Import components and their vendors from IT-Pedia®

IT-Pedia® is a comprehensive IT product library that provides an up-to-date source of data about IT products of all types including, for example, hardware, software, and network devices. Alfabet FastLane provides an out-of-the-box integration with IT-Pedia that allows you to import components and the vendors that supply them to the Alfabet FastLane repository.

The IT-Pedia model catalog as well as the My Product Model catalog is available for ITPedia integration. When an IT product is imported form IT-Pedia, it is imported as a component. Components and vendors already imported from IT-Pedia can be synchronized on a periodic and ad-hoc basis. The following data will be imported with the component:

• Start and end dates: The Start Date of the component in Alfabet FastLane is based on the Release Date of the imported product. The End Date of the component is based on the End of Extended Support of the imported product.
• Lifecycle: The component lifecycle will be automatically created based on the lifecycle data in IT-Pedia. The following lifecycles phases are available for components imported from IT-Pedia: Plan, Production, End of Sale, End of Support, and End of Extended Support.

  lifecycle

  The lifecycle describes the planned schedule of a current real-world object in different lifecycle phases of a product. Lifecycle phases will be different depending on the object class. Lifecycle phases for an application are Pilot, Production, Retired, and Sunset.

• Vendors: The vendor that supplies the component will be specified based on the Manufacturer of the imported product. If the vendor already exists in the repository, the vendor will be automatically associated with the component. If the vendor does not yet exist in the repository, it will be automatically added to the repository along with the new component based on the Manufacturer.

Import components and vendors from IT-Pedia. In the navigation panel, go to Components to open the data workbench for components.

1. Click the three vertical dots  button in the right corner of the toolbar and select Import from IT-Pedia.
2. Specify whether you want the data to be imported from Model Catalog or My Product Catalog.
3. Click the Update button to fill the selector with initial data.
4. You can use the following fields to enter search criteria to find the IT products to add to Alfabet FastLane. You can enter the name or just part of the name.
   • Product: Enter the name or part of the name of the products you want to find.
   • Version: Add the version number to limit the results found based on the product name.
   • Edition: Add the edition to limit the results found based on the product name.
   • Manufacturer: Enter the name or part of the name of the manufacturer of the products.
   • Model: Enter the product model name to find the products.

Review the IT-Pedia product data for components. Components that have been imported from IT-Pedia will be added to the Components data workbench.

• You can add columns for various IT-Pedia product attributes such as Product Name, Product ID, Manufacturer Name, Manufacture ID, Model Name, and Model ID.
• You can view a composite of all information about the IT-Pedia product that a component is based on. In the data table, click the navigate  button of the component you want to view. Click the More tab and select IT-Pedia Data to view all relevant information about the IT-Pedia product.

Review the IT-Pedia product data for vendors. Vendors that have been imported from IT-Pedia will be added to the Vendors data workbench.