HAM Mobile App Asset Serial Number Scan Leading 'S'

[ChadO]

Hello everyone.  We are in the process of implementing HAM processes around receiving assets into our stockrooms and then keeping them updated throughout the lifecycle, including using stockroom audits.  One issue we're running into is around scanning bar codes with the ServiceNow mobile app.  For at least some manufacturers, possibly all, when we scan the serial number bar code on the box it gets an 'S' character prepended to the actual serial number.  For example, if the serial number is "ABC123" it shows up as "SABC123" when we scan the serial number bar code.  The problem is, that's not the actual serial number of the device and so our MDM tools will not return "SABC123" but rather the actual serial number of "ABC123".  This will result in a mismatch of assets and so the MDM tool, via Service Graph connectors, will create a new asset instead of matching to the existing one.  Has anyone else run into this and is there any solution to this such that our techs don't have to manually edit the serial number every time they scan a bar code before submitting it into the instance?  That sort of seems like it defeats the point of any efficiencies gained by using the mobile app to scan the serial numbers in the first place.

Note: We don't use asset tags in our environments so that is why we are scanning the serial numbers instead.  We do already have logic in the instance to copy the serial numbers to the asset tag field so that when we scan the "asset tag" in the mobile app it's actually matching to the device serial number.

Any help would be appreciated.  Thanks.

Chad

[Robert _ysakows]

Thanks. We have just migrated from a legacy SN instance where the serial number - asset tag fields were not synchronized, so there is a number of assets where those fields are different. What irritates me in the audit process, is that it creates the assets automatically, without giving an option to choose and pick which should be ignored and which are those which should be created. So I need to be very careful and perform detailed checks in assets fields to ensure no surprises there. It has already created for me assets which did not have the match on the serial nr and asset tag fields... pretty frustrating. Your case with S is really weird, I am not sure if there is a good solution for that...

[Tony K]

Did you ever find a fix for this? Just came across the same issue with leading S character.