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Inventory Tracking

  • July 10, 2019
  • 2 replies
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Hi there!

Does anyone else out there track serial numbers of Apple keyboard/mice/trackpads? Is this something the inventory tracking in Jamf capable of?

Thanks everyone!

Best answer by talkingmoose

I suggest “don’t”. Associating and tracking these items to Mac hardware is a manual process and painful.

Peripherals walk around. They get swapped by users without your knowledge. They get swapped by technicians who forget to update inventory after making a quick fix. I can almost guarantee within a few days or at most a couple of weeks your inventory will be out of whack.

Also, some folks prefer non-Apple keyboards and mice.

And what purpose will tracking these items serve? If a computer is stolen and you can provide the serial number, most police departments won’t make an effort to investigate. They certainly won’t for these items.

Years ago, my company decided to treat keyboards and mice as “office supplies”. Expendable. Replaceable.

It was one of the sanest decisions we made.

    2 replies

    talkingmoose
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    • talkingmoose
    • Community Manager
    • Answer
    • July 11, 2019

    I suggest “don’t”. Associating and tracking these items to Mac hardware is a manual process and painful.

    Peripherals walk around. They get swapped by users without your knowledge. They get swapped by technicians who forget to update inventory after making a quick fix. I can almost guarantee within a few days or at most a couple of weeks your inventory will be out of whack.

    Also, some folks prefer non-Apple keyboards and mice.

    And what purpose will tracking these items serve? If a computer is stolen and you can provide the serial number, most police departments won’t make an effort to investigate. They certainly won’t for these items.

    Years ago, my company decided to treat keyboards and mice as “office supplies”. Expendable. Replaceable.

    It was one of the sanest decisions we made.

      E
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      • edickson
      • Author
      • Valued Contributor
      • July 11, 2019

      Thanks @talkingmoose . I tend to agree with treating these items as office supplies, I think my company is so young yet (still funded by angel investors) that they are counting beans more closely than practical or necessary.

      We currently do inventory of everything in a Google Sheets doc which is not going to be practical for very long. Luckily we're only at 70 users right now but that number is expected to grow considerably by the end of the year.

      Thanks again for your response!

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