aptien?
It is an application for collaboration and communication of people within the company, keeping various operational company records, company administration, task and work management. It's not just an IT management system, it's a kind of electronic filing cabinet. Aptien is also a company intranet where you can communicate with users and employees. Information from different areas is linked in one application. Unlike traditional applications, Aptien is very flexible, adaptable, and can also link IT assets to tasks, allowing you to attach notes and other information so you no longer have to write them on different sticky notes and papers. All in one pleasant environment.
How will you work as an IT manager at Aptien?
As the person responsible for IT operations, you are responsible for keeping track of all IT-related information. In particular, Aptien will help you with practical operational records. It consists of filing cabinets - digital folders - in which you store information. It will help in keeping all the practical information around your assets, coordinating work, activities, documents and other information that relates to the assets. It will also allow you to manage tickets, requests from users, people in the company. And it will also help you to distribute passwords to people.
In your workspace, you'll see an overview of IT asset organizers, as well as other organizers where you share information across the company or someone shares it with you, such as contacts and companies.
Each asset has its own asset card where you can see everything you need to know throughout its lifecycle - when a particular piece of IT equipment was acquired, who is responsible for it in the company, or what service, maintenance or repairs have been performed on that piece of IT equipment. It's designed to keep everything you need to know about the asset in one place. You have documentation, minutes and tasks.
In your IT manager's workspace, you can see
- Computers - you'll use this filing system for all end station type computers, from tablets to desktops
- Phones - all phones or mobile devices are here
- SIM cards - this is an overview of all SIM cards, whether they are used in phones, devices or as IOT
- Software - here you have information about your applications and all the software in your company
- Servers - here are the virtual or physical servers
- Printers - an overview of the printers you rent or buy
- UPS and backup power supplies - this is an organizer for backup power supplies or other electrical equipment
- Certificates - here you have an overview of SSL certificates, tokens or professional certificates
- Other IT assets and equipment
- Contacts - this is a directory of people outside the company
- Companies - a directory of companies. It's a shared organizer across the firm from which everyone draws information about firms. You keep your service providers and IT equipment suppliers here
Basic asset management processes
Here are the basic IT asset management processes that Aptien makes easy for you:
Keeping track of important maintenance deadlines for computers, servers or other IT equipment
Using deadlines and watchdogs, you will keep track of deadlines such as revisions, component replacement, end of contract, end of service or other deadlines that arise from IT asset management. If you want to keep an eye on anything, you can set up watchdogs to suit your needs. Important deadlines take place in tasks - see below.
Recording and monitoring SSL certificate expiration
Use certificate accounting to keep track of SSL or similar certificates and their expiration. You can also store the SSL certificate key itself securely here, for example.
Keeping track of important dates around licenses
The expiration of licenses must also be watched, again using the watchdogs. You set up a watchdog in the License End field in the Software organizer and it will send you a timely notification.
IT requirements and requests, helpdesk
Receiving requests by email is not practical, and special IT ticketing tools for the helpdesk can be tricky to implement. Here you have everything under one roof and when a company uses Aptien for other areas, users don't have to report to another application, but everything is there under one roof.
Issuing computers and other equipment
Issuing and handing over computers is handled using digital or paper handover reports. By keeping track of the computers issued, you can easily keep track of who has been assigned one. This doesn't just apply to computers, but to any IT equipment that you need to keep track of in this way.
Keeping a central record of IT assets, simple CMDB
For each asset, you keep basic information such as its description and location.
Manuals, handbooks or other IT documentation
You can attach any documents, manuals, reports or images as an attachment to each asset.
Distribution of passwords to users
You can maintain system passwords from IT items such as servers, routers, etc. here and securely. Another function is the distribution of passwords to people in the company. Don't want to send it by email, SMS or write it on a bit of paper? Aptien will help get the password to the users in a secure way.
Keeping an operational log and maintenance records of IT assets
If you want to keep an operational log of service intervals on your servers, computers, printers or UPS, you do it in the form of activity logs. These are also automatically attached.
Purchase and maintenance contracts for IT assets
If you need to keep track of contracts or purchase orders that you have used to acquire your IT assets or maintenance contracts, you simply attach a maintenance contract or purchase agreement to the asset. The contract will automatically be associated with it and you won't have to do any complicated tracking later.
Managing the external management of your IT equipment
Does an external company look after your equipment, do you communicate with them, do you need to assign tasks to them and manage their work? You activate an extranet page for the equipment and invite subcontractors to join it. You won't have to send emails that nobody knows about. Your communication with them will be more transparent and traceable, linked to the asset.
Tasks
I'm sure your day-to-day operations present you with situations where you need to create a task - typically taking your computer in for service or performing an overhaul on some of your equipment. You no longer have to deal with such tasks by emailing your colleagues, but the task will automatically be attached directly to a specific computer and you won't have to search for it and search through emails when what happened where.