IT asset management is indispensable for every enterprise. Many organizations still track and manage their assets by recording them manually. But for organizations, particularly the larger ones, IT asset management should hold great importance.
As enterprises grow, they need to carry operations on a wider range, so they need software to manage their assets. Moreover, the asset management system market is expected to increase by more than 27 million by 2025, which complements the growing demand for methods to handle assets appropriately.
Most
industries have realized that asset management is crucial for optimal
performance, greater efficiency, and reduced downtime. IT asset management adds
excellent value to the assets and maintains and secures them. Organizations
have started implementing automated IT asset management systems for better
optimization since it ensures smooth workflow and beneficial business
outcomes.
Coming up next here is what IT asset management is and why automated IT asset management should be a preferred choice for organizations.
What is IT Asset Management?
IT
asset management refers to business practices that aim to amplify an IT asset’s
value in an organization by associating contractual, financial, and inventory
data and tracking the IT assets throughout their lifecycle. In simple words, IT
asset management ensures that the IT assets of the organization are recorded,
deployed, maintained, upgraded, and disposed of.
An IT asset can be anything that classifies as hardware, I.e., a physical computing system, software, or network asset that organizations own or possess licenses. The descriptive inventory of IT assets helps businesses make informed decisions concerning their IT purchases and redistribution. In addition to this, an IT asset has a finite life, so a business should get the best out of it by pre-emptively managing its lifecycle.
5 Ways Automation is Transforming IT Asset
Management:
For better insights, we will understand all
these aspects of automated IT asset management with an example of a bank.
Automated Asset Discovery
Companies can store all the asset information on an automated asset discovery system’s database and use it to take business decisions related to purchase or redistribution. Without an IT asset management tool at work, an IT operations team will have to record every detail about a new asset manually – imagine the number of new assets the organization purchases and continues to record!
For example, the bank keeps hiring new
employees periodically, so purchasing new or allocating existing IT assets to
the new employees and manually entering details every time someone new comes on
board becomes a hassle. A good IT asset management software will automatically
discover the IT assets through agent discovery whenever a new asset connects to
the Wi-Fi. This saves a lot of time, resulting in the IT team focusing on the
tasks that matter the most.
Asset Utilization
An IT asset management software helps
businesses know about the assets they own, their placement, configuration,
cost, the value they deliver, and utility. You can know every detail related to
the asset and create interconnections. For example, a bank employee committed
online fraud, which led to huge losses. An IT asset management software can
help track the IT asset at the device and user levels. The bank can find out
the exact device, the respective user that logged in at the time of the fraud,
the exact time when the fraud occurred, and more with an automated IT asset
management tool.
Higher
Efficiency & Asset Performance
An automated asset management software gives a complete knowledge of the performance of assets, which helps you stay ahead of your asset life cycle and manage maintenance or replacements proactively. Knowing the asset’s condition in advance can avoid unnecessary spending and repetitive purchase or replacement costs. For every asset, organizations can get analytics that helps them track and enhance asset performance.
Moreover,
organizations can also reduce downtime and improve employee efficiency using
workflow automation. For example, a bank measures its employees' productivity
by tracking their productivity software through the IT asset management system.
So, if any of their employees are less than 70% productive in a day, the
workflow automation directly alerts the support technician.
Meet with Compliances
Asset management software can let organizations set up reminders of when the asset lifecycle will end or when a software license expires. This ensures meeting essential compliances and avoiding any troubles. Banks that do not have IT asset management software are at higher risk of noncompliance with regulations, license agreements, and security breaches.
Customer data is paramount in a
bank, so keeping up with the compliances is crucial. With good asset management
software, banks can get alerts when their software license or subscription
expires; thus, they can avoid any penalty.
Track Down Misplaced or Lost Assets
When organizations cannot find their lost or misplaced IT assets, they need to buy new ones, which leads to additional expenditure. Operationally-matured organizations like banks cannot maintain their asset record in spreadsheets, it's practically impossible and unreliable. For example, a bank manager's laptop is missing. Now with the software, you can identify who checked out of the asset last and get a detailed automated report entailing all the relevant asset information. The bank can also assign user roles and control access to the asset.
Automated IT Asset Management Software is Your Ultimate Solution!
These were just a few; there are many ways in which automation reinvents IT asset management. If an organization has IT assets, IT asset management is the way out to better workflow, higher efficiency, and lower downtime.
From taking charge in advance before the hardware fails, upgrading the product releases, and tracking inventory to compliance with software licenses, an automated IT asset management tool will work well to do everything that increases work efficiency.
Ultimately, your IT support agents, who usually handle software or hardware concerns, can take other priority tasks on hand!