System Profiler

The system_profiler utility (which you can access through Terminal.app and the shell, or remotely via SSH) does precisely what you want.

For example, machine name, processor, speed, and serial number:

*$ system_profiler SPHardwareDataype*

{quote:title=... gives:}
Hardware:

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: MacBook Pro 17"
Model Identifier: MacBookPro2,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.33 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 4 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 667 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MBP21.00A5.B08
SMC Version: 1.14f5
Serial Number: xxxxxxxxxxx
Sudden Motion Sensor:
State: Enabled
{quote}

And this:

*$ system_profiler SPApplicationsDataType*

{quote:title=... gives you:}
Applications:

Address Book:

Version: 4.1.1
Last Modified: 6/23/08 7:51 AM
Kind: Universal
Get Info String: 4.1, Copyright Apple Inc. 2002-2007
Location: /Applications/Address Book.app

Adium:

Version: 1.2.5
Last Modified: 6/24/08 11:32 AM
Kind: Universal
Get Info String: 1.2.5, Copyright 2001-2008 The Adium Team
Location: /Applications/Adium.app

...
{quote}

With a smidgen of PERL to reformat the output, you can generate a nicely formatted report out of that, I should think.

Like JD says, just paste this into Terminal for starters...

system_profiler SPApplicationsDataType

*$ system_profiler SPApplicationsDataType | grep -E :\$ | sed -e 's/://'*

... but, you probably owe it to yourself to discover the wonders of Perl scripting. I generally consider basic working knowledge of Perl a basic system administrator skill, regardless of whether you're talking about Mac OS X, Windows, or Linux/UNIX:

*$ perl -e 'for (`system_profiler SPApplicationsDataType`) { print "$1\n" if /\s+(.*):$/; }'*

'perl -e' just means use perl to run what follows. The rest means: for each line in the result of the system_profile command, print the value of the indicated part of the match if the string matches the pattern "1 or more spaces, some text, colon, end-of-line".

{quote:title=You'd generally put your perl in a text file:}
#!/usr/bin/perl
for (`system_profiler SPApplicationsDataType`) {
print "$1\n" if /\s+(.*):$/;
}
{quote}

... then make the file executable:

*$ chmod a+rx myscript.pl*

... and run the script:

*$ ./myscript.pl*

Using the one-liner, though, you could use SSH to run the script remotely, for example:

*$ ssh remotemac.mycompany.com perl -e 'for (`system_profiler SPApplicationsDataType`) { print "$1\n" if /\s+(.*):$/; }'*