It is well known that most businesses are accustomed to managing their IT assets only through a spreadsheet and a list of invoices. The key problem with this system is that it is far too simple a mechanism to maintain asset inventory for hundreds or thousands of hardware devices and software licenses, not to mention the various aspects of the IT asset life cycle.
So basically, by tracking the IT assets of your organizations, you manage operations and maintenance, accounting, purchasing, and sales, while making sure that they are all in line with your business strategy. When the life cycle of IT assets is not managed effectively, you end up with lost assets, underutilized assets, inefficient audits, and lost employment hours. All this accumulates in large expenses that do not bring income.
What are asset discovery and tracking?
The effectiveness of the entire IT asset management process depends on robust asset discovery. Asset discovery is basically a process that helps automatically discover all IT assets in your organization’s network. Once the asset is discovered, tracking would provide information about assets such as the value of assets, their current life cycle, and their value.
Take a systematic approach to asset discovery
ITAM should start with a systematic and automatic discovery of assets. In this process, you should be able to automatically detect all traceable IT assets inside or even outside your company’s network. This will be essential in acquiring an exhaustive list of thousands of assets. It is more efficient than manually arranging all invoices in recent years. It’s also more efficient because instead of starting the process with a debug hunt, all you have to do is scan your IT infrastructure.
If you want a more comprehensive understanding of your assets, you should consider agent-based discovery that allows you to detect off-network assets or even inactive assets. It has the functionality of updating assets with a rules-based approach on a timeline. These rules will generally include the normalization and maintenance of the ban. In this way, proprietary information and data will remain protected while the asset is serviced.
Another option is to run an agentless discovery process. Your system should run a drag-and-drop approach that works with a single asset configuration. To the extent that each asset has a network credential that helps identify it, your asset discovery system will be able to detect it.
How you benefit from ITAM Solution
- Cost structure analysis: Once you have located and tracked all your IT assets, you will have a very good understanding of the cost structure formed with this network of assets. In all departments, teams, asset classes, and geographies, you will be able to allocate costs to specific assets and use cases. By tracing this against profit potential over a timeline, you can easily get a strategic view of the key areas of cost inefficiency that can be eliminated or controlled in the future.
- Asset Usage: One of the biggest problems with large networks of IT assets is that many assets are inactive or underused. Once you have a record of what they are meant to do and what their status is in real-time, you can deploy them to the right places where they can be used to the fullest or reissue the required number of licenses. This benefit extends to hardware assets and software licenses.
- Reducing compliance and security risks: A major advantage of this process is that it can easily mitigate compliance issues that arise due to extensive and often complex software licenses. Asset tracking also helps reduce the security risks associated with potential threats.
- Inventory management, budgeting, and financial planning: As your asset discovery and tracking system become more robust, you will have a more accurate understanding of inventory. You should also be able to integrate appropriate impairment rates on time to determine the exact carrying amount of the asset. This way, you’ll know how to forecast your needs and plan your budget for IT asset inventories.
IT asset management (ITAM) provides measurable value to the business strategy through end-to-end integration. Powered by the cloud, automation, and advanced analytics solutions, IT thrives through open collaboration. Experimental development and digital investments provide the tools and innovation necessary to forward the business.
Working with OptimumDesk Inventoree IT asset management (ITAM) you can have all the information needed in an user friendly interface:
Discovering and tracking assets can provide a critical advantage to your business. This is the process of streamlining your entire IT team by implementing industry-leading practices that lead to efficiency and rules-based management on an organizational scale. And it’s not completely unrealistic to get all these features and benefits with a single platform.
