IT asset management is a process that tracks every component of an organization’s IT infrastructure. This includes hardware and software at the highest level. Common items include PC’s, mobile devices, software licenses, servers, and any other technology assets. For manufacturing companies, they can track everything down to part level details using the same approach.
Formal asset management processes are important to maintain compliance with license agreements, reduce security risks, effectively manage your inventory (for example manage underutilized resources) and to proactively optimize the value these assets bring to your organization.
IT administrators need to know where assets are located, how they are managed and if they are vulnerable to any security threat. Assets that are “lost” or incorrectly configured, or unknown devices, can be a trojan horse for malicious activity. This includes non-IT equipment such as IoT devices that are brought into the workplace as well as software. Outdated software or software that isn’t at its current patch level often represents a security threat. With proper IT asset management in place, organizations can efficiently control software requests, purchases, and updates minimizing costs and downtime.
The business impact is also important from an employee perspective. Employees need the proper assets and tools to do their job. If they lack the resources required, then productivity suffers. Multiply that across all the people you support, and the impact can be significant.
As you work on your request or business case, here is a cheat sheet you can leverage. To be efficient and effective, call out areas where your organization needs to improve. Consider how you:
Are you managing your assets on a spreadsheet or outdated point solution with limited capabilities to keep track of inventory and updates. As connected devices increase, the management of IT assets is more complex and challenging. You need an accurate view to make business decisions around capacity, redeployment, replacement, and retirement.
This is a common challenge for small to very large enterprises. Companies often purchase more software licenses than they need or extra equipment because something is misplaced. With IT asset management software, you can easily keep track of what software is installed on which devices and who is using it, and what is unused.
IT asset management tracks software licenses and terms to ensure that you are following your agreement or contract. If you are not, you run the risk of being fined for non-compliance and potential penalties. This is also important so that users are not suddenly locked out when licenses expire unexpectedly and to get the most from your warranties.
Employees are heavily reliant on the tools required to effectively do their jobs. How many times have you heard this? Equipment breaks down or outdated laptops slow performance and make it difficult to work. Software license expires unexpectedly, and an employee is struggling to figure out how to get it reactivated. Access to a resource is unavailable (which leads to the question of whether you have a service catalog in place for commonly used services) that halts work. All these things can impact productivity. Downtime costs money in lost opportunity. Business efficiency suffers.
While there are numerous areas that can be improved with an IT asset management solution, understanding, and reporting on the overall disposition of all assets and impact on business metrics, risk, and value is necessary. As IT moves beyond simple IT support metrics, you connect the value to the business. Leverage an IT asset management database to create a dashboard to highlight key areas. Here are examples to consider. How you manage the budget. Demonstrate your purchasing strategies. How you manage IT risk. How you support employee productivity.
For more information on how IT asset management can play a central role in designing, developing, and implementing various tactics to help a business optimize its IT assets ask to speak to a Serviceaide solution expert. ChangeGear ITSM is a comprehensive service management platform with automated asset discovery, and a CMDB solution that can significantly improve your approach to managing your IT assets and inventory.
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