How many set-top boxes, antennas and switches do you have out in the field — and do you know exactly who has each of them right now? If the answer starts with “somewhere in a spreadsheet” or “Pavel knows,” this article is for you. The Central Warehouse module in ISPadmin moves your hardware records out of sticky notes and Excel files into one clear module — and after NIS2, it has become part of what regulators actually expect from you.
Why asset management is suddenly topic number one
In our previous article we covered how ISPadmin helps you handle NIS2 in the areas of password policy, Helpdesk and NetMonitor. The second major pillar of cybersecurity that any audit will check is asset management — a factual, up-to-date list of every piece of hardware your network runs on. Without it you cannot manage vulnerabilities, plan replacements, or prove that controls are in place.
For an ISP this is also a daily operational topic:
- The antenna someone moved three years ago from a tower in Štíhlovice to the POP in Bystřice — is it written down anywhere?
- The set-top box a customer returned when ending their contract — is it on the shelf, or did a technician take it home?
- The switch in “Pavel’s storage” — does it even have an inventory number?
The Central Warehouse in ISPadmin closes these questions by tracking hardware as inventoried items from receiving through issuing to a technician, installation at a customer, and finally return or write-off.
What the Central Warehouse can do
The module is built to track all assets of an ISP:
- active devices — switches, routers, APs, GPON ONTs, CMTS cards
- passive devices — antennas, brackets, masts, connectors, cable
- customer equipment — set-top boxes, ONTs at customers, modems
- consumables — cables, adapters, fittings
For every item you can see where it is right now, who is currently responsible for it, what state it is in, and the full history of its movements.
Overview and history — the filter that pays off
The item overview is not a long list you have to scroll through manually. The filters at the top of the page take you straight to what you need:
- Billing group — useful for ISPs with several branches or legal entities
- User — who the item is currently assigned to (technician, customer, warehouse)
- Year / month — the time window of movement
- Previous state / new state — what happened to the item (received, issued, installed, written off…)
For each item you can open the Detail view to see the full history card. When an audit or warranty claim asks when and from whom you got a specific set-top box, the answer takes about thirty seconds.
A warehouse connected to real operations
The strength of the Central Warehouse in ISPadmin is that it is not an island. Items naturally connect to the other modules:
- Receiving after purchase from a supplier.
- Issuing to a technician as part of a task in Planning — the technician “takes” specific serial numbers for the field visit and installs them on site.
- Installation at a customer — the item is linked to a specific service or contract, so you can see it from the customer card too.
- Return / write-off — when a service ends or a device fails, the item goes back to the warehouse or is written off, and everything stays in the history.
This connection is exactly what separates a real warehouse from a spreadsheet: nobody has to remember to add a row after a field trip — the movement is recorded where the work actually happens.
Four practical tips that will save you hours
- Enter serial numbers during receiving, not at the customer site. A field technician then only confirms what is already in the system, instead of typing codes from a box label into a phone.
- Set up roles and permissions. The warehouse keeper issues, the technician receives, the manager sees the history. The Central Warehouse respects ISPadmin user permissions, so separated responsibilities stay separated.
- Run inventory checks every quarter, not once a year. The “month” + “user” filter quickly reveals items that have been sitting with a technician for a suspiciously long time without being installed.
- Use the warehouse for POPs too, not just customers. A switch in a rooftop cabinet is your asset. When the records show that a specific DGS-1210 has been at POP Bystřice since April 2024, outages and warranty cases are resolved in minutes.
By the way — your warehouse is with you in the field too
ISPadmin is a fully responsive web application. The warehouse opens in exactly the same way from a laptop in the office, a tablet in a service van, or a phone on a rooftop. There is no separate mobile app to install — a browser and a login are enough. A technician can receive goods or confirm an installation right on the spot.
What an ISP owner gets out of it
- Fewer losses — set-top boxes and antennas no longer fall into the “grey zone” between the warehouse and the customer.
- Smoother accounting — hardware has a clear history, depreciation and write-offs are traceable.
- Audit readiness — whether NIS2, tax, or grant-related (for example the Czech Ministry of the Interior FlowPro programme), the asset register is one of the first documents an inspector will look at.
- Fewer arguments in the team — who had which antenna is no longer a question of memory, but of two clicks.
How to get started
If you are not yet using the Central Warehouse to its full extent, we recommend three steps:
- Open the overview in ISPadmin and look at what is already in there (often more than an ISP expects).
- Add serial numbers to critical assets first — POPs, customer CPE, expensive antennas.
- Introduce the rule “field trip from Planning → issue from the warehouse,” so new devices are recorded automatically.
Detailed step-by-step guides are available in the ISPadmin wiki — Central Warehouse (Czech). To try the module without commitment, book a demo.