Changes section documentation for IBM Support Insights

On the main Inventory page, you can switch to a dedicated Changes view by selecting the Changes tab. This page shows the delta (changes) between two periods and the view comprises both inventory and coverage details.

Using the sub-tabs on the page, you may switch between viewing the Inventory changes , meaning overall inventory historical data, or the Coverage changes , meaning historical data encompassing both inventory and coverage details.

Please note, the page includes only assets with a valid serial number, meaning a serial number other than N/A or Unknown. If your inventory includes devices with an invalid serial number - they will not be included in the Changes views, regardless if their properties have been changed within the specified time-frame.

Please note, assets that are considered inactive are automatically removed from the client's inventory after 180 days, but will be present in the Changes tab for 12 months.

Inactive assets are those whose warranty or hardware support has been expired or canceled for over 180 days and they are not under an active or renewed contract.

By default, the Inventory changes sub-tab is the primary view of the page. Located at the beginning of the view, on the right-hand side, is a dropdown menu that allows users to select specific asset groups, for which to view inventory changes. The options for filtering the view using the Choose asset types dropdown are dynamically populated, based on the available asset types in your inventory. The more asset types available in your inventory - the more selectable options the dropdown menu will have. By default, all available items are selected. Please note, this tab currently only contains hardware devices-related information. Virtual assets are excluded from these insights, regardless of the state of the virtual assets toggle. The page is organized in a way that also contains the asset type dropdown menu, the change period selector and the legend table - all on the right-hand side of the page - as in the Inventory changes sub-tab.

Immediately after is the Change period selection. By selecting the desired start date and end date, users can see the changes that took place between the two selected dates. By default, the compared time-frames encompass the changes that occurred between the ultimate and the penultimate inventory updates.

Following the change period selector is the legend table, containing the different categories into which the assets are grouped based on their change status. The categories a device may fall into are Added (the device was added during the selected period), Changed (the device was modified during the selected period), Removed (the device was removed during the selected period) and Unchanged (the device remained the same during the selected period). The contents of the legend table serve as a filter to the inventory changes chart on the left-hand side of the page and to the summary table, located immediately after the chart.

The inventory changes bar chart contains a visual representation of the device counts' fluctuations during the specified time-frame, distributed into the previously mentioned groups and each group being represented with a single bar in the chart. This view allows users to visually compare the different groups of assets based on their change status.

Following the chart is the summary table, which contains all the assets that are visualized in the chart and grouped in the legend table. Each asset's change status is listed in the Asset status column of the table. The summary table on the Changes page contains a broader range of available columns, as compared to the summary tables on the main Inventory page and the Coverage page. These additional columns, such as Previous contract number, allow users to gain a deeper insight into the specific changes the device has undergone. The contents of the table may be downloaded using the buttons in its header. For details on how to export table content, visit the table interactions section.

When the Coverage changes sub-tab is selected, the page displays content similar to that on the Inventory changes page, but targeting specifically the assets' historical coverage modifications. Please note, this tab only contains hardware devices-related information. Virtual assets are excluded from these insights, regardless of the state of the virtual assets toggle. The page is organized in a way that also contains the asset type dropdown menu, the change period selector and the legend table - all on the right-hand side of the page - as in the Inventory changes sub-tab.

At the beginning of the page in the sub-tab is the coverage changes overview bar chart, which contains a visual representation of the device count, distributed into the four change statuses based on their coverage information. The main difference between the bar chart on the Inventory changes sub-tab and the bar chart on the current sub-tab is that the former takes into account the number of assets and any modified property (if there are such), whereas the latter takes into account the number of assets and only their coverage property. Hence, the Coverage changes overview bar chart groups represent the group distribution of devices, depending on whether their coverage has been added (Added group), modified (Changed group), deleted (Removed group) or remained the same (Unchanged group).

Following the coverage changes overview bar chart, is another bar chart - coverage changes by status. It visualizes the historical distribution over the specified time-frame of modified assets, which are grouped according to their coverage status. In other words, this chart provides insights into the differences in the assets' coverage statuses for a specified time-frame.

As in the Inventory changes sub-tab, at the end of the page is a summary table, containing the assets previously visualized in the outlined charts. The available current and previous coverage statuses are listed for each of the assets in the table. The contents of the table may be downloaded using the buttons in its header. For details on how to export table content, visit the table interactions section.