PC Inventory

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Accurate audit information is vital to manage effectively any organisations IT infrastructure. With a constantly changing environment including updated operating systems, software, hardware and new application roll outs, audit information has to be centrally held and managed. For effective technical support, compliance with software licence agreements and maintenance of hardware infrastructure, audit information needs to be accurate, accessible and up-to-date. Richmond PC Inventory plays a key role in ensuring the required information is available when needed.

Overview

Richmond PC inventory allows the automatic scanning of hardware and software information for PCs connected directly to the network. Once collected, the details are stored in your chosen database and can be viewed in SupportDesk.

Collected Information

Core hardware information such as the operating system version, processor type, memory usage, hard disk space is retrieved and stored.

Software is collected from client machines after interrogation for all installed applications that appear within the WindowsT registry.

Software Licence Compliance

With increased legal pressures, an organisation must have the necessary information at its fingertips to prove that it is compliant with its software licence agreements.

PC Inventory enables you to track software usage, check licence quantities and version numbers for installed software for verification against software licence contracts and procurement records.

This ensures there is proper licensing provision required for upgrades or cross grades and also highlights areas that cost savings can be made for example reducing software over-licensing.

Methods of Inventory Gathering

There are three methods for performing a PC Inventory scan.

• Network scan - for scanning a large number of PCs simultaneously.
• Individual PC scan - for a single scan of a PC on an ad-hoc basis, ideal for when details are required for technical support.
• Self-initiated PC scan - used by network administrators in a login script or group policy. PCs will perform a self-scan every time they login to the network. Minimum periods can be set for example not to perform a scan more than once every two weeks therefore reducing the network overhead.

Integration

Once a PC has been scanned, it will be automatically visible within SupportDesk.

Any PC information imported from Microsoft Active DirectoryT will also be automatically correlated to the relevant scanned PC information. This level of integration ensures all information is centrally held, managed and available to all support technicians who require the details to enable them to effectively undertake their duties.

Hardware and Software Spend

Audit information helps to justify IT spend on new hardware and software.

With restricted IT budgets, PC Inventory can be used to highlight the most critical updates required, and the quantity of software licences, or type of hardware necessary to maximise the return on the IT budget spend.

Agent-less Inventory and Auditing

Richmond PC Inventory utilises the WindowsT Management Instrumentation (WMI) to obtain PC information, eliminating the need for client software to be installed on each PC you wish to scan. This enables the rapid deployment of PC Inventory across your network.

Reporting

There are fifteen different reports specifically designed to give graphical analysis of PC Inventory data. The reports range from general PC summaries through to operating system and software analysis using the built in Crystal Reports™ report engine. Ad-hoc reports can be built by customising templates or using specific criteria.

System Requirements

• SupportDesk v6.65 or higher
• Windows™ 2000, XP, 2003
• Pentium class PC
  (1000 MHz or higher recommended)
• Minimum 256 Mb RAM
• Minimum 100 Mb disk space required

Summary

Richmond PC Inventory acts as a central repository for all your inventory data, providing a dynamic method of managing your IT assets.

A free evaluation is provided as part of the SupportDesk trial version, allowing ten PCs to be scanned. To download the SupportDesk trial, please visit www.richmondsupportdesk.com/downloads.

Click here to download the pdf version of the PC Inventory Data sheet (183k)