Go Mobile with Your Asset Management

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One of the most common things I get asked about when it comes to Asset Management is "How do I work with barcodes?" Until the Geneva release my answer danced around the idea that a barcode scanner is just an input device that can be used to fill in a field with no extra code or you could leverage a partner like MobileReach,   CG4, or AMI to leverage the additional capabilities they provide.

The mobile capabilities in Geneva, though, let you do more with mobile devices (at least Apple iOS) that you already have in your environment. For example, say you were onsite and needed to look up an asset quickly. You could open your computer, log in to ServiceNow, navigate to Asset Management, and do a search. You might be thinking, "There must be a quicker way," and you would be right. At least if your Asset is tagged with a barcode.

First some basics on the mobile interface in the ServiceNow mobile app.

Mobile Modules

The default interface for the mobile app does not display every Module available in ServiceNow. In fact, the only Asset Module displayed is All Assets.

 

What this means is that you might have some other Modules to add to the navigator. This needs to be done in the main interface.

1. Navigate to System Definition > Application Menus.
2. Find and open the Application Menu that contains the Module you want to add, for example Asset.
3. Under the Modules related list, find and open the Module you want to make available in the mobile app, for example Hardware Assets.
4. Under Related Links, click New Mobile Module.
5. Set an Order number.
6. If desired, make adjustments to the filter so a limited number of items display on mobile devices.
7. Click Submit.
8. View the new Module in the mobile app.

Create Favorites

With the Module available, you can make it available as a favorite on the app's home screen.

1. Open the Module and click the star to make it a favorite.
   
2. Give the favorite a name and select a color and icon.
3. Tap Save.
4. Return to the app's home screen to see the new favorite.

Favorite icons also allow for visualizations of the data in the icon.

1. Hold down the new favorite icon until it brings up the favorite's properties.
2. Select Visualization.
3. Select Count Widget or Bar Chart Widget based on what you want to see: a count of the records in the Module or a breakdown into a bar chart by some field, respectively.
   
4. Here the Bar Chart for Hardware Assets is set to group by Model category.
5. Tap Save.

The top four items display as bars in the favorite icon.

Barcodes!

Before you can work with a barcode, there is one setting you or your System Administrator needs to make for the fields you want to enable to scan. A couple common fields to scan would be the Asset tag and Serial number fields. To barcode scan a field, you need to add the Enable Barcode Scanner attribute in the dictionary.

1. On a computer, open a form that contains the field you want to scan. For example, navigate to Asset > Portfolios > Hardware Assets.
2. Open any record, and then right-click the label for Asset tag and select Configure Dictionary.
3. Under the Attributes related list, click New.
4. For the Attribute, select Enable Barcode Scanner.
5. Set the Value to true.
6. Click Submit.

Now in the mobile app, you can scan barcodes to add data or search for records.

1. To add data from a barcode, open a record or create a new record.
2. Tap the barcode icon next to the Asset tag field.
   
3. Then scan away!
   
   
   
4. You can scan various types of barcodes and QR codes, such as those pictured here.
    
5. Tap Save when you have completed the update.

To search for an item by scan, from the list view, tap in the search field at the top of the list. Then tap Scan just above the keyboard.

   

Native scan capability at your finger tips. If you want to play around with some barcodes, I have attached a PDF with some different types of barcodes for you to experiment. The scanner works from the screen as well as a printed version.