Hardware order process

[DanielCordick]

Hi everyone,

I have recent;y been given the task to to stream line the hardware order process, As of right now it is pieced together and clunky. I am wondering how others have taken on this task.

How did you deal with ordering hardware for new staff? What about current staff that were due for an upgrade?

how did you build in your request for staff along with the hardware?

any insight is greatly appreciated 

thanks 

[nicskirpan]

Hopefully these make sense within the context of your organization, but here are some basic suggestions:

Cut out the red tape (unnecessary approvals) that happen at the beginning of the request:

1. Often times "Manager" approval is a rubber stamp. Pull a report showing how often a request for new HW has been rejected by a manager, and you'll see you're probably just wasting time asking. If they need insight into the process create a new report to put on their dashboard showing all active asset requests for their direct reports.
2. For new hires, create HW packages (e.g. a new executive will always get a laptop and a mobile device). These should be pre-approved such that an onboarding request automatically triggers the tasks to prep the hardware for the new user before they arrive.
3. For upgrades, find out what the exact requirements are to upgrade and make sure your asset management team is capturing this data in the system. If they can give you the criteria that needs to be met to upgrade HW (e.g. a laptop older than 4 years is automatically eligible), then you can build checks into your workflow to automate approvals

Also, if your users can select specific models that you have in stock you may want to consider using a generic container on the order form (just say "Laptop" instead of providing the specific HW Model). This will avoid people only requesting the "good stuff" and leaving you with a backstock of serviceable but old tech in your warehouse (if you feel bad about giving it to a user, then get rid of it).

Lastly, requesting staff really depends on how you're set up in ServiceNow. Ideally you have PPM and Demand Management, so you can tie requests for new HW, SW, and Services to the Project they're serving. If you're only using ITSM consider using an order guide to request each of the three, then build the RFQ portion into workflow.

Good Luck!