WHY IS IT asset Manager important?
IT asset management (ITAM) is the end-to-end tracking and management of IT assets to ensure that every asset is properly used, maintained, upgraded and disposed of at the end of its lifecycle.ITAM involves using financial, contractual and inventory data to track and make strategic decisions about IT assets. The main objective is to ensure that IT resources are used efficiently and effectively. ITAM also helps optimize costs by reducing the total number of assets in use and extending the life of those assets, avoiding costly upgrades. An important part of ITAM is understanding the total cost of ownership and finding ways to optimize asset use. Show
What is an IT asset?An information technology (IT) asset is any piece of information, software or hardware that an organization uses in the course of its business activities. Hardware assets include physical computing equipment like physical servers in data centers, desktop computers, mobile devices, laptops, keyboards and printers. Software assets, on the other hand, include applications for which licenses are typically issued per user or machine, as well as software systems and databases built using open-source resources. Software assets also include cloud-based assets, such as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications. How does an IT asset management process work?The IT asset management (ITAM) process usually involves the following steps:
Stages of an IT asset lifecycleEvery IT asset has a finite lifecycle. IT asset management (ITAM) is about managing an asset’s lifecycle to ensure maximum productivity. While each organization may define unique lifecycle stages, an IT asset lifecycle generally includes the following stages:
Benefits of IT asset managementEfficient IT asset management (ITAM) can help an organization make better business decisions. Some of the key benefits include the following:
IT asset management softwareAs an organization’s IT assets grow, managing them via manual, paper-based or spreadsheet systems becomes cumbersome. IT asset management (ITAM) software is a centralized application used for asset lifecycle management and tracking. Features of ITAM softwareIT asset management software solutions usually include features that give organizations better control of their IT environment and enable them to track assets on-premises and in the cloud:
Factors to consider when choosing ITAM software or an asset management solution
IT asset management (ITAM) vs. IT service management (ITSM)While IT asset management is about managing IT assets throughout their lifecycles, IT service management (ITSM) is about managing and delivering IT services. IT service management is the process of managing IT services in an organization. It includes many components, from planning and implementing IT services to monitoring and auditing them to make sure they are running smoothly and efficiently. IT services include help desk and service desk support (such as guiding a user on how to change their password) and change management procedures, which involve efficient handling of changes to IT infrastructure. The goal of IT service management is to provide reliable, high-quality IT services that meet the needs of the business and its end users, including customers, employees and business partners. ITSM aims to improve user experience and service quality. The IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is considered the best approach for delivering ITSM. It is a library that provides the best practices and framework for efficient ITSM. The most recent ITIL version, ITIL 4, comprises five volumes — namely, Service Strategy, Service Design, Service Transition, Service Operation and Continual Service Improvement — that detail 34 ITSM practices. In a way, ITSM encompasses ITAM. Asset and configuration management are among the many ITSM processes, and a CMDB — which is the tool dedicated to this process — is a centralized repository of an organization’s IT assets and the relationships between them. IT asset management and IBMHybrid IT environments — with software, hardware and cloud solutions from many vendors — are becoming more challenging to manage. A barrier to successful management of these complex environments is the organizational and platform silos between IT operations and procurement teams. Any changes made by one team will likely affect the other, yet neither team has visibility to understand the impact of change. For example, how can you confidently manage your IT environment if you don’t understand how the changes you make will affect license compliance and possibly result in overprovisioning? If you move an application workload to a different cloud or server, will this move put you out of compliance or cause surprise billings or true-ups? And if you don’t move workloads, what’s the impact to the performance of applications and services?The answer for most organizations is to build in buffers by overprovisioning IT resources and restricting license allocations. Understandably, licensing is complex, and IT resource usage can change on a second-to-second basis. How can you optimize IT resources and licensing to deliver on application performance expectations? IT asset management solutions like Flexera One with IBM Observability can provide an accurate view of IT asset inventory and keep you audit-ready with visibility into the allocation of assets across your hybrid cloud, multivendor landscape. Integrations with IBM Turbonomic® allow you to automate and optimize license compliance and IT spend. Avoid surprise billings and true-ups while optimizing application performance. WHY IS IT asset management important?Asset management makes it easy for businesses of all sizes across all industries to keep track of their assets, whether liquid or fixed. Employees will know where the assets are located, how they are being used, and whether there are changes made to them. This also is a massive boost to the check-in/check-out process.
What are the 3 main deliverables of IT asset management?ITSM: Managing the efficient delivery of IT services. Finance or Procurement: Managing IT acquisition and contracts. Operation: managing the maintenance / security / configuration of assets.
What skills should an IT asset manager have?Asset Manager Qualifications/Skills:. Strong analytical skills.. Highly skilled in math and finance.. Excellent communication skills.. Strong time-management skills.. Detail oriented and highly organized.. Skilled in negotiation and project management.. Excellent critical thinking skills.. |