Architecture

You use BMC Helix ITSM: Asset Management to manage assets of your organization. BMC Helix ITSM: Asset Management integrates and interacts with several components, modules, and interfaces.

BMC Helix CMDB

BMC Helix ITSM: Asset Management uses data from BMC Atrium Configuration Management Database (BMC Helix CMDB). BMC Helix CMDB consists of all the datasets that BMC Helix ITSM: Asset Management interacts with.

BMC Helix CMDB stores information about the configuration items (CIs) in your IT environment and the relationships between them.

Data providers, such as discovery applications, import data into BMC Helix CMDB, where it is partitioned into separate datasets. This data is then consolidated into a production dataset that you use as the single source of reference for your IT environment. Data consumers, such as the BMC Helix ITSM applications, read data from the production dataset. For more information, seeCMDB Orientation.

Configuration Item

Configuration Item commonly known as CI represents any component of an infrastructure like a computer system, an application, and so on. CIs have several attributes and can be easily related to other CIs or other components of ITSM such as incidents and problems. For more information, see Working-with-CIs.

Purchase requisition

You use purchase requisition to purchase items that you need to resolve incidents, complete change requests, and so on. In BMC Helix ITSM: Asset Management, the purchasing process is initiated when the item is not available in inventory and ends when the item is received and installed. For more information, see Overview-of-purchase-requisitions.

Contracts

You create contracts with the suppliers to acquire new CIs or relate the CIs to contracts. BMC Helix ITSM: Asset Management provides contract functionality for lease, warranty, support, maintenance, and software license management. For more information, see Managing-contracts.

Software licenses

In an organization, several CIs are purchased or leased. You can relate these CIs to a software license to verify, track, or limit their usage in your organization. You can use the software license management feature in BMC Helix ITSM: Asset Management to facilitate, focus, and follow-through on compliance. In BMC Helix ITSM: Asset Management, you can configure license jobs that automatically relate the CIs with the license certificates.

The License Engine updates compliance data for the software license certificate based on the compliance detail specified for the software license certificate. Compliance can be calculated based on the software CIs connected to the software license certificate, the computer system on which the software is installed, CIs related to the computer system (such as CPUs), or any data stored in a AR System form. For more information, see Managing-software-licenses.

Costing and charge-backs

You use the costing and charge-back functionality to track the expenses, depreciation, and cost adjustments in your organization. You use the charge-back functionality to roll up the costs that have been incurred over a period and involved in the various cost centers in a company. For more information, see Managing-costs-and-charge-backs.

Configuration management

There can be multiple people in your company in various roles such as sales or software development. For each of these roles, you can create a specific configuration by using Configuration management component. For example, for a salesman, you create a configuration that consists of a laptop, monitor, and printer. For a software developer, the configuration consists of a laptop, keyboard, and printer. For more information, see Managing-the-configuration-catalog

Asset Management interfaces

BMC Helix ITSM: Asset Management provides a set of interfaces that other applications can use to integrate with the BMC Helix ITSM: Asset Management application. Interfaces to BMC Helix ITSM: Asset Management include interface forms and web services. You can use the BMC Helix ITSM: Asset Management API to create, modify, and delete CIs and relationships. For more information, see Learning-about-Asset-Management.

Approval Server

Use the Approval Server to automate approval processes. BMC Helix ITSM: Asset Management uses the Approval Server for purchase requisitions, and BMC Helix ITSM: Change Management uses it for change requests and release requests.

When a BMC Helix ITSMapplication triggers an approval process, the Approval Server uses the defined approval process to approve or reject a request. You can have multiple Approval Servers running with multiple AR System servers on one computer. BMC Helix ITSM: Asset Management uses an ad hoc approval process. BMC Helix ITSM: Change Management uses defined best-practice approval processes and ad hoc approval processes. For more information, seeAdding approvals to an application.