Master Systems Database - CMDB ***HELP***

[Stephen.whittle]

Is anyone using the Asset CMDB for a master systems database?

We want to use the CMDB as the source of truth for all our end user systems, it would include all the relevant attributes we need such as "Sys Name", "Supplier", “who uses the system”, “who supports the system” etc.

Once we have this populated in the CMDB we wanted to then pull some of this information into an IC in the scenario;

A doctor raises a request for systems access, within the IC there is an option to select a “persona” of which he/she selects “Doctor”. We have this persona recorded against the same attribute in the CMDB for systems a doctor would use. Does anyone know whether we could use a sql filter in the “Asset Search Term” which is in the Assets Form within the IC to filter the systems which include the persona “doctor” so he/she only selects the systems related to their role. Screenshot below. This would be a complete game changer for us and prevent us having to create around 44 simple lists to account for this particular scenario. Not to mention how much this simplifies the BPM being able to inject the information and then potentially lookup "Supporting team" in the BPM to inject and manage the workflow rather than using lots of workflow branches for each simple list in the event we cannot use the CMDB as the data store. It seems like lots of the good work has been done by Hornbill but there are some small gaps (seemingly small to me but might not be for a dev) to improve this one or two steps further to really make this an advanced and enhanced feature. 

 

If its not possible would be a great feature request! 

 

FYI

@Adrian Simpkins

@SJEaton

[Hornbill Staff DR]

Hi @Stephen.whittle

thanks for your post.

When it comes to the intelligent capture asset form, assets can be filtered based on the customer's assets, assets shared with the customer (the customer being the user selected in the customer search form), assets that belong to a particular site (when the site selection form precedes the asset form), and assets that are associated to the same company as the customer. This filtering takes place on the relevant tabs in the form and there is the option to show/hide each tab in which provides us the option to only make certain filters available.

The "Asset Search Term" simply sets a default value which appears in the search bar. If the user cleared this value, they could type something else and select from the available assets returned. So this field doesn't perform any filtering on the asset records accessible by the form, all assets would still be available (as per any filtering on customer/site/company). I don't think this will help with your requirement.

The solution might lie in Hornbill's ability to denote the sharing of assets. Among other things, an asset can be configured as being shared with a Hornbill group. Perhaps explore creating groups (or type General) which represent each of the roles within the organisation (such as Doctors) and sharing assets with the appropriate group(s). On your asset selection form, limit the options to only show the "Shared" assets tab.

In terms of managing these groups, it may mean you'll need several additional user import configurations to ensure the users are being placed in the correct groups (i.e. Doctors are being placed in the "Doctors" group) and of course this will be dependent on that information being available in the directory source and in a format that allows the user objects to be filtered reliably using the filter options available to us (e.g. LDAP object filters if the source is Active Directory).

While this approach may attract more configuration in the area of user imports, it will should help reduce the complexity of your progressive captures.

I hope that helps.

Dan

[Stephen.whittle]

Thanks Dan, unfortunately your suggested way forward won't work in our scenario. The IC we are looking to introduce this feature to is for our new starter process so at this stage there isn't an AD user object created to have LDAP imported and added to a group to present the list. This would work well for our existing members of staff but ideally want a process for systems access that is consistent for new starters and existing staff to re-use the developed BPM and IC elements and save time on maintenance. 

My suggestion of creating sql filters in the Asset form to limit the dynamic drop down check box field to only show data for a specific set of Asset classes, asset types and even down to specific attributes recorded against an asset. I can see this being very useful for large organisations that use the CMDB for software/systems asset database because you have a single source of truth (CMDB) and all recorded information such as supporting team against that asset record for the BPM to act on. 

Without this our only option is to create several simple lists which require updating everytime a system/software is added or decommissioned. The BPM also then needs a a high volume of decision nodes to manage the various outcomes in the workflow and, again will need updating every time there is a change to a system/software. 

#FeatureRequest