Purchases and Lansweeper

[Drexilla]

Hi guys,

LanSweeper has proven to be a very useful tool in monitoring and managing assets.

However, we're finding we need to look elsewhere for certain business requirements.

Governance is becoming more of a requirement and I was wondering whether anyone had experience with software that could manage and archive purchase requests, quotes and invoices and perhaps even point them to assets we have within the network.

This would help us immensely in locating assets per invoice.

Any suggestions and experience is much appreciated.

[rader]

I had a similar challenge while currently moving from Spiceworks purchasing. Here's my take on creating a SW like implementation in Lansweeper.
https://www.lansweeper.com/forum/yaf_postst20448_How-I-created-a-purchasing-workflow-in-LS.aspx#post65538

Easter Egg inside - you can recover license seats on retired/expired/out of service equipment using a trick I've found in the classification system.

[jprateragg]

We use Lansweeper strictly for inventory management. We use another product for helpdesk, change management, problem management, purchases, etc. called ServiceDesk Plus. We tried Lansweeper's helpdesk feature, but SDP's was just way easier and customizable to use, especially handling things like workflows and approvals. I'm not bashing Lansweeper's helpdesk component--we just needed something more granular and complex than that. But SDP handles purchase request and POs--you might find it useful.

[miketrike · Accepted solution]

Figured I should share the unexpected spoils.

This will output custom ticket fields by '%Field Name%' (see below, these would be the fields you've created).

This will give you one PO/Ticket with it's various custom fields, displayed as a single line item in your custom report. I guess I should thank you guys for getting this thread started in the first place. Thank you.

Select Top 1000000 htblticket.ticketid,
'#' + Cast(htblticket.ticketid As nvarchar) As Ticket,
htblticket.date As CreationDate,
htblticket.updated As LastUpdated,
htbltickettypes.typename As TicketType,
htblticketstates.statename As State,
htblpriorities.name As Priority,
htblsource.name As Source,
htblusers.name As [User],
htblusers1.name As AssignedAgent,
'../helpdesk/icons/' + htbltickettypes.icon As icon,
htblticket.subject As Subject,
PurchaseType.data As PurchaseType,
POapproved.data As POapproved,
VendorSelection.data As VendorSelection,
PONumber.data As PONumber
From htblticket
Inner Join htblpriorities On htblpriorities.priority = htblticket.priority
Inner Join htblticketstates On htblticketstates.ticketstateid =
htblticket.ticketstateid
Inner Join htblusers On htblusers.userid = htblticket.fromuserid
Left Join htblagents On htblagents.agentid = htblticket.agentid
Left Join htblusers htblusers1 On htblusers1.userid = htblagents.userid
Inner Join htbltickettypes On htblticket.tickettypeid =
htbltickettypes.tickettypeid
Inner Join htblsource On htblticket.sourceid = htblsource.sourceid
Inner Join htblusers htblusers2 On htblticket.userid_lastnote =
htblusers2.userid

Left Join (Select Top 1000000 htblticketcustomfield.ticketid,
htblticketcustomfield.data
From htblticketcustomfield
Inner Join htblcustomfields On htblcustomfields.fieldid =
htblticketcustomfield.fieldid
Where htblcustomfields.name Like '%Purchase Type%') As PurchaseType
On PurchaseType.ticketid = htblticket.ticketid

Left Join (Select Top 1000000 htblticketcustomfield.ticketid,
htblticketcustomfield.data
From htblticketcustomfield
Inner Join htblcustomfields On htblcustomfields.fieldid =
htblticketcustomfield.fieldid
Where htblcustomfields.name Like '%PO approved%') As POapproved
On POapproved.ticketid = htblticket.ticketid

Left Join (Select Top 1000000 htblticketcustomfield.ticketid,
htblticketcustomfield.data
From htblticketcustomfield
Inner Join htblcustomfields On htblcustomfields.fieldid =
htblticketcustomfield.fieldid
Where htblcustomfields.name Like '%Vendor Selection%') As VendorSelection
On VendorSelection.ticketid = htblticket.ticketid

Left Join (Select Top 1000000 htblticketcustomfield.ticketid,
htblticketcustomfield.data
From htblticketcustomfield
Inner Join htblcustomfields On htblcustomfields.fieldid =
htblticketcustomfield.fieldid
Where htblcustomfields.name Like '%PO Number%') As PONumber
On PONumber.ticketid = htblticket.ticketid

Where htbltickettypes.typename = 'IT Purchase' And htblticket.spam <> 'True'

[miketrike]

Can you track PO's via a custom report? With all the various custom ticket fields displayed on the same report?

[KyleCascade]

Forgot to mention..

Now that the Help Desk Ticket database tables are documented, we were able to create reports based off of the Ticket Form fields. This greatly expanded the capability of tracking purchases via tickets.

Some reports are..

Non budgeted hardware purchases
Consumables purchasing
Annual software maintenance/support tracking
Time and Materials tracking for specific assets such as our generator.

-- We are adding an optional department field so we can track based off that.

Once we have the report built in Lansweeper, we just export it to an excel file and then pretty it up from their. Has worked out well so far.

Also if it helps to compare, we are tracking about 1800 assets with Lansweeper and do 5 - 20 purchases a month.

[KyleCascade]

We ran into the same problem. Pending a better solution, we have created custom form fields in Lansweeper under a dedicated ticket type and then attached the assets relating to the order once they have arrived. It's not a true solution as it lacks of having searchable database and inventory individual parts/supplies such as toner. It's also missing a template for generating POs.

Attached is what our form looks like, maybe this will help you out in the mean time.

We looked at a bunch of inventory tools all of which included some form of purchasing systems but Lansweeper proved superior to all of them for inventory and when factoring in cost. Hopefully they will add this functionality in the future same way they did help desk. Let us know if you find something.

We looked at..

Dell KACE
SysAID
SpiceWorks
Solarwinds Web Help Desk
Managed Engine