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Customised shortlist of IT asset management software that meets your requirements.

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Industry Case Studies

We'll find relevant ITAM software case studies matching your industry.

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See Product Images and Demo

You will see video demonstration or overviews of the software that are tailored to your needs.

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Implementation Timescales

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Buyer's Guide for ITAM Software

Buyer's guide

What is IT Asset Management (ITAM)?

In its simplest form, IT Asset Management is the process of creating an IT Asset Register for all of your IT Inventory. IT Inventory can consist of:

  • On-premise software tools
  • Cloud-based software apps
  • Computers
  • Desktops
  • Monitors
  • Smartphones
  • Telephones, routers and servers

From a data standpoint, an IT Asset Management software application will record all of your IT Inventory metadata; metadata is the data that identifies IT Assets. Some examples of metadata are:

  • Serial number
  • Software version
  • User name
  • Employee ID
  • Purchase date
  • Project allocation
  • Service allocation
  • Service Instance
  • Location

From a technical standpoint, IT Asset Management is a process of:

  • Discovering assets using agent or agent-less discovery options
  • Mapping end-points and software applications to location and users
  • Monitoring and safeguarding your LAN/WAN environments
  • Managing entitlements
  • Securing your network against unidentified cyber intrusion

From an IT Terminology standpoint, IT Asset Management involves:

  • Network Management
  • Systems Management
  • IT Security
  • Database Management
  • IT Help Desk
  • Application Management

Top 6 Problems Solved by ITAM Software

1. Helps to create your own rules to manage your IT Inventory.

With ITAM, you can create your own IT Assets and Inventory Register with metadata rules which are personalised and configured to your IT Inventory and your IT needs.

2. Provides clarity on location, status, usage and users of all your IT Assets.

3. Helps to safeguard your hardware and software inventory which reduces cyber risks.

4. Reduces total cost of ownership of your IT Inventory.

5. Tracks compliance adherence.

6. Provides data for audit management scenarios.

How can ITAM Software Help with IT Asset Management?

IT Asset Management is a process which changes and evolves with your IT needs. IT Asset Management Software helps you to define your ITAM process. Standardise it, and then evolve it with your IT needs.

It is important to note that your definitions of managing your own IT Inventory change rapidly. They depend on:

  • The number of on-premise vs cloud-based assets
  • Hardware like Desktops, Laptops, Smartphones, Servers… access to your employees
  • Projects and services that your company provides
  • Cyber risk of your company

If you have more than 50 employees, then keeping an accurate record of your IT inventory using spreadsheets often leads to missed renewal and entitlement opportunities. An IT Asset Management Software helps IT, Teams, to quickly know the location, status, usage and user of each of their IT Assets.

5 Standout Benefits of IT Asset Management Software

1. Provides Continuous and Accurate Discovery of Your IT Inventory

Very few IT Teams, have an accurate view of their IT Inventory on their Local Area Network (LAN). If you have offices in multiple locations, then you have multiple LAN’s, which compounds this problem.

One way to know all your IT Assets is to work with your procurement department. Get an export of all the IT Items purchased. The major problem with this approach is, most vendors do not provide network-identifiable details with their invoice.

So, developing an IT Asset Register using information from procurement can be challenging.

If you have more than fifty IT Assets, then using a spreadsheet becomes very challenging. It is important to note that the metadata about your IT Inventory changes frequently. For example:

  • Software versions change after updates
  • Patch details change
  • Employees leave so their data needs to be stored for their replacement
  • New joiners need to get their IT Inventory on time
  • Software patches can change metadata
  • Hardware renewals
  • Instance Server Changes

Knowing what you have on your network using a manual spreadsheet-based approach quite often slows down Enterprise IT Management. An ITAM Software with Asset Discovery capability helps IT Managers to continuously and accurately get an insight into their IT Inventory on their LAN network.

2. Provides On-demand and Data-Accurate IT Asset Register

What you have on your network is only one part of the equation. Who is using your IT Inventory? When was an IT Asset bought? Renewal Date. Are the IT Assets related to a project or a service or a department? These are important pieces of information that IT teams need to know.

IT Asset Management Software provides a flexible yet personalised framework for your business. For example:

  • ITAM tool provides clarity on hardware and software apps used by users, location and department
  • ITAM tool records license renewal dates by location, department or criticality
  • It can help you to tag your hardware inventory with barcodes, QR Codes or NFC’s so that you can keep track of your hardware inventory

3. Defining and Maintaining Dynamic Relationships Between IT Assets and Employees

Technically this is CMDB which stands for Configuration Management Database.

The fundamental idea behind using an IT Asset Management Software instead of a spreadsheet is that ITAM allows you to define and maintain dynamic relationships between your IT Assets, your workflows and your employees.

The word dynamic in the previous sentence is important and very deep. How you deal with IT Inventory for C-Level Employees, Managers and Associates are different. You need a different configuration for each of these types of employees.

Your support team may require two monitors but your sales team may require only one. Your remote employees may require VPN or Cloud-based access to store data on your server.

All of the above changes every six months, if not every three, because your business changes every quarter. ITAM tool offers to define and maintain the changes in your IT Ecosystem without losing historic information.

4. Reducing Costs of IT Ecosystem by Reporting on Key IT Performance Indicators.

Once you know the users and usage of your software and hardware inventory, it is then easy to optimise the costs of your IT Ecosystem. For example, you can combine renewals of your software licenses and get volume-driven discounts from vendors.

You can be very proactive with your procurement activities: you can review alternative products and services well before your current IT Assets come up for renewal.

You can reduce the number of software licenses needed just by knowing your usage levels.

If your IT Asset Management Software is implemented correctly, you should be able to see a reduction of 10% to 30% of your IT costs.

5. Compliance and Audit Management.

Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, Adobe and almost all medium-to-large software vendors routinely audit the license conditions of their software usage. Using network-based monitoring tools, software companies can get an idea of how their licenses are used.

IT teams, therefore, need to know who is using their software licenses and how. ITAM tools offer a clear view of software licences by usage and users, which allows IT Teams to be aware of the compliance adherence with their contractual agreements.

During audit-related situations, an ITAM tool offers invaluable data on usage, giving you more confidence.

ITAM tools have been known to eliminate non-compliance and neutralise audit situations effectively.

9 Ways to Identify the Best ITAM Software For Your IT Needs

Identifying the best IT Asset Management Software for your requirements is a complex and time-consuming process. We have prepared a 9 point framework which will allow you to pick the best ITAM tool for your business.

1. Do you Need IT Asset Management Software?

Sometimes a spreadsheet is a better solution, especially if you are a team of under ten people with fewer than seventy-five IT Assets. In this case, a spreadsheet-based IT Asset Register is practical and value-effective.

For IT Teams who manage more than 250 IT Assets, an ITAM solution is a part of the solution, not the solution itself.

There are 4 components for effective IT Management:

1. Clarity on what you mean by IT Asset Management

2. The targets you want to achieve with your IT Asset Management Solution

3. Your IT Inventory management processes and workflows

4. Adoption of the tool by your IT Team and Employees

It is very common to see an ITAM tool as the complete solution for current IT problems and a focus on features and capabilities of ITAM products. However, an IT tool will just automate your processes using your data. If your data and processes are not optimised for your IT needs, then it will be just another tool that collects data.

So, do you need an IT Asset Management solution to automate correct data and good processes or are you finding good data and processes in an ITAM tool?

If the first option is relevant for you, then you’re ready to shortlist and compare IT Asset Management software. Use this search assistant to find your best ITAM solution.

If you are looking for the second option, then just choosing an ITAM tool is not the answer. Please review the topics below to find the best IT Asset Management tool.

2. Identify and Clarify the Level of Your Organisational Readiness to Adopt an IT Asset Management Solution

Most IT Teams considering a new ITAM tool either use:

  • Spreadsheets
  • A simple IT Inventory discovery tool
  • Are looking for alternatives to their existing software

87% of the companies (analysed based on 641 leads on Comparesoft) looking for a new ITAM software solution typically migrate from spreadsheets. Moving away from spreadsheets is not just a tool change; it requires a change in mindset and perspective too.

The way you record IT Inventory in a spreadsheet is very different from a contemporary IT tool. For example, you no longer have to export data from your network discovery tool or enter that data in a spreadsheet. The best IT asset management software integrates with an agent or agent-less discovery tools, and imports the relevant metadata efficiently.

Version and access control on spreadsheets provide significant flexibility. But when it comes to “standardised information entry” and looking for “one source of truth”, a spreadsheet-based approach can be very challenging.

So most companies don’t get to standardisation or one source of truth with spreadsheets. If this is your organisation’s current situation, the first question to ask would be whether your organisation is ready for a single tool that gives you an accurate view of your IT Inventory.

3. Setting Targets for Your IT Asset Management Software

Your decision to invest in an IT Asset Management tool is a decision to invest cash and time. So whilst the focus should be:

  • Better IT Inventory Management
  • An accurate IT Asset Register
  • A secured IT Network
  • On-demand visibility of IT usage by users amongst other qualitative parameters

Below is a basic example of the targets you should set for your ITAM tool.

IT InventoryQuantityCurrent IT Spend per yearNew IT Spend with ITAM per year
Monitors500£100,000£90,000
Desktops430£301,000£270,900
Software Licenses350£126,000£100,800
Servers90£13,500£12,150
Total1370£540,500£473,850
 

4. Identify the IT Data (Metadata) That You Would Like to Hold in Your IT Asset Management Software

You can create a single source of truth if you agree on the details you want to collect on data. It is worth noting that your IT Inventory will not have consistent data. Every manufacturer records the information differently, so most IT Teams end up relying on good old Serial Numbers for core identification.

Identifying the information (technically known as metadata) you want to hold by IT Inventory type is a detailed exercise. This may sometimes require mapping the fields between your asset discovery tool and your ITAM tool.

In some cases, agreeing on the information you want to collect may clarify the issues you are having with your existing ITAM tool.

If you are considering utilising help desk features, agreeing on the incident types, knowledge-base, incident routing and escalation is highly recommended.

Take an employee’s view to create their IT help desk. You know they are not as IT literate as you. We have seen incident types with thirty drop-down options. If your drop-down options are not concise it’s not easy to use and adoption of your service desk will be compromised. Employees may revert back to emailing IT teams.

Carefully review and inspect data from your existing spreadsheet or systems. Quite often when you are looking to implement IT asset management software, you need major workflow changes but minor changes to the way you capture and label your metadata.

As you are considering a new ITAM tool, you may also want to review the terminologies and labels you have been using within your IT team and systems, terminologies like:

  • Inventory or Stock
  • Disk Space or Storage
  • Cloud- or Web-based
  • On-premise or Installed
  • Monitors or Screens
  • Entitlements or allocations, are some examples of duplicated terminologies

Keep the terminologies simple so that everybody in the team, from a new starter to an experienced employee, can understand them. Standardised simple terminologies compound IT effectiveness.

The time you spend here generally pays multiple dividends in the quality of your ITAM system and also savings during implementation.

5. ITAM and Cybersecurity

Having effective IT Asset Management software increases the chances of a more secure and less fragile IT network, which reduces cyber risk.

The fundamental concept is that with an ITAM tool you will know how many IT Assets you have, their status, location and users. Using this information, you can:

  • Identify most valuable and vulnerable assets
  • Identify users who may require cybersecurity training
  • Always keep your network patched
  • Use information to identify patterns between users and usage which will help you to ring-fence your IT Infrastructure

All of the above will help you to reduce cyber intrusion.

6. What to Look for, in ITAM Tools

The IT tool you have chosen should be one that’s been adopted in your industry and it should have the features you are after. This will ensure your organisation benefits from your choice and gets the best ITAM tool.

The industry fit is more important than most people think. Every industry is different. And every business is different. However, the degree of similarities between the two businesses within the same industry is high. I guess this is a fancy way of saying Audi and BMW are similar yet different!

Choosing an ITAM tool that is widely adopted in your industry has two main benefits:

1. The product is already used in your industry so there is market validation that the terminologies of your industry can be easily used in the product.

2. Every business is different. But within the same industry, the degree of difference is not very high, so the configuration of your IT asset management software will be faster in a tool that is adopted by your industry.

Most tools have similar features and capabilities. It is very difficult to distinguish between tools based solely on features and capabilities without looking at a product demo.

The key differentiating factor is the depth of the features. They can be found by knowing how/why a particular tool was built. There are ITAM tools which were built from the ground-up to manage software assets. Some tools were built for hardware inventory management. Some prioritised help desk. And some were built for agent-less or agent-based discovery. It is advantageous to prioritise your requirements first, and then choose a tool based on your priorities. You can use this tool to clarify and outline your requirements.

The big differentiating factor is user interface and how easy it is to use, but this aspect is very subjective. Some people like a clean, modern and minimalist approach to user interfaces.

Others prefer all information on one page with minimum clicks. Some prefer long interfaces and others prefer short A4-page-type interfaces.

The only way to understand this attribute is to take a look at the product images and product videos.

This also links back to the industry adoption point. Users in the same industry tend to have a similar user interface and product experience preferences.

7. Why Free Trials are More Important Than Demos

It is quite tempting to start with a free trial. We see a lot of buyers jump at free trials of ITAM products, even before they are clear about what they want and what they want to see. Free trials at the start of your consideration cycle should be used to gauge user experience and product experience.

After you have shortlisted the best ITAM tools, free trials should be carried out with your data so that you can get a better perspective of the tool and minimise the risk of choosing the wrong one.

We also recommend that you ask your colleagues and users to take free trials of the product so that you can gauge how well the system can be adopted.

8. Implementation and Adoption of Your IT Asset Management Tool

66% cost overrun, 33% schedule overrun and 13% shortfall on benefits. These are the average stats for a typical IT implementation, as per a study administered by McKinsey and Oxford.

Most IT Asset Management tools deliver about 10-to-15% in cost and efficiency savings. If the average shortfall is 17% then there’s a real risk that your chosen ITAM tool can do more damage than cure.

Implementation and adoption of an IT Asset Management tool needs a clear road-map before you buy the tool. Your implementation and adoption roadmap should be clear. It should have buy-in from your peers and senior management, as well as your chosen software vendor.

Lack of clarity and focus remain the number one reason for project failures, so we highly recommend that you drive clarity on your implementation and adoption road-map.

9. Making a Decision – Emotions, Logic and Competency.

Whilst a decision to buy the tool will be emotional because it is largely based on the people who represent the vendors, we suggest scoring the logic used to make your decision and the competency of your product in a quantitative way.

Product AProduct BProduct C
User Interface8/107/109/10
Product Experience with your data6/105/106/10
Industry Fit20 customers27 customers16 customers
Discovery Capabilities7/105/106/10
Total Cost£100 per user£120 per user£180 per user

IT Asset Management Knowledge and Technical Guides

7 IT Asset Management Software Features to Lookout For
17th Dec 2019

An ITAMS is packed full of valuable features that help businesses to utilise the management of key IT assets in the workplace. But, what ones do you need? We’ve highlighted 7 essential features that any business handling IT hardware, software, and cloud subscriptions will need.

Read More
4 Key IT Asset Management Tools for Managing IT Assets
22nd Oct 2019

In a business full of IT equipment, the thought of managing and tracking IT assets can be overwhelming. Not only does an ITAM solution ease this process, but t also assigns each asset into 4 manageable groups. From software to mobile devices, discover the benefits of what an IT Asset Management tool can offer each group.

Read More
Why Network Security and IT Asset Management are Interlinked
6th Nov 2017

In 2016, 50% of UK businesses experienced a form of cyber attack. What most of us don’t know is that IT asset management software can actually play a critical role in enhancing security to protect against this. In this article, discover what measures an ITAM solution can take to keep your data secure.

Read More
A guide to managing your IT Inventory
27th Jul 2019

Visibility, transparency, awareness, clarity, and forecasting. These are all the characteristics of an IT administrator who successfully manages IT inventory with an ITAM solution. In this guide, discover the best practices to effectively track and manage your own business’s IT equipment.

Read More
The Real Difference Between ITAM and ITSM
23rd Oct 2017

ITAM and ITSM are two IT management disciplines that help to maximise IT resources and achieve optimal IT-business alignment. But, while their acronyms may only differ by two letters, they do have significant differences.

Read More
Map IT Assets on your network
21st Sep 2019

In this article, you'll learn and understand multiple new ways of creating a network map based on your IT hardware assets. In addition, we’ll discuss its importance in data governance and its usage by your employees.

Read More
Just How Important is an IT Asset Manager in an ITAM System?
15th Jan 2020

An IT asset manager is responsible for a number of key things in the workplace including the strategic management of IT hardware and software and the implementation of IT asset management software. Get to know why they are so crucial in an IT-centric organisation and how they help to improve efficiency and increase productivity.

Read More
Best Practices to Assign IT Assets to Employees
14th Sep 2019

Discover some of the best practices and skill for assigning your IT assets to employees such as understanding the basic principles of assigning IT assets, establishing a process for assigning assets, automating the asset assignment process, and Integrating between ITAM and HR systems.

Read More
Why Good Spreadsheets Make Bad IT Asset Management Strategies
24th May 2018

Learn the key differences between spreadsheets and an IT Asset Management System, and which is best to manage your Inventory of IT Assets.

Read More
Fundamental Differences Between Open Source and Proprietary IT Asset Management Software
31st Jan 2018

Understand the key differences between Proprietary and Open Source IT Asset Management Software while covering areas like support, deployment, costs and daily usage.

Read More
Why IT Asset and Service Management are vital to building the digital culture of your organisation
4th Sep 2017

Insightful view backed by commercial examples on why ITAM and ITSM are vital for building the digital culture of your organisation.

Read More

Faq’s

Frequently Asked Questions

Q A

How to Find the Best IT Asset Management Software?

It depends on what you mean by best ITAM Software. Just like for some people iOS is best rather than an Android system. Or for some people, a cloud-based system is best suited than an on-premise system. The term ‘Best’ is subjective and is defined by your requirements.

We recommend to define your IT Asset Management System requirements and then find the best tool that matches your requirements. Rather than finding the best ITAM tool based on other people’s reviews.

Typically, an IT Asset Management System stays in the business for 3 to 5 years so taking the time to define your requirements and buying a tool which is right for you generally pays more dividends than buying a tool based on what other people think.

Q A

What are the Typical Costs of an IT Asset Management Software?

ITAM tools start from £0.23 per month per device (or $0.30 per month per device) to £900 per user per month.

There are some really good tools available at £75 to £100 per user per month. Use our search assistant to define your requirements and find the tools that match your budget.

The implementation and support costs vary based on the type of the product (On-Premise or Cloud-based), your requirements and configuration needs of the system.

Q A

Why do Most IT Teams Use an IT Asset Management Tool?

The top three reasons for using IT asset management tools are:

To know the location, status, user and condition of their IT Assets

To optimise costs by tracking use of IT Assets

To be compliant and cyber-safe by effectively guarding enterprise IT Assets

Q A

What Type of Hardware can You Manage with an IT Asset Management Tool?

Most businesses manage hardware of the workforce. i.e. Computers, Monitors, Desktops, Phones, Routers and Switches. If you are a data centre, an MSP or deep tech hardware company then specialist IT Asset Management Tools can be used to manage server, routers, virtual environments, cloud databases, server instances, elastic load balancers and many other technical hardware.

Q A

What is the Difference Between IT Asset Tracking and IT Asset Management?

IT Asset Tracking is used to track the location of physical IT Hardware only, such as desktops, workstations, monitors and phone Systems. Quite often barcode and RFID technology is used for IT Asset Tracking.

Whereas, IT Asset Management is the management of both hardware and software assets. This includes the usage of software applications, license renewals of software contracts, IT inventory management, and employee onboarding.

Q A

Can IT Asset Management be Done with Spreadsheets?

Yes, spreadsheets can help significantly to manage your IT Assets if the information about your IT Assets is static or does not change often. Spreadsheets are also useful if there is just one person entering the information on it.

If the information about your IT Assets is dynamic. And if you have more than one person entering the data. Then the likelihood of errors and hence the mismanagement of your IT Assets due to spreadsheets is significantly higher.

Q A

Can I Monitor Business Software with an ITAM System?

An effective ITAM solution can monitor a variety of IT assets in the workplace, including business software. Software assets in an IT environment can include selected computer programmes and operational information used in IT systems.

Implementing an ITAM solution to monitor business software can be very advantageous for a company. Firstly, it can continuously check for automated software updates to improve the safety of data. An application can also store and keep the data and information of all IT assets in one centralised system, that can be accessed by anyone at any time.

Managing assets in the form of software are just one group that ITAM can be responsible for. Other asset groups include hardware, mobile and tablet devices, and cloud services.

Q A

Should I invest in Cloud ITAM over an On-Premise Solution?

Choosing whether or not to invest in cloud ITAM can generally come down to the size of the company. For example, if you have a business of more than 50 employees and an IT infrastructure spread across multiple sites and location, managing IT assets without a cloud-based application can be very ineffective.

Not only can data be easily accessed by employees across the workplace, but a cloud-based ITAM application can also offer the same data and information to employees in the field. This is possible with a mobile device, such as a tablet/mobile or laptop, and a network connection.

There are many benefits and various to consider between a cloud and on-premise solution, so it is key to fully understand which one best suits your business type. For example, If you're part of a growing business that constantly increases data capacity, then a cloud solution would be best. This is because it offers more freedom and flexibility than a static on-premise system, which could also be an expensive upfront cost for increasing data capacity.

Q A

What is the difference between IT Asset Management and IT Inventory Management?

IT Inventory Management is quite often related to management of hardware assets. The term inventory is related with items that are held in a warehouse for sales or consumption. Also the term inventory is closely related to stock. Hence IT Inventory Management is the management of IT Hardware which is scheduled for sales or consumption.

For example; Management of Laptops, Desktops, PC’s, Monitors, Switches and Routers held in a company or used by employees of a company are examples of IT Inventory Management.

IT Inventory moving around or in and out of an office (or a warehouse) is also an example of IT Inventory management.

IT Asset Management is related to management of hardware assets, software assets and the processes between IT and Employees. So, IT Inventory Management is a subset of IT Asset Management.

Understanding software usage by users, Onboarding and offboarding employees, managing license renewals, tagging IT Inventory are some of the examples of IT Asset Management.

From a database standpoint, IT Inventory Management mainly creates an IT Asset Register of hardware assets whereas IT Asset Management creates an IT Asset Register of hardware assets, software assets and users.

Quite often an asset tracking software is used in place of IT Inventory Management software. Particularly if the requirements involve tagging and scanning IT Hardware.

Q A

What is the difference between IT Asset Management and IT Asset Discovery?

IT Asset Discovery is identifying assets on a Local Area Network (LAN) or a Wide Area Network (WAN). IT or Network managers need to continuously know hardware and software assets that are connected to their network. The fundamental reason to know assets on a network is to maintain an accurate IT asset register. And to understand if each end-point (asset) on the network is compliant with the network conditions.

Interlinked with IT Asset Discovery is IT Network Monitoring, there are two ways to monitor a network – agent and agentless.

So in effect, IT Asset Discovery relates to knowing what assets a company has on its own network. There are specialist discovery tools which are designed to scan local and virtual networks to fully understand the scope of assets on a network.

IT Asset Management is a wider enterprise IT practise involving Asset Discovery, Ghost Asset Management, Network Security, IT Asset Register and Employee-IT Workflows.

Q A

Should I consider Open Source IT Asset Management Software for my IT Management requirements?

Definitely yes. Snipe IT is one of the most popular open source tool available in the market. There are a few other tools too but Snipe IT seems to be the most widely used tool.

Whilst open source is definitely a good option, you may want to be aware that working with an open source software quite often requires more technical knowledge than working with a proprietary license software. The question of technical knowledge has two components:

1) The technical knowledge of the person who is going to use an open source IT asset management software.

2) The technical knowledge of the team which is responsible enterprise IT inventory. The support, customisations and configurations required to manage enterprise IT assets quite often require team level technical knowledge.

Given that IT Asset Management is heavily interlinked with employee productivity, employee onboarding, network security and IT cost optimisation. It is best to choose a license type that suits your team.

Open source IT asset management software can be one of the most cost effective ways to move from spreadsheet based IT asset tracking. Having said that, there are licensed and fully supported proprietary tools available from £16 per month.

Q A

Can ITAMS be used to track my hardware and software IT assets?

A primary feature of modern ITAMS is to be able to track both your hardware and software IT (Information Technology) assets. Eventually leading to the accurate creation of a centralised IT asset register. In fact, there are a number of benefits to being able to track your most valuable IT assets, including:

  • Reduce the risk of loss and theft of costly IT equipment

  • To track the usage and efficiency of assets throughout the workplace

  • Reduce downtime of hardware through scheduled maintenance and services

  • Improve the accuracy of your IT inventory

  • Reduce downtime of software through patch and security updates

  • Reduce the risk of non-compliance and license expiration

An ITAM tool will not only monitor the physical form of your equipment, but it will also track the complete lifecycle of all IT assets; software, digital and hardware. This includes collecting data from planing for and acquiring an asset, to maintaining it, to eventually disposing of it.

The data received throughout this process, usually in the form of IoT devices such as Barcodes and RFID tags, will help towards the procurement and maintenance of future assets. In a bid to cut costs from your bottom line and ensure the reliability of your IT equipment. This data includes:

  • Total equipment usage

  • Maintenance and repairs

  • Current condition

  • Estimated total ROI

The use of barcodes, GPS trackers, RFID tags and Bluetooth receivers are great for tracking your physical IT hardware. But there are also other tools, alongside an ITAMS, that help to manage the usage of both software and digital assets, too.

Q A

I have chosen an ITAM product - how long will deployment take?

Once you’ve shortlisted the right ITAMS for your operations, now is the time to deploy it. But, keep in mind, deployment of software throughout the entire workplace can vary in length based on a number of factors.

Here are four factors that you should consider when thinking about deploying your new ITAM tool:

1. The type of software

If you’ve chosen an ITAMS that is a SaaS, cloud based, or web based model, you’ll usually be able to access the tool as soon as the purchase has gone through. But, if you’ve opted for an on-premise solution, be aware that the setup and deployment will take much longer. On average, the time it takes to get all the infrastructure in place can take anywhere from six months to two years.

2. The amount of data migration

Once you’re able to log into your new system, you’ll want to migrate over all of your existing IT asset data. Depending on the amount of data stored between you and your team, this could be a lengthy process. Some vendors provide help with this to speed up the process. But, be aware that this could incur hidden fees.

3. Integrating with other systems

In order for you and your team to achieve an efficient and smooth workflow, all systems need to be aligned. Whether that be programs such as email, calendars, file-hosting or data storage, you’ll need them all connected to your company’s new ITAMS.

4. The time it takes to train your team

Although you’ve purchased a tool that will eventually improve your IT asset management process, everyone who has access to the tool will need to be trained. Training could be offered by your vendor in forms of on-site training, webinars or online videos. If you’ve chosen a tool that is easy-to-use and has a familiar UI, then training may only take a few weeks.