What is your preferred method of asset tracking for iPhones?

[johnbrandt]

I am in the process of creating an order guide that will help our users transfer or port their mobile numbers to the company account. It also allows them to request a new line of service. Part of the order guide allows them to select the specific model of iPhone they'd like to order (e.g. iPhone 7 Gold 128GB - Verizon). I have begun to import a record into the Hardware Models table for each variation of iPhone. There are a total of 84 different iPhones across iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus and the 3 carriers we support (AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon). It looks like I'll need to create a rule base for each iPhone model.

One reason why I think this will be nice in the end, is that it will allow our mobility manager to know exactly which iPhone model to choose as the order guide makes it very plain and easy to see. The requester can also see the exact model iPhone they are selecting. This will hopefully cut out any potential confusion between the two parties. We can also create assets for each model and track its lifecycle, etc.

Am I crazy? Is this common practice? Or am I making this more complicated than it should be?

[laurencetindall · Accepted solution]

When I would track phones I would keep the Serial Number in the asset record (alm_hardware) table, and then I would insert additional information like; Carrier, IMEI # and Color in the configuration item that was connected to that particular phone.

That way you don't need to create a different model for each and every iPhone Model variation. Also it's useful to track Apple iPhones by the "A" model number, they look like this; A1533, A1532 etc...

This Apple model number is very useful as it specifies which frequency the phone runs on; GSM or CDMA

Hope this helps

[johnbrandt]

This does help. Thank you. I will start down that path. This will save me the hours it will take to define all the different rule bases for the order guide and make my catalog much simpler.

[wgwarburton]

So we are having similar questions around how do manage the line of service associated with an iPhone or MIFI device.   Any help would be great.   The info above is great.  

[johnbrandt]

Are you looking for a way to track the mobile phone contract? Is that what you mean?