Model management for Assets vs. CIs in HAM Pro

Hello -

We are having an issue where we load a shipment notification for an asset purchase. This creates a) an asset record with the correct model ID from the purchase with relevant purchase data and b) a "dummy" CI with the discovery source of SNAssetManagement, also with the correct ModelID loaded from the shipment notification.

However, once the CI associated with this asset is discovered (Intune or ACC) it updates the model on the CI which then updates the corresponding asset model as well. This is problematic as the discovery data sources like Intune and ACC do not actually load a real specific model but a more generic one.

E.g. We make a purchase of 10 MS Surface ZLP-00001 (this model is: Microsoft Surface Laptop 6 - 15" - Core Ultra7 - 16 GB RAM - 256 GB SSD - Windows 11 Pro - Black) laptops. The assets and CIs are created from a shipment notification import and tie back to the model we have fully normalized from the content library. Later on the asset is deployed and subsequently discovered by either Intune or the ACC. Upon discovery it then updates the model on both CI and Asset to MS Surface Laptop 6 for Business (this is a generic model and does not indicate anything about the machine like color, screen size, palm rest material, etc.).

The end result is that all of the assets that are eventually discovered bend up with a very generic model. This happens with mobile devices as well.

I am wondering what the strategy for dealing with this issue is both from a technical perspective and from an asset management perspective. It seems problematic to me that our discovery sources are removing a level of granularity about our assets that is useful.