Enterprise Asset Management 3

8 Incredible facts about organizational IT asset management (mis-management)

Organizations of all sizes have assets that must be tracked and managed continuously. In the era of technological advancement like complex cloud technologies, license-based, and usage-based software, businesses have more assets to manage per person than ever before. IT asset management is a priority with employee tenures growing shorter and more devices becoming mobile. Today, state-of-the-art asset management systems help businesses to manage assets hosted in the cloud offering cost effective and maintenance free solutions.

# 1 – Asset Management is about having in-depth knowledge of business:

An in-depth knowledge of your assets, their business context and operational environment is highly important for organizations. Asset management has an impact on different aspects of a business, including partnerships, projects, development, strategy, marketing, sales, engineering, IT, communications, resource planning, configuration management, training, field support and others as well. Knowledge gained during the design, development and production phases of the assets can be used to generate value for the business during the entire life-time of assets.

# 2 – Importance of resource sharing and alignment in asset management:

IT Asset Management (ITAM) can be a tricky subject as it requires multiple groups to work in close co-ordination along with resource sharing to produce mutual value. Executive support is an integral part of an ITAM program. It cannot be successful in isolation. For instance: several companies are focusing on resource sharing to cut off expenditure on infrastructure and license based usage offering a good ITAM solution.

# 3 – Asset management is not only about technology:

A successful ITAM program is based on the effective communication and implementation of processes. This does not mean to lessen the significance of the technologies but to stress that process is essential for a successful ITAM program. Organizations need to ensure their processes are well-defined, communicated and implemented well with effective usage of technology. Importantly, a technology that can adapt to the unique business process is essential.

# 4- Justifying the data for asset management:

Organizations capture a huge volume of data, which may or may not be of value. However, companies need to focus on capturing and managing data which is justified. If the data carries value then the effort required in knowledge extraction and maintenance using cutting edge tools is worth.

# 5- Optimizing software configurations:

According to a research from Gartner, Inc., “Different Organizations can cut down expenditure on software by as much as 30 percent by implementing software license optimization best practices.” Software used by IT companies has complex use rights and is high-cost. The default configuration for most software could be expensive for clients too. IT managers need to look for savings in software configuration, especially in case of software for data center. Such simple changes could result in millions of savings.

# 6 – Recycling software licenses for asset management:

Recycling Software Licenses is the recovery of unused license rights to avoid new license purchase. Such reuses will not only cut-off extra expenditure on software along with a considerable reduction in support and maintenance costs. Recycling employs metering process to detect unused, under-utilized or misused software. For instance, a user may have a particular software installed but the user requires it for a limited functionality usage, which could be made available using Software Asset Management (SAM) tools and certain other client management tools.

# 7 – Leveraging Software Asset Management (SAM) tools for managing assets:

Optimizing software expenditure is difficult because the way licenses can be used is quite complex. Specialized knowledge and effort is needed for optimizing complex licenses. Larger enterprises require a SAM tool for automating accelerating and enhancing manual processes.

# 8 – Importance of baselining and measuring:

Several organizations ignore or do not spend as much effort on baselining and measuring undermining their vital role in success and growth. It is important to baseline data for analyzing computer network performance to measure the variance after each change. The method measures the current performance in comparison with the historic one. The consistent measurement and assessment of progress help companies identify the opportunities and position their program to the next level.

Asset Management is a chain right from data gathering to taking relevant business action. It initiates from the process of data gathering from sensors fitted to assets, transmitting the signals to a central location, data storage, data visualization, data analysis and problem diagnosis. This is followed by bringing together the right resources including information, tools and skilled people at the right time in the right place to take the required actions. Every link in this chain is important. Even if one link in this chain breaks, the whole process comes to a standstill.

Reach out to our experts to know more about IT Asset Management and how can it help your organization improve the utilization of your assets.