Asset Inventory

Asset inventory

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Introduction

Asset inventory can be described as a set of business practices that include financial, contractual and inventory operations with the aim to boost the management lifecycle and tactical decisions in the information department in an organization (Buzacott & Zhang, 2004). The products termed as assets in this case are hardware and software equipment. Asset management is divided into three categories in an organization as tier 1, tier 2 and tier 3. Asset data collection is tier 1, data intelligence is tier 2 and lastly lifecycle management is classified as tier 3.

Small business hardware asset list

A hardware list is important for a small business to keep the asset information. we need to consider the scope, size and important focus of the business. Hardware components are the tangible assets that facilitate software functionality (Michalski, 2009). A hardware asset list is classified as tier 1 asset type. Hardware components are used in collection of data hence the classification to the group. Hardware list facilitates the information collected in the organization.

To help the organization in disaster recovery, the organization needs a system to collect users’ details. So the hardware system components for the organization are processors, CPU, monitor, output devices such as printer, input devices such as mouse, pen pointer, keyboard and touch screen. Surveillance cameras are used for security purposes (Michalski, 2009). Microphones used for voice conference while telephones to be used for communication n the organization. These are the basic hardware lists needed in the small business organization. The organization has to keep the hardware name, serial number, model number, its cost and leased from or date of purchase in the hardware inventory.

Software list for the organization

Software inventory is very significant for a small business to restore or resume operations. Information of products, hardware equipment and user in the firm are kept with software for future use. In addition to that, it enables tracking of products in the company, maintenance and cost incurred on the products. To keep track of software, software inventory should have software version, name, recent details, lease date and lastly expiry date. In the case of disaster recovery there is a chance that data may be lost, this necessitates data backup (Buzacott & Zhang, 2004). Most organizations use cloud computing to back up their data. To do this the organization should select and categorize data in order of importance. This way the organization can retrieve the data easily in case of any disaster.

After the disaster, the organization needs software for instance operating systems like Ubuntu, Windows, virtual machine or Macintosh to resume operations (Michalski, 2009). ISO reader is needed for creating images of the backup data. Inventory software such as backup database or excel sheets. Solar winds software is one automated to collect IT information assets such as system updates or software.

Conclusion

To conclude, hardware and software inventory is important for any organization to incase of any disaster. Keeping the inventory enables the organization to resume operations easily in the aftermath. The inventory should be kept of all the list of the products in the organization.

References

Buzacott, J. A., & Zhang, R. Q. (2004). Inventory management with asset-based financing. Management Science, 50(9), 1274-1292.

Michalski, G. (2009). Inventory management optimization as part of operational risk management.