Asset Intelligence

Asset Intelligence, which was included within Configuration Manager 2007, now comes with its own node within the Administrator console. This isn’t the only new aspect of Asset Intelligence; AI also became part of the Software + Services initiative within Microsoft. The services component of AI is not a fee-based feature but is just another extension of the holistic approach; it includes the following functionality:

◆ New catalog and license management UI in the Configuration Manager Administrator console
◆ The ability to customize the local catalog, in other words, create new categories and families
◆ On-demand or scheduled catalog update synchronization through the Configuration Manager console
◆ The ability to tap software assets unknown to the catalog and pass them up to the online service for async identification
◆ The ability to import licensing data from Microsoft and compare it to installed inventory

Asset Inventory is one of the reporting structures used to analyze and ensure that every asset on the system is being used properly and report this to management. This ability is part of change and configuration management for ITIL and MOF;