Documenting Vendors and Locations

 

Is there a right way?

When structuring your documentation, there are unlimited ways that something can be accomplished. From the organization of your knowledge base articles to the building of your asset layouts, we see many customers accomplish things in different ways. Is there a right way to do things? Yes, but that way can be different depending on your needs and what makes the most sense for your particular company.

 

Throughout this article, we’ll focus on providing information that you can choose to implement within your organization to assist with building your documentation structure. The strategies we’ve outlined below are collected directly from all of our clients and are proven ways that they improved their structure with Hudu. This may not work for you, but we hope to give you some ideas of how you could get started.

 

A couple items in Hudu that we get asked about frequently are how to manage vendors and locations and how to manage relationships throughout your instance. Just like with other items in Hudu, the flexibility of the tool provides you multiple ways in which you can do this. 

How do I document different locations for the same company?

Sometimes, a client may have multiple sites or locations in which their business occurs. There may be different devices, people, and other assets that are relative to each location. Documenting these locations allows you to have the knowledge of where each device, person, etc. is located. The two most common ways we've seen them documented:

• Asset Layout called "Locations"
• Each location as a separate company

Success Strategies

Strategy 1: Create an asset layout for "Locations". This can be named as locations, sites, rooms - whatever makes sense for your company. If you have multiple sites or locations within a specific company that contain shared documentation between each other but have different assets that correspond to different sites (e.g. desktops, users, servers, etc.), the best practice may be to keep this information stored as an asset layout for each company.

 

 See our example of a Locations Asset Layout

Strategy 2: Sometimes, it may make sense to have a site or location as its own company. If the documentation that is tracked at each location is significantly different then that of another location, within the same overarching company, the best practice might be separating those locations out. 

 

 

How do I handle vendors?

Just like there are multiple ways to document a clients locations, there are also multiple ways to document vendors that a business uses. These vendors can sometimes be globally applied to all companies or they can be specific to one or a subset of companies. The three most common ways we've seen them documented:

 

Strategy 1: Create an asset layouts for "Vendors". Just like with locations, this can be named vendors, software, companies - whatever makes sense for you. If you have vendors that multiple companies use, but each vendor has unique information specific to that company (e.g. point of contact, contract/agreement, phone number, etc.), the best practice may be to keep this information stored as an asset layout for each company.

Strategy 2: Create different companies for all of your vendors. Hudu provides the ability to create unlimited companies and one strategy we have seen used is creating vendors as companies. This allows for the addition of personalized documentation for each vendor and would be best if you want to separate specific vendor information out further and allow for assets, passwords, etc. directly for each vendor.

 

Strategy 3: Instead of populating vendor specific documentation for all companies, keep all vendor information in one place. Create a separate company for "Vendors". This company would be specifically added to document all vendor information. This can be useful if vendor documentation is global and isn't changing from company to company based on factors like area, Primary POC, and phone number.

 

  

How do I relate all the information?

As seen with talking about vendors, locations, and other items, Hudu provides multiple ways you can accomplish quality documentation. To tie it all together, lets talk about utilizing relationships in Hudu. Relationships can also be created multiple ways in Hudu and are used to create a web of your documentation, ensuring you are always one click away from what you need access to. Relationships can be created for almost every piece of documentation in Hudu to provide for that quick access to the next piece of documentation you are looking for. 

Success Strategies

Strategy 1. Set up your documentation in a way that provides your technicians the ability to save time by reducing the clicks needed to find relevant documentation.

 

 

Wrapping it up

There are many ways of creating quality documentation that can be used to save time and increase efficiency when navigating your documentation platform. While sometimes, there isn't necessarily a "right" way of doing things, there is a right way of documenting for your organization. We highlighted vendors, locations, and relationships in this blog but this concept can be applied to the vast majority of your Hudu documentation. Use these strategies as needed and remember that documentation is fluid and can be adjusted to best fit the needs of your company.