Asset Management Suite

Stockrooms are part of the procurement feature of the Asset Management Suite. The design is to use stockrooms for two functions; 1) to store assets and 2) to house and monitor consumable items. In this article I will explain how those two functions work in the procurement feature as well as if you just want to assign assets to a stockroom without using the procurement feature.

When you define a stockroom you are required to assign it to a location and associate a user as the stockroom manager. To have the system work properly, the stockroom manager should have an email address. The reason will be explained in just a moment. There are also two optional fields; Consumables in stock and Stock order details. Consumable items are generally less important assets that are not tracked as individual resources but as items in the stockroom where the quantity at hand is the significant information.

The consumables in stock must first exist in the procurement catalog and be defined as consumable items. Since this field is optional, most people create the stockroom and then will come back to assign the consumables and the order details that go with it. So first let's do the whole procurement use case.

1. To get started, go to the Home > Service and Asset Management > Procurement portal.

   

2. You will need at least one location defined and one user before you can continue define a stockroom. On the Procurement portal there is a folder in the tree view on the left called Organizational Types. In it there are Locations and Users.
3. To add a Location (if you do not already have at least one) right-click on the Location node in the tree and select Create Location. Fill in the required fields and any other information you would like to enter. Click Save Changes and then Done.
4. To add a User (if you do not already have at least one) right-click on the User node in the tree and select Create User. Fill in the required fields and any other information you would like to enter. Click Save Changes and then Done.
5. If you are going to use the stocking and reorder feature of the stockroom you will also need a Cost Center or Department that is responsible for the consumables in the stockroom. Each consumable item can have a different cost center or department. Once again in the Organizational Types folder, right-click on either Cost Center or Department and select to create a new one.
6. A Quick Start is available on the Procurement portal (if you do not see it, click the folder Procurement at the top of the tree). It has the steps needed, listed in order, to setup procurement in Asset Management. The same steps can also be accomplished using the nodes in the tree view on the left of the Procurement portal.

   

7. Use the Stockroom link to define a stockroom. Give it a name and then assign it a location and a user as the stockroom manager. The stockroom manager will receive stock allocation requests and order notifications via the email address entered in the User resource.

   Click Save Changes and click Done. Because you do not yet have any consumable items, you will need to come back later to add those details should you decide to use them.

8. The next step is to define Companies that items will be purchased from. Click the Company link and fill in the fields. Most are self-explanatory.

   
   The Type field is to be used as you would like. For example, you could type in Supplier, Approved Supplier, Software Vendor, or you can leave it blank. It is entirely up to you. It is helpful to realize that the Company resource type is not only used for procurement but also in the Software Management Framework.

9. Now you have the needed pieces to create a catalog. A catalog is a collection of items that you can use to create purchase requests. Click on the Catalog link.

   
   You may find it easier to enter the data if you change the edit page View. In the far upper right corner you should find a pull-down with different views available; select Catalog (global) if it is there.

   The only data you need to provide is the name of the catalog and the Catalog Supplier (company). The catalog number is also required but it will automatically assign a value for you. The Associated Catalog Entries will be filled in later as you start creating catalog items and assigning them to the catalog. Click Save Changes and then Done.

   

10. Next you can create catalog items. Since this article is primarily describing the use of stockrooms we are only going to createone or twoConsumable catalog items. Click on the Consumable catalog item link in the Quick Start.

    

    Click Save changes and then click New…. Enter another catalog item; save it, and then click Done.

11. Now it is time to go back to the stockroom and enter the consumable items on stock and the reorder information.
    1. Open your stockroom by clicking on Stockroom in the tree view on the left.
    2. Select the stockroom from the list and right-click on it and select edit for the menu.
    3. Click the Add link on the Consumables In Stock. On the pop-up window use the pull-down and or the Find field to search for a consumable catalog item. Then click the Refresh link to execute the find.

       

    4. The owner is the Cost Center or Department responsible for the particular type of item.
    5. Enter the number of items that are in the stockroom.
    6. The reorder feature will notify the stockroom manager when the quantity in the stockroom reaches a threshold where more of the item should be ordered. This field in the stockroom designates the number of items that will be ordered by default when the Replenish Stockroom Quantities notification automatically generates a purchase order. Replenish stockroom Quantitiesautomation policy can be configured in Manage > Automation Policies.
    7. Click the Add link for Stock Order Details and once again select the consumable item you selected in step c. above.

       

    8. The owner is again the cost center or department used for the reorder. This ensures that accounting details are recorded for that cost center or department when the purchase request is created to order more of the particular item.
    9. The order level the number of items in stock which will trigger a reorder.
    10. The Number to reorder is just that; how many should be ordered.
    11. Maximum Quantity is purely for information purposes. For example, the actual capacity of the storage room can only take up to 50 keyboards. This number is not being used in any automation policies or existing procurement work flows.

To order something using the procurement catalog, create a purchase request.  Purchase requests can be created from the Symantec Management console, or by end-users using the Software Request form (see Asset workflow).

Owner is the Requestor's department. You can generate the purchase order (PO) from the purchase request form using the Generate button or by right-clicking on the PO in the list of PO's.

You can also Receive directly from a Purchase Request or a Purchase Order.

The Receive Itemspage is used to update consumable catalog items in a stockroom as well as receive other catalog items.

Update existing resourcefor Consumable Catalog Items, will add the items to a Stockroom. You must also select a Stockroom in the Existing Resource field.

Assets (hardware or software catalog items) are not assigned to a stockroom but rather it is a derived from the status field and its location. In other words, if a computer was received and the status is set to "In Stock" and the Location is set to parent location of the stockroom, Austin in the example in this document, it would be considered in the Stockroom-Austin. Again, the location association on the computer would be Austin not Stockroom-Austin.

So now when we look at the list of stockrooms, we see that Stockroom-Austin has a total of 6 items. When we look at the details, we see that 5 of the items are consumables and therefore one other asset has a location of Austin and status equal to In stock. To find out which those are we run the Report Assets by Type, Status, Department, Cost Center, and Location.

Five consumables in the stockroom and 1 asset that has a status of "In Stock" and a Location of Austin.

To decrease the number of a consumable, the stockroom manager must edit the stockroom and type in the number in the grid on the appropriate line. For example if someone from Dept8 is getting a mouse, the stockroom manager would change that line to 0 or just delete it since there are no longer any available.

There are other useful reports, found in the 6.0 Legacy folder, to view the contents of stockrooms. Go to All Reports > Reports > Legacy 6.0 Reports > Asset and Inventory > Procurement > Stockroom.

Note: The Model parameter starts with a value shown. The "- - All - -" option is at the end of the list so scroll all the way down if you want to select that in order to look for all models available of assets in a stockroom.