[How-to] Automate IT Workflows in AssetSonar

AssetSonar’s automation capabilities offer a highly configurable way for organizations to automate IT asset management workflows across various operational processes. IT managers can create custom automations to streamline asset tracking, purchase order approvals, and work order management. By allowing users to define triggers, conditions, and actions, automations reduce manual workload, enhance reliability, and minimize human error, ensuring that critical asset operations are executed automatically and consistently.

Benefits of AssetSonar Automations

AssetSonar automations are ideal for organizations that rely heavily on IT asset management for optimized business processes and have a growing need for workflow automation to ensure scalability and efficiency. Here is how automated asset management workflows can add value to your business: 

1. Improved accuracy and reliability: Ensures critical workflows like device lifecycle tracking and compliance reporting are handled consistently, without human error.
2. Customizability: Users can create highly specific automations to handle niche business needs, from custom triggers to multi-step workflows that span across different teams and systems.
3. Scalability: As companies grow and scale their operations, the automation engine adapts, allowing more complex workflows and integration with additional software tools and systems.
4. Cost Control: Reduces costs by automating the reclamation of unused software licenses, optimizing asset procurement cycles, and preventing overspending on IT resources.
5. Increased efficiency: Update the asset attributes such as description, purchase on, cost, custom fields etc. based on different asset events and use conditions to narrow down to which assets you want to automate things, hence saving time and increasing efficiency.

Now let’s delve deeper to see how we can build these automations and put them to test: 

Enabling Automation Module 

To enable the integration, please go to Settings → Company Settings & Add-ons → Automations and select ‘Enabled’.

Click on ‘Update’ to save the setting. 

Now from the left navigation menu, hover over ‘Workflows & Automations’ and then click ‘Automations’.

Automations and Workflows Overview

Automations and Workflows main page gives an overview of all the automations that you have created. The main list is dependent upon two filters. The first filter allows you to choose between Assets, Work Orders, and Purchase Orders. Please note that Assets is the default list. 

Based on the module you choose (i.e Assets, Work Order, or Purchase Order), you’ll be able to view different triggers. Here are the snippets of triggers that appear for every module. 

Choosing Work Orders will allow you to create automations on when the work order is created, completed, or updated.

Choosing Purchase Orders will enable you to create an automated action on PO approval. 

Choosing Assets will allow you to create automations on different actions, stages, and statuses of assets as shown below: 

 Please note that even though automations module is extensive and has various use cases, it cannot cater to every use case. If you have need for a specific automation to be created, please feel free to contact us at support@assetsonar.com.

Now let’s start creating asset automation. 

Creating an automation

To start creating a new automation, click on the ‘Create Automation’ button on the top right corner of the main page. 

A new page will open up from where you can get started. A new automation is created in three steps. 

1. Automation triggers

This part contains all the high-level asset triggers that you can choose from whenever you want to start the automation process. In this case, we’ll go with Asset automation. Here are the trigger actions that you can choose from: 

• Asset is created
• Asset is retired 
• IT asset is synced
• Asset is checked out
• Asset is linked to resource 
• IT asset is deleted from source

Please note that the trigger ‘Asset is linked to resource’ will link it to a contract. This contract can be a warranty, end-of-life contract, vendor contract, or any other custom contract. 

Next, you can choose the sub-trigger. In our case, we can filter the assets or perform automation on assets based on their discovery/creation sources. You can then add the name and description of the automation. 

Main sub triggers are:

1. Asset is created manually via import: This would run only when assets are imported via a csv/excel file using our import capabilities. The automation would be run for each successful creation event of an asset. This means if you imported a 1000 assets and 990 assets were created successfully but 10 failed. The automation would run 990 times for the successfully created assets.
2. Asset is created manually via API: This would run only when an Asset is created using our APIs and would run for each asset separately.
3. Asset is created manually: This would run only when an Asset is created using the create new Asset page inside our app.
4. Asset is created via Discovery Source: This would run only when an Asset is created through one of the Discovery Sources like the AssetSonar Agent, Network Discovery and all MDM integrations including Microsoft SCCM. 
5. Asset is discovered through Discovery Source: This would run only when an existing Asset is discovered for the first time from one of the Discovery Sources and then merged into the original manually created Asset. 
6. All Creation Sources: This would run for all mentioned sub triggers.
7. All manual Asset creation events: This would run for all 3 manual events mentioned in the list.
8. Asset is created via discovery source or existing Asset is discovered: This would run whenever an Asset is created through one of the Discovery Sources or when an existing Asset is first discovered and merged into the originally manually created Asset.

All Creation Sources covers all creation cases that are:

2. Automation Conditions

The next step is to add prerequisites for the automation. If you want some conditions to be fulfilled for assets to qualify for the automation, you can set them at this step. For example, you can create an automation on assets at a specific location or assets of a specific category. You can also create multiple conditions for one automation. 

3. Automation Action

The third step is to choose the action you want to be performed automatically. You can also update all attributes of an asset at this step. 

In our case, we are choosing Trigger Webhooks. It is an action that will inform another system when an automation event has happened in Assetsonar. The other systems can then call AssetSonar’s API to fetch the data or start any actions on their own system. With Trigger Webhooks, you’ll also have to add a callback URL in the designated field. 

For authentication, you will get three options: 

1. Click on ‘No Authentication’ if you don’t have any authentication criteria. 

2. Clicking on ‘Basic Authentication’ will require you to provide a username and password as shown below: 

3. The third option is to choose the API key. You’ll have to enter the header key and header value.

Once you have filled out all the designated fields, click on save to create the new automation. It would start showing up on the automations detail page. 

Automation Placeholders

While creating an automation, you can copy data from one field and map it to another. If you don’t want to set specific values for a field, you can insert a placeholder instead. You’ll just have to choose a placeholder field and copy the value from that field.

Let’s see how we can insert a placeholder while creating an asset automation. In the automation section, click on ‘Insert Placeholder’ button as shown below:

Clicking on the button will open up a new pop-up from where you can pick the placeholder.

Please note that this is a dynamic field and you’ll be able to view the placeholders relevant to the automation you are creating. In our case, we are creating an asset automation and we want to insert a placeholder for ‘Set Description as’ option so we are able to view the options that can be mapped on this automation.

Once you have picked a placeholder, click ‘Save’ and you’ll be able to view the newly created automation as shown below:

Now let’s move on to the more advanced filters. If you want to further specify the automation, you can do so by choosing the values for every placeholder. On the placeholder popup, you’ll be able to see dropdown options with every field. These filters allow you to create an added layer of precision to your automation.

For example, you can choose to set just the first three letters of the name to be populated in the description field.

Automation History 

On the Automations main page, you can change the sequence of the automations, meaning you can choose which actions should be performed first, followed by which automation. You can also enable or disable any automation from the main page. 

Click on ‘Execution Logs’ to view the number of times a certain automation activity has been performed. It will give you detailed information on the assets the automation was performed on, along with the date and time of the automated activity. 

‘Events’ tab allows you to view the changes that you have made to a specific automation as shown below: 

Execution logs get created for every time an automation is executed. To view the execution logs, click on ‘Switch to Execution View’ button on the Automations listing page.

You’ll be able to view the ‘View logs’ button with every execution on the list as shown below:

Click on ‘View Logs’ button and you’ll be able to see the details of every execution via a pop-up: