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I work for IT at a relatively small organization. (50 computers)

What would you guys recommend for a good IT inventory system? Something I can use to keep track of all the computers and other hardware we have here.

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If it's only 50 computers, an Excel/gnumeric spreadsheet should be more than sufficient. – Breakthrough Dec 5 '11 at 19:07
Are you an AD shop? If so, I've found Spiceworks (spiceworks.com) to be very efficient for small organizations. With a few plugins and modifications, it can be easily adapted to suit your needs. It won't be able to track efficiently hardware down to the component level, but I suppose you could coax it to if you wanted. – Garrett Dec 5 '11 at 19:23
@Breakthrough, I would disagree and say that now is the time to begin using something scalable. (Assuming the company intends to grow.) – Aaron Copley Dec 5 '11 at 20:02
@Breakthrough I'd never use excel for any company managing more than 10 machines =D. It's just too combersum and if the business grows and the infrastructure grows, it would be better to have an established application to manage the growth. Plus, automation > manual input . – Mechaflash Dec 6 '11 at 16:43
we do not intend to grow significantly at all, nor can we use an AD domain. And I use excel right now but i really need to get off that, hence this question. – kirbyfree Dec 6 '11 at 17:27
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2 Answers

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If you don't mind open source, OCS Inventory will do the trick. You'll have to install the client on each machine, and it communicates with the server client. The clients call home to the server and sends hardware and software information to the server.

We've integrated it with another open source software called GLPI which is an I.T. helpdesk and inventory tracking software. We have data uploaded from OCS to GLPI and just manage everything in GLPI including trouble tickets.

OCS Book

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I think OCS will be a bit too complicated and a lot of set up for what I need. Unless I am seeing it wrong ? – kirbyfree Dec 6 '11 at 17:27
LOL i just clicked on the link. sorry for giving you a french website =D. Updated my post with the correct link. – Mechaflash Dec 6 '11 at 18:19
As far as installation and setup, the server will take you the longest. The client-side install is as simple as installing it on the client machine and specifying where the server is located. I would like to ask, are you the I.T. personnel for this company or does it have an I.T. staff at all? If not, I would recommend going with a payed application that has good support (cost you a pretty penny however). – Mechaflash Dec 6 '11 at 18:22
I am the one and only IT guy here at the research organization. I would love to use something like Windows Intune, but being a academic research organization at a university, our budget is naturally non-existent. – kirbyfree Dec 7 '11 at 18:04
@kirbyfree (I haven't done this in forever). If you read through the OCS documentation, the program can populate a install package file to use on each workstation. And if you have the permissions to do so, you can push the installation of this OCS install package file to each workstation. So the deployment process becomes pretty much automated. – Mechaflash Dec 7 '11 at 19:10
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Check out Windows Intune.

Windows Intune™ helps you manage and secure computers in your environment through a combination of Windows cloud services and upgrade licensing. Windows Intune delivers cloud-based management and security capabilities through a single web-based administrative console. With Windows Intune, you can manage computers from almost anywhere.

With the Windows Intune cloud service, IT staff can remotely perform a number of security and management tasks including manage updates, endpoint protection to help safeguard PCs from malware threats, and inventory management so IT and end-users can remain productive from virtually anywhere—all that’s required is an Internet connection. With the Windows 7 Enterprise upgrade included in the subscription, customers can get the best Windows experience with Windows 7 Enterprise or standardize on the Windows version of their choice.

Read more at What is Windows Intune? as well as the FAQ.

I would suggest giving the 30 day free trial a shot and see if it works for what you need.

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This is about exactly what I need, however, being a low budget research organization, I dont think we can afford this. And me being the only IT person here, there is no way to convince my boss that we need this solution. – kirbyfree Dec 6 '11 at 17:25
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