We squeeze the maximum out of accounting computer technology. Part 1

Properly configured accounting of computer equipment will protect you from infrastructure packs and save dozens of hours of work and personal time. How to achieve such a result, read in this article.

I just want to warn you that everything set out below is not read in best practice books, and squeezing my, sometimes not always successful experience. Therefore, I gratefully accept constructive criticism.

So, let's begin. Why does IT need to keep records of computer equipment? After all, all computer equipment is recorded in the accounts of the organization and data on the equipment is already in the accounting system. Why then distract technical specialists from software development / system administration / equipment repair and load them with “accounting” work?
The fact is that the data collected in the accounting system will not save you from problems, for example, during a virus attack.

“Infecting a computer in a corporate network, raising privileges, gaining access to the administrator’s domain and using one button to stop a company of any size” , this is how the author described the specifics of the WannaCry virus.

To stop this creep, at least you need to know the location of the infected computers . In the accounting system there will be a pantry in which the computer is listed, and the user (but this is not certain). The actual location of the computer and its IP address you will not know.

The more time is spent on figuring out in which corner the infected machine is, the lower the chances of stopping the spread of the virus and the degradation of the infrastructure. As you understand, financial and reputational losses from stopping business processes will be an order of magnitude higher than the cost of maintaining records of IT equipment. However, wannacry is still flowers. There is a threat and more serious ...

Remember the old joke that winter always comes to Russia unexpectedly, so utilities do not have time to prepare for it? A similar trouble with the preparation of the budget for the next year - everyone seems to know about the dates, but for some reason applications for replacement of equipment are submitted at the last moment. And the IT specialist who is responsible for the distribution of the equipment usually remains the last - he didn’t provide for it, didn’t take proper measures, didn’t show perseverance, etc. etc. If a virus attack can bypass you, then the raids due to not being in time the selected technology will definitely fly into your head.

But there is a solution: stop collecting applications for the replacement of equipment. Start keeping records of the parameters by which the technician should get into the upgrade program (for example, HDD capacity, monitor diagonal, printer print speed, etc.). In this case, you will be able to create lists of equipment for replacement automatically from your accounting system. No applications - no problem.

What else will help an established accounting system for IT equipment? You can give an answer to any, even the most tricky question of the management, in 5-15 minutes, and not in “tomorrow in the morning”. For example, the CFO asks: "how many printers are in our storage room, how many are being repaired, how many have users, how many have been disposed of this year, in which departments of the printer are idle?" . If you take into account the life cycle stages of IT equipment, then you will answer all (!) These questions within 15 minutes . Otherwise, you will have to collect data from different sources within 2-3 hours (if not more).

I suppose, with the question "why do we need our IT equipment accounting", did we understand. This is the lesser of two evils compared to a situation where you only have scattered accounting data and raw SCCM reports.

Let's now design an IT accounting system that helps solve the problems outlined above. We will need:

1. define the boundaries of the accounting system;
2. develop a directory of equipment categories;
3. develop a life cycle model;
4. determine the equipment identification rules;
5. develop an attribute model.

Step 1. Determine the boundaries of the accounting system

Do not scatter efforts and try to establish accounting immediately and everywhere. Examine the incident / problem data and find the bottleneck , i.e. equipment groups that give you the most trouble. Begin to adjust the account in these groups.

In my experience, computers and office equipment are most often “stuck in a bottleneck”. Less often, components and consumables (as a rule, they have enough inventory data).

Step 2. Develop a directory of equipment categories

To make it easier to generate reports, each group of equipment must be divided into categories . For example, you decided to adjust the account of the user equipment. We take the group "computers". What categories will it consist of? Personal computer, laptop, tablet, etc. Then we take the next group - “display devices” and divide it into categories. As a result, you will get something like this directory of categories:

Thanks to this division, you can quickly make selections from the database and receive reports both on the “computers” group and on each of the categories of this group.

Step 3. Develop an equipment life cycle model

In order to promptly receive information about the status in which equipment is located, so-called. " Model of the life cycle of the equipment ."

I advise you to start with a simple model and detail it as needed:

In my experience, the fastest way to improve the efficiency of an IT equipment accounting system is to start tracking life cycle statuses. Do not neglect this step!

Step 4. Determine the method of equipment identification

Since you will have to search for and inventory equipment, you need to determine in advance how you will identify the found equipment. I know five methods of identification :

The best way I consider labeling technology labels with a bar code. By the way, in 2013 Yurich wrote step-by-step instructions for making labels . I highly recommend his article to read.

Step 5. Develop an attribute model

Now let's get down to the most important thing - to develop an attribute model. My list of recommended attributes for accounting, with an indication of what they are needed for, is given below. Use it as a starting point when developing your attribute model.

• The common name of the manufacturer and model of equipment . Please note that in the invoice the manufacturer's name and model may be distorted. Try to write down the generally accepted names, so that it is easier to find technical information about the model on the manufacturer's website.
• The nomenclature number , under which the equipment model is entered in the directory of materials of the accounting system. It should be considered for a quick search of the same type of equipment.
• Inventory number assigned to the equipment when registering it. It should be considered to search for equipment in the accounting database. Please note that according to accounting rules, an inventory number may be the same for several devices (for example, a PC, a monitor, and a printer as part of a laboratory setup). In addition, the inventory number must be assigned only to fixed assets, i.e. equipment worth more than 40,000 rubles (more details in PBU 5/01, PBU 6/01). Therefore, the vast majority of computer equipment in your organization may not have an inventory number. Instead, it can be used complex number, for example <pantry number> / <the number of this item registered in the pantry>.
• The accounting number assigned by the IT department when the equipment is accepted for maintenance. In many organizations, it is more convenient for IT service to assign equipment ID to equipment, than to use inventory numbers.
• The serial number assigned by the equipment manufacturer. It should be taken into account in case of warranty repair and as a spare identifier if it is impossible to determine the inventory / nomenclature / accounting number of the equipment.
• The postal address of the building, the name or number of the building (if there are several buildings at the same address), the cabinet number (or the name of the site and the building’s building axes, if it is a production room) Such a set of details will help you find a technique, no matter what location it is in.
• Unit in which the user works, full name and phone user . User contacts are needed to get physical access to the equipment. Division, it will be useful to you for groupings in reports and for access to the manager if the user is unavailable. It is also helpful to know the personnel number and ... the date of the user's dismissal. The personnel number is convenient to build summary reports, if you need to see what other goods and materials are listed for an employee. The date of dismissal will help identify unattended equipment.
  In my practice was a funny case. At a small factory, the head of one of the units for several weeks sought to allocate him a more productive computer. There was no budget for the equipment, so we decided to look for idle equipment in the departments. Two days of searching and a more powerful computer were found ... in the office of this boss, at the next table. The computer remained after the employee was dismissed. That the more productive machine the petitioner did not know. And the IT service was not warned about the dismissal of the user of this computer.
• Technical attributes for which you can make a decision on upgrading equipment. For example, such:

At first glance, there are too many attributes and it will take a lot of time for the staff to keep the accounting system up to date. Let's check it out.

Depending on the interface of the accounting system, it will take 5-10 minutes to initialize each device, and 1-2 minutes to update the data. Suppose you have 350 users in your organization, devices for recording 1,000 units. A year, 20% of the fleet of vehicles is replaced (at the rate of 5 years service life), 10% of the fleet is being repaired and modernized. So every year you will need:

• add 200 new entries to the system (200x10 = 2000 minutes);
• 200 times update the status of 200 new devices (200x2x2 = 800 minutes);
• update the status of 200 decommissioned devices twice (200x2x2 = 800 minutes);
• update the statuses of 100 devices that got into the repair twice (100x2x2 = 400 minutes).

Total you spend 4,000 minutes a year. Let us add another 10% for unexpected movements. We get 4,400 minutes a year or 17 minutes a day. I suppose that these are quite reasonable labor costs for keeping up to date the accounting system for 1,000 units of equipment.

In addition, they can be reduced to 10-12 minutes: technical attributes taken from SCCM, user data from the personnel system. But these are questions of architecture, I plan to reveal them in the second part of the article. Also in the second part I will show how to quickly organize the implementation of the designed accounting system. In the meantime, let's pause.

Please give feedback in the comments. This will help me to reveal more details of your questions during the preparation of the continuation of the article.