We receive thousands of emails every month, but this one in particular really blew our mind. Tom, a Senior Network Administrator who had been in contact with our customer service, was personally sold to Lansweeper but he couldn't get his company to agree. So he just paid for a Lansweeper license out of his own pocket.

We were amazed and reached out to him for the full story:

My father was a machinist for the railroad. One of the important lessons he taught me was "Always use the right tool for the job and be sure it is the best. Quality lasts." And at that time, he was required to purchase most of his own tools for work.

Incomplete Network Inventory

When I was tasked with pulling a complete inventory of our network, I was in trouble. The only tool I had been given was one of the free network scanners. Our corporate office had turned off many of the features that many scanners use to inventory machines. Being the only IT person in a facility with close to 700 devices, this was going to be a daunting task. Our free scanner was picking up about 150 PCs. That lead me to start looking.

Since I didn't have permissions to modify all the settings, I had to find something that would work regardless of what was and wasn't blocked. I tried and tested every system I could find, and they all came back with varying results of my machine count. So, I dug deeper into instructions, and that was when I found that you could use Lansweeper to inventory from the login script. I had permissions to change my local script. I signed up for the trial since the free version only does 100 devices.

Bye Bye Spreadsheets

Within two weeks I had 98 percent of my network inventoried. Being a manufacturing shop, we have plant floor machines that many people never turn off or log out of. List in hand, I made a run through the building and reran the logon script for those few machines. Full inventory. Just what I needed. On time, and under budget.

But then, I discovered all the features of Lansweeper. The ability to pull custom reports on different features of the network. I noticed it found all my printers, my switches, and even my VOIP phones. Then I discovered it showed all the peripherals attached to the various computers. I was sold. This was something I had to have. With all the features, I could get rid of the multiple spreadsheets I was using to track everything else.

When trying to sell it to the organization, I was told no. I was told I could keep it manually. I exported the major data, machines, and software, and created a database. After one month of this hassle, I realized I was spending too much time to make the data worthwhile. I needed Lansweeper to do my job. It is the best ITAM solution I found to keep all the information in one place. So, I swallowed hard and purchased it for my use at work.

About Tom

Tom Backus is a solo Sr. Network Administrator in a manufacturing plant with 700 devices. He has been with his current company for 17 years.

Over the coming months, he will delve deeper into Lansweeper and share his personal experience on the road towards solid IT Asset Management.