The inventory in a device management database can store a wealth of information about technology hardware, operating systems, software and services, settings, and provisioned accounts. This inventory data helps IT gain a better understanding of the technologies that reside within their support environment, and leads to smarter decisions being made on how to secure and deploy new technologies.
All device management solutions provide basic inventory. But best-of-breed solutions that are built to manage specific operating systems take technology inventories to a higher, more sophisticated level. Best-of-breed solutions, like the Casper Suite for OS X and iOS, provide three device inventory capabilities that IT administrators dream of:
1. Extensibility: Build your own custom inventory
The Casper Suite allows IT administrators to automate scripts that will run on client devices each time they check in with their inventory to auto-populate custom fields. An infinite number of these custom fields, or extension attributes, can be easily configured in a web-based interface. Don't write scripts? No problem. Just use one of the hundreds of scripts written by Apple administrators on JAMF Nation to tailor your device inventory to meet your needs.
2. Actionability: Use your inventory to automate technology deployments
The Casper Suite allows IT to create dynamic groups that automatically update based on changes to inventory attributes. IT can scope deployments to these groups, so any deployment of software, content, settings, or scripts can be targeted to a group of users based on who they are and/or the status of their device. For example, software can be deployed only to users who have licenses, compatible operating systems, encrypted drives, and pre-requisite software. With the Casper Suite, IT can make sure all users get the right technologies at the right time, while still ensuring consistency, compatibility, and compliance.
3. Integration: Share your inventory with other enterprise systems
The Casper Suite allows IT to integrate the extendable, customized device inventory into any other enterprise system with plug-ins and an extensive REST API. IT can easily import OS X and iOS data into SCCM or Altirus with plug-ins for a single pane of glass view of all device inventory, or use the API to build powerful, custom integrations to deliver data to any systems that can support a REST API. For example, IT could integrate software license and hardware warranty data into procurement systems or application usage data into business intelligence systems.
The only inventory limitation with the Casper Suite is your imagination. With the right device management solution, IT can stage scalable, automated deployments and keep entire organizations up-to-date with the latest technology. Take the next step with Casper Suite inventory and see what a best-of-breed tool can do for you.
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