ITAM: The Need To Automate IT Asset Management

What does ITAM entail?

The digital age is seeing organizations incorporate more and more technology into their existing framework to boost productivity and reap the benefits of tech automation. ITAM is one such advancement that has garnered a lot of attention in recent years.

IT Asset Management includes managing both the software and hardware assets of your company through one platform and optimizing their life cycles with the aid of a help desk.

It enables companies to gauge the performance of their assets throughout the assets’ life cycles. It also eliminates the hassle of manually updating asset data through unreliable spreadsheets, saving you countless hours and offering more transparent and accurate data.

Hardware asset management is a requirement for nearly every organization under the sun, but the need for software asset management is also rapidly growing.

As technology penetrates deeper into our lives, the IT needs of organizations are increasing. Even if your company has nothing to do with technology, the chances of you requiring the use of business software are quite high and will only increase as time goes on (think Salesforce or QuickBooks).

On the other end of the spectrum, certain tech companies believe that Software Asset Management is sufficient for their organization’s smooth operation but tracking software without having corresponding hardware information doesn’t make for a reliable setup.

3 ways ITAM can help your company

Global assets under management are expected to rise to $145.4 trillion by 2025 and all eyes are on asset managers to innovate and evolve in light of these surprising findings. While there are quite a few ways to go about this, ITAM is a multi-purpose and easy-to-use asset management solution worth looking into. Here we evaluate the performance of an ITAM setup and how it can impact the efficiency, security, and costs of your company.

1. Impact on efficiency

The ITAM world is quite vast, with multiple functionalities to choose from. Knowing how to get the most out of your chosen software will bring about a significant increase in your productivity, a smoother workflow, and more reliable assets.

ITAM software helps reduce inventory management time. Spreadsheets are cumbersome to update, time-intensive, and also highly prone to errors. Studies show that nearly 9 out of 10 spreadsheets contain errors.
ITAM Asset Discovery can allow quick access to all devices connected to the network. You have access to information about the smallest of assets in real-time. Scanners can also be used to find an asset’s information via Barcodes or RFID tags.
Maintenance checks ensure that your crew is able to service assets on time and guarantee that they are always in their best shape.
Troubleshooting problems becomes considerably easy when asset information can be fetched and updated in minutes from any computer on the network. You also have access to all computers or servers on your network so you can push queries to the IT helpdesk hassle-free. This minimizes workflow disruption.
Robust ITAM solutions allow you to integrate with third-party apps like Zendesk to further customize your IT service needs without the need for managing multiple platforms.
Speedy responses increase both customer and employee satisfaction. Catering to a greater number of queries through the helpdesk staff also becomes less frustrating.
With all your asset data in one place, you can reduce time spent preparing for audits, whether they relate to your hardware assets or business software.

2. Impact on security

Companies avoid security breaches when an efficient ITAM setup is in place. This allows them to have greater control over their data. They can use ITAM in a number of ways to strengthen their security, ranging from preventing loss of assets to helping provide the security department with data on each asset.

ITAM enables you to define user roles in order to limit access with respect to an employee’s role in managing data.
Single Sign-On can help you secure and simplify sign-in procedures and allows only people from your organization to sign in to your database.
ITAM allows you to facilitate audit trails so you know who has access to which equipment, its last known location, and its status. This ensures items don’t get lost and that custodians are accountable for items they possess. This also minimizes the disparity between planned and actual inventory. GPS functionality can further help track misplaced or stolen items.
You can carry out compliance checks for hardware assets, ensuring they meet relevant health and safety standards and are not vulnerable to breakdowns or malfunctions.
A company’s ITAM data allows you greater clarity into asset threats and vulnerabilities. This way, during a data attack, all vulnerable assets can be secured first. If a company is recovering from a security breach, ITAM data can give valuable insight into how the attack happened, which asset was penetrated, and how it can be avoided in the future.

3. Impact on cost

The investment required for a dedicated ITAM setup is what makes most companies steer clear of it. The cost of hiring another department along with software procuring costs could scare you at first, but the pros outweigh the cons. In the case of ITAM, a little investment goes a long way.

Real-time asset information helps decrease procurement costs and also the need for having excess inventory in case of inventory shrinkage. You know which asset will be due for disposal at all times during its lifecycle so you can plan ahead of time.
Software audits can be quite frightening. They can cost companies a fortune and completely disrupt their workflow. Efficient ITAM will allow you to be confident about your compliances, which in turn allows you to avoid compliance penalties further down the line.
ITAM allows you to be in direct contact with your vendor so you can place purchase orders according to inventory needs in advance. You can use this to improve inventory utilization and practice ‘lean’ procurement, which can help save your company money.
An IT asset management platform can enable you to decrease employee theft. This is an easy task when the company has access to a full inventory list and knowledge of assets issued to its employees.
With knowledge of every IT asset, companies invest in only the software that they require and avoid accumulating redundant software packages. This not only saves you money but also saves you on the time you would have spent managing and locating such packages.
Transparent databases allow organizations to reduce the risk of unplanned costs. This kind of insight can be extremely easy to gain with the help of custom reports.

Is an investment in ITAM the right call for you?

The repercussions of not having a dedicated ITAM system could be catastrophic. These drawbacks will only get worse as your company grows, acquires more assets, and is responsible for a bigger workforce. Early adoption will be much easier for your employees and would have a higher acceptability rate as well.

Introducing change in a company can be quite daunting; there is always some measure of risk involved. However, if a thorough evaluation is carried out before you dive in, you can enable yourself to make a more calculated decision. Companies are picking up their IT asset management game. It would be a good idea to follow suit in order to keep your competitive edge while at the same time improving efficiency, security, and cost-effectiveness.