Acting on individual linked assets, rather than by Class and Type only

[Berto2002]

We've started to automate some asset handling steps through workflow. For example, assigning laptops, DDI numbers, mobiles/handsets to new starters and reclaiming assets from leavers.

We've found that a user might have two laptops and both categorise as Class = Computer and type = Laptop. I want the Service Desk to be able to pick-off those two assets individually and be able to, say, assign one back to stock and set one to needing repair or disposal

However, I can only work out how to do this through workflow using the "Get" and then "Add" automations which bundles them together and therefore any action occurs to both. It may not be obvious until we look at them what action we need to take so I cannot use the Types to permanently segregate them in the Asset DB.

[Frank Reay]

That sounds like a tricky thing to automate or have as a standard process.

For issues like this I run weekly reports with the output mailed to people or raised as a Request to be reviewed and then acted on appropriately.

[Berto2002]

@Frank Reay we try at all costs to stay away from the idea of scouring reports. FYI, this is what we have so far:

[James Ainsworth]

Hi @Berto2002

Thanks for your post. Apologies if I haven't fully understood the requirement.   I would be interested to know if you have some ideas on what unique identifiers could be used to separate different actions for assets of the same type that belong to the same user?  With any automation, it is important to assure that the actions are applied correctly every time.  In the case of a user having two laptops, how would automation know which one to request for return?  I can see your Check-in Linked Computers  which is a human task.  I can't quite make out which aspects you want to push to a human to complete and which ones you would expect to be automated.

[Berto2002]

I think a solution would need development and would be to allow the Agent to apply a workflow to an individual, chosen, Asset. This would presumably need to be done in the Human Task. I can picture an Agent being presented with the list of Linked Assets and being able to select one or more in a check-box fashion. They could then apply prescribed operations (as dictated by the action buttons in the workflow) to a selected number of them, perhaps iteratively.

For example, my list of assets might be contain 4 items. I select the old laptop and then pick the "to repair" action (which in the background alters 4 fields on the db to put it on the repair queue). I then select the mobile handset and the new laptop send those "to stock" and finally I set the mobile number to "cancel contract". The essence is that until the Agent can chose, per item, on inspection, it looks hard to accurately process end user items in and out exclusively through workflow.

[James Ainsworth]

Hi @Berto2002

Have you had a look at the Custom Buttons and Auto Tasks on the assets?  Adding a custom button to an asset that uses an Auto Task will allow you to present buttons at the top of an asset that then run the automated Auto Task workflow.  When the agent is reviewing the assets, they can view on the asset that they wish to action, and then select the appropriate custom button to perform that action.  

Let me know what you think.

[Berto2002]

Interesting. So you think an Autotask would be made to act just on that Asset and to set a number of fields? But I know it can't handle variables. It's something I can try playing with

[James Ainsworth]

I'll have a deeper looking into it as well.  I've not done a lot with the custom buttons on an asset, but hopefully there will be enough there to get you some results.

[Berto2002]

I got stuck at the start of creating an Autotask. Because the AutoTasks don't have a section for Assets; only Requests. So there will always need to be a RequestID. I need to find time to research it

[Berto2002]

@James Ainsworth did you see anything on how to do AutoTasks on Assets?

I got as far as seeing I could allocate an AutoTask to Assets here:

But when I then configure it, it still needs a RequestID at the core. But the whole idea of having it in AutoTasks is that it doesn't need a RequestID? It should be acting on the Asset on the screen which would be, say, "AssetID"?

So I'm stuck not being able to have one because I don't know how to get around the RequestID; unless I need a 'dummy' or perpetually open fixed RequestID on which to hang all such updates; which would be weird?

[Guest Paul Alexander]

Are there any plans to update the 'custom buttons' so that they can be used on Assets as well as requests? 

[James Ainsworth]

Hi @Paul Alexander

We do still have some plans to include some Hornbill Automations that can be used in Auto Tasks which in turn could be used on Asset Custom Buttons.  We don't have a time frame for this work as of yet.  I'll let you know if I hear of any news.