Fixed Flexible Asset Implementation

Part of the documentation project is to implement a consistent core flexible asset framework.

This does not include the automated flexible assets that are part of a different component of the upgrade, it relates to the static flexible assets used by your organization.

While we can separate this from a documentation remediation project, there are so many moving parts that often there are a number of other areas that need to be rectified to an acceptable standard before working on the flexible assets is feasible. In other words the flexible assets rely heavily on the current recorded information being accurate and complete.

Without that, it is not feasible to implement these assets successfully. As an example, try connecting password assets to flexible assets when the naming convention is all over the place, where there is no consistency and the passwords are mixed with old records that are redundant. It becomes an impossible task.

What Is A Flexible Asset?

Flexible assets are pretty awesome and really help retain rigidity within your documentation framework. To give an analogy, think of an ordinary way to document as if it were a car where it can travel anywhere that has a road, and in that respect it is a highly individual and customized mode of transport.

Now think about a tram where you plan where the tracks are to be positioned and the trams cannot leave those tracks. It is more restrictive however far more efficient and effective if done right.

So you create a flexible asset which is a fancy way of saying a form that integrates with IT Glue. You create fields for each flexible asset in a way that encourages their completion, so drop downs, tick boxes and tagging that help you relate other information such as password records, configurations and other flexible assets to name a few.

How To Use A Flexible Asset

I have always considered ITGlue to be the equivalent of an MSP lego set. Always work on the small pieces of information first. Get your password naming and structure right, eliminate duplicate entries and ensure all contacts are syncing perfectly to name a few.

Now you have your lego block with which you can create your flexible assets. Flexible assets are the vehicle with which you link related pieces of information together. The summary page of the relevant flexible asset is the top of the food chain.

As an example, A WAN flexible asset summary page using our strategy would have WAN flexible assets for each site as well as the top level WAN multi site diagram for that client as well as a list of each of the office locations tagged in.

The WAN site summary (next in the hierarchy) would have all the information relating to that particular site including tagged firewalls, site diagram embedded, firewall passwords and LAN flexible assets located at that site to name a few.

The important thing to know here is that flexible assets rely heavily on a consistent hierarchy and should be location centric in design.

My recommendation is never put restrictions on what to put in. So people will sometimes prevent a flexible asset being saved unless a field is filled out. That is a terrible strategy. It deters people from adding information. I also strongly recommend, when given the choice, putting in text blocks for text fields including IP fields because if there is extra information, it can always be accommodated.

The ultimate goal is to always give the least amount of information possible while not negatively impacting the effectiveness of the flexible asset.

Initial Flexible Asset Audit

We take all of the current static flexible assets used (Or information that should go in static flex assets) and look for commonality across all clients and if need be, adjust our existing templates so they contain information important to your organization.

We then export the existing information in your flexible assets and work through matching the old information up with the new structure. During this time there may often be poorly structured flexible assets where they need to be modified.

An example of this is when organizations will attempt to use a flexible asset to record a vendor organization. This is an inefficient and impractical practice where say you have one vendor such as Synnex, they will have to fill out a flexible asset for every single client and in many cases I have seen 30 flexible assets which list the contact details and location of the vendor along with sensitive information such as account numbers and passwords. It is the stuff of nightmares!

Creating vendors as organizations significantly speeds up the client onboarding process.

Is the Vendor an organization? Do they have an address like an organization? Do they have contacts like an organization? Great, that means they are an organization and need to be created as an organization.

Create them as an organization and put sensitive client specific information for that vendor in the password location as a password and then connect them as related items.

Creation Of Custom Flexible Assets

We then manually create each of the 14 static flexible assets. There is no way to import a flexible asset structure and this takes time to set up correctly even with pre-made templates.

Once the flexible assets have been created, we then import your client information back into your documentation platform and this information will then populate the newly created flexible assets. The structure across all clients is identical and the information is filled out as completely as possible. 

This all sounds very simple and straightforward and it is however we are often needing to work through a decade or so of information and we use this step to cleanse the information of superseded information as well as doing our best to verify the accuracy of the information we intend to re-import.

List Of Common Fixed Flexible Assets

Explanations Of Fixed Flex Assets

Some of the flexible assets listed above may not be self explanatory so below are the brief explanations of what they are used for.

Application Flexible Asset

Each significant 3rd Party application used by a client has its own flexible asset with relevant configurations and passwords attached in the related items area. The summary is just a page where each client's application's flexible assets are tagged in one location. They are broken up into application types such as Finance and CRM to name a few.

Backup Flexible Asset Summary

We tag all backup flexible assets in a location centric way under the backup summary. Each individual backup flexible asset is job centric so if there is say a Veeam backup job that backs up 15 virtual machines then all of the details of that backup will be entered as well as tagged configurations and passwords.

Client Vendor List Flexible Asset

This is a straight list of vendors the client uses that are tagged in this flexible asset. There are groupings such as a general vendor section for vendors such as HP, Dell or Microsoft and then finance vendors such as Intuit etc.

This is a great tool for support desk staff that need a fast way to access contact details for 3rd party vendors without having to waste time.

If your MSP business is large then this can mean hundreds of vendor organizations and even though we have templates for the most common, most of your clients will have a number of vendors only they use. Once in place though, new clients can have their vendor page completed within seconds & it gives the support desk a fast effective way of obtaining 3rd party details for vendors specifically pertaining to that client.

Client Summary Flexible Asset Summary

The client summary flexible asset will have all office locations tagged at the top along with important diagrams such as organizational charts, miscellaneous diagrams, signed contracts and agreements as well as primary contact details and escalation points.

Primary Password Flexible Asset Summary

We have found over the years that 10% of an organization's passwords are used 90% of the time and so we created a flexible asset with the most used passwords. It is broken up into several sections and passwords such as Domain Admin, firewall passwords as well as admin consoles such as Meraki to name a few. These passwords are tagged to this flexible asset within seconds and rarely change (The password can change many times as it is the record you are tagging)

WAN Summary Flexible Asset Summary

We tag all WAN flexible assets in a location centric way under the WAN summary where your support staff have the choice to navigate directly to the asset or select the correct location and find all related WAN flex assets under the relevant location.

LAN Summary Flexible Asset Summary 

We tag all LAN flexible assets in a location centric way under the LAN summary where your support staff have the choice to navigate directly to the asset or select the correct location and find all related LAN flex assets under the relevant location.

Licensing Summary Flexible Asset Summary

We tag all licensing flexible assets under the licensing summary. Sometimes if the organization is large enough to warrant it, we will break the licensing assets up into their relevant locations although in most cases, clients prefer to tag the location in the flexible asset itself.

Printing Flexible Asset Summary

We tag all printing flexible assets in a location centric way under the printing summary where your support staff have the choice to navigate directly to the asset or select the correct location and find all related printing flex assets under the relevant location. The automated printing flexible asset type will normally be tagged underneath the relevant manual printing flexible asset.

Remote Access Flexible Asset Summary

We tag all RAS flexible assets in a location centric way under the RAS summary. The automated RAS flexible asset type will normally be tagged underneath the relevant manual RAS flexible asset. This is a great asset for those times where a new tech has no idea how to remote into a particular client.

Service Accounts Flexible Asset

This is a straight list of service accounts the client uses that are tagged in this flexible asset. It is a good idea to have fast access to the service accounts you use for each particular client.

Virtualization Flexible Asset Summary

We tag all Virtualization flexible assets in a location centric way under the Virtualization summary where your support staff can navigate directly to the asset or select the correct location and find all related Virtualization flex assets under the relevant location. A top level virtualization flexible asset could be a single site that may have multiple physical hosts and 10 or 20 virtual machines tagged. Any technical guides, passwords or other configs related to the virtualization sub system would be tagged as related items as well.

VOIP Flexible Asset Summary

We tag all VOIP flexible assets in a location centric way under the VOIP summary where your support staff have the choice to navigate directly to the asset or select the correct location and find all related VOIP flex assets under the relevant location.

Wireless Flexible Asset Summary

We tag all Wireless flexible assets in a location centric way under the Wireless summary where your support staff have the choice to navigate directly to the asset or select the correct location and find all related Wireless flex assets under the relevant location.