How to keep track of your IT assets, reduce costs and increase productivity

The larger a company gets, the more difficult it is to keep a clear overview of the physical and non-physical inventory: how many laptops are still available to give to our employees? Do we already have a license for this piece of software? And when are the next renewals due?

If such information is not carefully documented, updated, and checked, what can quickly happen is that unnecessary purchases are made, the wrong equipment might be purchased or unnecessary license fees paid. To avoid such scenarios, it is enormously important to keep track of all corporate IT assets.

What are IT assets?

But what exactly do we mean by IT assets? Atlassian defines them as follows: "IT assets include hardware, software systems or information that is valuable to an organisation." However, IT assets only have a limited useful life. Companies therefore manage them proactively to extract the maximum benefit from them. While companies define the phases of this lifecycle individually, they typically include the planning, procurement, deployment, maintenance, and retirement of an IT asset.

To make sure companies can strategically manage their inventory of IT assets and their life cycles, and make the best possible use of them, clearly defined business processes are needed. And this is exactly what IT Asset Management deals with as part of IT Service Management.

So what is IT Asset Management?

According to Atlassian, IT asset management (ITAM) "ensures that an organisation's assets are accounted for, deployed, maintained, upgraded, and disposed of when the time comes. Put simply, it’s making sure that the valuable items, tangible and intangible, in your organization, are tracked and being used." IT asset management creates a single point of truth - that is, a central source of information that you can use to optimise budgets, support lifecycle management and make decisions.

At the same time, ITSM teams need to be flexible and constantly adapt their ITAM process to allow other teams to work with the tools that best meet their needs.

Four good reasons why IT Asset Management is so important

We have already discussed the dangers that lurk when companies do not organise their assets professionally and systematically. But what are the concrete benefits of ITSM teams addressing this issue? Here are four good reasons for well thought-out IT Asset Management:

IT asset management creates a central source of information

You may know the problem: assets are often tracked in many different places and by different people. Sometimes there is no one at all who really feels responsible for them. You have to go through the hassle of gathering information about specific hardware and software assets because there is no single tool that captures and centralises such information. And you can never really be sure whether the data about your assets are still up to date and whether you have overlooked some in the chaos.

This is where IT Asset Management steps in and creates order by providing a central source of information for IT teams, management and ultimately, the entire organisation. Best of all, by automating systems to track IT assets, monitor usage, and understand dependencies, it takes the pressure off your ITSM teams.

IT asset management improves utilisation and ensures cost efficiency

A systematic ITAM helps to maintain an overview of all IT assets in your company and to keep the information up to date. This can save you a lot of money because your teams can eliminate redundant IT assets and thus improve utilisation. At the same time, you can avoid unnecessary purchases and reduce licensing and support costs. You can also reduce risks by enforcing security and compliance policies through increased control.

IT Asset Management enables higher productivity without sacrificing reliability

Due to digital transformation and the modern way companies work, IT Asset Management now involves much more than just tracking laptops and computer mice. ITSM teams therefore need appropriate ITAM processes and tools to deploy new functions and services quickly and efficiently without compromising reliability. This will give them more control, increase their visibility and allow them to better assign responsibilities.

IT Asset Management supports ITSM practices and teams across the enterprise

This reason actually makes a lot of sense, doesn't it?? When everyone knows what IT assets your organisation has (or doesn't have) and can rely on that information, it drives value creation. After all, with the right data, your teams can act faster and predict the impact of changes before they happen. Thus, ITAM also plays an important role in processes such as incident management, problem management or change management.

ITAM tools: Which is the right tool for you?

Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question. Depending on the needs of your organisation and the ITAM processes you want to improve, different ITAM software may be appropriate. Possible questions you might ask yourself before deciding on a particular tool are:

Are you primarily interested in saving money by optimising your software licences?
Do you still use spreadsheets and are you concerned about so-called "ghost assets", i.e. assets that are still being paid for even
though they do not physically exist (anymore)?
Do you find it difficult to keep up with the changes in IT assets in your company?
Or is the issue of shadow IT a growing problem?

Every organisation is different. While one needs to map complex dependencies across the organisation, another wants to document intangible assets such as licences and compliance documents to reduce risk. Or maybe your needs aren't that high and you're looking for a simple (and cheap) tracking solution - rather than enterprise-class software.

Basically, in order for your IT Asset Management to adapt to other business processes and developments, you should choose tools that enable optimal collaboration and can meaningfully support your IT Service Management.

Inventory 24/7: What is IT Asset Management?