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Users Guide
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Contacting Us If you need technical support for this product, contact Customer Support by email at support@remedy.com. If you have comments or suggestions about this documentation, contact Information Development by email at doc_feedback@bmc.com. This edition applies to version 7.0 of the licensed program.
Contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Best Practice and New icons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 About the BMC Remedy IT Service Management Suite. . . . . . . . . . . 12 BMC Atrium CMDB 2.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 BMC Remedy Asset Management 7.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 BMC Remedy Change Management 7.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 BMC Remedy Incident Management 7.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 BMC Remedy Problem Management 7.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 BMC Service Level Management 7.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Audience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 BMC Remedy IT Service Management Suite documents . . . . . . . . . . 15
Chapter 1
Contents
Impacted areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Blackout schedules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Roles and their tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Application administrator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Approver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Asset analyst . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Asset manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Consolidated service desk staff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Cost manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 IT director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Purchasing manager. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Receiving personnel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Requester or submitter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Service manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Chapter 2
Getting started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Starting Asset Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Using the Asset Management console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Using the quick links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Using the flashboards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Searching for CIs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Broadcasting a message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Changing datasets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Performing bulk updates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Creating reminders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Modifying your application preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Other consoles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Overview console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Definitive Software Library console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Purchasing console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Approval console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Receiving console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Chapter 3
4 Contents
Users Guide
Working with CIs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Overview of a CI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Using a sandbox dataset for CI data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Creating CIs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Using the navigation pane links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 Paging a person or an on-call group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Using email . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Creating a blackout schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Adding additional data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Viewing a notification audit of a CI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Viewing a CMDB audit of a CI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Using the CI Relationship Viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Creating relationships in a topology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Using network topologies to diagnose problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Relating CIs in a network topology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Chapter 4
Contents
Changing the status for a schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 Creating outage information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 CI unavailability life cycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 Working with returns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 Adding return information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 Updating impacted areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
6 Contents
Users Guide
Approving the purchase requisition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 Modifying rejected purchase requisitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 Working with purchase orders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 Searching for purchase orders. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 Completing a purchase order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 Placing a purchase order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 Resending a purchase order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 Canceling a purchase order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 Generating reports from the Purchasing console . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 Receiving and returning purchase items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 Receiving items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 Returning purchase items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 Returning purchase items to be replaced . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 Returning purchase items from a CI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Chapter 7
Contents
Chapter 8
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Overview of asset accounting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 IT roles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 The charge-back cycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208 About cost centers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208 About charge-backs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 About time periods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 Providing accounting information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210 Providing purchasing information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210 Working with costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212 Viewing costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 Adding costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 Modifying costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216 Removing costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216 Working with depreciation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 Providing depreciation information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 Viewing depreciation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221 Modifying depreciation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223 Specifying other tax-related values Working with charge-backs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Viewing charge-back entries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228 Adjusting charge-back entries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230 Generating charge-back reports and invoices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232 Generating charge-back reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233 Generating charge-back invoices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238 Viewing and resolving process messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242 Closing the current time period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Chapter 9
8 Contents
Users Guide
Viewing inventory locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252 Relocating CIs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253 Reserving and using inventory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
Chapter 10
Reporting
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Generating reports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258 Generating a report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258 Using qualifications to generate a report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260 Generating a report using saved qualifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263 Using predefined reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264 Predefined reports for Asset Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
Appendix A
Contents
10 Contents
Preface
The BMC Remedy Asset Management 7.0 Users Guide describes how to use the BMC Remedy Asset Management application. Asset Management is one of five BMC Remedy IT Service Management applications. The BMC Remedy IT Service Management Suite (BMC Remedy ITSM Suite) includes: The BMC Remedy Asset Management application. The BMC Remedy Change Management application. The BMC Remedy Service Desk solution (which includes the BMC Remedy Incident Management application and the BMC Remedy Problem Management application). The BMC Service Level Management application. The applications run in conjunction with the BMC Remedy Action Request System platform (BMC RemedyAR System platform) and share a common database. All five applications consume data from the BMC Atrium Configuration Management Database (CMDB) application.
Preface
11
12 Preface
Users Guide
13
An incident is any event that is not part of the standard operation of a service and that causes an interruption to or a reduction in the quality of that service. Normal service operation is the operation of services within the limits specified by Service Level Management (SLM). For more information, see the BMC Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0 Users Guide.
14 Preface
Users Guide
For more information, see the BMC Service Level Management 7.0 Users Guide.
Audience
Asset Management is intended for the following IT professionals: Application administrator Approver Asset analyst Asset manager Consolidated service desk staff Cost manager IT director Purchasing manager Receiving personnel Requester or submitter Service manager
Audience
15
You can access application Help by clicking on Help links within the application.
Title Document provides Audience Format
ITSM Configuration Quick Start Start with this reference card to quickly install and configure applications in the ITSM suite. BMC Remedy Action Request System 7.0: Concepts BMC Remedy Action Request System 7.0: Installing BMC Atrium CMDB 2.0 Common Data Model Diagram BMC Atrium CMDB 2.0 Common Data Model Help Concepts for using the BMC Remedy Action Request System. Procedures for installing the BMC Remedy Action Request System.
Administrators Print and PDF Administrators Print and PDF Administrators Print and PDF
Hierarchical diagram of all classes in the Administrators PDF CDM, including unique attributes and applicable relationships. Description and details of superclasses, subclasses, attributes, and relationships for each class. Administrators HTML
BMC Atrium CMDB 2.0 Information about CMDB concepts and Executives and Print and Concepts and Best Practices Guide best practices for planning your BMC administrators PDF Atrium CMDB implementation. BMC Atrium CMDB 2.0 Developers Reference Guide Information about creating API programs, C and Web Services API functions and data structures, and a list of error messages. Help for using and configuring BMC Atrium CMDB. Information about installing and configuring BMC Atrium CMDB, including permissions, class definitions, reconciliation, and federation. Administrators PDF and programmers Users and Product administrators Help Administrators Print and PDF
BMC Atrium CMDB 2.0 Help BMC Atrium CMDB 2.0 Installation and Configuration Guide
BMC Atrium CMDB 2.0 Javadoc Information about Java classes, methods, Programmers API Help and variables that integrate with BMC Atrium CMDB. BMC Atrium CMDB 2.0 Master Index Combined index of all books. Everyone Everyone
HTML
BMC Atrium CMDB 2.0 Release Information about new features and Notes known issues.
16 Preface
Users Guide
Document provides Information about using BMC Atrium CMDB, including searching for CIs and relationships, launching federated data, reporting, and running reconciliation jobs.
Audience Users
Print and BMC Remedy 7.0 Approval Server Topics on installation and configuration Users and administrators PDF Guide for Users and of the Approval Server, how to use the Administrators Approval Server, and understanding the approval workflow. BMC Remedy IT Service Management 7.0 Configuration Guide BMC Remedy IT Service Management 7.0 Installation Guide Procedures for configuring the BMC Remedy IT Service Management applications. Administrators Print and PDF
Administrators Print and Procedures for installing the BMC PDF Remedy IT Service Management applications and solutions: BMC Remedy Service Desk solution (BMC Remedy Incident Management and BMC Remedy Problem Management), BMC Remedy Change Management, and BMC Remedy Asset Management. Help for using BMC Remedy Asset Management. Everyone Product Help Print and PDF
BMC Remedy Asset Management Information about known issues in each Everyone 7.0 Release Notes release of BMC Remedy Asset Management. Also provides a list of new features included with the application. BMC Remedy Asset Management Procedures for using the BMC Remedy Everyone 7.0 Users Guide Asset Management application; includes new features and overview. BMC Remedy Change Management 7.0 Help BMC Remedy Change Management 7.0 Release Notes Help for using BMC Remedy Change Management. Everyone
Information about known issues in each Everyone release of BMC Remedy Change Management. Also provides a list of new features included with the application. Procedures for using the BMC Remedy Change Management application; includes new features and overview. Everyone
17
Document provides
Audience
Information about known issues in each Everyone release of BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management and BMC Remedy Service Desk: Problem Management. Also provides a list of new features included with the application. Help for using BMC Remedy Incident Management. Procedures for using the BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management application; includes new features and overview. Help for using BMC Remedy Problem Management. Procedures for using the BMC Remedy Service Desk: Problem Management application; includes new features and overview. Procedures for configuring the BMC Service Level Management application. Everyone Everyone
BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0 Help BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0 Users Guide BMC Remedy Service Desk: Problem Management 7.0 Help BMC Remedy Service Desk: Problem Management 7.0 Users Guide BMC Service Level Management 7.0 Configuration Guide
Everyone Everyone
Administrators Print and PDF Administrators Product Help Administrators Print and PDF PDF
BMC Service Level Management Help for configuring the BMC Service 7.0 Configuration Help Level Management application. BMC Service Level Management 7.0 Installation Guide BMC Service Level Management 7.0 Release Notes Procedures for installing the BMC Service Level Management application.
Information about known issues in each Everyone release of BMC Service Level Management. Also provides a list of new features included with the application. Everyone
BMC Service Level Management Help for using the BMC Service Level 7.0 User Help Management application.
Product Help
18 Preface
Users Guide
Title BMC Service Level Management 7.0 Users Guide BMC Remedy 7.0 Task Management Administrators Guide
Document provides
Audience
Procedures for using the BMC Service Everyone Level Management application; includes new features and overview. Procedures to configure Task Management.
Note: This guide also includes steps to
configure seamless authentication between BMC Remedy Change Management and the other components of BMC Remedy Change and Configuration Management (CCM).
19
20 Preface
Chapter
This section introduces you to BMC Remedy Asset Management, which lets IT professionals track and manage enterprise configuration items (CIs) and their changing relationshipsthroughout the entire CI life cycle. The following topics are provided: About BMC Remedy Asset Management (page 22) Installing and configuring BMC Remedy Asset Management (page 23) Whats new in Asset Management (page 23) Roles and their tasks (page 28)
21
Users Guide
23
Users Guide
The product categorization fields correlate directly with the CI data fields in the BMC Atrium CMDB.
25
Important: For information about creating categorization data in Asset Management using the Application Administration console, see the BMC Remedy IT Service Management 7.0 Configuration Guide.
Companies and their locations in Asset Management 6.0 were categorized using Region, Site, Department, Building, and Floor. In Asset Management 7.0, locations are now categorized as Company, Region, Site Group, and Site. Location data is defined in the Company and Site configuration forms.
Figure 1-2: Location Categorization area
Location information is specified at the company level. To the user, the value in the Company field on a CI determines what selection data appears in the Location lists and fields.
Users Guide
Enhanced tools
The following Asset Management tools are new or have been enhanced from the previous version of Asset Management. For more information, see the following sections: Getting started on page 33 Leveraging the other CI features on page 91
Table 1-1: Enhanced tools
Description Available from the Asset Management console, this feature can be used to print CI records or reopen the home page. Available from the Asset Management console, this feature can be used to view CI relationships in a topology. Available from the Asset Management console and from a CI record, this feature can be used to track the work performed on a CI. Available from the Asset Management console or from a CI record, this feature can be used to create general notifications. Available from a CI record, this feature can be used to modify what search criteria is used by default on the Asset Management console to search for CIs. You can also modify your preferences so certain information appears by default on the Overview console. Available from Asset Management consoles, this feature can be used to access your preferences on how the consoles function by default when they are opened, for example, set search criteria. Available from a CI record, this feature is used to communicate information about the current CI.
CI Relationship Viewer
Work Info
Broadcast
Application Preferences
Paging System
Email System
27
CI unavailability
You use the CI Unavailability feature to track the actual down time of a CI. The outage life cycle has been updated to support additional status changes. For more information, see Creating outage information on page 115.
Impacted areas
Changes or updates to CIs can affect more than one company, location, or organization. You specify which areas are impacted by a specific CI on the Impacted Areas tab on the CI Information form. For more information, see Updating impacted areas on page 121.
Blackout schedules
You use the Registration for Shared Time Segment form to create times when the current CI will be available or unavailable. This is known as a blackout schedule. You can schedule a blackout to occur once or to recur. For more information, see Creating a blackout schedule on page 79.
This section contains the following topics: Application administrator (page 29) Approver (page 30) Asset analyst (page 30)
Users Guide
Asset manager (page 30) Consolidated service desk staff (page 31) Cost manager (page 31) IT director (page 31) Purchasing manager (page 32) Receiving personnel (page 32) Requester or submitter (page 32) Service manager (page 32)
Application administrator
Application administrators use the Asset Management configuration forms in the Application Administration console to: Modify permissions and functional roles. Configure assignment rules. Define bulk CI reorder levels. Delete CIs duplicated during the reconciliation process. Configure the default depreciation method for a specific CI categorization. Configure who gets notified when a CI is set to a specific status. Configure whether a CI is down or up depending on its status. Configure license management rules. Configure the priority of a CI unavailability record based on the unavailability class (Incident or Change), and type (scheduled or unscheduled). Configure the approval process for configurations. For information about configuring Asset Management, see the BMC Remedy IT Service Management 7.0 Configuration Guide.
29
Approver
Approvers use Asset Management to approve purchase requisitions that have been submitted by an IT requester. An approver can also approve configurations. An approver can be any person in your organization.
Asset analyst
Asset analysts use Asset Management to create, track, and manage CIs. The asset analyst role might include the following tasks: Creating, searching for, and modifying CI records. Adding additional details, and relating other items to the CI records. Assigning a person or group to a CI. Performing bulk updates. Creating maintenance or audit schedules for CIs.
Asset manager
If you are the asset manager, your role most likely includes creating and maintaining business contract data that is associated with CIs. Your role requires an overall view of the CIs for which you are responsible. In addition, some of the tasks an asset manager must perform include: Creating support, warranty, lease, maintenance, and software contract and license information. Relating the contracts to the applicable CIs. Maintaining the contract data. Making sure that customers are renewing or renegotiating their contracts. Managing inventory. Creating purchase requisitions. Reconciling CIs and marking duplicates for deletion.
Users Guide
Cost manager
Cost managers work closely with the asset analysts and use Asset Management to review cost information and prepare periodic charge-back and cost recovery reports.
IT director
If you are an IT director or manager, your role focuses on tracking the CIs and contracts in your organization and their costs. An IT director might perform the following duties: In many organizations, the finance department is responsible for tracking costs and calculating the total cost of ownership (TCO) for CIs. IT directors need to have access to this type of data to manage, calculate, and reduce the TCO for their CIs. IT directors and managers typically generate reports based on the state of the CIs in their department, business unit, or the appropriate cost center. Asset Management includes several predefined reports designed to help monitor the CIs in an organization. Some of the predefined report types include asset counts and changes, contract information, payments due, cost reports, asset depreciations, network topology, and purchase orders. It is also possible to generate reports to extract data for a specific date range.
31
Purchasing manager
Purchasing managers use Asset Management to maintain relationships with suppliers, place purchase orders with suppliers, and track those orders to fulfillment. Purchasing managers modify purchase requisitions, provide pricing for items, and place orders with suppliers. Purchasing managers who are not part of the IT organization might have access only to the Purchasing console, which allows access to purchase requisitions and purchase orders.
Receiving personnel
Receiving personnel use Asset Management to confirm that the correct items were received from the supplier. These persons are responsible for receiving and securing equipment, reconciling the line items of the purchase order with the packing list or other documents, and ensuring the quality of the materials received.
Requester or submitter
IT requesters can be asset managers, members of the service desk, or other IT staff, and use Asset Management to request IT equipment for purchase. IT requesters create purchase requisitions, modify their own purchase requisitions, and use Asset Management to search for purchase requisitions to check the status of their requests, for example, if the purchase requisition is still pending approval or has been approved.
Service manager
Service managers use Asset Management to create service objects used for interpreting business problems, for example, cost of unavailability of services to a business area.
Users Guide
2
Getting started
This section introduces you to BMC Remedy Asset Management and describes how to start the application. It describes the Asset Management console and some of its features, some of which are common across the other BMC Remedy IT Service Management applications. This section also introduces the other consoles in Asset Management. The following topics are provided: Starting Asset Management (page 34) Using the Asset Management console (page 35) Other consoles (page 50)
33
authentication string, click the Options button, and type this information in the Preference Server and Authentication fields.
5 Click OK. Several messages might appear during the login process.
Note: If the link does not appear, it means you do not have permission to access the Asset Management console, or Asset Management is not installed. Contact your administrator.
where:
<web_server> is the fully qualified name of the BMC Remedy Mid Tier system, specified in the format server_name.company.com. <port> is an optional port number, which is needed if the web server is not
installed. For a list of supported browsers, see the compatibility matrix at:
2 Enter your user name and password, then click Login. 3 When the IT Home page opens, click the Asset Management Console link.
This section provides information about the following tasks that you can perform in the Asset Management console. Using the quick links on page 36 Using the flashboards on page 37 Searching for CIs on page 39 Broadcasting a message on page 41 Changing datasets on page 45 Performing bulk updates on page 45
35
Modifying your application preferences on page 49 For information about another major task that you can perform in this console, see Adding work information on page 92.
Description Create or search for CIs. For more information, see Creating configuration items on page 61. Create bulk items and search for bulk items, non-bulk CIs, or CIs in inventory. For more information, see Managing inventory on page 247.
Manage Contracts
Create or search for support, warranty, lease, maintenance, and software license contracts. For more information, see Contracts and software license management on page 179.
Create new or manage existing configurations. Also use to check inventory and create purchase requisitions. For more information, see Using the Configuration Catalog on page 123. Manage cost center and charge-back processes. For more information, see Costing and charge-backs on page 205. Perform bulk updates to CI and people information. See Performing bulk updates on page 45. Create or modify maintenance, audit, and review schedules. For more information, see Creating a schedule on page 109. Create or search for purchase requisitions and purchase orders. For more information, see Requisition management on page 145. Open your People Profile record. For more information, see the BMC Remedy IT Service Management 7.0 Configuration Guide.
Manage Configurations
Manage Costs
Purchasing console
My Profile
Users Guide
Description Modify your console or Overview console preferences. For more information, see Modifying your application preferences on page 49. Create reminders for yourself or other members of your organization. For more information, see Creating reminders on page 48. Generate reports on CIs, contracts, and so on. For more information, see Reporting on page 257.
Reminders
Reports
Other quick links might appear below the Other Applications area, depending on your permissions and what other ITSM applications are installed. For example, you might see quick links for accessing the following features: Overview (Overview console) Incident Management Change Management Problem Management Service Level Management CMDB
37
All. PRIORITY_5 is the lowest priority, and PRIORITY_1 is the highest priority.
Figure 2-2: Computer Systems by Status flashboard
The chart displays the information you selected from the Priority list.
4 Click on any part of the chart to drill down to the CI records that have the
click Search. Results matching your search criteria appear in the table. The Company field in the Search Criteria area is also used to provide information that appears in the Broadcasts table.
39
BMC Remedy Asset Management 7.0 Figure 2-6: Search Criteria area Select search criteria from these lists to see updates in the CI and Broadcast tables.
4 Using the buttons and the values from the Keywords and Fields lists, build
your search qualification. Select the information in this order: field, operator, keywords. For example, the following qualification returns all CIs where the urgency was not defined.
'Urgency' = $\NULL$ 5 Click Select.
The qualification you built appears in the Advanced Search field on the Asset Management console.
6 Click Search.
Users Guide
Broadcasting a message
This section describes how to view broadcast messages. While viewing broadcasts, you can modify the message (if you belong to an authorized authoring group), create a new broadcast message, and under some circumstances (when viewing the message from the current record) relate the broadcast message to the current record. When viewing a broadcast from either the Incident Management console or the Incident form, you can create a new incident from the broadcast. If the broadcast was created from a problem investigation, CI (configuration item), CI unavailability, or another incident, the application asks whether you want to relate the new incident to the originating record.
To create a broadcast, you must have the functional role of Broadcast Submitter. See the BMC Remedy IT Service Management 7.0 Configuration Guide for details.
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BMC Remedy Asset Management 7.0 Figure 2-8: New/Modify Broadcasts form
Required fields appear in bold on the Broadcast Details tab. CompanySelect the company to which this broadcast pertains. Only users with access to this company will see the broadcast. If you select Global from the Company list, the broadcast is sent to everyone. The Company field is mandatory. If you complete the other location fields, however, you can indicate a very specific part of the company. For example, you can specify the site, organization, or department. SubjectA short description of what the broadcast is about. Broadcast MessageThe text of your message. Broadcast TypeSelect a broadcast type from the list. Broadcast Start Date and Broadcast End DateTo start the broadcast now, click in the Broadcast Start Date field, and press ENTER. To select a date from the calendar, click the Browse button next to the field, then use the calendar that appears to select the date on which the broadcast is to start and the date on which you want it to end. You can also specify times of the day using the Time feature at the bottom of the calendar. Broadcast Originated FromThis field is completed by the system. The contents depend on where you are creating the broadcast. If you broadcast from an incident, this is set to Incident.
42 Chapter 2Getting started
Users Guide
Broadcast Originated From IDThis field is populated by the system, but only when you create a broadcast from within a record. If you create a broadcast from the main console, the field appears disabled. View AccessSelect Internal if you want the broadcast visible only to members of your organization. Select Public if you also want the broadcast visible from the Requester console. NotifySelect Yes if you want a broadcast notification automatically sent to an individual or group. If you select Yes, an Email button and the Notify Support area appears. Use the Manual Email button to manually send an email about the broadcast to a person or group. When the Email System form appears, enter the recipients email address in the Internet Email field, then click Send Email Now. Use the Notify Support area to indicate the group you want to notify of the broadcast. You must complete all three fields, Support Company, Support Organization, and Support Group. The notification is sent at the time and on the date specified in the Broadcast Start Date field. PrioritySelect a priority level for the broadcast. The choices are Low, Medium, and High.
4 To add an attachment to the broadcast message, right-click inside the table
and select Add from the menu. The Add Attachment dialog box appears. Use this to indicate the file you want to attach. Click Open to attach the indicated file. You are limited to one attachment for each broadcast.
5 If you want members of another group to be able to modify the message,
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You can indicate another group, or click Close to dismiss the dialog box.
6 Click Save.
To view broadcasts
1 You can view broadcast messages from two locations, as follows:
From the BMC Remedy Asset Management console, select the message you want to view from the Broadcast table, then click View. Open a CI, and then in the navigation pane, choose Quick Links > View Broadcast. The View Broadcasts dialog box appears. Select the message you want to view from the broadcast messages table; the Broadcast Details tab displays the details of the selected broadcast.
Figure 2-9: View Broadcasts dialog boxfrom a CI
Note: When you are viewing broadcast messages from the Asset Management console, the dialog box does not include search fields.
Users Guide
2 When viewing broadcast messages from the current CI, you are looking at all
of the broadcast messages, not just the ones related to the current CI.
3 To view another message, perform either of the following steps:
When viewing from the main console, close the View Broadcasts dialog box, select the broadcast message you want to view from the table, then click View. When viewing from the current record, click the message you want to view from the table. The message details appear.
Changing datasets
A dataset is a collection of configuration items that are identified by a unique name. When CIs are discovered by a discovery tool or manually entered, they are likely to be put into one of the following datasets in the BMC Atrium CMDB: BMC Asset BMC Impact Production BMC Topology Import Third-party dataset You can change the dataset in which you are working by selecting it from the Dataset Name list on the Asset Management console. For more information about working with data in the BMC Atrium CMDB, see the BMC Atrium CMDB 2.0 Installation and Configuration Guide.
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3 In the CI Search Criteria area, specify your search criteria, and click Search.
Users Guide
8 Click Relate.
5 From the Company, Region, Site Group, and Site lists, select a new location
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Creating reminders
A reminder is similar to an AR System notification, except that you can define the content of a reminder and specify when to send it.
To create a reminder
1 Open the Asset Management console. 2 From the navigation pane, choose General Functions > Reminders.
3 Click the Create Reminder tab. 4 From the Notify list, select whether you want to notify an individual or a
group.
5 In the Recipient field, specify the name of the person or group you want to
send the reminder to. If you do not know the name, complete the following steps:
a Click in the field and press ENTER.
If you select an individual, the People Search dialog box appears. If you select a group, the Select Support Group dialog box appears.
b If you are searching for a person, specify your search criteria, click Search,
select the person, and click Select. If you are searching for a group, follow the same search process, and click OK. The name of the person or group appears in the Recipient field.
Users Guide
6 In the Time field, specify the time and date you want the reminder to be sent.
3 From the console View list, select whether you want the console View to open
in Personal view (view all tickets assigned to me), Selected Groups, or All My Groups. Applies only to Incident Management users.
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4 Click the Asset Management tab. 5 Modify your preferences. 6 Click Save.
Other consoles
Asset Management includes four additional consoles. These consoles support the administrator and IT requester, the purchasing manager, approver, and receiving personnel roles in Asset Management. This section describes: Overview console on page 50 Purchasing console on page 56 Approval console on page 57 Receiving console on page 58
Overview console
This console is used by any user of the Asset Management application who wants a quick at a glance of the following information: Assigned work User profile and preferences Other applications This console is the primary interface for support staff or users of the Change Management, Incident Management, or Problem Management applications. You can open the Overview console from your desktop or from a browser.
Users Guide
where:
<web_server> is the fully qualified name of the BMC Remedy Mid Tier system, specified in the format server_name.company.com. <port> is an optional port number, which is needed if the web server is not on the default port (port 80). <arsystem_server> is the name of the server on which the AR System was
installed. For a list of supported browsers, see the compatibility matrix at:
http://supportweb.remedy.com/Rem/IssuesAndSolutions/ CompatibilityMatrix/index.jsp
2 Enter your user name and password, then click Login. 3 When the IT Home page opens, click the Overview link in the navigation
pane.
Other consoles 51
Users Guide
3 Using the lists, select the information you want to see, and click OK.
You can view to view your personal information, including contact and location information, login details, support groups you belong to, and so on.
Other consoles
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You can modify what search criteria is used by default on the Asset Management console to search for CIs. You can also modify your preferences so certain information appears by default on the Overview console. For more information, see Modifying your application preferences on page 49.
where:
<web_server> is the fully qualified name of the BMC Remedy Mid Tier
installed. For a list of supported browsers, see the compatibility matrix at:
http://supportweb.remedy.com/Rem/IssuesAndSolutions/ CompatibilityMatrix/index.jsp
2 Enter your user name and password, then click Login. 3 Click the Definitive Software Library Console link.
Other consoles
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For information about configuring the Definitive Software Library, see the BMC Remedy IT Service Management 7.0 Configuration Guide. For information about how this console is used to facilitate software license compliance, see Contracts and software license management on page 179.
Purchasing console
This console is used by IT requesters and purchasing managers to create purchase requisitions and place purchase orders. You can open the Purchasing console from your desktop or from a browser.
From this console, you can: View open purchase requisitions by department (flashboards). View open purchase orders by company (flashboards). Create purchase requisitions. Price purchase requisitions (purchasing managers only).
Users Guide
Open the Approval console to approve purchase requisitions. View existing purchase requisitions. View purchase orders that have been placed or need to be placed (purchasing managers only). Run reports (purchasing managers only).
where:
<web_server> is the fully qualified name of the BMC Remedy Mid Tier system, specified in the format server_name.company.com. <port> is an optional port number, which is needed if the web server is not on the default port (port 80). <arsystem_server> is the name of the server on which the AR System was
installed. For a list of supported browsers, see the compatibility matrix at:
http://supportweb.remedy.com/Rem/IssuesAndSolutions/ CompatibilityMatrix/index.jsp
2 Enter your user name and password, then click Login. 3 Click the Purchasing console link.
For more information about using the purchasing feature, see Requisition management on page 145.
Approval console
This console is used by anyone in the company who has permission to approve a purchase requisition or a change request (if Change Management is installed with Asset Management).
Other consoles
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From this console, you can: Approve or reject purchase requisitions. Approve or reject change requests (if Remedy Change Management is installed). View Approval Central for additional approvals. View or create reminders. For more information about approving purchase requisitions, see Requisition management on page 145.
Receiving console
This console is used by receiving personnel who receive and return items from suppliers. You can open the Receiving console from your desktop or from a browser.
From this console, you can: Receive purchase items. Return purchase items. View purchase orders.
where:
<web_server> is the fully qualified name of the Remedy Mid Tier system,
installed. For a list of supported browsers, see the compatibility matrix at:
Other consoles
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2 Enter your user name and password, then click Login. 3 Click the Receiving console link.
For more information about receiving items in to inventory, see Requisition management on page 145.
Chapter
This section describes the tasks necessary to create and track your configuration items (CIs). The following topics are provided: Categorizing CIs, companies, and locations (page 62) Providing access to a CI for multiple companies (page 63) Working with CIs (page 64) Using the navigation pane links (page 74) Creating relationships in a topology (page 87)
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The product categorization fields correlate directly with the CI data fields in the BMC Atrium CMDB.
Users Guide
Important: For information about creating categorization data in Asset Management using the Application Administration console, see the BMC Remedy IT Service Management 7.0 Configuration Guide.
Companies and their locations in Asset Management 6.0 were categorized using Region, Site, Department, Building, and Floor. In Asset Management 7.0, locations are now categorized as Company, Region, Site Group, and Site. Location data is defined in the Company and Site configuration forms.
Figure 3-2: Location Categorization area
Location information is specified at the company level. To the user, the value in the Company field on a CI determines what selection data appears in the Location lists and fields.
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Overview of a CI
The following section describes the different features available from a CI. A CI consists of the following sections: Navigation paneUse the quick links in the navigation pane to page or email contacts, run reports, view broadcasts, create blackout schedules, and so on. CI InformationUse this area to specify general information about the CI, for example, the CI name, status, impact, and urgency if the CI goes down, number of users affected by the CI, and so on. CI tabsUse these tabs to relate contracts and configurations, add cost, schedule, outage, and return information, track work, and update areas impacted by this CI. For more information, see Leveraging the other CI features on page 91.
64 Chapter 3Creating configuration items
CI Information
You can perform some tasks before you save a CI, and after you save it. For example, when you create a new Computer System CI record, you see only the following tabs: GeneralUse this tab to categorize your CIs and specify location and life cycle information. See Creating CIs on page 67. SpecificationsUse this tab to specify additional information about the CI, for example, environment and network information. See Creating CIs on page 67. FinancialsUse this tab to specify costs associated with owning the CI. See Working with costs on page 107. Impacted AreasUse this tab to add areas that might be impacted if the CI goes down. See Updating impacted areas on page 121. Work InfoUse this tab to add tasks you perform against the current CI. You can also access this feature from the navigation pane. See Adding work information on page 92. After you save a CI record, depending on the CI type, you might see the following additional tabs, which allow you to perform other tasks: ContractsUse this tab to relate contracts to CIs. For more information, see Relating contracts to CIs on page 93.
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PeopleUse this tab to relate people to CIs. See Assigning people, organizations, and groups to CIs on page 96. RelationshipsUse this tab to relate CIs to other CIs. See Working with related items on page 102. OutageUse this tab to add outage information about a CI. See Creating outage information on page 115.
Depending on whether your system is configured with a sandbox dataset, the CI creation process varies slightly. If your system is configured with a sandbox dataset, CIs that you create or modify flow through the sandbox dataset. While this is happening, a dialog box appears, and you can choose to wait until the data has been reconciled, or move on to the next CI. If your system does not have a sandbox dataset, CI data goes directly into the production dataset.
Users Guide
Creating CIs
To create a CI, you must have Asset Admin permissions. If you have Asset User permissions and you need to modify a CI, your administrator (or any person with Asset Admin permissions) must open the CI you need permissions to modify, and then relate the Support Group to which you belong to the CI. You specify information about each of your CIs using the different CI type forms. You can create the following CI types: Computer System Bulk Inventory
Note: For the purpose of explaining how to create a CI, procedures for two CI types are provided. Most CI Information forms contain the same fields and lists. The only difference is how you categorize the CI.
For a description of CI types and their relationships, see CI and relationship types on page 265.
dataset for CI data on page 66, from the navigation pane, select the sandbox dataset in the Dataset Name field.
3 From the navigation pane, choose General Functions > Manage CIs.
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4 From the CI Type list, choose System > Computer System. 5 Click Create.
Specify general information about the CI at the top of the form. Fields with bold field names are required. You must specify information into these fields before you can save the CI record. When a plus sign (+) appears next to the field label, for some of these fields you can type part of the information in the field and press ENTER. When a search dialog box appears, select the name you want from the Search Results table, and then click Select. Using autofill fields and lists is faster, more consistent, and more accurate than typing the information yourself.
6 To set the CI record back to its default values before you save it, in the main
menu at the top of the screen, choose Edit > Set to Defaults.
7 In the CI Name field, specify a name for the CI.
Users Guide
When creating a CI name, you should follow a consistent naming convention. According to ITIL guidelines, identifiers should be short but meaningful, and for hardware, not based on supplier device names. For example, the name could include an indicator of the CIs function (such as Workstation or Monitor) followed by a numeric code, such as MONITOR100.
8 In the CI ID field, type a unique alphanumeric value for the CI. 9 Specify whether the CI is supported by selecting Yes or No from the
For more information about this field, see Providing access to a CI for multiple companies on page 63.
11 From the Primary Capability and Capability List fields, select or type the roles
The default is Ordered. You can select one of the following options.
Status Received Being Assembled Deployed In Repair Down End of Life Transferred Delete In Inventory On Loan Disposed Description The CI was received in shipping. The CI is being assembled. The CI was installed. The CI is down for maintenance. The CI is down, but not yet in maintenance. The CI is no longer being deployed. The CI was transferred to another location. The CI is marked for deletion. The CI is in inventory but not yet deployed. The CI is on loan to another location. The CI is no longer available and was disposed of.
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Description The CI was reserved and taken out of inventory. The CI must be returned to the vendor as damaged or unwanted.
13 From the Impact and Urgency fields, select what impact and urgency this CI
will have if it goes down. These fields drive what appears in the Priority field.
14 In the Users Affected field, specify the number of people who use this CI or
Serial Number Part Number System Role Status Reason 16 Click the General tab.
17 Categorize the item using the Tier fields, as described in Categorizing CIs,
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24 If you see a Wait for Reconciliation dialog box, you can choose to wait until
the data from the sandbox dataset has been reconciled and merged into the production dataset. Alternatively, you can choose to move on without waiting for the data to reconcile.
dataset for CI data on page 66, from the navigation pane, select the sandbox dataset in the Dataset Name field.
3 From the navigation pane, choose General Functions > Manage CIs.
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BMC Remedy Asset Management 7.0 Figure 3-6: Bulk Inventory form
6 Categorize the item using the Tier fields, as described in Categorizing CIs,
the data from the sandbox dataset has been reconciled and merged into the production dataset. Alternatively, you can choose to move on without waiting for the data to reconcile.
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A message appears stating that the selected inventory location has been related to the bulk inventory record.
6 Click OK, and then click Close.
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BMC Remedy Asset Management 7.0 Figure 3-8: Bulk item quantity on the Inventory Location tab
8 Click Save. 9 Click the Transactions tab to view the transactions associated with this bulk
item.
Users Guide
View configuration information. See Adding a configuration to a CI on page 101. Create audit and maintenance schedules. See Creating a schedule on page 109. Create return information. See Working with returns on page 120.
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BMC Remedy Asset Management 7.0 Figure 3-9: Paging System form
Use the fields in the People Search Criteria area to search for and select the person whom you want to page.
Specify the persons pager information, and then click Send Page Now.
3 In the People Search Criteria area, specify your search criteria, and click
click Send Page Now. Alternatively, you can click the Page By On-Call Group tab and send a page to a group instead of an individual. To do this:
a Click the Page By On-Call Group tab.
Users Guide Figure 3-10: Paging System formPage By On-Call Group tab
b In the On-Call Group Search Criteria area, specify your search criteria,
and click Search. Results matching your search criteria appear in the table.
c From the table, select the group you want to page, and click Select. d In the Paging Information area, specify the groups pager information,
Using email
Use the email feature to communicate information about the current CI.
To send email
1 Open a CI, as described in Searching for CIs on page 39. 2 From the navigation pane, choose Functions > Email System.
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BMC Remedy Asset Management 7.0 Figure 3-11: Email System form
3 In the People Search Criteria area, specify your search criteria, and click
the menu that appears, select a file from the Add Attachment dialog box, and click Open.
6 Click Send Email Now.
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3 Click Add.
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BMC Remedy Asset Management 7.0 Figure 3-13: Business Time Segment form
4 Provide a description of the availability or unavailability of the CI. 5 From the Availability list, select whether the CI will be available or
unavailable.
6 To enable this blackout, select the Enable checkbox. 7 For Duration Type, select One Time. 8 Click the One Time tab. 9 Specify your start and end date times. 10 Click Save.
Users Guide
4 Provide a description of the availability or unavailability of the CI. 5 From the Availability list, select whether the CI will be available or
unavailable.
6 To enable this blackout, select the Enable checkbox. 7 For Duration Type, select Recurring. The Recurrence Definition tab appears.
Figure 3-14: Business Time Segment formRecurrence Definition tab
8 Specify start and end date times for the activity recurrence and the recurrence
type information. Depending on your selections, you might have to complete additional fields.
9 Click Save.
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BMC Remedy Asset Management 7.0 Figure 3-15: Additional Data dialog box
3 Click Add.
4 In the Label field, specify a name for the field label. 5 In the Display Value field, specify a value to display. 6 If the Active option button is not selected, select it. 7 Click Save.
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BMC Remedy Asset Management 7.0 Figure 3-18: View Instance History form
The data that you see in this form depends on how it has been set up. By default, you can see Name, Status, Region, Site Group, and Site. An administrator can configure more fields to be audited if necessary, as described in the BMC Atrium CMDB 2.0 Installation and Configuration Guide.
Users Guide
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BMC Remedy Asset Management 7.0 Figure 3-20: Relationship diagram in the CI Relationship Viewer
4 To limit the related CIs displayed in the viewer, you can either select a filter
The CI Relationship Viewer displays CIs related to the new root CI.
7 To see further information about any CI in the viewer, hover the mouse over
the CI.
Users Guide
Alternate text displays the CI name, short description, owner name, and owner contact.
8 When you are finished, close the window.
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Network Printer You can use your third-party discovery tool (for example, BMC Configuration Discovery for Clients or BMC Topology Discovery) to discover these CIs, segments, or subnets, or you can create them manually. Once you have discovered or created the CIs, segments, and subnets in your topology, relate the connectivity segments and subnets to a CI record.
5 Specify your search criteria, and click Search. You can use the Advanced
Search field to perform an advanced search. Results matching your search criteria appear in the table.
6 Select the connectivity segment or IP connectivity subnet you want to relate. 7 From the Relationship Type list, select the relationship of this segment or
the table. After you relate connectivity segments or subnets to a CI record, relate other Computer System, Mainframe, Virtual System, LPAR, or Network Printer CIs to the segments or subnets.
Subnet.
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4 From the CI Type list, select the system you want to relate to the existing
5 Click Relate.
The Topology Relationships form reappears with the records in the table.
Chapter
This section describes other tasks you can perform from a CI Information form. The following topics are provided: Adding work information (page 92) Relating contracts to CIs (page 93) Working with configurations (page 99) Working with related items (page 102) Working with costs (page 107) Working with maintenance and audit schedules (page 108) Creating outage information (page 115) Working with returns (page 120) Updating impacted areas (page 121)
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2 From the Work Info Type list, select the type of work information you want
to add.
Users Guide
3 From the Source list, select the source of this information, for example, if it
was received through an email, was a system assignment, or was a request received over the web.
4 Specify the details of your work information record in the Summary and
Notes fields.
5 To add an attachment, right-click in the attachment table, choose Add from
the menu that appears, select a file from the Add Attachment dialog box, and click Open.
6 From the Locked list, select Yes or No to lock the log.
WARNING: If you select Yes, you cannot modify the work log after you save it.
7 From the View Access list, select Internal or External. 8 Click Save to add the information to the Work Info History table. 9 To see a report of the tasks you performed against this record, click Report.
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4 From the Search For list, select the type of contract you want to relate, and
click Search.
5 In the Results List, select one or more contracts to relate to the CI.
If no contracts appear in the list, you can add a contract. See Creating a new contract to relate to a CI on page 95.
6 From the Relationship Type list, select the relationship of this contract to the
CI: Attached toThe contract is related to the associated CI. Terms and Conditions ofThe contract will use the terms and conditions of the CI contract.
7 Click Relate.
The contract is related to the CI, and the contract appears in the Current Contracts for this CI table.
Users Guide
Type list.
4 Click Create.
A contract form appears. The appearance varies, depending on the type of contract.
5 Complete the required fields of the contract form. 6 Click Save.
A message appears stating that the person in the Notification Contact field will be notified when this contract expires. Click OK.
Note: To notify a group when a contract expires, leave the individual contact field blank. Otherwise, specify the notification group and individual under that group to notify an individual.
7 Click Close.
The contract record is related to the CI, and the contract appears in the Current Contracts for this CI table.
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To relate a person to a CI
1 Open a CI, as described in Searching for CIs on page 39. 2 Click the People tab. 3 Click Add.
The Primary Contact option buttons become enabled. Select Yes to make this person the primary contact for the CI, and click OK. The People Search dialog box appears.
5 Using the lists and fields, specify your search criteria, and click Search.
Users Guide
7 Select the role the person performs in relation to the CI, and click OK.
The person record appears on the People tab on the CI Information form.
5 Using the lists, specify your search criteria, and click Search.
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Department. This defines at what level you want to relate the CI. For example, if you relate a CI at the Company level, the company will be related to the CI as whatever role you define. Therefore, if you are an employee of that specific company, you will be related to that CI as the company is related to it.
8 Click Select.
The organization record appears on the People tab on the CI Information form.
Important: To create a CI, you must have Asset Admin permissions. If you have Asset User permissions and you need to modify a CI, your administrator (or any person with Asset Admin permissions) must open the CI you need permissions to modify, and then relate the Support Group to which you belong to the CI.
5 Using the lists, specify your search criteria, and click Search.
The support group record appears on the People tab on the CI Information form.
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The Configuration Information dialog box appears. If the CI belongs to a specific configuration, information about the configuration appears in readonly fields.
Figure 4-7: Configuration Information dialog box
View Differences.
4 To check the inventory for an item in the configuration, perform the
following steps:
a Click Check Inventory. The Manage Configurations dialog box appears. b Select an item in the table in the Manage Configurations dialog box, and
click Check Inventory. A Configuration Information dialog box for this configuration appears.
c View the items currently in inventory. You can also click Create
Requisition to order an item that is not in inventory. For more information about purchase requisitions, see Creating purchase requisitions on page 151.
Users Guide
Adding a configuration to a CI
If the configuration you are looking for does not appear in the Configuration tab, you can add a configuration for a CI. Configurations are usually created by the asset manager or application administrator at your company.
Note: A CI can be related to only one configuration. If you add a new configuration, it replaces any existing configuration.
To add a configuration to a CI
1 Open a CI, as described in Searching for CIs on page 39. 2 From the navigation pane, choose Functions > Configuration.
A warning message might appear if the CI belongs to an existing configuration. The Searching for Configurations dialog box appears.
Figure 4-8: Searching for Configurations dialog box
Relationship types
When you relate a CI or service to another CI, you must define the relationship type between the two records. For a description of each relationship type, see CI and relationship types on page 265.
3 To see existing relationships to the current CI, select an option from the
For a description of each CI type, see CI and relationship types on page 265.
6 Click Create.
Depending on your selections, different forms and dialog boxes might appear. If you selected Asset Record, the Select Relationship Type dialog box appears.
Figure 4-10: Select Relationship Type dialog box
7 From the Relationship list, select the relationship between these two CI
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BMC Remedy Asset Management 7.0 Figure 4-11: Second Select Relationship Type dialog box
9 From the Show list, select Parent or Child. a Select Parent if the related CI will be a parent of the current CI record. b Select Child if the related CI will be a child of the current CI record. 10 Click OK.
appropriate item, and click Search. The CI that you related appears in the Current Relationships table if the selection criteria for the table includes that CI.
Note: Depending on which BMC Remedy applications you have installed, you might see more than one option in the Request Type list. For example, if you have Incident Management installed, you can select to relate an incident or a CI from this list.
4 If you selected Asset Record, select a CI type from the CI Type list, and click
Search.
Users Guide
A search dialog box appears for the type of record you want to relate. Depending on your selections, a CI Search dialog box might appear.
Figure 4-12: CI Search dialog box
Note: What appears in the Relationship Type list depends on the type of record you are relating, whether it is a Known Error in Problem Management, an Infrastructure Change in Change Management, and so on.
8 Click Relate.
In this example, a Select Relationship Type dialog box appears. Select a value and click OK. The record that you related appears in the Current Relationships table of the CI record.
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Users Guide
Adding costs
Use the Financials tab to add total cost of ownership (TCO) information about a CI.
If available, information appears about the costs associated with this CI.
Figure 4-14: CI Information formFinancials tab
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BMC Remedy Asset Management 7.0 Figure 4-15: Costs dialog box
4 Add information to the Cost Center Code, Cost Category, Related Cost, and
Users Guide
Note: If you have BMC Remedy Change Management installed, you can select a change template to be used to create a change request when the maintenance schedule comes due. The change request is then assigned to a technician to complete the maintenance.
You can create an audit schedule to perform periodic audits to check for differences between the information in the CI database and the CIs that are actually deployed in the company. For example, you can schedule a quarterly audit of the CIs at a site by relating an audit schedule to all the CIs at that location. You can also set up a review schedule to review the configuration of CIs. After you create a schedule, you can relate the schedule to a CI. When you no longer need a schedule, you can remove the schedule from the CI. You work with schedules in the Schedule Criteria form. You can open this dialog box from the Asset Management console or from the Schedule tab on the CI Information form.
Creating a schedule
You create maintenance and review schedules in the Schedule Criteria form.
To create a schedule
1 Open the Asset Management console. 2 From the navigation pane, choose General Functions > Schedules.
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BMC Remedy Asset Management 7.0 Figure 4-16: Schedule Criteria form
4 From the Schedule Type list, select the appropriate schedule type.
Audit ScheduleYou can create only one audit schedule for each CI. If you create a new audit schedule for a CI that is already associated with an audit schedule, the existing audit schedule is deleted. Maintenance ScheduleUse this to establish a regular maintenance schedule. If necessary, you can create several maintenance schedules for a CI. For example, for the copy machines at a site, you can set up one schedule for changing the toner and another schedule for restocking the paper. Review ScheduleUse this to establish periodic review of configurations. For more information about review schedules, see Creating a review schedule on page 138.
5 Specify information about the schedule: a For Schedule Name, specify a name for the schedule. b For Schedule Description, provide a description for the schedule. c From the Frequency and Period lists, select how often you want the
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6 Complete the rest of the fields: a Select the Support and Notification criteria. b If you have Change Management installed, select a change template from
the Change Template list so a change request is created when the schedule becomes due.
7 Categorize the CIs using the Tier fields, as described in Categorizing CIs,
Relating a schedule to a CI
You can relate a maintenance schedule or audit schedule to one or more CIs. For example, if you want to maintain a server on a regular basis, you can create a maintenance schedule, and then relate it to the CI record for the server.
To relate a schedule to a CI
1 Open a CI, as described in Searching for CIs on page 39. 2 From the navigation pane, choose Functions > Schedule.
Any related schedules appear in the Schedule Information table in the Schedule Information dialog box.
Figure 4-17: Schedule Information table
3 From the Schedule Type list, select the type of schedule you want to relate,
4 Select the schedule you want to relate to the CI. 5 Click Relate Selected Schedule.
Modifying a schedule
After you create a schedule and save it, you can modify the entire schedule. For example, you can change an audit schedule so that it occurs yearly instead of monthly. You can also change one occurrence of a schedule that is related to a CI. For example, if an IT technician will be out of the office when a monthly maintenance task must be performed, you can change the notification contact for that month. Any user can change one occurrence of the schedule by using the Schedule tab on the CI Information form.
Note: Whenever tasks are completed for a maintenance schedule or audit schedule, you must change the status of the schedule to Completed.
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2 From the navigation pane, choose General Functions > Schedules. 3 Click Search for Schedule.
4 Modify the fields you want to change. 5 Click Save. The change appears in the Schedule Information table.
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The options are Scheduled, In Progress, and Completed. After you complete activities for a maintenance schedule or an audit schedule, change the status to Completed.
5 Click Save.
In the confirmation message that appears, click OK. The modified schedule appears in the Schedule tab on the CI Information form. If you changed the status to Completed, you see the next scheduled audit or maintenance date in the Next Audit Date or Next Maintenance Date fields of the Schedule Information table.
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Workflow Asset Management checks if there are any Open CI Unavailability records (status on the unavailability record is not Restored). If there are any Open CI Unavailability records against the current CI, an unavailability record exists dialog box appears. If there are no Open CI Unavailability records against the current CI, a dialog box appears that allows you to create a new unavailability record.
Update a CI while its status Asset Management checks if there are any Open CI is Down. Unavailability records against the current CI. If there are, no workflow occurs. If there are no Open CI Unavailability records against the current CI, a dialog box appears that allows you to create a new unavailability record.
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BMC Remedy Asset Management 7.0 Table 4-1: Enhancements to CI unavailability life cycle
Workflow Asset Management checks if there are any Open CI Unavailability records against the CI. If there are, a dialog box appears that allows you to update the CI Unavailability record. If there are no Open CI Unavailability records against the current CI, no workflow occurs.
Update a CI while its status Asset Management checks if there are any Open CI is Up. Unavailability records against the CI. If there are, a dialog box appears that allows you to update the CI Unavailability record. If there are no Open CI Unavailability records against the current CI, no workflow occurs.
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Selecting Change or Incident specifies whether the unavailability request originated from a change request or an incident.
Note: If you have Change Management or Incident Management installed, this field is automatically populated if you create a CI Unavailability record from either of these applications.
5 From the Unavailability Type list, select one of the following options:
Scheduled FullYou plan to take the CI out of service during a scheduled change. This type can be selected only when you are creating a CI Unavailability record from a change request. Scheduled PartialYou plan to change the CI, but not take it out of service. However, the CI performance will suffer some performance degradation during the duration of the change. You can select this type only when you are creating the CI Unavailability record from a change request. Unscheduled FullThe CI is experiencing a complete service outage that was not planned. You can select this type only when you are creating the CI Unavailability record from an incident or change request. Unscheduled PartialThe CI is experiencing a service degradation that was not planned. You can select this type only when you are creating the CI Unavailability record from an incident or change request. After you select the class and type, the priority field is automatically completed.
6 Provide a description for the unavailability. 7 If this is a scheduled unavailability, specify scheduled start dates and end
dates on the Dates/Assignment tab. When you save the form, the scheduled duration of the unavailability appears in the Estimated Duration field.
Note: If you specify a scheduled start and end date without specifying the actual dates, the Unavailability Status is set to Scheduled after you save the form.
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8 Specify actual start dates and end dates for the unavailability.
When you save the form, the actual duration appears in the Actual Duration field.
Note: After you save the form, if you specify an actual start date without an end date, the Unavailability Status field is set to Current Unavailability. The Unavailability Status is set to Restored when you specify an actual end date. After you set the actual end date, you can modify it, but not remove it.
9 Select an option from the Assignment is set from area.
Configuration ItemThis option is selected by default if you assign a support group responsibility for the CI unavailability when you relate the group to a configuration item. In addition, if you set the assignment lock to yes, you cannot change the support group assignment from the CI Unavailability record. If you set the lock to no, you can select another assignment method. Cross Referenced RequestThis option is selected by default if the CI Unavailability record is created from an incident or a change request. The person assigned the ticket is also assigned the CI Unavailability record. This option keeps the CI Unavailability assignment synchronized with the assignment for the incident or change request. ManuallySelect this option when you want to manually assign the CI Unavailability record to any group defined within the application. Then, set the Assignment Status to Assigned. Setting the Assignment Status to Completed marks the CI Unavailability record as closed. Only users with Asset Admin or Asset User permissions can modify a closed unavailability record.
Note: This can be done only from the CI Unavailability form, not from the Outage tab on the CI Information form.
Automated RoutingIf you do not assign a support group from the People tab, unavailability assignment defaults to Automated Routing. Automated Routing is set up using the Assignment configuration form.
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For more information about configuring your applications, see the BMC Remedy IT Service Management 7.0 Configuration Guide.
10 Set the assignment.
Assignment is set first through the configuration item. If assignment is not set using this method, the automated routing option is used. If you are working from the Incident or Change Management applications and automated routing is not set up, assignment is set as Cross Referenced Request.
Note: For descriptions of each of these assignment methods, see step 9 on page 118.
The individual or group assigned to this unavailability record must set the status to Completed after recording the actual start and end times.
11 Use the other tabs to add supporting unavailability information:
CI Status InformationUse the fields and the Set Current CI Status button on this tab to change the CI status to reflect the CI unavailability, for example, Down or In Repair. RelationshipsUse this tab to view or relate incidents, infrastructure changes, and problem investigations. This tab is available only if you have BMC Remedy Incident Management, BMC Remedy Change Management, or BMC Remedy Problem Management. FinancialsUse the fields on this tab to view, create, and track outage costs related to the CI unavailability. For information about adding costs, see Working with costs on page 107.
Note: You must save the CI Unavailability record before you can create relationships and costs.
ReferencesThis tab displays the incident or change IDs that might have created the unavailability record. This tab is available only if you have BMC Remedy Incident Management or BMC Remedy Change Management.
12 Click Save.
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3 Click Create.
4 Add information about the type of return, the quantity to return, and the
reason for the return. You can also specify a Return Materials Authorization (RMA) number.
5 Click OK. The new return information appears in the Return Receipts table.
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BMC Remedy Asset Management 7.0 Figure 4-25: Impacted Areas dialog box
item.
5 Click Add. The CI Information form appears. 6 Click Save.
Note: The Impacted Areas tab is used by BMC Remedy Change Management to help determine approval mappings, for example, mappings based on location or organization.
Chapter
This section describes how to use the Configuration Catalog in Asset Management to set up and manage configurations in your company. The following topics are provided: About the Configuration Catalog (page 124) Viewing configurations (page 125) Creating a configuration (page 127) Creating a differences report (page 135) Creating a review schedule (page 138) Creating a new version of an active configuration (page 143) Creating a configuration from a copy (page 144)
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Config Item Laptop Config Item Docking station Config Item 17" monitor Config Item Standard mouse Config Item Standard keyboard
Asset entry with related components Component Docking station Component 17" monitor Component Standard mouse Component Standard keyboard
Asset entry with related components Component 17" monitor Component Standard mouse Component Standard mouse Component Software
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You can also use the Configuration Catalog to set up review schedules to review active configurations on a weekly, monthly, or yearly basis. This is useful if you want to review configurations that might have outdated hardware or software that needs replacing, or if you want to review an entire configuration with the goal of creating a new version of the existing configuration and relating all new CIs. New configurations must be approved before they are deployed. If Change Management is installed, asset managers can use this application to approve configurations. If Change Management is not installed, asset managers can approve configurations manually. On the effective date of a new configuration, the following actions occur: Approved configurations become active. Previous versions of the configuration become inactive. Obsolete configurations are deleted from the database. Approved configurations serve two purposes: First, approved configurations help IT technicians determine if the system they are troubleshooting has any CIs that are not included as part of the approved configuration for that user and might be contributing to the problem. Secondly, approved configurations help the asset manager determine how many systems are out of compliance or how many systems have old configurations. You can use the Configuration Catalog to check inventory, and to create purchase requisitions for CIs that are low in inventory or must be replaced because they are damaged or obsolete.
Viewing configurations
Asset managers and application administrators set up configurations. You can view any existing configurations in the Configurations dialog box.
Viewing configurations
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BMC Remedy Asset Management 7.0 Figure 5-2: Manage Configurations dialog box
3 To view the details of a configuration, select it from the table, and click View.
The Related CIs tab appears only for configurations that are active.
4 Review the information in the configuration.
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Creating a configuration
If the configuration you are looking for does not appear in the Configurations dialog box, you can create it. Configurations are usually created by asset managers or application administrators at your company.
To create a configuration
1 Open the Asset Management console. 2 From the navigation pane, choose General Functions > Manage
4 Provide general information about the configuration at the top of the form. a In the ID field, specify a unique alphanumeric identification for the
configuration.
b In the Description field, provide a description of the configuration.
Creating a configuration
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c From the Effective Date list, specify the date the configuration becomes
active.
d From the Approval Status list, select Pending Approval to submit the
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Creating a configuration
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View, and then click Close after you have reviewed the item.
7 Select the items you want to relate. 8 Click Relate.
item.
9 In the Description field, provide a description of the item. 10 In the Status field, keep the default choice of Active. 11 From the Company list, select the company to which this item belongs. 12 From the CI Type list, select the item CI type. 13 Categorize the item using the Tier fields, as described in Categorizing CIs,
The Searching for Items dialog box reappears, and the new item appears in the Results List.
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Change the Unit Type and Number directly from the Items table.
4 In the Items table, click in the Unit Type column and select either Quantity
or Length. Quantity refers to the number of items in the configuration. Length refers to the length of a bulk item, such as a cable.
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5 Click one of the numbers in the Number column and specify a new quantity
or length.
6 Click Recalculate to recalculate the grand total. 7 Click Save.
To relate a CI to a configuration
1 Open the Asset Management console. 2 From the navigation pane, choose General Functions > Manage
5 Click Add.
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WARNING: If you relate a CI to a configuration, the configuration replaces any existing configuration for this CI.
6 Click OK in the warning message.
7 From the Search For list, select a CI type. 8 Optionally, you can limit the search results by making additional selections,
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BMC Remedy Asset Management 7.0 Figure 5-11: Comparison of CI to Items in Configuration dialog box
The name of the configuration appears in the Configuration field. Any related CIs appear in the table. The Authorized column shows if the CI is authorized for this configuration.
Modifying a configuration
You can modify all the fields in the configuration if the configuration has a Status of Proposed, and an Approval Status of Not Submitted, Pending Approval, or Rejected.
Note: You can change a configuration that has a status of Proposed and an Approval Status of Pending Approval or Rejected. When you save your changes, the configuration is submitted for approval again and the Approval Status remains set to Pending Approval. If you do not want the configuration to go out for approval again, you must change the Approval Status back to Rejected before you save the configuration.
For configurations with a status of Approved, you can relate or remove related CIs, but not items. You can edit the following fields: Status, Schedule Name, and Notes.
To modify a configuration
1 Open the Asset Management console.
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Configurations.
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Users Guide Figure 5-12: Select the schedule(s) to be related dialog box
6 In the Schedule Name field, specify the name of the schedule. 7 In the Schedule Description field, provide a short description of the schedule.
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9 Complete the following additional fields. Field name Lead Time in Days Notification Company Notification Support Organization Notification SupportGroup Notification Contact Description Specify the number of days in advance you want someone to be notified. Specify the name of the company assigned to perform the review. Specify the name of the organization assigned to perform the review. Specify the name of the group assigned to perform the review. Specify the name of the contact assigned to perform the review. Click in the field and press ENTER to search for the contact that you want notified.
10 Click Save.
Schedule. The schedule appears in the Schedule Name field in the Configuration Information form, and the next review date appears in the Next Review Date field.
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Relate. The Schedule Criteria form reappears, and the configurations you related appear in the Configuration Information table.
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a new version.
4 Click Create New Version.
The Configuration Information form appears, and the Version field updates to reflect the new version (version 2).
5 In the Description field, update the description of the new version. 6 From the Effective Date calendar, select when you want the new version to
become active.
7 Use the Schedule Name field to create a schedule for the new version or
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and click Copy. The Configuration Information form appears. The items from the configuration that you copied appear on the Items tab. You also see the region and site information from the other copied configuration.
4 Complete the fields in the new configuration. 5 If necessary, click Add or Remove to add or remove items. 6 Relate CIs to the new configuration after it is approved, as described in
Chapter
Requisition management
This section discusses how to use Asset Management to create purchase requisitions to order CIs needed to resolve incidents or complete change requests. This section also discusses how to receive and return CIs. The following topics are provided: Overview of the purchasing cycle (page 146) Viewing purchase requisitions in the console (page 149) Searching for purchase requisitions (page 150) Creating purchase requisitions (page 151) Working with purchase orders (page 167) Receiving and returning purchase items (page 172)
Requisition management
145
Open configuration catalog to search for needed items and check inventory
Items are not in inventory - Create purchase requisition for the items Submit request for approval
Requester is notified and may modify the request Manager can approve or reject the requisition
Existing change request is updated or new one is created automatically Installation assistance is required Corresponding assets, components, & bulk items are created No installation assistance required
Done
No
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IT requesterIn the context of the CI purchasing cycle, an IT requester is usually an asset manager, support technician, or change manager who must order a CI for some reason. For example, a support technician might work on an incident that involves a request for new memory. Or, a change manager might get a request from an IT director to upgrade all the new laptops in the company with the latest Windows operating system. In either case, the IT requester uses the Configuration Catalog to check inventory for existing items. If the items are available, the IT requester can reserve them to be removed from inventory. If the items are not available, the IT requester can create a purchase requisition to order those items.
Note: Some of the tasks that you can perform as support technician or a change manager require that you have either Incident Management or Change Management installed.
IT requesters can use either of the following methods to add line items to the purchase requisition: Search the configuration catalog for the items they need and add them from there. Manually add the line items. The IT requester also provides information about billing, shipping, and accounting codes, and indicates if installation is needed. If the line items are entered manually, the IT requester might need to route the purchase requisition to purchasing for pricing. If pricing is not needed, the IT requester routes the purchase requisition to the necessary manager for approval. Purchasing managerThe purchasing manager receives the purchase requisition from the IT requester, prices the line items, and then routes the requisition to the necessary manager (approver) for approval. If the purchase requisition is rejected, it is routed back to the IT requester for any changes, and then it resubmitted for approval. After the purchase requisition is approved, the purchase requisition generates a purchase order.
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Line items on a purchase order are ordered by the supplier. For example, if there is a line item for a Dell monitor and a Gateway computer, the purchase requisition is split into two purchase orders, one for each supplier (Dell and Gateway). The purchasing manager modifies any cost center or accounting information, and then places the order with the suppliers using email, Asset Management web services, or a manual method, such as fax. If an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) integration is present, the ERP information can be passed back to Asset Management, and includes the purchase order number, invoice number, shipping information, and so on.
Note: Purchasing managers might have access only to the Purchasing console, which allows access to purchase requisitions and purchase orders.
Receiving personnelAfter the items are received, receiving personnel use the Receiving console in Asset Management to verify that the correct line items were received from the supplier. Receiving personnel are responsible for receiving and securing equipment, reconciling line items of the purchase order with the packing list or other documents, and ensuring the quality of the materials received. The receiving personnel can determine if any of the items received need to be returned. If so, they record what is being returned, the date the item will be returned, the quantity to be returned, and the reason for the return. The supplier is then contacted and the receiving personnel await reshipment. If the items will be returned and not replaced, the line item quantities on the purchase order and original purchase requisition are updated to reflect this, and the purchase order amount is updated. The receiving personnel record which items were received or partially received, and the corresponding CIs are created in Asset Management. If the IT requester asks for installation assistance, a change request is created (if Change Management is installed) that notifies support technicians that the items received need to be installed. After all the items are received, the purchase order and purchase requisition are closed after 15 days. If any CIs need to be returned after their records are created in the database, the asset analyst can change the status of the CI to Return to Vendor and create a return receipt, await reshipment, or return the item.
Users Guide
The purchase requisitions you created and submitted appear in the table.
3 To view purchase requisitions that have been requested for another
individual, select Requisitions Requested For. The People Search Criteria dialog box appears.
4 Specify your search criteria, and click Search.
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Results matching your search criteria appear in the table. If you do not specify search criteria in the Supplier Name field, Estimated Price and Description columns appear in the search results. If you specify search criteria in the Supplier Name field, Supplier Name and Part Number columns appear in the search results.
4 Select a purchase requisition, and click View.
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3 Provide general information about the purchase requisition at the top of the
form.
Note: The Status field and Requisition ID fields are read-only. The status of the purchase requisition changes depending on at what stage the purchase requisition is in its life cycle.
a In the Description field, provide a description of the purchase requisition,
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b In the Justification field, specify why these items are needed, for example,
items, for example, a new employee. If you do not know the full name of the person, click in the field, press ENTER, and search for the person using the Search dialog box that appears. If the name you specified in this field is in the database, information appears in the Phone Number and Manager fields, depending on the settings defined by your administrator.
Note: The Full Name and Phone Number fields display the name and phone number of the person requesting the CIs.
d In the Date Required field, select the date the items are required from the
calendar.
e Select whether an install is needed. f If you selected Yes and BMC Remedy Change Management is installed,
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5 Select the configuration for which you want to view items to purchase. 6 Click Check Inventory.
The Purchase Requisition form appears again. The items in the configuration now appear on the Line Items tab on the form.
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BMC Remedy Asset Management 7.0 Figure 6-7: Purchase Requisition form
7 Click the Details tab. 8 Complete the following fields. Field name Cost Center Description The cost center number. If the cost center information for the person in the Requested For field has already been defined in Remedy Configuration Manager, their cost center number appears here. The accounting code number. If the account code information for the person in the Requested For field has already been defined in Remedy Configuration Manager, their accounting code appears here. The project number. The budget code.
Accounting Code
10 Provide the Ship To Address and Bill To Address information, if it does not
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Note: Your application administrator can define what appears in the lists on the Shipping tab. For more information, see the BMC Remedy IT Service Management 7.0 Configuration Guide.
The Approval tab is a read-only tab. It shows the purchase requisitions that are pending approval, approved, or rejected. As an IT requester, you can view the signature information from this tab by selecting a record and clicking View.
11 Click Save. 12 Click Close.
If the Show field is set to Requisitions Requested By Me, the purchase requisition you created appears in the table.
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BMC Remedy Asset Management 7.0 Figure 6-8: Line Item Information form
3 Provide general information about the line item at the top of the form. a In the Part Number field, specify the part number for the item. b In the Description field, specify a description of the item.
Note: The Status field is read-only. The status of the line item changes depending on at what stage the line item is in its life cycle.
c From the CI Type list, select the type of CI you want to add to the purchase
requisition.
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d Specify the quantity and pricing information as follows. Field name Unit of Measure Required Qty Unit Price Description This field has a default value of Each. It can contain any applicable value, such as Box, Bag, or Pallet. Select the number of items you want to purchase. The default value is 1. The price of each item. If the unit price is not provided, the purchase requisition is routed to purchasing for pricing.
Note: If no currency ratio exists for a currency used in
a line item, a warning appears when the Grand Total is computed and the price is excluded. 4 On the General tab, categorize the item using the Tier and Product Name
fields, as described in Categorizing CIs, companies, and locations on page 62. When you select the product name, the manufacturer name might appear in the form.
5 Complete the following fields on the General tab. Field name Supplier Name Description The name of the company that sells the item.
Note: If the supplier name is not provided, the
purchase requisition is routed to purchasing to provide a supplier name. Notes to Purchasing Notes to Supplier 6 Click the Details tab. Additional information for purchasing. Additional information for the supplier.
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7 Complete the following fields. Field name Cost Center Description The cost center number. This field is populated with the cost center information from the Purchase Requisition form. Modify it if needed. The accounting code number. This field is populated with the accounting code information from the Purchase Requisition form. Modify it if needed. The project number. The budget code. Right-click in the attachment table, choose Add from the menu that appears, select a file from the Add Attachment dialog box, and click Open.
Accounting Code
8 Click the Tracking tab. 9 Add any notes about the line item.
Note: The Received Items and Returns tabs are read-only. You can use these tabs to see which items have been received or returned.
10 Click Save.
The Purchase Requisition form appears, and the line item you created appears in the table.
11 Click Save again.
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Quote In ProgressThe purchase requisition is in purchasing and is being priced. On HoldThe purchase requisition has been suspended by the requester or the approver. Pending ApprovalThe purchase requisition is pending approval. In this state you can reduce the quantity of items or remove items. You cannot add new items.
The Purchase Requisition form appears, and the line item you created appears in the table.
6 Click Save again.
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Pending ApprovalThe purchase requisition is pending approval. In this state you can reduce the quantity of items or remove items. You cannot add new items.
Obtaining pricing
If you do not know the price or the supplier name of the items you are requesting, you can submit them to purchasing for pricing. When you submit purchase items for pricing, if either the estimated price or the supplier name is missing, their status changes to Pending Pricing. In addition, if you click Submit for Approval and the purchase requisition has any line items without an estimated price or supplier name, a message appears, stating that the purchase requisition was routed to purchasing for pricing.
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3 Select the purchase requisition you want to price, and click View.
The Line Item Information form appears. You can change the pricing in this form.
Figure 6-10: Line Item Information formPricing information area
7 Make changes to the pricing, as necessary. 8 On the General tab, specify values in the Quote Number and Quote Info
fields.
9 If you know the item is taxable, select Yes from the Taxable list. 10 Click Save. 11 Click OK in the confirmation message.
for Approval. The purchase items on the Line Items tab change to Pending Approval.
14 Click Save.
The Purchasing console appears, and the purchase requisition that needed to be priced no longer appears in the table.
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The Purchase Requisition form closes, and the Purchasing console appears.
5 In the console, click Refresh.
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The warning message appears, indicating that you cannot undo a canceled requisition.
4 Click Yes.
The status of the purchase requisition changes to Canceled. After a purchase requisition is canceled, you cannot make changes to it.
another approver, select it from the table, and click View. Otherwise, skip to step 7. The Purchase Requisition Signature Detail dialog box appears.
Figure 6-12: Purchase Requisition Signature Detail dialog box
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4 In the Next Approvers field, select the name of a manager who also must
approve.
8 Click Approve or Reject. 9 Click Refresh in the Purchasing console.
ModifyThe purchase requisition reappears and the status changes to In Preparation. Make the necessary changes and click Submit for Approval. Cancel RequisitionThe purchase requisition reappears and the status changes to Canceled. You cannot make any more changes to the requisition. CloseThe status of the purchase requisition remains as Rejected.
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4 From the Payment Terms list, change the payment terms, if necessary. 5 In the Notes to Supplier field, add any notes to the supplier. 6 In the Tax Rate field, specify the tax rate, if known. 7 In the Shipping & Handling field, specify the shipping and handling amount,
if known.
8 Click the Shipping tab.
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9 Complete the fields in the Ship to Address and Bill to Address areas, if
necessary. Change the default values in the Freight Terms, Ship Via, and Shipping Options fields, if necessary. The Tracking tab contains read-only information, for example, whether the order can be accessed using a web service.
10 Click Save.
page 167.
2 In the Purchase Order Information form, click Place Order.
3 From the Place Order Using list, select Email, Web Service, or Manual.
If you select Web Service, the order is made accessible to a web service, so that another application can use its web service to accept the order. If you select Manual, you will have to complete a purchase order on paper.
4 If you select Email, complete the remaining fields as follows: a Complete the SendTo field, and, optionally, the CC and BCC fields with
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b If appropriate, modify the subject line from the default value. c Review the message text. You can change it, if necessary. 5 Click Save.
The Purchase Order Information form reappears, and the status of the purchase order changes to On Order.
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page 167.
2 On the Purchase Order Information form, click Cancel Order.
4 From the Cancel Order Using list, select Email, Web Service, or Manual. 5 If you select Email, complete the remaining fields as follows: a Complete the SendTo field, and, optionally, the CC and BCC fields with
The Purchase Order Information form reappears, and the status of the purchase order changes to Canceled.
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3 From the Report Name list, select the report you want to run. 4 Categorize the fields you want to search using the Tier fields, as described in
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You can also use the Receiving console to return items that are damaged or are not needed.
Receiving items
Receiving items in BMC Remedy Asset Management is usually done by the receiving personnel at your company.
To receive items
1 Open the Receiving console. 2 To see purchase order line items waiting to be received, specify your search
criteria, and click Search. Results matching your search criteria appear in the table.
Figure 6-18: Receiving console
3 For each item you are receiving, click the Received Qty column and change
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BMC Remedy Asset Management 7.0 Figure 6-19: Changing the received quantity Specify the quantity received in the Received Qty column, and then click Receive.
4 Select each line item you want to receive, and click Receive.
The Total Received Qty column is updated with the number of received items, and the amount you specify is cleared from the Rec Qty column. If the entire required quantity is received, the line item disappears from the Receiving console.
5 To receive items within the line item, select the line item from the table, and
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Selecting Return indicates that you are returning the item and canceling the request for the item.
6 In the RMA field, specify a Return Materials Authorization (RMA) number
(optional).
7 In the Quantity to Return field, reduce the number of items have yet to be
received. This number cannot be greater than the number remaining to be received.
8 In the Reason for Return field, provide a reason for the return. 9 Click OK.
The Receiving console appears, and the item is removed from the table if you return the total number of items remaining to be received. If you return fewer items, the Required Qty is reduced by the number you return, but the line item remains in the Receiving console.
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criteria, and click Search. Results matching your search criteria appear in the table.
3 Select the item you want to replace. 4 Click Return.
(optional).
7 In the Quantity to Return field, specify the number of items to be replaced.
3 Click Create.
4 From the Type list, select whether you are returning or replacing the item. 5 In the RMA field, specify a Return Materials Authorization (RMA) number
(optional).
6 In the Quantity to Return field, specify the number of items being returned
or replaced. This number cannot be greater than the number remaining to be received.
7 In the Reason for Return field, provide a reason for the return. 8 Click OK.
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Chapter
179
Contract types
The Manage Contracts feature in Asset Management is used to create standalone contracts or contracts that are related to CIs. Asset Management provides the following contracts out of the box: Support Warranty Lease Maintenance Software License For information about creating Support, Warranty, Lease, or Maintenance contracts, see Creating other types of contracts on page 190.
1. Software configuration items (CIs) and their attributes discovered automatically or created manually.
Asset Management
to those contracts. See Creating a software license contract with a related entry on page 183.
Step 2 Create configuration items whose categorization structures match the PDEs
that are related to the contracts. See Creating a software license contract with a related entry on page 183.
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The DSL comes prepopulated with PDEs. You can also manually add PDEs and their associated SLIs to the DSL. The DSL is used by application administrators who want to add or modify PDEs and SLIs in the Definitive Software Library to facilitate software license management. For more information about working with the DSL, see the BMC Remedy IT Service Management 7.0 Configuration Guide.
182 Chapter 7Contracts and software license management
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BMC Remedy Asset Management 7.0 Figure 7-3: Software Contract form
You can define one-to-many licensable products. These licensable products are the PDEs that exist in the Definitive Software Library (DSL). These entries represent the product or products that are governed by the current software license. For example, if the software license that you are creating is a license for Microsoft Word, then the Licensable Products tab should list one product dictionary entry for Microsoft Word. If the software license that you are creating governs a suite of products, then the Licensable Products tab should contain many PDEs, all of which represent the products in the suite.
Users Guide
Then, when a CI is created that matches the exact five-tier product categorization of the product dictionary entry that is related to your contract, the contract is automatically related to the CI.
6 Click Add.
7 Using the lists, specify your search criteria, and click Search. You must at least
The entry appears on the Licensable Products tab on the Software Contract form.
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BMC Remedy Asset Management 7.0 Figure 7-5: Software Contract formProduct entry on the Licensable Products tab
and click Open. The License Management Engine Configuration form appears.
3 From the Status list, select Enabled to enable the rule. 4 From the Company list, select the company that uses this rule. Select Global
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BMC Remedy Asset Management 7.0 Figure 7-7: License Management Include Class dialog box
b From the Status list, select Enabled. c From the CI Type, select the CI class that you want the License
CIs in the List of CI Classes table that, after they have been processed by the License Management Engine, are identified as not having associated contracts.
10 From the Notify Group list, select Yes to notify the configured support group
what company, organization, and group should be notified when an exception is created.
12 Click Save.
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Set the status to Completed and select the Process CI option button. Performing this action assumes that you have corrected the issue that caused the CI to not be related to the contract. Either the contract was not yet created, or the contract was created but the licensable product was not related to it. Set the status to Completed and select the Delete option button if you have identified that the CI does not need to have a related contract.
Note: Deleting the exception does not delete the CI.
5 Click Save.
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For purposes of this procedure, creating a Lease contract is described. You can create a Lease contract from the Contracts tab on the CI Information form or by clicking the Manage Contracts link from the Asset Management console.
The Lease Contract form appears. The Lease Contract form has two main areas, an area for standard contract information, and an area for specifying ownership information, relating child contracts, adding payment information, and so on.
Figure 7-8: Lease Contract form
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4 Complete the required fields. Field name ID Summary Term Status Company Supplier Name Cost Center Support Company Support Organization Notification Group Expiration Date Notification Date Description A unique alphanumeric value. Brief description of the contract. Duration of contract in months. Contract status. The company associated with this contract. The supplier associated with this contract. The cost center that owns this contract. The support company associated with this contract. The support organization associated with this contract. The notification group associated with this contract. Date contract expires. When a contract expires, individuals are notified first, then groups. The date contacts on the Contacts tab are notified when the contract expires.
5 Click Save.
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Any changes in the agreement might result in further subcontracts. In the previous example, the vendor might not deliver 250 units for the second quarter on the agreed-upon date. The company and vendor might agree to split the lot size for that quarter into two lots of 125 units within the same quarter. This results in the second subcontract having two additional subcontracts with different start dates.
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After you save the child contract, the Parent Contract ID appears here.
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6 Click Save. 7 To see the child contract listed on the parents Child Contracts tab, close and
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To relate a CI to a contract
1 Open a contract, as described in Creating a software license contract with a
contract. These CI types are the CIs available from the Manage CIs link on the Asset Management console.
4 If you click Create, a CI Information form appears. Complete the form and
click Save. For more information, see Creating CIs on page 67. The CI is automatically related to the contract.
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specify search criteria for the CI you want to relate to the contract, and click Search. Results matching your search criteria appear in the table.
7 Select the CI you want to relate.
You can select more than one CI from the list by pressing CTRL+Click or SHIFT+Click.
8 From the Relationship Type list, select the relationship of this CI to the
contract. For definitions of these relationship types, see CI and relationship types on page 265.
9 Click Relate. 10 Click Save.
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Description Select an end-of-lease term action from the list. Specify the residual value of this lease. The residual value is the value you can purchase the item for after the lease expires. Specify the expected percentage increase for this lease contract payment.
If Change Management is installed, another area appears on this tab called Change Types. The End of Lease and Renew Lease fields also appear. If you want someone to take action when the lease contract expires, you can relate a change type to the contract that will create a change request when the lease expires. For example, if you select a change type named End of Life (EOL) Renew Lease, this change can trigger the creation of a change request that contains tasks that need to be performed to renew the lease. Depending on the end-of-term action you take, different fields appear below the End of Lease field. If you select Renew, a Renew Lease field appears. If you select Return, a Return to Lessor field appears. You can relate change templates from these fields if you want someone to take action when a lease is renewed or returned.
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License Type
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Description Number of licenses available for use. The Keys and Versions table stores a list of the software modules, their license keys and versions, associated with this software contract. You can create keys and version information after you have saved the contract.
You can use the License Details tab to track the total number of licenses, the licenses in use, and the number of available licenses. You can also track the number of software licenses that are in use if you purchase a software license contract. You can quickly see if you are within the number of allotted licenses, or if you are out of compliance. If you create a software CI record that whose categorization matches the software contracts licensable products, the License Management Engine finds this contract and relates it to the CI record. After the relationship is created, the license count gets updated for that contract. If you remove the relationship, the license count decreases by one. If you relate a software contract to a CI, Asset Management updates the Licenses Used and Licenses Available fields.
Figure 7-18: Updating licenses used and licenses available These fields are used to increment and decrement licenses available or in use.
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4 Complete the following fields. Field name Status Software Contract ID Software Module Description Select a status from the Status menu. The Software Contract ID field contains the contract ID. Change the name of the software name for this key or version in the Software Module field. Asset Management completes this field with the text in the Product Name field on the License Details tab. Version Number License Type Specify the version of the software. Select the type of licensing required for this module.
Users Guide
Field name License Key License Effective Date License Expiration Date Info for Key Generation Key Generation Log Number of Licenses Licenses in Use Licenses Available
Description Specify the key required to activate the license or read files from the software CD. Specify the date that the license for this version becomes effective. Specify the date that the license for this version expires. Provide any information required to generate a license key. Provide any information related to key generation. Select the number of available licenses for this software. Select the number of licenses in use for this software. Asset Management completes the number of licenses available for this software.
5 Click Save.
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Chapter
This section presents various tasks necessary to specify and track costs in Asset Management. The following topics are provided: Overview of asset accounting (page 206) Providing accounting information (page 210) Working with costs (page 212) Working with depreciation (page 217) Working with charge-backs (page 225) Generating charge-back reports and invoices (page 232) Closing the current time period (page 245)
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IT roles
The IT personnel involved in the asset accounting cycle generally have one of two roles, asset analyst or cost manager, when working with Asset Management. IT roles can vary from organization to organization, and in some companies, one person might fulfill several roles. Asset analystUses Asset Management to create, track, and manage CI records. In some companies, an asset manager performs this function. The asset analyst is responsible for the following tasks: Creating, searching for, and modifying CI records. See Providing accounting information on page 210. Adding and modifying costs for CIs, and charging costs to the appropriate cost centers. See Working with costs on page 212. Asset analysts use the Financials tab on the CI Information form to add and track accounting information, such as purchasing details, depreciation, and other costs. See Working with depreciation on page 217.
Figure 8-1: CI Information formFinancials tab
Cost managerTracks cost data, prepares periodic charge-back reports, and generates charge-back invoices for cost recovery.
Users Guide
The cost manager belongs to the APP-Management permission group, and is responsible for the following tasks: Working with the application administrator to set up cost centers and charge-back information. See Working with charge-backs on page 225. Generating charge-back reports, making any necessary adjustments, and then generating charge-back invoices. See Generating charge-back reports and invoices on page 232. Sending charge-back invoices to departments for review, and then sending final invoices to the accounting department. At the end of each time period, closing the current period. See Closing the current time period on page 245. Cost managers use the Manage Costs dialog box to track costs and generate charge-back invoices to recover costs. For more information about recovering costs, see Working with charge-backs on page 225.
Figure 8-2: Manage Costs dialog box
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About charge-backs
Charge-backs are invoices for charging departments or cost centers for the IT CIs required to support their business processes. The IT group can use charge-backs to recover expenses from departments that use their CIs or services. This also helps demonstrate the value of IT services to departments within the company who use those services. During each time period, the cost manager reviews the costs and generates a preliminary charge-back invoice for the business unit review. Then, the cost manager sends the charge-back invoices to the appropriate business units. When the invoices are approved, the cost manager can send them to the accounting department to post to the general ledger. Cost managers can generate charge-back invoices for the expenses incurred. They can also charge an additional amount, called a charge-back percentage, to cover the cost of their services and other indirect costs. For example, if an IT department orders a $2,000 laptop for an employee, it might generate a charge-back invoice for the employees department for $2,000. Or, the IT department can add a charge-back percentage, such as 10%, to the purchase price to cover the expense of purchasing and configuring the equipment. In this example, the charge-back invoice to the other department would be $2,200. You can add a charge-back percentage when you generate a charge-back invoice. See Generating charge-back reports and invoices on page 232.
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Specify costs.
3 Complete the following fields. Field name Cost Center Description Specify the cost center that must be charged for related costs. If the CI is purchased with a purchase requisition, this field is already populated. For more information, see About cost centers on page 208 and Working with charge-backs on page 225. Specify the budget code. Companies use budget codes to track expenses to specific categories. Budget codes are keyed into a capital or operating budget. If this cost is for a project, specify the project number. Specify the accounting code. Accounting codes correspond to an expense line in a general ledger. Companies use them to track specific line items. Examples of accounting codes might include 00021: Hardware or 00022: Software. This field is already completed if the CI record was created from a purchase order, or if your applications administrator has integrated a procurement application. This field is already completed if the CI record was created from a purchase order, or if your applications administrator has integrated a procurement application. Specify the date the CI was purchased, or click to select a date from the calendar. Specify the invoice number of the CI.
Budget Code
Requisition ID
Order ID
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Description Specify the unit price. The price of the CI is already completed if the CI record is created from a purchase requisition or from a purchase order. Specify the sales tax. The sales tax of the CI is already completed if the CI record is created from a purchase requisition or from a purchase order. Asset Management calculates the total purchase cost by adding the values in the Unit Price and the Sales Tax fields.
Sales Tax
To specify costs for this record, continue with Adding costs on page 213. To specify depreciation information for this record, continue with Providing depreciation information on page 219. To save your changes after you finish providing information for this record, click Save and click Close in the record.
You can add, modify, and delete cost records with the Costs dialog box.
Note: You can add, modify, or delete cost records if you belong to the Asset Admin or Asset User permission groups.
Users Guide
After you specify costs and make any necessary adjustments, you can issue charge-back invoices to recover your expenses.
Viewing costs
You can view costs for the current time period using the Financials tab on the CI Information form. If you find information that must be modified, you can change it using the procedures in Adding costs on page 213, Modifying costs on page 216, and Removing costs on page 216.
Figure 8-6: CI Information formFinancials tab
To view costs
1 Open a CI, as described in Searching for CIs on page 39. 2 Click the Financials tab. 3 At the top of the Cost Entries table, select an option from the Show field to
view specific types of costs. For example, you can select Chargeback to display any charge-back costs. See Working with charge-backs on page 225.
Adding costs
You add costs for CIs using the Costs dialog box. If contract costs are associated with CIs, you can specify those costs here. If BMC Remedy Change Management is installed, you can also add change costs, such as a charge for installation. For information about allocating change costs to CIs, see the BMC Remedy Change Management 7.0 Users Guide.
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After you add information about costs, you can issue charge-back invoices to other departments to recover your costs. See Working with charge-backs on page 225.
To add costs
1 Open a CI, as described in Searching for CIs on page 39. 2 Click the Financials tab. 3 Click Add.
4 For Cost Center Code, select the cost center that you want to bill for this
expense. The default value for this field is the default cost center, Unallocated. To issue a charge-back invoice to recover this cost from another department, you must replace this value with another cost center code. Cost Center Name is a read-only field that is populated when a Cost Center Code is selected.
5 For Cost Type, select an option:
ChargebackCosts are charged back to another department. Before you can issue a charge-back invoice for this cost, you can select this option and specify a cost center. ComponentCosts are associated with a CIs components.
Users Guide
DisposalThe item has been disposed of, and there is an expense associated with the disposal. LeaseCosts associated with a lease contract or service for this item. MaintenanceCosts associated with a maintenance contract or service for this item. OtherOther associated incidental costs. Purchase PriceThe purchase price of the item. Sales TaxSales tax based on purchase price. Software LicenseCosts associated with a software license contract or service for this item. SupportCosts associated with a support contract or service for this item. UpgradeCosts associated with upgrades for this item. WarrantyCosts associated with a warranty contract or service for this item.
Note: The entries in the Sales Tax and Purchase Price fields are added to the entry in the Total Purchase Cost field. When the sales tax is not zero or charged, the cost is updated if an entry exists. A cost entry is created if no entry exists. If you modify these prices using the Costs dialog box, you must also modify the Total Purchase Cost field on a CI Information form.
6 For Description, provide a description of the cost. 7 For Related Cost, select a currency type and specify the cost. 8 For Date Incurred, specify the date that the cost was incurred. 9 Click Save.
The cost appears in the Cost Entries table, and the Total Cost field is updated.
10 In the CI record, click Save.
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Modifying costs
You can modify costs for CIs on the Financials tab on the CI Information form. You can modify information only for the current time period. See About time periods on page 209.
To modify costs
1 Open a CI, as described in Searching for CIs on page 39. 2 Click the Financials tab. 3 At the top of the Cost Entries table, select an option from the Show field to
view specific types of costs. For example, you can select Chargeback to display any charge-back costs. See Working with charge-backs on page 225.
4 Select a cost item in the table, and click View.
Removing costs
You can remove costs for CIs on the Financials tab on the CI Information form. You can remove costs only for the current time period. See About time periods on page 209.
To remove costs
1 Open a CI, as described in Searching for CIs on page 39. 2 Click the Financials tab. 3 At the top of the Cost Entries table, select an option from the Show field to
view specific types of costs. For example, you can select Chargeback to display any charge-back costs. See Working with charge-backs on page 225.
Users Guide
What it means Assets depreciate at a constant value per year. The annual depreciation is calculated by subtracting the salvage value of the asset from the purchase price, and then dividing this number by the estimated useful life of the asset.
Declining balance (150%) Assets depreciate at a constant rate per year, accelerated by a factor of 150%. In this method of accelerated depreciation, 150% of the straight-line depreciation amount is taken the first year, and then that same percentage is applied to the undepreciated amount in subsequent years.
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What it means Assets depreciate at a constant rate per year, accelerated by a factor of 200%. In this method of accelerated depreciation, double the straight-line depreciation amount is taken the first year, and then that same percentage is applied to the undepreciated amount in subsequent years. Assets lose more of their value early in their lifetime. This method of calculating depreciation of an asset assumes higher depreciation charges and greater tax benefits in the early years of an assets life.
Sum-of-the-years digits
To understand depreciation of an asset, you need to know the following information: Initial cost of the asset. Useful life of an assetHow many years you think the asset will retain value for your business. Book value of an assetThe purchase cost minus the accumulated depreciation. DepreciationAn expense that reduces the value of a long-term tangible asset. Accelerated depreciationA method of depreciation that allows greater deductions in the earlier years of the life of an asset. Salvage valueThe estimated value that an asset will realize at the end of its useful life.
Note: For more information about depreciation, consult your tax professional.
Asset analysts use the Financials tab on the CI Information form to track the initial cost and the subsequent depreciation of your assets. If depreciation has been calculated, the Depreciated field is set to Yes and the View button is visible. If no depreciation information has been specified, the field is set to No and the Create button is visible.
Users Guide Figure 8-8: CI Information formFinancials tab Because depreciation has been calculated, the Depreciated field is set to Yes and the Create button is visible.
A Create button appears in this area if depreciation has not yet been calculated. After depreciation has been calculated, a View button appears. The Create CI Depreciation dialog box appears.
Figure 8-9: Create CI Depreciation dialog box
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5 For Method, select the depreciation method you want to use for this CI. Select this method If the CI
Straight Line Depreciation Depreciates at a constant value per year. Declining Balance (150%) Depreciates at a constant rate per year, accelerated by a factor of 1.5 (150%). Double-Declining Balance Depreciates at a constant rate per year, accelerated by (200%) a factor of 2.0 (200%). Sum-of-the-years Digits Loses more of its value early in its lifetime.
6 For Useful Life (months), specify the number of months you expect this CI
to be in service.
7 For Depreciation Starts, select the date when you want to start calculating
depreciation for this CI. Asset Management calculates depreciation on the last day of the month prior to the month you select, even if you select a specific date.
8 In the Salvage Value field, specify the salvage value, if any, and select a
currency type from the list. The salvage value is the estimated value that an asset will realize at the end of its useful life. Asset Management uses the salvage value in calculating the monthly depreciation figures. For example, if a laptop costs $4,000.00 and has a useful life of 12 months and a salvage value of $1,000.00, Asset Management uses $3,000.00 as the fully depreciated amount. The default amount for this field is $0.
9 Click Compute Depreciation. 10 Click OK in any confirmation messages that appear.
The Depreciated field is now set to Yes, and the Create button is changed to View.
11 In the CI record, click Save.
Users Guide
Viewing depreciation
After you provide depreciation information for a CI, you can view the depreciation schedule. You can also modify the depreciation, change the methods, and recalculate the result to see the effects of changes. See Modifying depreciation on page 223.
Note: If depreciation has been calculated for this asset, the Depreciated field on the Financials tab on the CI Information form is set to Yes and a View button appears. If depreciation has not been calculated, the Depreciated field is set to No and a Create button appears.
To view depreciation
1 Open a CI, as described in Searching for CIs on page 39. 2 Click the Financials tab. 3 In the Accounting Information area, click View.
If you see a Create button instead of a View button, depreciation has not yet been specified for this CI. See Providing depreciation information on page 219. The Depreciation Information for CI dialog box appears, displaying the depreciation for any months in which the CI has already been depreciated.
Figure 8-10: Depreciation Information for CI dialog box
Click to view the depreciation schedule. Any depreciation history appears here.
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4 To view the details of the depreciation history, select an item in the table, and
click View. In the Depreciation Details for CI dialog box, click Close after you finish viewing the information.
5 Click the Depreciation Schedule tab to view the depreciation schedule for
this CI.
Figure 8-11: Depreciation Information for CI dialog boxDepreciation Schedule tab
Effective DateThe date that the listed depreciation takes effect. StatusThe status of the CIs depreciation. Current DepreciationThe amount of the listed depreciation. LTD DepreciationThe life-to-date depreciation. Useful Life of AssetThe estimated number of months that the depreciable asset is expected to be in use. Remaining LifeThe number of months remaining in the useful life of the asset.
Users Guide
Modifying depreciation
You can use the Depreciation Details for CI dialog box to change the start date for depreciation and to select the depreciation method. You can also recalculate depreciation based on different criteria. After depreciation has been calculated for an asset, the Depreciated field on the Financials tab on the CI Information form is set to Yes and the View button is visible.
To modify depreciation
1 Open a CI, as described in Searching for CIs on page 39. 2 Click the Financials tab. 3 In the Accounting Information area, click View. (If you see a Create button
instead of a View button, depreciation has not yet been specified for this record. See Providing depreciation information on page 219.) The Depreciation Details for CI dialog box appears, displaying the depreciation for any months in which the CI has already been depreciated.
Figure 8-12: Depreciation Information for CI dialog box
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Salvage Value For information about these fields, see Providing depreciation information on page 219.
Important: For charge-back entries for depreciation to work correctly, the same price must appear in the following fields: Unit Price field on the CI record form, Related Cost field on the Cost form, and the Total Purchase Cost field on the Depreciation form.
5 Click Recalculate to recalculate the depreciation for this CI record. 6 Click Yes or OK in any confirmation messages that appear. 7 In the CI record, click Save.
Note: If you modify the Total Purchase Cost field on the Depreciation Details for CI dialog box and click Recalculate, a message indicates that you must manually update the Total Purchase Cost field on the Financials tab on the CI Information form.
Users Guide
Description Specify the fair market value for this asset. This is the price at which an item can be sold by a willing seller to a willing buyer, neither of whom are under any pressure to buy or sell. The book value (subtracted from the accumulated depreciation from the purchase cost) for this asset.
Book Value
company: Determine the cost centers at your company, and decide if any cost centers split their costs with other cost centers (target cost centers). See The charge-back cycle on page 208. Decide which employees must belong to each cost center. Plan appropriate time periods for implementing charge-backs.
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with the information from step 1. The administrator must complete the following tasks: Set up cost centers for the company, including split cost centers, if necessary. Add all application users to appropriate cost centers. Set up appropriate time periods for implementing charge-backs. For information about configuring Asset Management see the BMC Remedy IT Service Management 7.0 Configuration Guide.
Use the following steps to implement the charge-back process during each time period
Step 1 Specify costs for the current time period. See Working with costs on
page 212.
Step 2 At the end of the time period, generate preliminary charge-back reports and
make any necessary adjustments. See Generating a list of charge-back entries on page 226, Generating charge-back reports on page 233, and Adjusting charge-back entries on page 230.
Step 3 Generate and print charge-back invoices. See Generating charge-back
department.
Step 6 At the end of the time period, close the period. See Closing the current time
Users Guide
At the end of the time period (but before you close the current period), you must generate the charge-back entries to check the information for accuracy. If you find discrepancies, you can make any necessary adjustments before you print your charge-back invoices. For example, after checking the list, you might discover that you allocated a cost to the wrong cost center. You can then specify the correct cost center before you create your invoice. If you change the cost information after you generate the list, you can regenerate the list to refresh the data. When you regenerate the list, you can choose to discard or preserve your changes. If you have split cost centers, you can calculate the entries for these cost centers. For more information about split cost centers, see The charge-back cycle on page 208.
The Manage Costs form appears. The first time you open the form for the current time period, no information appears in the Charge-back Entries table. After you click Generate Preliminary Costing, any existing charge-back entries appear in the table.
3 In the Period Start Date and Period End Date fields, specify the start and end
any confirmation messages that appear: If you have already generated the list for the current time period, click Yes to create the list again. If you made adjustments to any entries since you last generated the list, click Yes to preserve the adjustments, or click No to discard the adjustments. Any existing charge-back entries appear in the table.
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BMC Remedy Asset Management 7.0 Figure 8-13: Manage Costs form
The next time you open the Manage Costs form for the current time period, any existing charge-back entries appear in the table.
The Manage Costs form appears. The first time you open the dialog box for the current time period, no entries appear in the table. After you click Generate Preliminary Costing, the entries appear in the table.
3 If this is the first time you have viewed charge-back entries for the current
time period, click Generate Preliminary Costing. Any existing charge-back entries appear in the Charge-back Entries table.
After you click Generate Preliminary Costing for the current time period, any existing charge-back entries appear in the table.
4 To limit the number of entries that appear in the table, specify criteria for the
entries you want to see. To view entries from a different time period, specify new values in the Period Start Date and Period End Date fields. To view the charge-back entries for a specific cost center, select a cost center from the Cost Center Code field, and click Search. To view costs that have not yet been billed to a cost center, select Unallocated from the Cost Center Code field, and click Search.
5 In the Charge-back Entries table, select the charge-back entry you want to
view, and click View. Results matching your search criteria appear in the table.
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For example, if you originally specified a charge-back cost of $150 and did not specify a cost center code, the Cost Center Code field displays a value of Unallocated. You can add the correct cost center by selecting the charge-back entry, clicking Adjustment, and specifying the appropriate Cost Center Code, for example, W1. After you click Save, you see two new entries at the bottom of the table in the Manage Costs form. The first entry shows that a cost of $150 is now allocated to the W1 cost center. The second entry shows the old, unallocated cost of -$150.
The Manage Costs form appears. The first time you open the console for the current time period, no information appears in the Charge-back Entries table. After you click Generate Preliminary Costing, any existing charge-back information appears in the table. You might have to wait a few minutes for them to appear.
Users Guide
3 If this is the first time you have viewed charge-back entries for the current
entries you want to see. To view entries from a different time period, specify new values in the Period Start Date and Period End Date fields. To view the charge-back entries for a specific cost center, select a cost center from the Cost Center Code field, and click Search. To view costs that have not yet been billed to a cost center, select Unallocated from the Cost Center Code field, and click Search.
5 In the Charge-back Entries table, select the charge-back entry you want to
adjust.
6 Click Adjustment.
You can change the entries in the following fields: Cost Type, Cost Center Code, and Related Cost. You can also add a reason for your adjustment.
8 Click Save.
New entries appear in the Charge-back Entries list in the Manage Costs form. To indicate that these entries are adjustments, they display Yes in the Adjustment column. One of the entries has a positive value, and the other has a negative value.
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Users Guide
Cost Incurred from SourceLists the base costs charged to cost centers, similar to the Charge-back Summary report, but does not include chargeback percentage. Unallocated ReportSummarizes costs that have not been billed to any cost center, and lists records that still have the default value of Unallocated in the Cost Center Code field. Before you generate charge-back invoices for each time period, you can run this report to determine if there are any unallocated costs. You can then assign these costs to the appropriate cost centers. Adjustment ReportLists any adjustments that have been made for the current time period. You can run this report to keep a record of your adjustments before you remove adjustments in the Manage Costs form.
Note: If your charge-back entries include split cost centers, you can view information about the split cost centers in the Allocation To and Allocation From rows in the following reports: Charge-back Invoice, Charge-back Summary, and Cost Incurred from Source.
To generate a report
1 Open the Asset Management console. 2 From the navigation pane, choose General Functions > Manage Costs.
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3 If you have not yet generated charge-back entries for the current time period,
5 Select the company. 6 If you have not made any changes to charge-back entries for the current time
period, skip to step 9 to print the report. If you have made changes to chargeback entries, select one of the following options from the Generate Option field. These options create charge-back entries for split cost centers. You can retain or discard any adjustments you made in the current time period. Preserve AdjustmentsIf you want to retain changes made to chargeback entries in the current time period. Remove AdjustmentsIf you want to discard changes made to chargeback entries in the current time period. To create a record of adjustments before you remove them, generate an Adjustment Report before you select this option. Calculate Split Allocation for AdjustmentsIf you made changes to split cost centers in the current time period.
Users Guide
Note: If your charge-back entries include split cost centers, you do not see information about these cost centers in the table. Details about split cost centers appear in the Allocation To and Allocation From rows in the following reports: Charge-back Invoice, Charge-back Summary, and Cost Incurred from Source.
7 Click Generate Costing Entries.
The most recent process that you have run appears in the top of the Process Log table. If an entry appears with a status of Done With Message in the Process Log table, you can view the process messages to get more information. See Viewing and resolving process messages on page 242.
9 Click the Step 2: Print Reports tab. 10 Select options for the report.
Figure 8-18: Cost Management Reports dialog boxPrint Reports tab
For Period Start Date and Period End Date, specify the dates for the beginning and the end of the period for which you want to print the report.
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If you want the report to include information for a specific cost center, specify the name of the cost center in the Cost Center field. If you want it to include information for all cost centers, leave the Cost Center field blank.
11 For Report, select the type of report you want to generate:
Charge-back InvoiceCreates an invoice for the charges made to cost centers, including charge-back percentage. Charge-back SummaryLists the total charges made to cost centers, including charge-back percentage. Cost Incurred from SourceLists the base costs charged to cost centers, without including a charge-back percentage. Unallocated ReportSummarizes the costs that have not been billed to any cost center, and lists records that still have the default value of Unallocated in the Cost Center Code field. Adjustment ReportLists the adjustments that have been made for the current time period.
12 Click Print Report.
13 For each of the fields in this form, select the value you want to change in the
drop-down list, and then type the new value in the Enter a Value field. You must complete each field, or the report will not be generated.
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To change the title, type a new name for the report. To add a subtitle, type a subtitle for the report. To change the currency type used to calculate charge-back costs in this report, select Currency Type and select a new currency and a value. To define a charge-back percentage for reports that support this value, click Charge-back Percentage and specify a percentage.
14 Click OK.
To print the report, click the Print Report icon at the top of the window. To export the report to another format, click the Export Report icon at the top of the window. In the Export dialog box that appears, select a format for the data and a destination for the file, and click OK. To scroll through the onscreen data, click the navigation icons at the top of the window. To close the report window, click the close box in the report window.
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5 Select a company.
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6 If you have not made any changes to charge-back entries for the current time
period, skip to step 9 to print the invoice. If you have made changes to charge-back entries, select an option from the Generate Option field. These options create charge-back entries for split cost centers. You can retain or discard any adjustments you made in the current time period. Preserve AdjustmentsRetains any changes you made to charge-back entries in the current time period. This updates the charge-back entries for the current time period and retains any adjustments. Remove AdjustmentsDiscards any changes you made to charge-back entries in the current time period. This removes any adjustments for the current time period, and regenerates the charge-back entries based on the cost entries for the current time period. (To create a record of adjustments before you remove them, generate an Adjustment Report before you select this option.) Calculate Split Allocation for AdjustmentsGenerates charge-back entries based on adjustments to split cost centers.
Note: If your charge-back entries include split cost centers, you do not see information about these cost centers in the table. Details about split cost centers appear in the Allocation To and Allocation From rows in the Charge-back Invoice.
7 Click Generate Costing Entries.
The most recent process you have run appears in the top of the Process Log table. If an entry appears with a status of Done With Message in the Process Log table, you can view the process messages to get more information. See Viewing and resolving process messages on page 242.
9 Click the Step 2: Print Reports tab. 10 Select options for the invoice.
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BMC Remedy Asset Management 7.0 Figure 8-22: Cost Management Reports dialog boxPrint Reports tab
a For Period Start Date and Period End Date, specify the dates for the
beginning and the end of the period for which you want to print the invoice.
b If you want the invoice to include information for a specific cost center,
specify the name of the cost center in the Cost Center field. If you want it to include information for all cost centers, leave the Cost Center field blank.
11 For Report, select Charge-back Invoice.
Note: You can also generate other reports. See Generating charge-back reports on page 233.
12 Click Print Report.
13 For each of the fields in this form, select the value you want to change in the
drop-down list, and then type the new value in the Enter a Value field. You must complete each field, or the report will not be generated. To change the title, click Report Title and type a new name for the invoice. To add a subtitle, click Report Subtitle and type a subtitle for the invoice. To change the currency type used to calculate charge-back costs in this invoice, select Currency Type and select a new currency. To change the charge-back percentage used to calculate charge-back costs in this invoice, select Charge-back Percentage and type a percentage.
14 Click OK.
The Report Preview window appears, displaying the invoice you created.
Figure 8-24: Charge-back Invoice
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To print the report, click the Print Report icon at the top of the window. To export the report to another format, click the Export Report icon at the top of the window. In the Export dialog box that appears, select a format for the data and a destination for the file, and click OK. To scroll through the onscreen data, click the navigation icons at the top of the window. To close the invoice window, click the close box in the window.
Users Guide
follow the procedure in Generating a list of charge-back entries on page 226. If there are any process messages, you see a status entry in the Process Log table that begins with Done. A message might also appear in the Process Message column.
Figure 8-25: Cost Management Reports dialog boxGenerate Costing Entries tab
If Done appears in the Status column, select the item, and click View Process Messages to get more information.
5 Select a company. 6 Select an item in the Process Log table. 7 Click View Process Messages.
The Process Status Messages dialog box appears. Any process messages appear in the Process Message field.
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BMC Remedy Asset Management 7.0 Figure 8-26: Process Status Messages dialog box
8 To print a report of the process messages, click Print Process Messages. 9 For each of the fields in this form, select the value you want to change in the
drop-down list, and then type the new value in the Enter a Value field. You must complete each field, or the report will not be generated. To change the title of the report, select Report Title and specify a value in the Value field. To add a subtitle, select Report Subtitle and specify a value in the Value field.
10 Click OK. 11 Select an option for the report:
To print the report, click the printer icon at the top of the window. To export the report to another format, click the envelope icon at the top of the window. Then select a format for the data and a destination for the file and click OK. To scroll through the onscreen data, click the navigation icons at the top of the window.
12 To close the report window, click the close box in the report window.
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BMC Remedy Asset Management 7.0 Figure 8-27: Cost Management Reports dialog boxClose Current Period tab
At the end of every time period, click to close the current period.
If the time period is configured as Monthly or Quarterly, the next time period begins automatically. If the time period is configured as Manual, the Current Charge Back Dates dialog box appears, and you must specify an end date for the new time period.
Chapter
Managing inventory
This section discusses how to track and manage CIs that are in inventory and available for deployment. The following topics are provided: Tracking inventory (page 248) Creating bulk inventory and inventory location CIs (page 248) Placing non-bulk CIs in inventory (page 251) Managing inventory locations (page 252)
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Tracking inventory
You use the Manage Inventory dialog box to track CIs and bulk inventory items that are available for deployment. Before you can track inventory, you must add items to inventory. To add a bulk item to inventory, you must create a Bulk Inventory CI type and an Inventory Location CI type, and then relate the two. To add a CI to inventory, change the Status field on the CI record to In Inventory, and then designate a location. After items are in inventory, you can use the Manage Inventory dialog box to view, relocate, and reserve and use CIs and bulk inventory items.
4 Complete the following required fields. Field name CI Name Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 Received Quantity 5 Click Save. Description Specify the name of the bulk inventory item, for example, Microsoft Windows XP. Categorize the item. Specify the number of items received.
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4 In the CI Name field, specify the location name. 5 Complete the other, optional fields.
Note: If CIs associated with this inventory location were created from a purchase requisition, they appear on the Inventory Transactions tab.
6 Click Save.
Users Guide
4 From the Location list, select a location, make sure other values are correct,
and click Search. Results matching your search criteria appear in the Results List table.
5 Select a location in a table and click Return.
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Relocating CIs
You can relocate CIs or bulk inventory items from one location to another.
To relocate CIs
1 Open the Asset Management console. 2 From the navigation pane, choose General Functions > Manage Inventory.
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BMC Remedy Asset Management 7.0 Figure 9-6: Search Inventory Locations dialog box
5 From the Location list, select the location where you want to relocate the CI,
delete default Company and Support Company values if necessary, and click Search. Results matching your search criteria appear in the table.
6 Select the location where you want to relocate your CI. 7 In the Quantity field, specify the number of CIs you want to relocate. 8 Click Relocate.
Users Guide
4 Select the CI or bulk inventory item you want to reserve and use. 5 Click in the Transaction Qty column and specify the number of CIs or bulk
6 Click Reserve/Use Inventory. 7 The number of CIs or bulk inventory items in the Qty in Stock column is
reduced by the number reserved and used, and the number the user specified in the Trans Qty column is cleared. If you reserve the total number in stock, the item is removed from the table.
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10
Reporting
You can generate reports about your companys CIs, including contract agreement information with manufacturers and suppliers, purchase requisition and purchase order information, scheduling information, configuration information, and financial data associated with CIs and contracts. The following topics are provided: Generating reports (page 258) Using predefined reports (page 264)
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Generating reports
Asset Management provides a variety of predefined reports to give you quick and easy access to information about your system. You use the Report console to generate these reports. If the predefined reports return more information than you need, you can manage the scope of the report using qualifications. For information about using qualifications, see Using qualifications to generate a report on page 260.
Important: If you use Crystal Reports software to modify the prepared reports supplied with Asset Management, Customer Support can provide only limited assistance if you have a reporting problem. In addition, there is no guarantee that problems resulting from these modifications can be solved. The standard reports included with BMC Remedy Asset Management are designed to be used without modification.
Generating a report
Use this procedure to generate a standard report without using qualifications (for information about generating reports with qualifications, see Using qualifications to generate a report on page 260).
To generate a report
1 Open the Asset Management console. 2 From the navigation pane, choose General Functions > Reports.
3 Select a report from the Report Name list. 4 If you select a report that requires a date range, the date range field appears.
ScreenYour report appears in a separate dialog box. PrinterThe report is sent to the printer you specified in the Print Setup dialog box. FileThe report is saved to the path and file you specify.
6 Click Run Report. The Enter Values dialog box appears. 7 Complete the title, subtitle, and any other fields in this dialog. These fields
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generate.
4 In the Define Report Qualification area, create your qualifications from the
lists. For example, to create the qualification Cost Center = 001 select Cost Center from the list in the left column, select = from the operand list (middle column), and then type 001 in the right column. You can use all five rows in the area to define qualifications.
5 To save the qualification, click Save Qualification.
Users Guide
Note: By saving the qualification, you can rerun this report without defining the qualification again. See Generating a report using saved qualifications on page 263.
6 In the Qualification Name field, specify a name for your qualification, and
click OK. A message appears stating that your qualification has been saved.
7 Click OK.
ScreenYour report appears in a separate window. PrinterThe report is sent to the printer you specified in the Print Setup dialog box. FileThe report is saved to the path and file you specify.
9 Click Run Report. The Enter Values dialog box appears. 10 Complete the title, subtitle, and any other fields in this dialog. These fields
generate.
4 Click Advanced Qualification.
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ScreenYour report appears in a separate dialog box. PrinterThe report is sent to the printer you specified in the Print Setup dialog box. FileThe report is saved to the path and file you specify.
8 Click Run Report. The Enter Values dialog box appears. 9 Complete the title, subtitle, and any other fields in this dialog. These fields
Users Guide
5 Select the qualification from the table, and click Return Selected.
ScreenYour report appears in a separate dialog box. PrinterThe report is sent to the printer you specified in the Print Setup dialog box. FileThe report is saved to the path and file you specify.
7 Click Run Report. The Enter Values dialog box appears. 8 Complete the title, subtitle, and any other fields in this dialog. These fields
Report
Description
Computer System > Server The number of servers, organized by operating Counts by OS system. Purchasing > by Supplier Performance Supplier performance organized by supplier, order ID, and purchase order number.
Schedules > Upcoming Assets due for maintenance, organized by site. Maintenance Assets by Site Software> Software Contract List by Expiration Date Software Licenses > Compliance / Maximum Exposure A list of software contracts, organized by expiration date. Software licenses deployed compared with contracts, organized by manufacturer, and maximum monetary exposure estimate for overdeployed software licenses.
Appendix
The following CI and relationship types are provided with BMC Remedy Asset Management: The following topics are provided: BMC_Access Point subclass (page 266) BMC_Bulk Inventory subclass (page 266) BMC_Collection (page 267) BMC_Equipment (page 267) BMC_Logical Entity subclass (page 268) BMC_System subclass (page 268) BMC_System Component subclass (page 270) BMC_System Service subclass (page 272) Relationship types (page 273)
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Communication Endpoint A communication protocol endpoint that is dedicated to running TCP/UDP. IP Endpoint LAN Endpoint A protocol endpoint that is dedicated to running IP. A communication endpoint that, when its associated interface device is connected to a LAN, can send and receive data frames. LAN Endpoints include Ethernet, Token Ring, and FDDI interfaces. A communication point from which data can be sent or received. Protocol Endpoints link system or computer interfaces to logical networks.
Protocol Endpoint
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BMC_Collection
The following CI types are available when you create a CI under the BMC_Collection subclass. You use these CI types to define site information, and connectivity information. From the Type list in the Manage Asset Information dialog box, select Collection.
CI type Connectivity Collection Description A connectivity collection is used to collect a set of protocol endpoints of the same type that are able to communicate with each other. It can also collect related systems, users, or other managed elements. A group of endpoints of a particular type (for example, ethernet or token ring) that are able to intercommunicate with the assistance of bridging or routing services. An IP connectivity subnet represents a group of related IP protocol endpoints that can communicate with each other as members of a subnet.
Connectivity Segment
IP Connectivity Subnet
IPX Connectivity Network A network or subnet that uses the IPX protocol. LNs Group Local Area Network (LAN) Role Wide Area Network (WAN) A LNs Group represents a group of logical networks. A collection of IP subnets in a LAN. A role, for example, a business or IT role. A collection of IP subnets in a WAN.
BMC_Equipment
Equipment is the only CI type available under this class. You use this CI type to define non-computing equipment, such as vehicles or maintenance tools. From the Type list in the Manage Asset Information dialog box, select Equipment.
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Activity
Physical Location
BMC_System subclass
The following CI types are available when you create a CI under the BMC_System subclass. You use these CI types to define the systems in your organization. From the Type list in the Manage Asset Information dialog box, select System.
CI type Admin Domain Description A subclass of systems representing the admin domains for other elements such as NT Domain, J2EE Domain, and so on. A deployed program that performs specific tasks.
Application
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CI type
Description
Application Infrastructure An Application Infrastructure hierarchically separates an application system from the infrastructure supporting that application system. Application System An application or software system that supports a particular business function and that can be managed as an independent unit. A group of disk sectors. The operating system assigns a unique number to each cluster and then keeps track of files according to the clusters they use. A complete, working computer. The location of your inventory items. Short for logical partitioning, a system of taking a computer's total resourcesprocessors, memory and storageand splitting them into smaller units that each can be run with its own instance of the operating system and applications. A very large computer capable of supporting hundreds, or even thousands, of users simultaneously. A group of computers and devices on an NT network that are administered as a unit with common rules and procedures. A printer. This can be used to represent both local and network printers. A server on which your software applications reside. A server on which a Sybase database resides. A server on which a terminal emulation program resides. A subclass of computer systems that describes a virtual system such as a logical partition (Mainframe LPAR).
Cluster
Mainframe NT Domain
Printer Software Server Sybase Database Server Telnet Server Virtual System
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Card CDROM Drive Chassis Database Storage Disk Drive Disk Partition
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CI type Keyboard Local File System Local Printer Logical System Component Media Memory Monitor Network Port Operating System Package Patch Pointing Device Processor Product
Description The set of typewriter-like keys that enables you to enter data into a computer. Files that reside on your workstation. A printer that resides on your workstation. A logical system component. Objects on which data can be stored. These include hard disks, floppy disks, CD-ROMs, and tapes. Internal storage areas in the computer. The display screen of a computer. An interface on a computer to which you can connect a network device. Software that controls the operation of a computer and directs the processing of programs. A computer program or collection of related software, for example, Microsoft Works. Also called a service patch, a fix to a program defect. A device with which you can control the movement of the pointer to select items on a display screen. A silicon chip that contains a CPU. Something that is produced, like a software program or a hardware component. For example, Microsoft Office would be categorized under Product. A hardware component that holds other hardware components. A file system that is not connected directly to your workstation. Represents shared components such as a file system. Refers to the operating system and all utility programs that manage computer resources at a low level. A device that reads data from and writes it on to a tape.
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CI type UPS
Description Short for uninterruptible power supply, a power supply that includes a battery to maintain power in the event of a power outage. A virtual system enabler represents a collection of virtual operating systems (for example, VMWare) that can run on a given system. A self-contained operating environment that behaves as if it is a separate computer.
VM Ware
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Relationship types
When you relate a CI record or service to another CI record, you must define the relationship type between the two records. The following relationship types are available with BMC Remedy Asset Management.
Relationship type Component Dependency Element Location Description This relationship is used to establish part of relationships between managed elements. This relationship is used to establish dependency relationships between object store elements. This relationship relates a managed element to a location for site, inventory, and maintenance purposes. Physical elements can have locations, however, other managed elements might also be related to locations. For example, organizations might exist in one or more location, or services might be restricted to one location. This relationship relates an access point and the system on which it resides. This relationship is 1-tomany and is weak with respect to the system. Each system might host many service access points. If the implementation of the access point is modeled, it must be implemented by a device or software feature that is part of the system hosting the service access point. This relationship relates a service and the system on which the service resides. The relationship is 1-tomany and is weak with respect to the service. A service is hosted on the stem where logical devices or software features that implement the service are located. The model does not represent services hosted across multiple systems. This is modeled as an application system that acts as an aggregation point for services that are each located on a single host. This relationship is a specialization of the Component relationship that establishes part of relationships between a system and the managed system elements on which it is composed. This relationship relates a bulk item to inventory location.
Hosted Service
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Relationship type Inventory Computer Systems Inventory System Components Member of Collection
Description This relationship relates a computer system to inventory location. This relationship relates a system component to inventory location. This relationship is used to establish membership of managed elements in a collection.
Glossary
This glossary contains terms for all of the ITSM applications. For a list of BMC Remedy Action Request System terms, see the glossary in BMC Remedy Action Request System 7.0: Concepts. For a list of CMDB terms, see the glossary in BMC Atrium CMDB 2.0 Concepts and Best Practices Guide.
accelerated depreciation Administration console
A documented understanding between two parties. An agreement can be one of three types: service level agreement, operational level agreement, or underpinning contract. See also service level agreement (SLA), operational level agreement (OLA), and underpinning contract (UC).
agreement owners
Any method of depreciation that allows greater deductions in the earlier years of a CIs life cycle. See also depreciation and configuration item (CI).
access permission
A feature that allows you to select which individuals or groups of people to notify at certain times, for example, when an SLA is at risk or when an SLA is going to expire.
application administrator
A mechanism, such as an alert or a Set Fields action, for making sure that SLM commitments are met. You can define one or more actions that will be associated with a milestone.
administrator
An individual responsible for the management of the ITSM applications, including setting up forms, setting access rights for users, and creating configurations.
Glossary
275
The main interface for configuring ITSM applications. The console works like a control panel from which administrators can perform common configuration activities and activities specific to different ITSM applications and subsystems.
approval
A service target that measures the time that an asset or service is available or unavailable. This service target applies specifically to data that is tracked in an application based on BMC Remedy Action Request System, such as Asset Management.
BMC Atrium Configuration Management Database (BMC Atrium CMDB)
A process that generates electronic signature lines for items that require approval, and tracks who has approved or rejected a given request.
asset manager
An infrastructure built on BMC Remedy Action Request System and used to build data models and define datasets.
book value
The manager responsible for both strategy and day-to-day CI management functions, for example, updating CIs and configurations, running reports, or negotiating contracts.
assignee
The value of a CI equal to the purchase cost minus the accumulated depreciation.
broadcast message
The person assigned the responsibility of working on any of the following activities: change request, incident ticket, problem investigation, known error, solution database entry, and so on.
assignment
An application feature that enables users to create messages that can be viewed by the entire organization or by users in specific groups.
BSM
Automatically or manually assigning a group or individual the responsibility of resolving an issue or request. ITSM applications use the Assignment form for group automatic assignment and the Assignment Engine for individual automatic assignment.
audit schedule
A schedule used to perform periodic audits that check for differences between the information in the CI database and the CIs that are deployed in the company.
Items that are not tracked by an individual record for each unit. Bulk items in inventory are tracked by quantities of an item type. For example, items such as cables do not require individual records but rather, one record for a bulk quantity of the specific cable type.
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change management
A feature that allows the administrator to add multiple nodes to a service target at one time. This feature is specific to collection nodes for BMC Performance Manager. See also collection node.
business service management (BSM)
A flexible, comprehensive management approach that links IT resources and business objectives. BSM makes sure that everything IT does is prioritized according to business impact, and enables IT organizations to proactively address business requirements.
CAB
As a concept, the process of planning, scheduling, implementing, and tracking changes to the IT infrastructure, or any other aspect of service, in a controlled manner. By using change management, you can implement approved changes with minimal disruption to the business environment.
change manager
A person responsible for filtering, accepting, and classifying all change requests. The change manager is also responsible for planning and coordinating the implementation of the changes. Sometimes known as a change supervisor.
change request
A group that advises change management on the implementation of significant changes to the IT infrastructure. This group is often made up of representatives from various IT areas and business units.
Change and Configuration Management
The controlled process for the addition, modification, or removal of approved, supported, or baselined hardware, networks, software, applications, environments, or systems. A change request can involve multiple change activities.
charge-back
An application feature that proactively manages both IT and business-driven changes, and protects the IT environment. It does this by using planning and decision-making data contained in a dedicated BMC Atrium CMDB.
change authority
The process of charging departments or cost centers for the IT infrastructure required to support their business processes.
charge-back invoice
The name of a group with the authority to approve changes. This group can also be called the Change Advisory Board. See also change advisory board (CAB).
A report used by a cost manager to track information and find entries that might need to be adjusted.
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277
charge-back summary
collection node
The total charges made to cost centers, including charge-back percentage. For split cost centers, it also provides information about how charges are allocated for source cost centers and target cost centers.
CI
The data source for the information that is forwarded to the collection points. Some examples of data sources are BMC Performance Manager Classic, BMC Performance Manager Express, BMC Application Response Time, and SNMP data sources.
collection point
A component of ITSM. The CI browser lets you search for and view CIs and their relationships.
CI unavailability
The component in the SLM application that is responsible for collecting the data. You can add multiple collection points with different port numbers.
collector
The time when a CI is either partially or completely unavailable to perform its required function. CI unavailability records can be broadcast or related to other records.
class
The component in the SLM application that manages the collection points and retrieves data.
Company field
Metadata in the BMC Atrium CMDB that defines a type of object, usually a configuration item (CI) or relationship.
client tier
A field in ITSM that controls multi-tenancy. It shows only data for the companies for which you have permission. See also multi-tenancy.
compliance at risk target
The architecture level where BMC Remedy Action Request System clients operate within the multitier system.
CMDB
A target (such as 99.5 percent) that identifies when the agreement's compliance reaches a point that is nearing a breach state and should be identified as a potential risk. See also compliance-only service target and compliance service target.
compliance-only service target
A component of the BMC Atrium CMDB. The Reconciliation Engine merges data from different discovery services based on identification and precedence rules.
A service target that enables you to access data already processed by another product for use in compliance calculations. Using the compliance-only service target, SLM calculates compliance results at the agreement level only, by accessing service target results that were already processed by another application. See also compliance at risk target and compliance service target.
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contract
A target (such as 99 percent) that tracks the performance of the agreement to see the percentage of time the agreement was met over specific time periods. See also compliance at risk target and compliance-only service target.
configuration
Sets of CIs that are required by different groups of people in the company.
configuration catalog
A documented relationship between two parties that identifies details about each party, accounting and budget codes, purchase cost, and expiration dates, and ties one or more SLAs, OLAs, or underpinning contracts to the interested parties. The contract also makes it possible to segment and restrict access to the compliance and service target results so that results can be viewed by contract.
cost center
A feature of Asset Management that stores your standard configurations (such as a standard desktop, laptop, server, and so on) for management purposes.
configuration item (CI)
An entity tracking cost information within an organization. See also split cost center.
cost management
An infrastructure component or an item associated with the infrastructure that is (or will be) under the control of configuration management, for example, a Request for Change. A CI can be complex or simple, large or small. CIs can include entire systems or be a single module or minor component. CIs can also include records of people (users and customers) and locations.
configuration management
All of the policies, procedures, and deliverables required to fulfil an organizations costing and charging requirements.
currency code
The three-letter code that represents a currency type, such as USD for United States Dollars.
dashboard
The process of maintaining detailed IT inventory records. It involves identifying and defining the CIs in a system, recording and reporting the status of all CIs and requests for change, and verifying the completeness and correctness of all CIs. See also configuration item (CI).
Configuration Management Database
Web-based, graphical user interface using flashboards where compliance and service target results can be viewed by service level managers, service delivery managers, other IT professionals, and customers or line of business owners. See also service level agreement (SLA), service target, and flashboard.
data consumer
An application that works with data in ITSM. It might view the data or modify it. See also data provider.
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279
data provider
An application that loads data into ITSM. This is often a discovery application. See also data consumer.
dataset
A logical group of data in ITSM. A dataset can represent data from a particular source, a snapshot from a particular date, and so on. The dataset used by BMC products for reconciled production data is named BMC Asset.
decision tree
A method of calculating depreciation in which CIs depreciate at a constant rate per year, accelerated by a factor of 200 percent. In this method of accelerated depreciation, double the straight-line depreciation amount is taken the first year, and then that same percentage is applied to the undepreciated amount in subsequent years. See also declining balance depreciation.
down CI
A step-by-step guide set up by an administrator. It guides the user through a questionnaire and, based on the users answers, completes part of the form for a new incident.
declining balance depreciation
A method of calculating depreciation in which CIs depreciate at a constant rate per year, accelerated by a factor of 150 percent. In this method of accelerated depreciation, 150 percent of the straight-line depreciation amount is taken the first year, and then that same percentage is applied to the undepreciated amount in subsequent years. See also double-declining balance depreciation.
definitive software library (DSL)
A workflow component that searches at specified times or at regular intervals for requests matching a specified condition, and performs specified operations on all matching requests. Escalations are generally used to find records that have exceeded desired business rules or processes, and take appropriate action. They run on the BMC Remedy Action Request System server.
federated data
A central repository of approved product dictionary entries (PDEs). See also product dictionary entry (PDE).
dependent change request
Data linked from a CI in ITSM but stored externally. Federated data might represent more attributes of the CI or related information, such as change requests on the CI.
flashboard
A change request that must be completed in sequence, as defined by the change manager.
depreciation
A real-time visual monitoring tool that shows you the state of your service operations, warns you about potential problems, and collects and shows trend data.
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form
incident management
A collection of fields that represents a record of information in the BMC Remedy Action Request System. System administrators can define and change the fields and workflow associated with a form. An Action Request System application can include many forms.
functional role
As a concept, a reactive process typically initiated in response to a customers call. The primary goal of the incident management process is to restore normal service operation as quickly as possible and with minimum disruption to the business.
incident manager
A defined role used for notifications and to extend access granted by permission groups.
global
A person who monitors incident tickets and activities to help plan resources and to identify incident trends. The incident manager also handles assignments.
incident matching
A setting that applies changes or defines certain parameters for all companies in a multi-tenancy environment. See also multi-tenancy.
goal
Measurement method that allows you to track the time taken to resolve an issue or track how often an asset or service was available. Goals are used to determine whether service targets are met.
guest user
A search process in Incident Management that can be used to search for other incidents, problem investigations, known errors, and solution database entries that share some of the same characteristics as the current incident, such as product categorization.
incident owner
The user who records the incident. This user might differ from the current incident assignee. See also assignee.
Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL)
Users who have not been configured with login information in the People form. Guest users cannot create change requests.
impacted area
Any event that is not part of the standard operation of a service and that causes an interruption to or reduction in the quality of that service. See also incident management and problem investigation.
A record in ITSM. An instance is an object of a particular class. Both CIs and relationships are considered instances.
inventory
Glossary
281
navigation pane
A data point used to measure whether performance-monitoring service targets meet their goals. See also service level agreement (SLA).
known error
An area on the left side of consoles that provides links to functionality and links to other programs.
New Request Wizard
A problem that has been successfully diagnosed and for which a temporary work-around or permanent solution to the known error has been identified. See also problem and work-around.
KPI
A simple form for requesters to submit service requests. Requesters use the New Request Wizard interface to submit service requests to IT, which is the only way to submit a service request from the Requester console.
non-bulk CIs
A message sent to a user by workflow. Notification can be in the form of an alert, email message, or other method using integrations.
OLA
The metric by which supervisors measure the ability of the support staff to meet their agreements.
milestone
A point in time that triggers a set of actions as you progress toward an agreement compliance target or service target goal. The triggered actions are to make sure your goals are being met.
multi-tenancy
A feature in ITSM that uses the Company field to limit access by individuals. The Company field can be used to represent a company, department, or other group. The Company field also can be used to control access in a hosted environment. By default, ITSM applications operate in multi-tenancy mode. See also single-tenancy.
A three-tier hierarchical representation of operations as defined in the Operational Catalog configuration form. This categorization is included in records to specify the range of operations to which a record applies.
operational level agreement (OLA)
An internal agreement used to define and track the level of service provided for an IT organization. An example is an agreement between the network management team and the service desk.
282 Glossary
Users Guide
operator
permission group
One of a number of functions that enable you to define advanced searches or build qualifications.
Overview console
A central console for ITSM applications. The console works like a control panel from which users can access all assigned work and perform their primary activities.
parent/child contract
A feature of the ITSM applications that controls what areas of the application a users can access. Each permission group can access only certain areas of the application. A user can belong to more than one permission group.
problem
A parent, or main, contract that has other children, or subcontracts, associated with it.
PDE
The root cause of an incident or potential incident. After a resolution or work-around is identified, the problem becomes a solution database entry or known error. See also incident, known error, solution database, and work-around.
problem investigation
A dependent change request that can be completed at the same time as another change request.
peer-to-peer
A process that helps an IT organization diagnose the root cause of incidents and potential incidents. It initiates actions that help to improve or correct the situation, preventing the incident from recurring.
problem management
Devices that are on the same level in an organizations network (for example, two workstations). See also notification.
performance-level service target
A service target that compares a service level to the goals defined in the service target to determine whether the goal is met. Allows you to monitor whether a critical application that you are using has responded within the time period specified in the goals. See also goal.
performance-monitoring service target
As a concept, a process that identifies the cause of problems and initiates actions that help to improve or correct the situation, preventing an incident from recurring or occurring in the first place. The cause identified by a problem investigation can be documented in a known error or solution database record. See also incident, known error, solution database, and problem.
problem manager
A service target that compares a goal to a defined threshold to determine if the goal is met. For example, it allows you to monitor whether a critical application that you are using responds within 4 seconds or if the application meets other criteria such as being in a state of OK.
A person who reviews problem investigations and known errors to maintain the quality and integrity of the problem management process. This person coordinates the assignment of problem investigations and known errors to support staff, and also reviews problem investigation requests and performs business impact analysis.
Glossary
283
process flow
reminder
Shows the progress of a request as it moves through the stages of its life cycle. It does this within a form, such as an incident request. A diagram shows the stages of the process, as indicated by best practices, rooted in ITIL processes. It indicates the current stage and state of the request. The process flow diagram also serves as a wizard, guiding the user through the life cycle.
product categorization
A message similar to a BMC Remedy Action Request System notification, except that you can define the content of a reminder and specify when to send it.
request-based service target
A service target that measures how long a process takes, such as the time to respond to or resolve a service desk request, or the time to respond to or resolve a change request.
requester
A five-tier hierarchical representation of products as defined in the Product Catalog configuration form. This categorization is included in records to specify the range of products to which the record applies.
product dictionary entry (PDE)
A person in the organization who needs assistance from the IT support staff. A requester is usually an employee in the organization who needs to have a change implemented or an incident resolved.
Requester console
An entry in the Definitive Software Library that represents the master name of a software application. See also definitive software library (DSL).
push field
An advanced action that allows you to push information from the Applies To form for which you are creating an SLA to another form on the same server. See also service level agreement (SLA).
reconciliation
The front end for the Change Management and Incident Management applications. It provides an easy, user-friendly interface that allows users to quickly submit requests for change or incidents to the two back-end applications, and to view their submitted requests.
residual value
The value you can purchase an item for after its lease expires.
return on investment (ROI)
A feature in Asset Management that checks for duplicate CI records and enables the user to delete one and keep the other.
registered user
A user who has an entry in the People form with a BMC Remedy Action Request System login ID.
relationship
A type of BMC Atrium CMDB class that defines the relationship between two CIs.
A method of calculating when the capital cost of implementing a project, product, or service will be recovered through the savings that result from completing the activity. The ROI can be expressed in terms of internal savings, increased revenue from external sources, or some combination of these types of savings. See also service level agreement (SLA) and service level management (SLM).
284 Glossary
Users Guide
review period
service catalog
A period of time over which the compliance of an agreement is monitored on a regular basis. The following review periods are provided in SLM: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, and Quarterly. For example, if a Monthly review period is added to a service level agreement, then the SLA's compliance target needs to be met on a monthly basis. If a Daily review period is also added, then the SLA's compliance target needs to be met on both a daily basis and a monthly basis. See also service level agreement (SLA) and service level management (SLM).
ROI
An agreement between a service provider and its customers or lines of business that formally documents the needs of the customer and makes sure the correct level of service is received from the service provider.
service level management (SLM)
As a concept, the continuous and proactive process of defining, agreeing, monitoring, reporting, and reviewing the performance of IT services to make sure that adequate levels of service are delivered in alignment with business needs and at acceptable cost.
service manager
A set of responsibilities, activities, and authorizations, usually within the context of a single application or a business system. Note: Access to Remedy ITSM applications is based on user roles. Depending on your role in the organizationrequester, support, managementyou work with a different application (or view) on your desktop.
root cause
A manager who uses Asset Management to create service objects used for interpreting business problems, for example, cost of unavailability of services to a business area.
service request
A request for service to the IT organization. Service requests can be requests for change or requests to resolve incidents that impact the user.
Service Request console
See multi-tenancy.
salvage value
The estimated value that a CI will realize at the end of its useful life. See also useful life.
script
Detailed instructions that have been set up by an administrator to prompt users with questions that can assist in resolving or assigning an incident.
Glossary
285
service target
solution entry
The individual level of service to achieve. A service target includes terms and conditions, goals, costs, and milestones. Examples of service target goals include incident resolution time of 30 minutes, application response time of 4 seconds, and an application being in a state of OK. See also availability service target, performance-monitoring service target, request-based service target, and compliance service target.
set field
A reusable solution to a customer product problem. This is stored in the solution database.
split cost center
An advanced action that allows you to pull information from other forms to set in the form for which you are creating the agreement.
single-tenancy
A cost center that enables a department to split its costs with other departments. For example, a project management group might split its costs with an engineering department and a sales department. The project management department would be a split cost center, and the engineering department and sales department would be target cost centers.
straight-line depreciation
A feature that allows selection of a default company for company fields in ITSM. Single-tenancy mode is required to give unknown users access to the ITSM Requester console. See also multi-tenancy.
SLI
A method of calculating depreciation in which CIs depreciate at a constant value per year. The annual depreciation is calculated by subtracting the salvage value of the CI from the purchase price and then dividing this number by the estimated useful life of the CI.
submitter
A person who reports a problem, makes a request, or enters information into a database. See also change request.
submitter group
The physical storage locations of the master copy of a software application and its versions.
software license compliance
One of several special access control groups that the BMC Remedy Action Request System provides. Users automatically belong to this implicit group for requests they have submitted. See also assignee.
sum-of-the-years digits depreciation
Keeping track of what software your company has and that it has the legal right to use it.
solution database
A repository that stores reusable solutions to customer product problems in an easy-to-retrieve format.
A method of calculating depreciation in which CIs lose more of their value early in their lifetime. This method of calculating depreciation of a CI assumes higher depreciation charges and greater tax benefits in the early years of a CI's life.
286 Glossary
Users Guide
task
A unit of work that needs to be completed as a step in implementing an incident or problem investigation. In the Change Management application, you can also group a number of activities for requests with a number of actions that need to be completed before the request can be resolved. Your administrator creates task templates and task group templates that you can reuse for the same types of requests. Tasks can be manual or automatic.
task management system (TMS)
A service target that measures the time taken, for example, to resolve an incident from the time the incident was reported to the time it was resolved. Any time that falls within the Exclude when qualification is ignored and not measured.
TMS
A sub-system that is used to create task templates and task group templates. Besides the ability to set up predecessor-successor relationships, TMS supports branching and multiple task paths as well as the data exchange between activities.
TCO
A method of calculating all expenses associated with a CI over its lifetime. The calculation considers depreciation, maintenance, staff costs, accommodation, and planned renewal.
UC
1. A set of predefined criteria or settings that can be used by many agreements or service targets. See also service level agreement (SLA). 2. A form set up by an administrator that a user can select to complete an incident ticket or a change request with information consistent with the users support group and the type of incident or change request.
terms and conditions
A contract that is used to track performance against prearranged goals that the IT organization has with an external service provider or supplier.
useful life
The conditions that specify whether a service target should take effect. For example, the terms and conditions could specify that the service target applies only to incidents in which the priority is urgent and the service is email. Or the service target applies only to a specific set of KPIs. See also service target.
A character that users can type to represent other characters in a search. For example, in search statements in character fields, users can specify wildcards to match single characters, strings, or characters within a range or set.
work info
Glossary
287
work-around
288 Glossary
Index
A
accounting information, entering 210 active configurations 125 activities, completing for schedules 114 adding additional data to CIs 81 bulk inventory to a storage location 72 contact information to contracts 192 costs 213 items to configurations 129 subcontracts to contracts 194 total cost of ownership costs 107 work information 92 additional data, adding to CIs 81 adjusting charge-backs 230 Adjustment report 233 adjustments, generating reports on 233 advanced qualifications, using to generate reports 261 Advanced Search, using 40 APP-Administrator permissions 29 application administrator role 29 Application Preferences form 49 application preferences, modifying 49 APP-Management permissions 207 Approval console 165 about 57 opening from a desktop 57 approver role 30 approving configurations 125 purchase requisitions 164 asset accounting, about 206 Asset Admin permissions 67, 107, 189 asset analyst about 206 role 30 asset breakdown by type, viewing 38 Asset Management about 13 opening 34 predefined reports for 264 Asset Management console about 35 flashboards 3739 opening from a browser 34 opening from a desktop 34 quick links 36 asset manager role 30 Asset User permissions 67, 107 Asset Viewer permissions 107 Assigned Work table, about 52 audience 15 audits CMDB 83 notification 82 schedules about 108 changing status of 114 creating 109 modifying all occurrences 112
Index
289
B
Best Practice icon 12 best practices CI naming conventions 69 diagnosing problems and changes 64 blackout schedules creating 7981 multiple occurrences 80 one occurrence 79 BMC_Access Point subclass 266 BMC_Bulk Inventory subclass 266 BMC_Equipment subclass 267 BMC_Generic Group subclass 267 BMC_Logical Component subclass 268 BMC_System Component subclass 270 BMC_System Service subclass 272 BMC_System subclass 268 book value, entering 224 broadcasting messages 4144 browsers, using to open Asset Management console 34 Definitive Software Library console 55 Overview console 51 Purchasing console 57 Receiving console 59 budget code, entering 211 bulk inventory CIs, creating 71, 248 Bulk Inventory form 72, 249 bulk items, creating 248 bulk updates location 47 people 45 Business Time Segment form 80
C
canceling purchase orders 170 purchase requisitions 163 categorizing CIs 62 Change Management, about 13 change requests, planning 87 Charge-back Summary report 232
charge-backs about 209 adding costs 213 configuring the application 226 cycle 208 entries adjusting 230 generating 226 messages 242 viewing 228 generating entries 226 generating reports on 232 invoices 232, 238 messages 242 modifying costs 216 percentage 209 planning 225 process 226 removing costs 216 reports 232 generating 233 invoices 238 process messages 242 types of 232 setting up 225 child contracts 193 CI Information form, about 6466 CI Relationship Viewer 8587 CIs about 64 adding additional data to 81 adding configurations to 101 best practice for naming 69 bulk inventory 71 categorizing 62 CMDB audits of 83 computer system example 67 depreciation for 219 entering general information for 68 generating reports on differences between configuration and related CI 135 inventory location 249 multiple companies and 63 non-bulk 251 notification audits of 82
290 Index
Users Guide
providing access for multiple companies 63 relating information to 124 records to 104 schedules to 111 to configurations 133 to existing contracts 93 to new contracts 95 to other CIs 102 to people 96 to people organizations 97 to support groups 98 relationships, viewing 8587 relocating 253 removing from configurations 137 returning 120 returning items from 176 sandbox datasets for 66 searching for 3940 separating data 63 status 69 unavailability life cycle, about 115 unavailability, creating 115119 closing current time period 209 time periods 245 CMDB about 12 audits 83 integration with Asset Management 26 completing purchase orders 168 review schedules 142 scheduled activities 114 compliance, software licenses 180 Compliance/Maximum Exposure report 264 Computer System form 65 computer systems creating CIs for 67 viewing by status 37 configuration catalog, about 124 Configuration Information form 126 Configuration Item Unavailability form 116 configurations about 99
active 125 adding items to 129 adding to CIs 101 approving 125 creating 127 from a copy 144 new versions of 143 generating reports on differences between configuration and related CI 135 inactive 125 modifying 136 obsolete 125 opening 125 relating to CIs 133 to review schedules 140 removing CIs from 137 items from 137 review schedules 125, 138 viewing 100, 125 working with 99 configuring software license management rules 186 connectivity segments, relating to CIs 88 consoles Approval 57, 165 Asset Management 35 Definitive Software Library 54 Overview 5056 Purchasing 56, 149 Receiving 58, 173 Report 172, 259 consolidated service desk staff role 31 contracts about 180 adding contact information to 192 adding end-of-lease terms to 198 adding payments 195 child 193 creating 95 creating software keys and versions for 202 lease 190 maintenance 190 parent 193
Index
291
relating CIs to 196 relating to CIs 9395 software license 183 support 190 types 180 warranty 190 cost centers about 208 entering 211 source 208, 233 split 208 target 208, 233 Cost Incurred from Source report 233 cost manager about 206 role 31 costs about 107, 212 adding 213 adding information on total cost of ownership 107 generating reports on 233 modifying 216 removing 216 types of 214 viewing 213 creating blackout schedules 7981 bulk inventory CIs 71, 248 bulk items 248 CI unavailability 115119 configurations 127 from copies 144 from new versions 143 contracts related to CIs 95 differences reports 135 inventory location CIs 248, 249 items for configuration 130 lease contracts 191 network topologies 87 outages 115119 purchase orders 125 purchase requisitions 151 reminders 48 review schedules 125, 138
software keys and versions 202 software license contracts 183 current time period 209
D
datasets changing 45 production 66 sandbox 66 Definitive Software Library console 54 about 182 opening from a browser 55 opening from a desktop 54 depreciation about 217 entering 219 methods 217 modifying 223 viewing 221 diagnosing problems using network topologies 87 differences reports, creating 135 documents available for ITSM 1519
E
Email System form 78 emails, sending, about CIs 77 end-of-lease terms, adding to contract 198 error messages, viewing 242 exceptions, software licenses 189 expiration dates for software contracts, generating reports on 264
F
features, new 2328 finance roles 206 flashboards 3739 forms Application Preferences 49 Bulk Inventory 72, 249 Business Time Segment 80 CI 6466 Computer System 65 Configuration Information 126 Configuration Item Unavailability 116 Email System 78
292 Index
Users Guide
Inventory Location 250, 253 Item Information 131 Lease Contract 191 License Management Engine Configuration 187 Line Item Information 156 Manage Costs 228 Paging System 76, 77 Purchase Order 168 Purchase Requisition Information 151, 154 Purchase Requisition Signature Detail 165 Registration for Shared Time Segment 79 Schedule Criteria 110, 139 Schedule Information 142 Software Contract Information 184 Software License Information 202 Topology Relationships 88 View Instance History 84
viewing locations 252 Inventory Location form 250, 253 invoices charge-back 238 generating 238 IT director role 31 IT requester role 32 IT roles, and finance 206 IT Service Management, about product family 1215 IT submitter role 32 Item Information form 131 items adding to configurations 129 changing unit type or quantity 132 creating for configuration 130 obtaining pricing for 160
L
Lease Contract form 191 lease contracts 190 License Management Engine Configuration form 187 Line Item Information form 156 locations, bulk updates of 47
G
generating charge-back invoices 238 charge-back reports 233 reports from Purchasing console 171 with advanced qualifications 261 with qualifications 260 with saved qualifications 263 without qualifications 258 standard reports 258
M
maintenance contracts 190 maintenance reports, generating 264 maintenance schedules about 108 changing status 114 creating 109 modifying all occurrences 112 one occurrence 113 relating to CIs 111 Manage Costs form 228 market value, entering 224 messages broadcasting 4144 sending emails about CIs 77 viewing 242 modifying application preferences 49
I
icons Best Practice 12 New 12 impacted areas, updating 121 inactive configurations 125 Incident Management, about 13 inventory creating locations for CIs 248, 249 non-bulk CIs 251 reserving 254 tracking 248 using 254 viewing 100
Index
293
configurations 136 costs 216 datasets 45 depreciation 223 purchase items 158 purchase requisitions 150 rejected purchase requisitions 166 My Profile 53
N
navigation pane, defined 64 network topologies 87 new features 2328 access for multiple companies 24 blackout schedules 28 categorization, five-tier 25 CI unavailability 28 CI unavailability enhancements 115 Definitive Software Library 24 impacted areas 28 integration with BMC Atrium CMDB 2.0 26 new and enhanced tools 27 relating CIs to people and support groups 26 software license management 23 New icon 12 New/Modify Broadcasts form 42 non-bulk CIs, placing in inventory 251 notification audits, viewing 82
from a browser 57 from a desktop 56 Receiving console from a browser 59 from a desktop 58 Report console 171 outages 115119 Overview console 5056 opening from a browser 51 opening from a desktop 50
P
paging feature 75 Paging System form 76, 77 parent contracts 193 payments, adding to contracts 195 people bulk updates 45 relating organizations to CIs 97 relating to CIs 96 searching for 46 permissions APP-Administrator 29 application administrator 29 APP-Management 207 Asset Admin 67, 107, 189 Asset User 67, 107 Asset Viewer 107 Purchasing User 161 planning change requests 87 charge-backs 225 predefined reports 264 preferences application 49 authentication 34 servers 34 viewing 53 pricing purchase items 161 printing process messages 242 Problem Management, about 14 problems and changes, best practice for handling 64 process messages 242 production datasets 66
O
obsolete configurations 125 on-call groups, paging 75 one-time blackout schedules 79 opening Approval console 57 Asset Management console from a browser 34 from a desktop 34 Definitive Software Library console from a browser 55 from a desktop 54 Overview console from a browser 51 from a desktop 50 Purchasing console
294 Index
Users Guide
profile, viewing 53 purchase items entering manually 155 modifying 158 pricing 161 receiving 173 removing 159 returning 174 for replacement 176 from CIs 176 Purchase Order Information form 168 purchase orders canceling 170 completing 168 creating 125 generating report on supplier performance 264 generating reports on 171 placing 169 resending 170 searching for 167 Purchase Requisition form 151, 154 purchase requisitions approving 164 canceling 163 creating 125, 151 placing on hold 163 rejected 166 searching 150 submitting for approval 163 viewing 149 Purchasing console 56, 149 opening from a browser 57 opening from a desktop 56 purchasing cycle, about 146 purchasing information, entering 210 purchasing manager role 32 Purchasing User permissions 161
R
recalculating depreciation 223 Receiving console 58, 173 opening from a browser 59 opening from a desktop 58 receiving personnel role 32 receiving purchase items 173 records, relating CIs 104 recurring blackout schedules 80 Registration for Shared Time Segment form 79 rejecting purchase requisitions 164 related items, working with 102 relating CIs to configurations 124 to connectivity segments and subnets 88 to contracts 196 to other CIs 102 to records 104 configurations to review schedules 140 contracts to CIs 95 people organizations to CIs 97 people to CIs 96 support groups to CIs 98 relationships about 102 network topology and 87 types about 102, 273 selecting 103 viewing 8587 Relationships tab, quick actions 106 relocating CIs 253 reminders, creating 48 removing CIs from configurations 137 configurations 141 costs 216 items from configurations 137 purchase items 159 Report console 172, 259 opening 171 reports about 258 charge-back 233
Q
qualifications, generating reports with 260 quantity, changing 132 quick actions 106 quick links and Asset Management console 36
Index
295
Compliance/Maximum Exposure 264 differences 135 generating 258 from Purchasing console 171 with advanced qualifications 261 with qualifications 260 with saved qualifications 263 without qualifications 258 predefined 264 Server Counts by OS 264 Software Contract List by Expiration Date 264 Supplier Performance 264 Upcoming Maintenance Assets by Site 264 resending purchase orders 170 reserving inventory 254 returning CIs 120 purchase items 174 from CIs 176 recording information about 120 to be replaced 176 review schedules completing 142 creating 125, 138 relating configurations to 140 removing configurations from 141 roles application administrator 29 approver 30 asset analyst 30 asset manager 30 consolidated service desk staff 31 cost manager 31 IT and finance 206 IT director 31 IT requester 32 IT submitter 32 purchasing manager 32 receiving personnel 32 service manager 32 rules, configuring software license management 186
S
sandbox datasets 66
Schedule Criteria form 110, 139 Schedule Information form 142 schedules about 108 changing status 114 creating 109 modifying all occurrences 112 one occurrence 113 relating to CIs 111 review schedules 138 searching for CIs 39, 134 configurations 101, 141 contracts 94 inventory locations 73, 251 items for configurations 129 organizations 97 people 46, 96 Product Dictionary 185 purchase orders 167 purchase requisitions 150 schedules 113 selecting relationship types 103 sending emails about CIs 77 pages 75 purchase orders 170 Server Counts by OS report 264 service manager role 32 setting up software license management 181189 SLM, about 14 Software Contract form 184 Software Contracts List by Expiration Date report 264 Software License Information form 202 software licenses about 23 compliance and 180 configuring rules 186 contracts adding details to 200 creating 183 generating reports on 264 viewing 38
296 Index
Users Guide
keys and versions 202 setting up 181189 source cost centers about 208 viewing 233 split cost centers about 208 viewing 233 status CIs 69 schedules 114 values, selecting 52 storage locations, adding bulk inventory to 72 subclasses BMC_Access Point 266 BMC_Bulk Inventory 266 BMC_Equipment 267 BMC_Generic Group 267 BMC_Logical Component 268 BMC_System 268 BMC_System Component 270 BMC_System Service 272 subcontracts about 193 adding information to 194 submitting purchase requisitions for approval 163 subnets, relating to CIs 88 Supplier Performance report 264 support contracts 190 support groups, relating to CIs 98
U
unallocated costs, generating reports on 233 Unallocated report 233 unit type, changing 132 Upcoming Maintenance Assets by Site report 264 updating CI locations 47 impacted areas 121 people and CI records 45 URL to Asset Management console 34 to Definitive Software Library console 55 to Overview console 51, 55 to Purchasing console 57 to Receiving console 59
V
View Instance History form 84 viewing asset breakdown by type 38 charge-back entries 228 CMDB audits 83 computer systems by status 37 configurations 100, 125 costs 213 depreciation 221 inventory 100 inventory locations 252 notification audits 82 preferences 53 process messages 242 profile 53 purchase requisitions 149 software contract licenses 38 split cost centers 233 topologies 87
T
target cost centers about 208 viewing 233 tax credits 224 time periods about 209 closing 245 closing current 209 dates for 245 topologies 87 Topology Relationships form 88 total cost of ownership, adding information on 107
W
warnings, CIs and configurations 134 warranty contracts 190 web views Asset Management console 34
Index
297
Definitive Software Library console 55 Overview console 51, 55 Purchasing console 57 Receiving console 59 work information, adding 92
298 Index
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