To effectively support and manage a client’s network, you need to know what’s really on the network.
Sure, a tour of the IT environment will help. You’ll be able to slowly document information about the devices you can see, like the make, model, and serial number.
But what about the devices you can’t see—or that the client doesn’t know about?
Jason Whitehurst from NoctisIT explains how Auvik provides the visibility to more accurately scope the network:
As an enterprise architect and a virtual CIO, I need to know what’s really in the environment—not what the customer tells me, because they’re often incorrect. Auvik gives me immediate visibility into the infrastructure that I can’t get anywhere else.
Device details, automatically discovered in Auvik
In addition to discovering network devices so you can quote work accurately, with Auvik, the inventory populates comprehensive, vital data to help you understand how devices connect and how they’re configured.
Luis Alvarez of Alvarez Technology Group, Inc. says the depth of detail in Auvik simplifies client onboarding:
Auvik is a great documentation tool. When you deploy it during onboarding or discovery, it’ll tell you what you don’t know and what you need to find out—passwords, SNMP strings, etc. It’s indispensable.
Auvik’s automated network device inventory also mitigates the need for you to spend hours (if not days or weeks) documenting the data manually. Corey Kirkendoll from 5K Technical Services says:
Onboarding used to be an extra couple weeks spent on-site, pulling cables. Now, once we load the Auvik agent, it brings back everything we need, giving us an accurate, real-time view of the network. Now we spend our time focusing on better serving our customers’ networks, because we’re not spending time documenting.
Network device details & connections, automatically discovered in Auvik
Creating a real-time inventory of network devices keeps a technician’s memory from being the single source of knowledge about a client site. If that tech quits or isn’t available when an issue crops up, you won’t be starting from scratch. Automated inventory also expedites the troubleshooting process.
Here’s how Donni Ulgade from Cadan boosts his MSP’s profitability with Auvik:
By using Auvik and having as complete an inventory as we can, I don’t need the higher-level technicians. Auvik doesn’t require you to have that knowledge to troubleshoot the network. We have much tighter metrics. The faster we can get issues fixed, clients are happier. And we’re more profitable.
As well, when a time-sensitive issue like a security breach arises, having a device inventory that’s indexed, searchable, and exportable speeds up the creation of an action plan. You’ll be able to quickly show your customers you’re bringing your A-game to issues that aren’t your fault, but are your problem.
Ulgade has also used Auvik’s device inventory to help evolve his client networks (and quote more work):
Our sales people can see the asset inventory, and they can leverage that on their sales calls. They can say it looks like your switches and your printers are 5 years old. It’s time to replace them.
Don’t waste time compiling a manual inventory of your clients’ network devices. Let Auvik handle it for you, automatically and accurately, so you can spend time on value-add activities.
The post Auvik Use Case #2: Automatically Acquiring Network Inventory appeared first on Auvik Networks.