IT assets can be any hardware, software system, or information that is valued by an organization. For instance, the computers and software licenses that enable businesses to build and sell software and the servers that software is hosted on can be considered IT assets.
To get the most value out of your IT assets, proactive management is essential.
With an effective asset management process, businesses can support lifecycle management, optimize budgets, and make good decisions that impact the whole organization, to name just a few benefits of effective IT asset management.
Let us take a closer look at why IT asset management is so important for any organization.
1. Compare Asset Management Software to Find the Right Tools for Your Needs
First off, you need to know that there are different IT asset management software options available to help your organization manage your IT assets in the best ways to suit your individual needs.
Therefore, you should spend some time comparing different solutions for your asset tracking, help desk, and networking tool needs.
For example, spiceworks is a great software for entry-level needs, but the features can be too basic for many businesses, and the interface is cluttered with ads.
But there are lots of spiceworks alternatives out there, so spend some time comparing different asset management and help desk software options to find the right features and tools you need to effectively manage your IT assets.
2. Effective IT Asset Management Provides a Single Source of Truth
The first reason why IT asset management is so important is simple. A lot of the time, organizations’ IT assets are tracked by numerous people in many different places.
That means information is not collected and centralized, which can lead to errors and chaos. In turn, it becomes very difficult to make informed decisions.
To get around the problem, some companies employ people whose sole task is to keep track of the IT assets. But that takes up a lot of time and employees could put their skills to better use in other ways.
So, organizations should let systems track IT assets. That means you always have a single source of truth regarding your IT assets and errors, and problems are less likely to happen. It also means that members of staff can focus on other important areas.
Do not underestimate just how crucial it is for organizations to embrace IT asset management systems. Effective IT asset management provides IT teams, managers, and entire organizations a single source of truth.
3. Effective IT Asset Management Improves Utilization
When your organization can access a single source of truth via effective IT asset management, your information remains updated.
That means teams improve utilization. It also helps your company to save money because effective IT asset management helps you to avoid unnecessary purchases. You can cut support and licensing costs too.
With increased control over your IT assets, your company also ensures security and legal policies are maintained to reduce risks.
In turn, you will see a positive impact on your expenses and productivity, which can benefit your entire business.
4. Effective IT Asset Management Enables Better Productivity
IT asset management goes way beyond tracking hardware like laptops. When IT asset management teams embrace things like SRE and DevOps principles, they can effectively and quickly deliver new services and functionality without having to compromise on reliability.
Effective IT asset management can help companies to manage their consumption of on-demand services by providing them with heightened visibility, control, and assigned responsibility.
You can reduce excess consumption, such as idle instances and overprovisions, to avoid unnecessary expenses.
5. Effective IT Asset Management Helps to Deliver Value Quickly
ITIL processes like change, incident, and problem management can be much better supported with the help of effective IT asset management. In turn, that enables organizations to deliver value more quickly.
Why? Because teams have the data they need at their fingertips. The impact of changes can therefore be predicted before they happen.
When you can easily access insights to make the best decisions, your organization can deliver value more quickly and gain a competitive edge.
The Takeaway
Before you start searching for the right IT asset management software, you first need to assess why you want to improve your approach to IT asset management.
Is it to save money? Is it because your IT assets are being managed and used in the shadows without the knowledge of your central IT team? Is it becoming difficult to keep up with the pace of change within your organization?
List your reasons for improving your IT asset management and you will be able to more easily find the right tools for your needs.
