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PeopleSoft Asset Management Module
Analysis & Recommendations for IT Asset Management
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October 16, 2003
Architecture Review Board Committee for Strategic Planning
Doug Faiman
Cathy Forsch
Roger Hertz
Don LaFleur
Cher Thomas
Nancy Walz
Jennifer Witham
Asset Management Work Group
Pat Forster
Lynette Goroski
Jennifer Grove
Kelly Klein
Larry Lee
Bob Magelky
Glen Rutherford
Joe Schell
Erv Zimprich
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Executive Summary, PeopleSoft Asset Management Analysis
The purpose of this paper is to look at the strategic value of establishing an enterprise IT asset
management repository, and specifically to evaluate the PeopleSoft Asset Management module
for that purpose. An analysis of the PeopleSoft Asset Management module was conducted by
ITD Planning Division working in conjunction with the ARB committee for strategic IT
planning. Pat Forster from ITD Planning coordinated with a work team of staff involved with
IT asset management from the Attorney General, Dept of Human Service, Dept of
Transportation, Information Technology Dept, and Tax Dept. In addition, project staffs from
the Strohls Disaster Recovery project and the ConnectND Asset Management project were
consulted as part of this analysis.
The analysis conducted indicates that the PeopleSoft Asset Management module is a viable
candidate for state government use as a central IT asset repository. While the product is
designed primarily as a financial asset management system, there is enough flexibility to adapt
it for use as an IT asset repository. The benefits of a central IT asset repository for enterprise
objectives make this an objective worth striving for. Examples of the value a central IT asset
repository can provide include the statewide strategic planning process and the enterprise
initiative for the Continuum of Government Disaster Recovery (LDRPS) system.
It is important to recognize at the outset, that many agencies have invested resources in
developing and implementing their own IT asset management applications, often with
customization to suit the needs and wants of their agency. While some development of
queries and reports for IT assets may be within scope, it is likely that agencies will also want to
build their own customized queries and reports to suite their individual needs. Giving the IT
staff within organizations access to ad-hoc reporting on the IT asset repository is one of the
recommendations included in this document.
It is equally important to note, that this recommendation is the beginning of a process—laying
the foundation for the concept of a central IT asset repository. In the coming months there
remains the work of further defining and developing the processes to ensure consistent data
entry, importing of existing legacy repositories, and ongoing maintenance. Since the
PeopleSoft asset repository encompasses both IT as well as non-IT assets, it will be important
that as these processes are developed, both IT as well as non-IT staff responsible for asset
management, are involved in the development of those processes.
While there is value in establishing a centralized repository, it should not be assumed that this
is the entire solution for comprehensive IT asset management. Gartner Group indicates that a
mature enterprise IT asset management program will normally include three distinct tools—
centralized IT repository, auto-discovery to maintain and keep the repository current, and
software usage to assess overuse or under use of an organization’s investment in software
licensing. Therefore we include in the recommendations that Enterprise Architecture conduct
a technical analysis of these additional tools and how they integrate into a total IT asset
management solution.
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The following diagram shows the inter-relationships of each of the components that would be
integrated into the proposed asset management structure. While not all of these integrations
may be practical to fully implement in the short term, it is important to keep our focus on the
long-term value to state agencies and the enterprise in building an IT asset management
program.
BARS LDRPS (Strohls)
Budget & Reporting Disaster Recovery Plans
Statewide Planning Reports Agency Disaster
Recovery Plans
Reporting on Link to Asset
Infrastructure, Detail, Asset
Asset Class PeopleSoft Replacment Cost
Reporting Asset Management
IT Asset Repository
Feed Business Unit,
Lease, Financial
Inventory Detail Feed IT Asset Physical
Inventory Detail
Auto-Discovery /Software
UsageTools
IT Hardware & Software
Management
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Recommendations & Summary of PeopleSoft Requirements
Asset Profiles / Asset Classes
See the attached spreadsheet for recommended profile and asset class definitions. The
profiles are intended as a major identifiable category that is useful for IT asset tracking and
reporting at agency and statewide levels. The spreadsheet also indicates sample default
field values tied to the profile. The asset class definitions further define assets to the detail
required to manage assets at an agency level.
Special Field Requirements
See the attached spreadsheet for recommended special IT fields that are not defined in
PeopleSoft. The PeopleSoft project team will be asked to provide optional fields that can
be utilized to accommodate these special IT field requirements.
Reporting Requirements:
Agency Reporting Requirements:
o Ad-hoc reporting capability for agency IT staff.
o Reporting by location, by hardware type (desktop, laptop, printer, etc), by
processor speed and indicating the assigned employee.
o Reporting by department/cost center, by hardware type (desktop, laptop, printer,
etc), by processor speed and indicating the assigned employee.
o Reporting based on asset life cycle, such as equipment within one year of
remaining useful life.
o Reporting of IT assets by employee position number.
o Reports must be able to roll-up IT asset cost by position number.
o Reporting of software totals by software name.
o Reporting of IT assets by funding source.
o Reporting of computer equipment by Operating System.
o Reporting of computer equipment by memory threshold (e.g. “< 128mb”).
o Reporting of computer equipment by hard drive threshold (e.g. “< 2gb”).
o Reporting of IT assets by funding source.
o Reporting of IT assets by warrantee expiration.
o Reporting of IT assets by maintenance renewal date
o Reporting of IT assets that have been retired.
On-line query / screens:
o Agencies currently have customized screens for queries to IT asset information
based on user name and position number, including hardware and software
assets tied to that user and/or position number—there is a desire to have a
similar screen or web interface to query IT assets in the PeopleSoft system (e.g.
query based on custodian name and custodian ID).
Planning Reporting Requirements:
o Ad-hoc reporting capability for the ITD Planning Division.
o Statewide roll-up reporting by asset Profile.
o Statewide reporting of asset remaining life cycles.
o Statewide reporting of asset acquisition plans by asset Profile.
o Statewide reporting of assets allocated by Project.
o Discrepancy reporting by agency to validate asset data.
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Recommendations & Summary of PeopleSoft Requirements (cont.)
PeopleSoft Feature / Process Requirements:
Need the ability to track IT assets that with a mechanism allows query and reporting by
employee name and position number. The mechanisms available with parent/child
relationships and/or custodian name / custodian number need to be evaluated to provide
the best implementation for this functionality.
Mechanism to import IT asset data from PeopleSoft asset database to Strohls disaster
recovery database.
Need an import facility in PeopleSoft so agencies can do initial population and ongoing
maintenance to transfer IT asset data from an auto-discovery tool to PeopleSoft asset
repository.
Need an import facility in order to populate bar code scanner data such as equipment
serial numbers and operating system licenses for new equipment and for inventory
verification. Verify which barcode vendors are supported by PeopleSoft.
Need facility to tie assets to projects (PeopleSoft Project Module). There is a need to
report on assets by “Activities” or “Projects” that agencies identify as being part of their
IT plans (similar to DOT project reporting requirement). As such, agencies would need
to identify IT projects in the PeopleSoft Projects module and then make use of the
Project ID field in the Asset Management module to identify assets that are tied to
specific projects. The functionality of this feature and intent to implement need to be
explored with the PeopleSoft project team.
The Useful Life field used in PeopleSoft Asset Management should be implemented as
part of the asset definition to enable reporting by asset life cycles.
Acquisition Plans within PeopleSoft Asset Management should be implemented so that
agencies can identify planned IT asset replacements.
Asset Maintenance/Service tracking features within PeopleSoft should be evaluated
for implementation and a possible future link to help desk.
Recommendation for Enterprise Architecture Technical Review:
The use of an auto-discovery tool to maintain the IT asset information in the PeopleSoft asset
management repository is critical to keeping that information current and accurate. In addition,
there is need for a software usage/metering tool so that agencies can determine that they are
within legal requirements of their licensing agreements and making cost-effective use of their
licensing investments. Many products on the market currently bundle auto-discovery and
software usage into a suite of tools for managing IT assets. The current state government
environment includes a mix of agencies using a variety of tools. For example, DOT uses LAN
Auditor, DHS uses Audit Wizard & Altiris, ITD uses Altiris, and Job Service uses Tangram.
Many mid-size and small agencies do not currently use any auto-discovery tools, maintaining
their inventories manually. It is recommended that Enterprise Architecture conduct a technical
evaluation of auto-discovery/software usage tools with the goal of recommending an enterprise
tool. While it may be possible to maintain a variety of tools that could import into the
PeopleSoft asset management repository, it would be impossible to maintain consistent data
descriptions for hardware and software assets since there would be variation between tool sets.
In addition, it would require more ongoing resources to maintain interfaces to multiple products
than if a single tool were selected.
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PeopleSoft IT Asset Management Meetings with Agency and ITD Staff
ITD Asset Tracking – CIS system
(Jennifer Grove, Lynette Goroski, Kyle Forster, Glen Rutherford)
The CIS system is used to track all ITD internal IT assets as well as assets used for to host
agency applications. Telecommunications equipment including infrastructure (wiring, wire
blocks, jacks) are also tracked using CIS.
ITD does track and tag assets less than $5000 in CIS. There is no minimum value cutoff.
Items over $5000 are depreciated, most over a 3 year time period, some with longer periods.
Equipment components that are added to existing assets are sometimes tagged and tracked in
CIS as well. ITD would use the Parent-Child feature in PeopleSoft to assist with this tracking.
ITD does plan to transition assets from CIS to PeopleSoft, however they are not sure if
PeopleSoft can accommodate the unique tracking that Telecommunications (Art Kunnanz) does
with wire and jack management. This needs some further investigation.
Software tracking is currently a manual (paper) process in ITD. License files are kept in files.
Tracking of software used by user/machine is currently manual. ITD currently uses Altiris
Deployment solution for software deployment and they are looking at expanding to the Altiris
Client Management suite for a more complete software and hardware management solution.
Glen is working to design a new telecommunications management system that may be
developed by ITD Development Team. This is an upgrade to the homegrown system currently
used by Telecom to manage the network. While the system does have asset information, the
same assets are tracked in CIS. This system is used mainly for configuration management and
real-time support by the Network Operations Center.
Telecom currently maintains manual records of Fiber and Circuits that are either owned or
leased. There is potential for adding this to PeopleSoft Asset Management.
PeopleSoft Requirements:
CIS Asset Classes, Telecom Asset Classes
Provide Software Tracking by Maintenance Renewal Date, Warrantee Expiration.
Need consistency in classes & naming of software and equipment (consider enterprise
asset discovery tool).
Potential Issues: Software assets are not all tracked in CIS.
To Do: Follow-up with Telecommunications group on fiber and circuit tracking and wire and
jack management requirements. Determine if any special fields are required.
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Disaster Recovery System (LDRPS) – Strohls Software
(Larry Lee)
The Strohls implementation team wants to extract agency IT asset information from PeopleSoft
Asset Management rather than duplicate the data within the Strohls system. In addition to
assets, the plan is also to access employee and vendor information from the corresponding
PeopleSoft modules. A potential solution that is being researched is creating logical links
between the Strohls system and PeopleSoft since both systems use Microsoft SQL databases.
To facilitate a quick response in a disaster situation, the Strohls system must have access to IT
asset information. A particular requirement for computer system recovery is to have a list of all
hardware and software that is needed to rebuild a particular server or PC. For that reason,
Strohls would need to leverage the Parent-Child features in PeopleSoft Asset Management.
They also need some specific IT hardware and software detail information.
PeopleSoft Requirements:
Need to configure the following field values to PeopleSoft IT hardware assets:
Processor, Memory, Disk Size, and Operating System.
Need to add the following field values to PeopleSoft software assets: Release/Version,
Patch Level, License Number.
Mechanism to link from Strohls to PeopleSoft asset database.
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Tax Department
(Bob Magelky)
The Tax Department currently uses an in-house built MS Access system to track both hardware
and software assets. This system is used to track IT assets separately from the financial fixed
asset inventory system.
IT equipment fields that are tracked: Asset Classes Tracked:
ID Number (tag) Computers
Brand Servers
Model Printers
Hardware Type (class) Print Servers
RAM (memory) Scanners
Hard Drive (disk size) Spare Equipment
Processor/Speed
Operating System
Date Purchased
Replacement Date
Serial Number
Vendor
Warranty Length
Location
Software Name
IT equipment and software are tied to and tracked by employee, so they would require the
Parent-Child feature in PeopleSoft.
The employee record contains the following fields:
Last Name
First Name
Middle Initial
Position Number
Division
Section
Potential Issues: Inventory system is manual and keeping asset information current,
particularly software assets, is difficult.
PeopleSoft Requirements:
Need the ability to track Parent-Child relationships for tracking IT assets that are tied to
employee/positions.
Need the ability to track Spare Equipment.
Reporting requirements for replacement projects and other ad-hoc reporting:
o PC list sorted by processor speed and listing employee it is assigned to.
o IT assets report by division / location.
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Attorney General
(Joe Schell)
The AG Office currently uses an in-house built MS Access system to track both hardware and
software assets. This system is used to track IT assets separately from the financial fixed asset
inventory system. This is a manual system, and Joe is currently looking for a tool to
automatically collect software usage information so he could track that against actual licenses.
IT equipment fields that are tracked: Asset Classes Tracked:
Assigned Employee AS400
AG Tag # Laptop
Serial Number Miscellaneous
Hardware Type (class) Monitor
Vendor Multimedia Projector
Make (brand) PC
Model Printer
Processor Speed Scanner
Manufactured Date Server
Funding Source
Location Software fields that are tracked:
Secondary Location Software Name
Use Version
Surplus Date Vendor
Comments
Operating System
IT equipment and software are tied to and tracked by employee, so they would require the
Parent-Child feature in PeopleSoft.
Potential Issues: Inventory system is manual and keeping asset information current,
particularly software assets, is difficult.
PeopleSoft Requirements:
Need the ability to track Parent-Child relationships for tracking IT assets that are tied to
employees.
Reporting requirements for replacement projects and other ad-hoc reporting:
o PC list sorted by processor speed and listing employee it is assigned to.
o Listing of software totals by software name.
o IT assets report by location.
o IT asset report by funding source.
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Human Services
(Kelly Klein)
The Department of Human Services currently uses an in-house built Notes system to track both
hardware and software assets. This system is used to track IT assets separately from the
financial fixed asset inventory system where only assets greater than $5000 in value are
tracked. The Notes application is a manual system that is difficult to maintain with the large
number of IT assets in the agency, so they are in the process of transitioning to an automated
inventory system (auto-discovery tool) called Audit Wizard. This is a very inexpensive product
($1000 license covers all IT assets in DHS). DHS also licenses the Altiris Client Management
suite to remotely administer two remote locations. They like the tool, however the cost
prevents them from deploying agency-wide.
IT equipment fields that are tracked (Notes): Asset Classes Tracked:
Property Number (tag) CD Burner
Location Cell Phone
User Name Desktop Computer
User Phone # Digital Scanner
Hardware Manufacturer (brand) Docking Station
Serial Number External Tape Backup
Department Name Fiber Channel (SAN)
Hardware Type (class) Fiber Channel Hub (SAN)
Model Fiber Channel Tower
Machine Type # (IBM only) Fluke Nettool
Purchase Order # Handheld
Comments Key Pad
Machine Name Laptop Computer
Operating System Network Printer
Hard Disk Size Pager
Memory Type Printer
Memory Size Printer Box (print server)
NIC Model Projector
Mac Address Scanner
IP Address Smart Array Controller
Tape Backup
Software fields that are tracked:
Individual/Group License
Software Name
Version
Software Location
License#/Passport #
License Physical Location
Maintenance Agreement (Y/N)
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Human Services (cont.)
IT equipment and software are tied to and tracked by employee, so they would require the
Parent-Child feature in PeopleSoft.
Potential Issues: Inventory system is manual and keeping asset information current,
particularly software assets, is difficult. This is being addressed with the implementation of the
Audit Wizard discovery tool.
PeopleSoft Requirements:
Need the ability to track Parent-Child relationships for tracking IT assets that are tied to
employee/positions.
Need the ability to track Spare Equipment.
Need an import facility in PeopleSoft in order to be able to populate and maintain IT -
specific information from their auto-discovery tool.
Reporting requirements for replacement projects and other ad-hoc reporting:
o Reporting by location, by hardware type (desktop, laptop, printer, etc), by
processor speed.
o Reporting of computer equipment by Operating System.
o Reporting of computer equipment by memory threshold (e.g. “< 128mb”).
o Reporting of computer equipment by hard drive threshold (e.g. “< 2gb”).
o Reporting of computer equipment by warrantee expiration.
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Department of Transportation
(Erv Zimprich, Don Olson)
The DOT currently uses an in-house built system with a MS SQL database to track both
hardware and software IT assets. This system is used to track IT assets separately from the
financial fixed asset inventory system where only assets greater than $5000 in value are
tracked. DOT uses an auto-discovery tool called LAN Auditor to automatically collect
hardware and software information from desktop computers and this data is imported into their
IT asset system . The primary key that ties all IT assets is employee position number—all
hardware and software assets associated with an employee are tracked by a position number
since the IT assets are normally consistent even as employee turnover occurs within a position.
IT assets can also be queried by tag number, division, and user name. The DOT asset tracking
system also maintains a cost value for each hardware and software asset, and the online screens
provide total cost valuation of assets based on the query (e.g. Total IT asset value by position).
They are also in the process of implementing a feature that would relate IT Assets to DOT
projects in order to better track project costs. DOT also uses barcode scanning to import the
serial numbers and OEM Operating System licenses from new computer equipment into the IT
asset system.
IT equipment fields that are tracked: Asset Classes Tracked :
Position Number Laptop
Division Number Docking Station
Division Name Printers
Tag Number Terminal
Serial Number Controller
CPU Description PC
Monitor Description Monitor
Printer Description Plotter
Miscellaneous Scanner
Cost Tape Drive
Location Modem
PO Number CDRom Drive
In Service Date Digital Camera
Vendor PDA
Disk Drive
Software fields that are tracked:
Product Name
Version
Vendor
Price
PO Number
Key Code
License Number
Location
Product ID
Network License (Y/N)
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Department of Transportation (cont.)
IT equipment and software are tied to and tracked by position number, so they would require
the Parent-Child feature in PeopleSoft.
Potential Issues: Need to research with PeopleSoft project team where employee position
number is tracked (HR module) and if there is integration with Asset Management module.
Can Parent-Child feature be used to tie assets to a position number or is there a separate
mechanism to create that link?
PeopleSoft Requirements:
Need the ability to track Parent-Child relationships for tracking IT assets that are tied to
employee/positions.
Need facility to tie assets to projects (PeopleSoft Project Module?)
Need the ability to track Spare Equipment.
Need an import facility in PeopleSoft in order to be able to populate and maintain IT -
specific information from their auto-discovery tool.
Need an import facility in order to populate bar code scanner data such as equipment
serial numbers and Operating System licenses for new equipment. Verify which
barcode vendors are supported by PeopleSoft.
Reporting requirements for replacement projects and other ad-hoc reporting:
o Reporting by location, by hardware type (desktop, laptop, printer, etc), by
processor speed.
o Reporting of IT assets by employee position number.
o Reports must be able to roll-up IT asset cost by position number.
o Reporting of computer equipment by Operating System.
o Reporting of computer equipment by memory threshold (e.g. “< 128mb”).
o Reporting of computer equipment by hard drive threshold (e.g. “< 2gb”).
o Reporting of computer equipment by warrantee expiration.
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IT Strategic Planning
(Nancy Walz, Jenny Witham)
The IT infrastructure used by state government is a reporting component of the statewide IT
planning process. For past IT plan reporting cycles, the PLANIT system required each agency
to manually enter IT asset and infrastructure information. It is intended that in the next cycle
of planning, that the majority of that information be mined and reported from the PeopleSoft
asset management system.
PeopleSoft Requirements:
There is a need to report on assets by “Activities” or “Projects” that agencies identify as
being part of their IT plans (similar to DOT project reporting requirement). As such,
agencies would need to identify IT projects in the PeopleSoft Projects module and then
make use of the Project ID field in the Asset Management module to identify assets
that are tied to specific projects. The functionality of this feature and intent to
implement need to be explored with the PeopleSoft project team.
The Useful Life field used in PeopleSoft Asset Management should be implemented as
part of the asset definition to enable reporting of asset life cycles.
Acquisition Plans within PeopleSoft Asset Management should be implemented so that
agencies can identify planned IT asset replacements.
Reporting requirements for replacement projects and other ad-hoc reporting:
o Ad-hoc reporting capability for the ITD Planning Division.
o Statewide roll-up reporting by asset Profile.
o Statewide reporting of asset remaining life cycles.
o Statewide reporting of asset acquisition plans by asset Profile.
o Statewide reporting of assets allocated by Project.
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