How to ensure robust and automated Apple inventory management

What is inventory management?

Computer inventory management is a set of best practices and workflows that track an organization’s IT devices and their contents. The best inventory management should answer these questions for you and more:

• How many devices do you actually have? What types of devices?
• Are they all in use, or are some simply stacked in a closet, depreciating?
• Are all of your organization’s devices up to date?
• Which apps are on which devices?
• Who has access to what?
• Does anyone have an overloaded machine, hasn’t updated their password or hasn’t performed a backup?
• Is your fleet secure? Are you meeting all of your CIS benchmarks?
• Who has required protection software and who has not?

The best way to tackle inventory management

Software that tracks inventory such as Jamf Pro should help, not hinder, your inventory management workflow. The right software should:

• Increase your efficiency
• Provide reports quickly and accurately
• Keep you informed of all device status changes
• Empower you to be proactive
• Save you time
• Integrate with other software that you use to manage your Apple devices

Inventory should start with enrollment

From the moment a user touches a device, your inventory software should be collecting information on the device and placing it into an easily accessible database by apps, device type, OS, permissions and packages.

The best way to do this for Apple devices is to pre-enroll your devices with Apple Business Manager, and ensure that your software, like Jamf Pro, can continue to automate device tracking throughout the life of that device.

To learn more details about how Jamf Pro starts inventory management with enrollment and how to ensure you have the best inventory management system you can, watch The Ins and Outs of Inventory Management. Learn more about:

• What type of data is collected
• Inventory reporting: how to pull and present reports on one or more inventory attributes
• How to automate inventory and reporting with static groups and Smart Groups
• How inventory management fits into Apple Enterprise Management

With the right workflows, software and settings you can fit your IT inventory management in automatically with your everyday tasks. You can stay on top of potential problems — without breaking a sweat.