Specifying Asset Category Information


Overview

Tasks

Included with

Tivoli Asset Management

Overview

About defining attributes
You should define the attributes that will be meaningful to your business for tracking and maintaining a group of similar assets throughout their use. The following questions should help you determine the attributes to create for a category:
  • Which assets need to be tracked?
  • What attributes of those assets are of interest?
  • What parts of those assets are important?
  • What do you need to know about an asset to determine planned events (repair, replacement, upgrade, and so on)?

Tivoli Asset Management already provides a way to track the following attributes:

  • Acquisition date and acquisition value
  • Disposal date, lease start/end dates
  • Depreciation method and number of depreciation periods
  • Salvage, book, lease, lease buyout, and insured values
  • Contracts and vendors
    Note: If you create attributes for the valuation instead of using the Asset Valuation dialog box, you cannot perform the valuation calculations available in the Asset Valuation dialog box.
About defining models A model is associated with a category and may have a group of default attribute values. When a user assigns a model to an asset, the default attribute values are automatically assigned to the asset.
Asset Categories dialog box The Asset Categories dialog box displays a hierarchy of asset categories. You can specify category names, category attributes, models, and map a category to the SCIM using this dialog box.

To access this dialog box:

  • From Tivoli Service Desk, choose Asset Categories from the Edit menu.
    Result: The Asset Categories dialog box opens.

Tasks

Specifying a category name To specify the name of an asset category:
  1. In the Asset Categories dialog box, select a node from the Category Hierarchy.
  2. Choose Add or Add Root.
    Result: The name of the section on the right side of the Asset Categories window changes to Add Category.
  3. From the Category tab, in the box under the Attribute column, type the attribute name,
  4. Choose Paste or Paste to Root.
Specifying a category attribute To specify a category attribute:
  1. In the Asset Categories dialog box, select a node from the Category Hierarchy.
  2. Choose Edit.
    Result: The name of the section on the right side of the Asset Categories window changes to Edit Category.
  3. From the Category tab, in the box under the Attribute column, type the attribute name.
  4. From the box under the Data Type column, select a data type.
  5. From the box under the Measure column, select a unit of measure for the attribute value.
  6. Do one of the following:
    • If you want the attribute to be a default attribute for models in this category, select the Use Default Model Value check box.
    • If you do not want the attribute to be a default attribute for models in this category, clear the Use Default Model Value check box.
  7. Choose Add.
    Result: The attribute appears in the Attribute table.
Specifying a model To specify a category model:
  1. In the Asset Categories dialog box, select a node from the Category Hierarchy.
  2. Choose Edit.
    Result: The name of the section on the right side of the Asset Categories window changes to Edit Category.
  3. From the Models tab, in the box under the Models column, type the model name.
  4. Choose Add.
    Result: The model name appears in the Models table.
Specifying a default model value To specify a default model value:
  1. In the Asset Categories dialog box, select a node from the Category Hierarchy.
  2. Choose Edit.
    Result: The name of the section on the right side of the Asset Categories window changes to Edit Category.
  3. Choose the Models tab
  4. Select a model.
    Result: The default attributes and values appear in the Default Model Values table.
  5. From the Default Model Values table, select an attribute.
    Result: The attribute value appears in the box below the Value column.
  6. Modify the value in the box below the Value column.
  7. Choose Replace.
    Result: The new attribute value appears in the Default Model Values table.
Mapping a category to the SCIM If you are using Tivoli Asset Management with Tivoli Problem Management, you can map asset categories to the Tivoli Problem Management SCIM. This lets Tivoli Problem Management users easily associate assets with Tivoli Problem Management's problem categorization scheme. You can map a category to the Tivoli Problem Management SCIM or you can unmap a category that was previously mapped.

To map an asset category to the SCIM:

  1. In the Asset Categories dialog box, select a node from the Category Hierarchy.
  2. Choose Edit.
    Result: The name of the section on the right side of the Asset Categories window changes to Edit Category.
  3. Choose the SCIM tab.
  4. In the SCIM box, navigate to the node you want to associate with the asset category.
  5. Choose Map.