Asset Intelligence and Management

Asset Intelligence and Management

EZOfficeInventory Blogs It Asset Management Best Practices It Is All About Process

IT Asset Management Best Practices – It's All About the Process

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Technology is rapidly evolving, and we’re adopting more of it every day. As a result, each day there is an addition to devices (IT Assets) and users in an organization. Tracking and managing these devices is critical for business security and success, but unfortunately, most enterprises asset tracking solutions are not up to the challenge. According to Gartner, 40% of clients hardware were not tracked by any tools. It was also found out that poor hardware management can lead up to an increase in costs by 7%-10% annually.

With user-friendly and cloud-based IT Asset Management or asset tracking systems, most of the potential issues are resolved efficiently and rapidly. Such solutions enable businesses to track devices across data centers, networks, and locations.

What is ITAM?

IT asset management (ITAM) entails collection of inventory, financial and contractual data in order to manage an IT asset throughout its life cycle. IT Asset Management is a vital part of any organization’s strategy. It involves the collection of asset/inventory information that is later used to make business decisions about future purchases and redistribution of software and hardware. This way of making business decisions based on data enables IT asset managers to eliminate waste and improve productivity by avoiding unnecessary asset purchases.

At a glance, this relates to:

  • Asset Life Cycle is the set of phases that an asset or device goes through from procurement to disposal.
  • Asset tracking is about what you’ve done with the asset. Asset Tracking is keeping a tab on this life cycle.
  • Asset management is the set of processes employed for asset tracking.
    asset lifecycle

Read More: IT Asset Tracking Solution: Features Your Business is Missing

How to implement an ITAM Methodology ?

IT Asset Management is definitely not a one-time effort. It is an ongoing and persistent activity that pays off in the long run. An effective ITAM solution must entail an IT asset management repository, usage information on both hardware and software components, integration with adjacent IT and business systems and the ability to import data. To achieve the major goal of ITAM, an organization must go through these steps:

  • Asset discovery, details, and storage – Identify all hardware and software components and record details including type of asset, make year, specs, etc. These details then need to be stored in an asset repository system. A robust ITAM solution enables you to centrally track IT assets and update locations in real time.
  • Equipment Tracking – Identify and track any change in asset details from maintenance to increase/decrease in stock quantity along with asset assignments and user information.
  • Asset Lifecycle Management – Manage the asset lifecycle i.e. keeping track of an asset from requisitioning, purchase and assignment to expiration and retirement.
  • Reporting and Alerts – Generate reports and set alerts for timely action on the assets’ warranty and lease expiration.

IT asset management
IT asset management best practices for your organization

The biggest challenge of IT Asset Management is centralizing each asset’s lifecycle. It is also the biggest opportunity for businesses to improve their asset utilization. Based on our experience of working with a large number of businesses, we recommend the following ITAM best practices. These practices will help you achieve significant cost-saving opportunities, service improvements, productivity boost and high return on investment (ROI) on your IT assets.

1. Assessment of new assets

When adding new assets to the inventory, all components should be recorded and reviewed. For example, when adding a new Macbook, you should note down its model, serial and accessories among other things. You may also want to record the installed programs and their license keys. Moreover, it is a a good practice record the purchase date to keep a track on asset depreciation.

2. Review of asset utilization

Once asset utilization has been determined, regularly reviewing and taking actions enables improvement in return on investment. It also highlights issues related to assets being in stock yet not being available when needed by staff. One way to do this is to schedule maintenance and service events. After each event, you can analyse device performance and upgrade as required by the organization.

3. Identify missing assets in the field

It’s important to always record asset assignments. This way you will be able to locate any missing asset that was not reported or checked back in by the user. You can then gather details on which assets were lost, damaged or are a business liability.

IT asset management

4. License and contracts

Software licenses should be reviewed on a regular basis. A common practice is to set alerts on your system against the software details and get notified every time a license is about to expire. Attach all important documents like invoices to be fully prepared for an IT audit. timely upgrades enable organizations to stay in compliance with regulatory bodies and avoid heavy fines.

5. Establish milestones for ITAM projects

Implementing effective ITAM requires thorough coordination between process owners and IT. And best practices call for setting milestones for ITAM projects for software implementation, hardware upgrades, process definition, major integrations, training & testing and finally the roll-out.

“Growing is about finding the next big trick up your sleeve every six to 18 months. Do this by trying a bunch of stuff at once to see what works” – Epstein.

To carry out operations, all businesses implement ITAM processes in one way or the other. But the key is to optimize these processes to help your business/organization achieve efficiency, transparency, simpler auditing, better compliance and long-term asset manageability.

Read More: 4 Sectors That Benefit The Most From IT Asset Management Software

Why EZOfficeInventory for IT Asset Management?

Evolve your IT operational practices with EZOfficeInventory. IT Asset Management depends on robust processes paired with the right tools to automate manual processes. EZOfficeInventory provides powerful and smart IT management software to businesses worldwide.

We strive to eliminate the complexity that most businesses face in traditional enterprise ITAM software. EZOfficeInventory delivers an easy to use asset tracking software which addresses IT management. It spans across simplifying IT operations and does much more, such as supporting compliance, boosting resource productivity, and asset procurement planning.

No matter if your business is small, midsize, large or enterprise level, ITAM is something you should implement to achieve operational efficiency.

EZOfficeInventory is empowering SMBs from all over the globe to cut costs, increase ROIs, and improve operational efficiency. Through constant feature releases – a lot of which are suggested by our small business customers – we aim to improve business workflows and help organizations leverage their assets for increased profits! 

For more assistance, drop us an email at support@ezo.io.

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