How to address end-user requests & skip sourcing - Hardware Asset Management Procurement

[Tom Ksandr]

Hello, I'm having trouble respecting HAM OOTB settings for end-user deliveries of the hardware.

Once the hardware model is published into a product catalog, all of the preconditions are in place, I'm failing to find an answer/idea on how to move forward with my client's requirements.

- let's say you have a 14inch laptop in stock in several warehouses.

- 14inch laptop is available locally as well as in distant warehouses.

- we also have a vendor catalog item in place that allows us to purchase this 14inch laptop 

- OOTB standard request flow + sourcing is set up in the instance.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Scenario 1 consume hardware locally - clear to me
- The user ordering the hardware shares the location with the local warehouse & local IT

- in this case, the sourcing task is generated with an option to consume the asset, once the asset is consumed, default RITM tasks to stage the asset / prepare it & deliver it is generated, so the local IT guy is able to set, prepare the asset and assign it to user XYZ.

Scenario 2 transfer hardware between warehouses to get to the user - clear to me

- the user is ordering hardware from a foreign location requiring a move from a global warehouse to the local warehouse to the user.

- sourcing task is generated, and options to transfer between the warehouses are shown - you are able to transfer the goods from the global to the local warehouse, and once assets are received in the local warehouse - default RITM tasks are generated to stage the asset / prepare it & deliver it from local warehouse to the end recipient.

Scenario 3 purchase hardware from the vendor is required, as no stock anywhere is required - clear to me

the asset is not available anywhere, it's purchased, and once it's received & inward in the system, the default RITM task for the stage the asset / prepare it & deliver it is generated - so again, we are able to prepare the asset and send it to the requestor.

Scenario 4 - not clear to me, does not seems to be covered by OOTB - need help.
- Asset is available in the global warehouse, and we want to ship it directly to the user

- 1st we want to be able to stage and prepare the asset and ship it through RITM tasks - ignoring/skipping the sourcing part.

- there is attribute sourceable, driven by business rules, unfortunately, I'm not able to figure out conditions that are triggering it, or how to change the condition.

[Daniel Slocum]

Hello Tom,

Brainstorming with you here... 

If you are using the Asset plugin you'll want to copy and modify the baseline hardware procurement workflow.  If you are using the Hardware Asset Management product, you'll want to copy and modify the baseline hardware procurement Flow Designer Flow to process differently based on your scenarios.

In one of the first steps, I'd do a look-up of available stock comparing that to the user's location. If there is stock available meeting one of your first 3 scenarios, process the remainder of the workflow/flow as you are accustomed to: your "is clear to me" sections above.  If there is no stock meeting the first three scenarios but there is stock in the global warehouse (scenario 4), process down a new alternate path.

The new path would have no sourcing step. Instead, it would have tasks created against the RITM. If you are a HAM customer, you can have the Flow Designer Flow create those tasks in the Asset Task table (asset_task). If you are using the Asset plugin and not HAM, you can have the workflow create those tasks in the base Task table or you can create a new custom table to support Asset Tasks. 

[nmarek16]

Hi Tom,

I know its been a while but I was wondering if you found anyway to work this scenario in HAM. Our organization uses a similar process and HAM seems to fall woefully short of allowing me to ship assets to customers. 

The local sourcing process works very well, but our customer base is mostly teleworking and rarely on location with warehouses. 

For sourcing assets for new customers, the laptop, and most peripherals are sent from a regional stockroom that handles the nearby states, however for a specific type of asset its always shipped from our central warehouse. 

I actually modified the OOTB sourcing code to update the local asset search to include location parents, therefore allowing me to source something locally (from a regional warehouse) even if its in the next state, but I can't figure out how to use transfer orders to send an item directly from a central warehouse to a customer, or even just to exclude this specific asset type from being sourced and setup an independent workflow just for it. 

[mikereaves]

Weren't the features being discussed here included in the OOTB solution in a recent Platform/Product release?, ...I got the impression that the purchasing task can be bypassed and the request can be sourced from inventory.

Does anyone have the link to the description of the feature and it's configuration?