JP2002366736A - Property management system and property management method using this - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily realize property management by constructing a property management system for collecting and updating property information including equipment constitution information including hardware and software being property and setting information for managing information equipment such as a personal computer, a server, etc. SOLUTION: The property management system has a terminal device for communicating data stored through communication and a host device provided with a database for obtaining information on the terminal device through communication and storing it. By using a program transmitted at least once from the host device to the terminal device, the program is carried out by the terminal device and at least one selected piece of the equipment constitution information, the setting information and the property information is transmitted to the host device to be stored.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to an asset management system for managing hardware and software assets of many computers owned by a plurality of clients and an asset management method using the same.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a ledger-based system using a computer or the like has been used to manage asset information including lease information owned by a user.

[0003]

When the management of the user's assets and the like as described above is performed via a communication line,
When the number of computers of this client increases for one user (one client), it is necessary to increase the IP address and the like, and the client hardware such as the memory capacity of all these computers and the free disk capacity. It is necessary to investigate or understand the environment, or when introducing a new system or upgrading the system software, it is necessary to conduct the above-mentioned environmental survey of the client again, It is also necessary to grasp what kind of (personal) computer is used by the increased computer, specifically, who is using the computer.

Further, all user computers in a system including all of the above-mentioned users and devices for processing and managing the data sent from the users (backbone system and hardware environment information of the users) are provided to all user computers in the system. When it is necessary to grasp the installed software (software environment), there is a case where it is necessary to grasp all the software or to confirm the presence or absence of unnecessary software. Further, when a new client subscribes, it is necessary to investigate the hardware and software environment similar to the above in addition to grasping the environment of the user information including the location of the user, the department name, and the like.

In order to have many clients subscribe when actually trying to operate the above-mentioned system, the core system and all of the above-mentioned systems must be used in order to provide a cost advantage. Since the information system software for grasping the environment of the system is at least necessary, the budget for creating system management software for managing the system or upgrading the meaningless system management software is required. Etc. cannot be increased. In addition, on an asset management system including all user terminals, mission-critical systems, and information systems, a new server poses a problem in terms of cost.
There is also a restriction that it should not be increased. Moreover, the initial investment cost should not be high when a new user subscribes or within a certain period of time after the new subscription, so that the functions within the minimum required as much as possible in the whole system or individual clients or within the same client It is also required to have

In order to operate the system while grasping various kinds of environmental information as described above while minimizing various cost problems as described above, the so-called total cost performance is maximized. There is a demand for the construction of a system that can make this possible.
In addition, such a system maintains the above-mentioned cost performance even when a new user newly joins the system, and maintains and develops the maximum quality (quality) as long as the user can demand the user's asset management. There is a need for a flexible system that can expand and develop. Furthermore, in such a system, when inputting the information that the user wants to manage, a system that is as common as possible is desired from the user side for each user terminal. There is a need for a system that has user-friendly input software that allows the user to input data as easily as possible, so that individual knowledge is as small as possible with knowledge of hardware and software on the system.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned various problems at once, and is intended to provide a terminal device for communicating stored data via communication. An asset management system having a host device having a database for acquiring and storing the information of the terminal device online or offline, wherein the host device has been transmitted to the terminal device at least once. The program is executed by the terminal device using the program, and at least one piece of information selected from device configuration information, setting information, and asset information in the terminal device is transmitted to the higher-level device and stored therein. It is characterized by the following.

It is preferable that the asset information includes at least one of lease information, purchase time information, and purchase amount information.

The database allows the terminal device to search or browse at least one of a user's software environment, hardware environment, and user information via a network.

[0010] It is preferable that the system searches for configuration information and asset information of a device possessed by a user including the terminal device, outputs the browsed result to the outside, and forms the report.

A user asset management method according to the present invention manages a user's software and hardware environment using any one of the above asset management systems.
Furthermore, it is desirable to collect the software and hardware information of the user, and to update and display the difference information from the second and subsequent collected data.

[0012]

Next, an asset management system according to the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the drawings according to embodiments of the present invention. The asset management system according to the present invention is mainly used for managing information devices such as a personal computer and a server, and collects device configuration information including hardware and software which are asset products, collection of asset information including setting information, An object of the present invention is to construct an asset management system for updating and easily realize asset management.

More specifically, in the present system, the information necessary for asset management includes a user terminal and a database (D) storing the asset information sent (transmitted) from the user terminal.
B). When a user subscribes to the system, first, a program is transmitted to a user terminal by a higher-level device, and the transmitted program is executed on the user side. The data is transmitted to the device and stored in the first database in the host device.

The user accumulates increased assets, deleted assets, and the like on the user side in the second and third databases provided in the upper system by executing the program from the second time on, and executes the accumulated update. The update information can be browsed, and the update information and the difference information can be extracted and retrieved, and the information can be output to the outside as appropriate to form a form or print by appropriately subtracting the information. The present invention is a system that also has such search, browse, and form functions. This system has a function of managing user assets by the user terminal and the DB of the host device.

FIG. 1 is a system conceptual diagram of the asset management system. As shown in the figure, this asset management system is connected to a terminal device 10 of a user 1 via the Internet 3 by a wireless or wired communication line, and the terminal device 10 of the user 1 And a host device 2 having a database for acquiring and storing information.

As the terminal device 10, a device having a communication function such as a personal computer which is usually used is employed, and a communication function, a CPU or MPU, an R
It has a memory function including OM, RAM, etc., and the OS is w
If it is an Windows (registered trademark) system, it can be used without particular limitation. The terminal device 10 of the user 1
Are mutually connected by a LAN, a WAN, etc., and are connected to the mail server 11 by the LAN, the WAN, respectively. Further, all the terminal devices 10 of the user 1 are connected to the user 1
There is further provided a terminal device 101 for asset management staff who manages the information on the side and takes over the asset management of the user 1 in one hand.
The terminal device 101 for the asset management person is
It is possible to search, display, and form asset management data on the asset management server 212 via the eb server 210.

The host device 2 has a communication function that can be connected to the user 1 via the Internet 3.
And a function for investigating user information (information on software and hardware) and investigating asset data for user asset management. More specifically, for example,
The host device 2 includes a Web server 210 and an asset collection server 2
11, a server group having an asset management server 212, and a console (operation unit) 20, which is not shown but is described later. In addition, this host device 2 includes:
Further, a firewall 213 having a function of preventing an intruder such as a hacker may be provided.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of an asset management system when a certain user leases or rents an asset via a leasing company. This figure shows an example in which a user A who has joined (newly) borrows an asset from the leasing company 4 by leasing or renting to manage the asset. Note that the user B shows a case where the user B does not use rental or leasing.

In this system, the lease information can be known from the user A, but the information is exchanged with the specified lease company 4 by specifying the lease company 4 from the lease company name sent from the user A. As described above, it is also possible to automatically set and obtain the lease asset information (including rental asset information) of the user A from the leasing company 4 and obtain the same. It is possible to automatically detect that the user has leased or rented based on information from the leasing company.

Such an asset management system according to the present invention may be separated into a user and, as a higher-level device, equipment on the asset management operation side and equipment of a leasing company. That is, the host device can be configured to have the functions of the device on the asset management and operation side and the device of the leasing company.

The asset management system according to the present invention can utilize an existing mail environment by adopting any of the above-described configurations, and therefore does not require resident software for asset management on the user side. .

An example of data collected by the present system and an example of a user use environment to be used are shown below. Example of data collected by this system Hardware information: CPU, physical memory, BIOS information, computer name, network card, IP address, MAC address, HDD capacity, HDD free space, model name, manufacturer name, host name, domain name , Machine type and so on. Software information: OS / OS detailed version information, installation software, Office version information, Windows product ID, antivirus, software and pattern files, etc. User information: Asset management number, location (head office, branch office, branch and sales office, etc.), department (division name, department, section, etc.),
Name (name), employee number, installation location, manufacturer name, spare code, etc.

Example of user use environment Internet connection (possible) environment (for example, TCP / IP connection). To perform the search, the browser must be IE 4.0 or higher, if necessary. OS
Is not limited, for example, Win95 / 98 / NT
/ 2000 (Windows: registered trademark). The disk capacity is, for example, 150 kB or more. The memory capacity must have a free area of 16 MB or more. It is preferable to have a list of email addresses.

<Operation> An operation example of the present asset management system will be described with reference to FIGS. In addition, the code shown below,
.. Have been described using the same components as those in FIG.

Process Flow Distribution of Agent Program (Asset Collection Agent) A self-extracting executable file of the agent program is attached and transmitted to each client by e-mail. The tool for this email is not particularly limited. The sent agent program is sent to each client by the asset management console, and is executed by each client (step S2).

Collection of Asset Data (INVENTRY): Step S3 Setting of Collection Profile Hardware information ・ The following items can be automatically acquired as hardware information. All versions of Windows (TM), processor type, CPU clock physical memory, BIOS information,
Port type, network card information, network protocol, network address, MAC address, HDD capacity, HDD free capacity, CD-ROM drive, etc. 2. Software information ・ The following items can be automatically acquired as software information. Installed software, software version information, file name, file size, installation directory, etc. 3. User information ・ Have the following items entered as user information. Asset management number, user location (headquarters, branch, branch,
Office, etc.), department name, name and employee number, terminal model name (including manufacturer name, serial number, etc.), (including terminal information), if the terminal is a personal computer, whether it is a desktop type or notebook type Distinction.

Such user information is input when the user subscribes to the present system, is updated / re-input at the time of version upgrade, and is updated / re-input periodically. This input can be usually performed by a simple operation such as clicking the execution file.

Data registration and data conversion are performed on an asset collection database (hereinafter, referred to as an asset collection DB) 211A. (A) Update data by providing a flag. 0: No change in collected data. 1: There is a change in the collected data. 2: The collected data is new. 3: The collected data has not arrived yet (it is unaccounted for). (B) The newly collected data or unreceivable data is sent to the asset manager in, for example, a CSV format (comma separated value
rmat). (C) New assets related to the newly collected data sent from the asset manager in the above CSV format shall be
The lease information for this asset is entered. The entered lease information includes, in addition to the leasing company name, the lease contract number, lease start date, lease period, installation date of the terminal related to the asset,
It includes the maintenance fee, the contents of the maintenance contract, the distinction between lease and rental, renewal date of this lease of the asset, actual shelf date, and the like. In addition, it can also include specially determined special terms with the leasing company. (D) For assets related to unpaid data (including no data transmission), request confirmation from the asset manager, and if necessary, delete data entry (including data change) and delete other items as appropriate. I will have it. (E) Update the updated data (including re-updated data after confirmation) in the asset collection DB. (F) If there is asset deletion data, output processing or, in some cases, confirmation of deletion with the asset manager is performed, and the deletion processing is executed.

Update of asset management database (hereinafter referred to as asset management DB) 212A (A) Convert data of asset collection DB into data of asset management DB (including transferring data). As a result, asset management information can be centrally managed. (B) For example, the conversion from the data of the asset collection DB to the data of the asset management DB is basically performed once a day. The cycle of this operation is not particularly limited.

Disclosure of Collected Information (A) The collected information can be basically disclosed on a Web page. However, when confidential information and non-public information are included, a recording medium (CD-ROM) , MD, etc.) can be distributed by mail or the like to the desired user. The data format for publication or distribution is not limited. For example, the CSV format described above can be used. (B) The collected information can be searched and printed out. By outputting the collected information in CSVFLSK, it can be read into an arbitrary program or read by a form program and freely searched and converted. Users who want to access the collected information via the Web
It can be registered in advance, and basically, the user ID is set so that other users cannot search for the above information.
A function for preventing unauthorized intrusion including user identification / judgment means is added.

FIG. 3 shows the processing flow of the present system in more detail. That is, first, as described above, an asset collection agent program is sent to a user who has joined the present system (step S1). The sent agent program is executed by the client of the end user 10 (step S2), and the asset collection DB 21 in the higher-level device 2
1A (step S3).

In the asset collection server 211, an asset collection DB
It is determined whether the data stored in 211A is new data (step S4). If it is not new data, it is determined whether it is unreceivable data (step S5). Further, it is determined whether or not the data has been changed (step S6). If there is no change in the data, the flag is changed to an unchanged flag (step S7).
It is stored in the asset collection DB 211A (step S8), and it is determined whether or not there is deleted data in the stored data (step S9).

The above steps S4 and S5
In the case of the new data and the non-receivable data, respectively, the data is changed to a new flag (step S10) and a non-receivable flag (step S11), respectively, and then it is determined whether or not the data is new data (step S10). Step S100). In step S100, if the data is new data, input processing of lease information is executed (step S101). If it is not new data, then it is determined whether to delete the non-receivable data (step S102). .

In step S102, when deleting, the user inputs "delete" and executes delete processing (step S1).
03) Also, if no deletion is performed, the process proceeds directly to step S8. Next, the asset collection DB processing and the Web search DB processing will be described.

Web Search Method (A) User Asset Management Personnel Terminal Devices 101 and 10
1 ′ accesses the homepage of the leasing company 4 or the Web server 210 via a line. (B) When a specific user (registered user) accesses the homepage of the leasing company 4 or the Web server 210, it is automatically linked to the higher-level device 2 of the asset management system according to the present invention, for example, the Web server 210. You. (C) By confirming the identification information of the registered user (including the login name, password and other user-specific information),
This user's asset information is disclosed. (D) On the Web, this user can search for and confirm an existing property, a newly added property, a receivable property, and the like.

As described above, the asset collection DB shown in FIG.
The processing and the Web search DB processing are as shown in FIG.
It looks like this: If there is no deletion data in step S9, the asset collection DB processing shown in steps S20 to S22 shown in FIG. 4 is executed. That is, as shown in FIG. 4, data conversion from the asset collection DB to the asset management DB is executed (step S20), and it is determined whether or not all the converted asset management DB data is necessary (step S21). If not necessary, the converted asset management DB data is provided as it is, and if necessary in step S21, it is provided as CSV format data (step S22), and both are managed on the Web server. The data can be referenced from the DB (step S31), and the process ends after appropriately performing the asset management data Web search process (step S32). The asset collection DB processing and the Web search DB processing are performed as appropriate.

With this system, hardware environment information: information such as information on who uses what kind of object in which department, and a terminal such as a personal computer, and what kind of software the terminal uses Whether you are using it and whether there is any unnecessary software. By analyzing such environment information, when considering the introduction of new software, the hardware environment in question: by searching for specifications such as memory capacity, HDD capacity, and CPU (basic frequency, etc.), which terminal It is possible to explicitly specify whether or not the can be installed. Further, if the help desk is utilized, the specifications of the user terminal used by the inquired user can be confirmed.

As a result of the search from the user side similar to the above such as the asset management ledger and the search and browsing, the investigation result is converted to C
Since the user terminal can be downloaded and used as an SV format file, the user terminal to be replaced can be extracted, and the actual shelf operation can be reduced. Further, the user's asset manager or the like can also check the performance of the introduced terminal from the maintenance inspection history such as the model of the newly introduced user terminal.

[0039]

According to the asset management system of the present invention,
Since the existing mail environment can be used, software resident on the user side is unnecessary. Further, it is possible to input, search, and confirm asset information by using an end user or an arbitrary user terminal, and input can be performed by the same operation as a mail operation. Even if a certain user terminal is used by another person, the present system can be used by using another available terminal, so that there is no hindrance to work.

Further, the user or the server in the host device can adopt the ASP (Application Service Provider) system or the MSP (Management Swrvice Provider) system, thereby eliminating the need for a new server. Since no personnel are required, cost performance can be highly achieved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration example of an asset management system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a flow of processing of the present system.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing processing of the present system.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an asset collection DB process and a Web search DB process, and is a flowchart showing a continuation of the flow of the process shown in FIG. 3;

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 user 2 host device 3 Internet 10, 10 'user terminal 11, 11' user side server (mail server) 210 Web server 211 asset collection server 212 asset management server

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Claims (6)

[Claims] An asset management system comprising: a terminal device for communicating data stored via communication; and a higher-level device having a database for acquiring and storing the information of the terminal device online or offline. A system, wherein the program is executed by the terminal device using a program transmitted to the terminal device at least once from the host device, and the device configuration information, the setting information, and the asset in the terminal device are executed. At least one selected from information
An asset management system, wherein two pieces of information are transmitted to and stored in the host device. 2. The asset management system according to claim 1, wherein the asset information includes at least one of lease information, purchase time information, and purchase amount information. 3. The database according to claim 1, wherein at least one of a user's software environment, hardware environment, and user information can be searched or browsed from the terminal device via a network. Or the asset management system according to 2. 4. An asset management system which searches for configuration information and asset information of a device possessed by a user including the terminal device, outputs a browsed result to the outside, and forms a report. 5. A user asset management method for managing a user's software and hardware environment using the asset management system according to claim 1. 6. The asset management system according to claim 1, wherein software and hardware information of the user is collected, and difference information from the second and subsequent collected data is updated and displayed. User asset management system.