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Understanding Hardware Asset Information Mapping and Reconciliation

This section discusses:

The CRM Installed Product table requires a product ID for every installed asset. This enables users to see the kind of asset that is being referred to in the system. Since neither the product ID nor inventory item ID are required for entries in the FMS asset table, it is important that the CRM-installed product table entries are assigned a product ID based on the following options:

  • If the FMS asset table entry has an entry for the product ID, the system uses it to check the corresponding inventory item ID.

    If more than one inventory item ID is found, the system uses the first inventory item ID when creating the CRM installed product entry.

  • If the FMS asset table entry has no entry for the inventory item ID, the product ID is assigned to the CRM installed product entry based on a mapping table that is defined at setup (installation) by the user to map certain fields from the FMS system to the equivalent product ID’s that you set up on the CRM system.

    To go to this page, click select Set Up CRM , then select Common Objects, then select Integration Rules, then select Integration Defaults, then select Asset Product Mapping. The search page enables the user to open the page for the desired setID value of the Product table to which the user is mapping entries.

This system was designed to create a distinct product that will be mapped to each combination of asset subtype, manufacturer, and model that is expected to be present in the list of assets that is returned from FMS, including the discovery process that is run on FMS. The system allows a product to be associated with each type of asset. When receiving information about a new asset from FMS, CRM checks the mapping table to see if a match exists on non-null values for the asset subtype, manufacturer, and model fields.

If a match exists, the system uses the corresponding product from the mapping table to create the new installed asset in CRM. If no match is found on the three fields, a match is attempted on the asset subtype and manufacturer. If a match is found, the corresponding product ID is used. If no match is found on these two fields, a match is attempted only on asset subtype. If no match is found on this field, a match is attempted just on blank values for asset subtype, manufacturer, and model. This type of row corresponds to a default product ID.

Note: A SaveEdit error on the mapping page requires a value for manufacturer if a value for model is present on that row. In addition, this SaveEdit error requires that the user enter a single default value specifying a product that should be used when no other match applies. This entry ensures that we can always map a product to any entry that comes from FMS.

As mentioned previously, you could set up your system so that the assets sent from FMS (asset type of IT-Hardware) have values for asset subtype, manufacturer, and model, and ensure that each of these combinations is mapped to a distinct product on the mapping page. This setup would involve setting up the appropriate asset subtypes and profiles on the FMS side and the appropriate products and product mapping setup page on the CRM side. Providing a default product ID as described previously ensures that a product ID can always be found for use in the CRM installed product table. This default is required since the CRM installed product table requires a product ID value for each of its entries.

Note: Before adding data to the Product Mapping page, you must run the Manufacturer_Fullsync and Copy_AM_Subtype full synchronizations.

If the system cannot determine if the asset is the same on both the CRM and FMS databases, use the Asset Reconciliation page to reconcile or add asset information.

The system checks the mapping table first to determine the product ID since a default product ID should always exist for use in the mapping table even when no matches occur on the asset subtype, manufacturer, and model data. If no mapping table entry is found, the system derives the product ID from the item ID, which means that the item ID would be used only in cases when no mapping table exists for the setID. Not having a mapping table for the setID, however, would constitute an erroneous data setup.