Assets / Asset Portal / Equipment
Assets / Telecom Assets / Telecom Management

Using the Equipment Assets Console

From the Equipment Assets Console, you can add or edit information for office and facility equipment, jacks, and telecom equipment (faceplates, punch blocks, and patch panels) that is associated with a room that is represented in a CAD floor plan drawing.

The Equipment Assets Console:

• provides an equipment-centered view of the facility integrating rooms and floor plans with filters by equipment ID, type, telecommunications room type, and telecom service type.
• gives access to all related assets for an area – including equipment, jacks, faceplates, panels and the staff served by the equipment.

You can access the Equipment Assets Console from the following:

• Assets / Asset Portal / Equipment process.
• Assets / Telecom Assets / Telecom Management process
• The Reports button available from the Asset Lifecycle Console or Asset Disposal Console accessed from the Assets or Enterprise Assets applications.
• The Reports button available from the Project Proposal Console (Enterprise Assets application only).

Note: You can also develop equipment and telecom equipment inventory using the Telecom Console, available from the Assets. Enterprise Assets, and Telecom Assets applications. The Telecom Console offers the additional ability of modeling telecom connections. For example, you can use the Telecom Console to develop inventory, make connections, get an alphanumeric listing of the connections, and then highlight the connected items in the floor plan. See Telecom Console Overview.

You might prefer to work primarily with the Telecom Console so that you can work with a connection inventory, and use the Equipment Assets Console to assign employees to telecom items or check existing employee assignments.

Note: The Equipment Assets Console offers tasks for developing punch blocks. The Telecom Console does not support punch blocks. Therefore, if you develop punch blocks using the Equipment Assets Console, you will not be able to model their connections using the Telecom Console. If you intend to model connections, you should model punch blocks as patch panels.

Note: The only way to add records for faceplates, patch panels, and punch blocks using the Equipment Assets Console is to associate them with a room asset in a floor plan drawing. For other ways to add equipment and jacks, see Equipment Process Overview.

Using the Equipment Assets Console, you can define your inventory simply in terms of entering alphanumeric data in the database. Or, if you have created asset symbols for office equipment, facility equipment, and jacks in your CAD drawings, you can further edit these generated records from the console. (Faceplates, punch blocks, and patch panels are represented in the database only and are not depicted in CAD drawings.)

From the Equipment Assets Console you can develop information for the following items if they are located within a room that is represented in a CAD drawing.

• facility or office equipment that is associated with a room.
• faceplates and jacks: Define the faceplates and jack equipment that is located at user workstations. Faceplates contain jacks, but you have the option to define only jacks if you do not want to develop faceplates.
• punch blocks that are associated with a room:
• patch panels that are associated with a room.

Adding Equipment Information

To add equipment and telecom components for your room assets:

1. Select Assets / Asset Portal / Equipment / Equipment Assets Console.

   The Filter console appears.

2. Enter criteria (asset, location, or employee information) for the assets you want to work with, and click Show. Or, click Show to see a list of all rooms by building and floor.
3. From the Room list, select the room that you want to edit telecom data for.

   Note: To restrict the list using the Smart Search console, enter data in the text boxes under the column headers, and press Enter on your keyboard to set the restriction. See Smart Search Consoles.

   The Highlight selected room panel shows the floor plan drawing with the selected room highlighted.

4. To add equipment:
   1. Click Add Equipment.

      The Equipment dialog appears. The Building, Floor, and Room Code for the selected room are filled in.

   2. Complete the following required field:

      Equipment Code: This required field is the unique identifier (primary key) for the equipment.

   3. To further define the equipment, enter the following information:
      • Equipment Standard: Select the standard from the Select Value list. The standard defines the type of equipment, and is validated by the Equipment Standards table.
      • Employee Name: For equipment used by particular employees, such as a PC, select the name of the employee using the equipment. For production and other equipment that cannot be directly tied to an employee, leave this field blank.
      • Telecom Area Level: Specifies the telecom area level for the item and overwrites the assigned equipment standard’s telecom area level.
      • Telecom Service Type: Specifies the telecom service type for the item and overwrites the assigned equipment standard’s service type.
   4. Click Save.
5. To add faceplates:
   1. Click Add Faceplates.

      The Faceplate dialog appears. The Building, Floor, and Room Code for the selected room are filled in.

   2. Complete the following required field:

      Faceplate Code: This required field is the unique identifier (primary key) for the faceplate.

   3. To further define the faceplate, enter the following information:
      • Faceplate Standard: Select the standard from the Select Value list. The standard uniquely identifies the faceplate standard, such as MOD_1V1D to identify a faceplate standard that has one voice jack and one data jack.
      • Employee Name: To associate the faceplate with an employee, select the employee from the Select Value list.
   4. Click Save.
6. To add jacks:

   Many users develop jack plans in CAD drawings so that they can graphically see the location of a jack within a room. After you develop a jack plan, you can use this task to review your jack information. You can also edit jack information from this task. However, if you have a jack plan and wish to edit location information, you should do so from the drawing.

   If you first define your jack records and later decide that you want to represent them in a CAD plan, you can populate the drawing with your existing information. See Draw Jacks for information.

   1. Click Add Jacks.

      The Jacks dialog appears. The system completes the Building, Floor, and Room Codes with the values of the selected room.

   2. Complete the following required field:

      Jack Code-- Enter a unique jack code. You should number jacks after their room location, with a D or V suffix to indicate if they are voice or data jacks, such as HQ-17-101-D, HQ-17-101-V.

   3. To further define the jack, enter the following information:
      • Jack Standard -- Select a standard from the Select Value list to define the type of jack. This field is validated by the Jack Standards table.
      • Employee Name -- Select the employee using this jack from the Select Value list.
      • Telecom Service Type-- Use the select value list to specify the telecom service of the jack. You only need to complete this field if the jack’s service type differs from that of its assigned standard, or the assigned standard does not have a service type.
      • Jack Telephone/Jack Extension -- If telephone numbers and extensions are stored with jacks, enter them in these fields.
   4. Click Save.
7. To add punch blocks:
   1. Click Add Punch Blocks. 
   2. Enter the following required field:

      Punch Block Code: Uniquely identifies each punch block.

   3. To further define the punch block, enter the following information:
      • Punch Block Standard: Specifies the type of punch block. This field is validated by the Punch Block Standards table.
      • Telecom Service Type: Select the telecom service that the punch block provides from the select value list. You only need to complete this field if the punch block’s service type differs from that of its assigned standard, or the assigned standard does not have a service type.
   4. Click Save,
8. To add patch panels:
   1. Click Add Panels. 

      The Patch Panels dialog appears. The Building, Floor, and Room Codes are filled in for the room you selected.

   2. Enter the following required information:

      Panel Code: Uniquely identifies each panel.

   3. Enter the following information to further define the panel:
      • Panel Standards: Specifies the type of panel. The Select Value list includes the standards in the Patch Panel Standards table. 
      • Telecom Service Level: Use this select value list to specify the telecom service that the patch panel provides. You only need to complete this field if the patch panel’s service type differs from that of its assigned standard, or the assigned standard does not have a service type.
   4. Click Save.

Editing Employee, Equipment, and Telecom Information

If you have already created records for equipment and telecom components, either by manually entering the data, or by generating the records from asset symbols in CAD drawings, you can update or further develop the records from the Equipment Assets Console. You do so by selecting the room and then clicking the Edit icon next to the item in the panels under the drawing. You can use the field descriptions in the above procedure to guide your entries.

If there is an employee assigned to the selected room, you can edit employee information by clicking Edit in the row listing the employee.