CMDB for Contracts, Software, Services, etc

One option would be to track the contracts directly as an Asset record instead of tracking it as a Purchase Order.

You can create an Asset Type called Contracts and then create any Asset Custom Fields that you might need to store info about those types of assets.
Any given Asset record has a default field in it "Service contract" which you can just enable and then it will give you a second field in which you can set a contract expiration date.   The system can notify you when that date is approaching.

I believe you could then associate that contract asset record with a PO in the system if you needed to  (but i haven't looked at that in a while, so i'm not 100% on that)

So then every year, when a new Purchase Order gets created, every Contract Asset would need to be update (removed from the prior PO and added to the new PO).

I suppose that would work, but it would be a lot of work to make it work :-)

And there still wouldn't be any relationship between the Contract and any assets that are using the contract. Same with Software that gets installed on computers. Shows in Assets > Asset Details > Installed Software, but isn't used anywhere else.

Would be nice is each installed Software title would automatically create an "Asset". Then looking at the Software Title Asset, we could see how many installation there were. Have a field called Licenses, and we could then see if we were compliant. From the Software Asset, there could be just the opposite of the Hardware Asset. So instead of "Installed Software", on a Software Asset, there would be "Installed on Computer" list (with clickable links to take you to the Hardware Asset).

Now that would be useful.

I just realized that my Hardware "Installed Software" is coming from my JAMF Connection and not from WHD.

It would be nice if WHD did what I suggested though and collect data from computers and tablets on what software is installed, and make a connection to a software list.

Yes, I'd agree that it would be very nice to have the option to convert what's found in Installed Software into asset records with a "software" asset type (or something similar).

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It is possible to link assets to each other in a parent/child relationship, so if you have the contract in as an asset record, you could associate "child" assets with that contract...so then you should just have to update the contract asset record if the date of the contract or assocated PO changed.   (but it is true that in that scenario the individual hardware/software assets wouldn't have a direct link to the PO they are indirectly associated with through the contract asset record..

We're looking into how to do this as well. We'd rather not purchase a separate contract management tool, but that may have to be what we do if SW doesn't have a decent way to handle it.

Web Help Desk is ITIL-compliant IT Service Management software. And so, there is no need to purchase a separate product for contract management.

Also, there seems to be some confusion in the discussion above.

A purchase order (PO) is not a service contract.

- A PO is the offer issued by a buyer to a seller, indicating types, quantities, and agreed prices for products or services. The line items of a P.O. include information

- A Service Contract defines the terms and conditions for purchasing goods or services at agreed upon prices.

Also, the features requested above already exist in Web Help Desk (as mentioned by Kelly Tice).

- The Assets module is the Configuration Management Database (CMDB) in Web Help Desk. The contract can be stored with the Purchase Order in the Purchase Order module or directly attached to the asset. The existence of a Service Contract should be indicated and the Contract Expiration date should be added for each hardware asset.

- Software assets should be imported liked any other asset from a spreadsheet or other source. The relationship between software assets and hardware assets is represented with a parent/child relationship in Web Help Desk.

The following options should also be configured:
 

Finally, you’ll need to configure these options to receive alerts when the contract expires:

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Isaiah Carriere

Web Help Desk Consultant
Adeptec: SolarWinds Training and Professional Services

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