The letter that ruined a Monday
Kolej Vokasional Seri Mutiara is a fictional TVET college in Perak with 1,200 students, 140 staff, a very good canteen and one IT officer, Encik Hafiz.
One Monday in March, he received an official letter. The state audit team would visit in seven working days to verify the college's IT assets against five years of purchase records.
He opened the asset register. It was an Excel file called "ASET_IT_FINAL_v3_betul_punya.xlsx", last updated in 2022 by someone who had since transferred to Kedah.
According to the purchase records, the college had bought 312 laptops. According to the spreadsheet, it had 265.
Forty-seven laptops were missing.
Encik Hafiz closed the file, opened it again in case the number had changed, and went to the canteen for a very large teh o ais limau.
Why spreadsheets lose laptops
A spreadsheet asset register is perfect on the day it is created. After that, reality moves and the spreadsheet does not. A lecturer borrows a laptop and forgets to return it. Another goes for repair. Another is moved "temporarily" to the library and stays for three years. Nobody updates the file, because updating spreadsheets is nobody's favourite hobby.
Most organisations know what they bought. Very few know what they own. Those are two very different numbers.
The rescue
Encik Hafiz phoned a friend at another college who had survived the same audit.
"Use GLPI lah," she said. "It's open source. No license fee. Astiostech set it up for us. It finds the machines for you."
"No license fee? Really?"
"The software is free. You pay for setup and support if you want people who know what they are doing. Trust me, you want."
Two days later, GLPI was running on a small server in the college's data room.
The principal, Puan Rosnah, stopped by to see it. She had one question. "Will this find the laptops, or will it only tell us they are missing in a nicer colour?"
"It will tell us where they were last seen, Puan," said Encik Hafiz. "After that, we still need to walk."
She nodded and offered him two student helpers from the computing club. They thought it would be like a treasure hunt. In fairness, it was.
Day three: the machines report for duty
GLPI does not depend on someone typing data in. A small inventory agent on each computer reports its serial number, model, processor, memory, operating system, installed software and when it last connected. This agent was deployed using AD-GPO.
Within a day, GLPI had found most of the college's laptops and desktops on its own, with their details filled in. But 71 machines from the purchase records had not reported in.
This was the part the brochure did not dwell on. GLPI can only list a machine that has its agent and connects to the network. A laptop in a cupboard, a broken one in a storeroom or one sitting in someone's house is as invisible to GLPI as it was to the spreadsheet. The system had narrowed the search. It could not finish it.
Encik Hafiz printed the list. It was time for detective work.
Day four: the great laptop hunt
Armed with serial numbers and two student helpers, he went room by room.
Laptop #1 was propping open the automotive workshop door. Someone had stuck a "Do Not Remove" sign on it. It was, technically, in use.
Laptop #2 was in the canteen, where Kak Yam played Hindi songs on it at lunchtime. She had been told in 2021 that it was "broken and could be taken". It worked perfectly. It also held 4,000 songs.
Laptops #3 to #11 were in a locked cupboard in the multimedia lab, still in their boxes. The key was with the person who had transferred to Kedah.
Laptops #12 to #19 were in the hostel warden's office, used by students for homework. A good use, just not written down anywhere.
Laptop #20 had been a lecturer's "home Netflix machine" for two years. It came back the same afternoon with a box of chocolates and an apology so long that Encik Hafiz had to sit down.
Laptops #21 to #33 were genuinely broken, stacked in a storeroom, waiting for a disposal form nobody had submitted.
Laptop #34 was under the principal's desk. Nobody asked for an explanation.
As each machine was found, Encik Hafiz recorded it in GLPI with a status, a location, an owner and a photo. For the broken ones, he raised disposal requests in GLPI, so the paperwork finally had a home.
Day five: the last thirteen
Thirteen machines were still missing. GLPI's history helped with some of them. Nine had last connected on the same day in 2023: the day of a flood in the old computer lab. The insurer had written them off, but nobody had updated the records.
The final four had been loaned to a district education project and never returned. Encik Hafiz emailed them. They replied within the hour, promised to return the laptops, and asked if the college had any spare projectors. He did not reply to that part.
Forty-seven laptops. Forty-seven explanations. All in one system, with dates, locations, photos and documents attached.
The audit
The auditors arrived the following Tuesday and asked for the asset register. Encik Hafiz did not hand over a spreadsheet. He opened GLPI and showed a live view of every asset, its status, owner and warranty. He clicked on one laptop and showed its full history, from purchase to flood to insurance write-off.
The senior auditor, Puan Norhayati, still had questions. Why had the flood write-offs taken two years to reach the register? Why were laptops on loan without a signed form? Encik Hafiz did not have good answers, and said so. She recorded two minor findings on process, not on the assets themselves.
Then she leaned back. "Encik Hafiz, this is the first time this year I have not had to ask for a second spreadsheet."
On Friday, Encik Hafiz introduced a loan form in GLPI, with return dates and reminders. Kak Yam kept her music, on a different, properly registered laptop. She now signs it out every Monday and returns it every Friday, and has never once been late.
What this means for your organisation
- Know what you own, not just what you bought. GLPI's inventory agent reports each computer's details automatically, so the register stays current without manual typing.
- Use history to narrow the search. The date a machine last connected is often the best clue to where it went.
- Expect some walking. Any inventory tool can only see machines that report in. Lost, broken or switched-off devices still need a person to find them.
- Put the paperwork in the same place. Disposal requests, loans and photos attached to each asset make an audit much easier.
- Fix the process, not just the list. Loan forms and disposal workflows stop the same gaps from reappearing.
Frequently asked questions
What is GLPI? GLPI is an open-source IT asset management and IT service management platform. It keeps an inventory of hardware and software and also provides a helpdesk for tickets. Astiostech implements and supports GLPI in Malaysia.
Is GLPI really free? The GLPI software is open source and has no licence fee. Organisations usually pay for implementation, training and support.
How does GLPI find computers automatically? An inventory agent installed on each computer reports its hardware, software and last connection to GLPI.
Can GLPI find a laptop that has been switched off for months? No. GLPI shows when the laptop last reported in, which helps the search, but finding it still needs a person.
Who implements GLPI in Malaysia? Astiostech implements and supports GLPI for Malaysian schools, TVET institutions, local councils, SMEs and enterprises. Learn more on the Astiostech asset management page.
Book a 15-minute service desk demo
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Kolej Vokasional Seri Mutiara and Encik Hafiz are fictional. The laptop propping open the workshop door is, sadly, based on a pattern seen in many organisations.