use case

Inventory Management Use Case

Poor IT inventory management poses significant challenges for enterprises across various dimensions. Without a comprehensive inventory system, companies struggle to track and locate their IT assets accurately.

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Inventory Management

Poor IT inventory management poses significant challenges for enterprises across various dimensions. Firstly, without a comprehensive inventory system, companies struggle to track and locate their IT assets accurately.

Inadequate inventory management compromises security and compliance efforts. Without proper documentation of IT assets, organizations are unable to effectively monitor and secure their infrastructure against potential threats. Unaccounted-for devices or software may create vulnerabilities that malicious actors can exploit, leading to data breaches, compliance violations, and regulatory penalties. Lack of accurate visibility can cause IT departments to overlook critical upgrades.

Furthermore, poor inventory management exacerbates the complexity of IT environments. As enterprises scale and diversify their technology infrastructure, maintaining a clear understanding of all assets becomes increasingly challenging. This complexity not only impedes troubleshooting and maintenance efforts but also hampers strategic decision-making regarding technology investments and upgrades.

Lastly, without accurate inventory records, enterprises struggle to optimize their IT lifecycle management processes. Inefficient asset tracking and maintenance lead to increased downtime, higher support costs, and reduced productivity. Additionally, organizations may miss opportunities to leverage asset insights for strategic planning, such as identifying areas for consolidation, standardization, or automation.

There are many tools on the market designed to assist NetOps teams’ inventory management efforts, however they are often criticized for lack of detail and accuracy. Because Forward Enterprise collects configuration and state data from all L2-L7 devices on the network, it is a powerful platform for IT leadership. According to the director of architecture at a global fintech company, Forward Enterprise found 30% more devices in their lab environment than they were aware of. This was one of the many reasons they chose to expand their deployment to their production environment. The company is more confident than ever in their network inventory and topology. They have saved “seven figures” on support contracts, are more confident than ever when planning strategic projects, and have improved device utilization.

Winner of over 20 industry awards, Forward Enterprise is the best-in-class network modeling software that customers trust

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Unprecedented Inventory Accuracy through ServiceNow CMDB Integratio

ServiceNow CMDB (Configuration Management Database) is a central repository that stores information about all the configuration items (CIs) in an organization’s IT infrastructure. Configuration items include users, locations, applications, hardware and software components, contracts, and more.

The Forward Enterprise ServiceNow CMDB Integration enables Forward Networks users to enhance their ServiceNow CMDB by incorporating data collected by Forward Enterprise from network devices or imported from external sources. This integration provides additional context and augments inventory accuracy.

Current Forward Networks users, please contact your customer support professional or visit the documentation for details on how to activate this integration.

Interface to add ServiceNow Integration