Local types of assets (Assets and Consumables) - managing the Hardware Models

[janglabas1]

Hi All,

I'm facing the following scenario:

we have assets (laptops) and consumables (keyboards) that are ordered based on approved models (multiple models of laptops, keyboards and keyboard+mouse combos).

In most countries we have the same keyboards layout, however some countries (i.e. Germany) have different keyboard layout on both - laptops as well as external keyboards. We have more than 20 laptop models + number of consumable models in place. We don't have hardware model normalization module enabled. 

I need to ensure that:

1. We use/order only approved models (both consumables and hardware assets)

2. The keyboards are matching the local requirements (hardware is ordered globally)

I've tried to search on a web what's the standard way to handle such situation - are we able to break down the model into some sort 'sub-models' or do we need to create a separate model for each country (which would make it unmanageable as we would have hundreds models to manage).. or is there any other solution that would work?

Any suggestions?

Kind regards,

Jan

[Fred Jean]

So you are talking about 2 models (for the same number) then. That wouldn't work with Discovery (I guess a random model would be attached not taking the keyboard into again), and normalization would create the same display name for both models.

[Premankit]

I believe i was talking about one model with two separate model code based on country. I believe few of hp laptop has one product model code in one country but different in latin america. In that case we ended up creating two catalog for them and visibility was control from catalog as they would be two separate models. Discovery do take account of product code. I believe it does

[Fred Jean]

Yes but then you have different model numbers there is no issue.

I'm in the case of Dell laptops that have the same model number whatever the country/keyboard layout

[Ed Laar]

Hi. In my opinion there are 2 options to cover the scenario where Assets are slightly different like a different, country specific keyboard:
1) Create a Product Model for each specific laptop model (ie each laptop<>keyboard configuration has it's own Product Model

2) Use only one Product Model but use an Asset attribute to determine the difference (ie each laptop has the same Product Model but a different country or keyboard attribute)

I suggest to follow the manufacturer in this: If different Product Models are used follow this. If Manufacturer Product Models only differ regarding to the configuration specifics (like Dell Lattitude xyz_Germany) I suggest to follow option 2.

In both options it is needed to tune the operational processes in a way that country specific laptops arrive at the requesters. Using option 1 this can be done on Service Request level, using option 2 this can or better should be done on Service Request_Task level.

Grtz,

Ed 

[Fred Jean]

Hello,

Option 1 wouldn't work with Discovery and Normalization

Option 2 would work to adress the need to know the keyboard layout of a given asset, but then it would not not help for Stock rules, Transfer Orders and Procurement