IT Asset Management (ITAM) and Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) have profound implications. Do them successfully and you will be ever aware of your IT and physical assets, from budget to current use. Do them incorrectly and you will have assets across your enterprise expire, fail, or become forgotten, creating costly issues.
It is clear that asset management can transform your enterprise, no matter your industry. But what is asset management and why is it worth considering?
What Exactly is IT Asset Management and What are Asset Management Tools?
Asset management (according to Wikipedia) “…refers to systematic approach to the governance and realization of value from the things that a group or entity is responsible for, over their whole life cycles. It may apply both to tangible assets and to intangible assets.”
In other words, IT asset management answers a few important questions, including: What assets are you out of? What do those assets cost? Are your warranties intact?
A comprehensive asset management tool will help keep track of and alert you of any issues with all of the above. An IT asset management tool will track software (software asset management, SAM), hardware, licensing compliance, and license expiration and will integrate with IT service management activities. The tool will mark the location of every asset and facilitate changes in location – be they physical or digital. An example of this is when a laptop is checked out to an employee who moves to another work location. Effective ITAM tools will also allow you to track delivery, repairs, and replacements of hardware.
Even more importantly, an ITAM tool with configuration management database (CMDB) tools define the relationship between assets in order to represent any IT service. The CMDB contains intangible assets, such as services (CIs), and links them to physical assets, such as hardware and software, making it essential in managing IT service delivery across all IT processes.
An effective asset management tool can pull financial information on every asset with the touch of a button to manage cost and charge back. An ITAM tool also provides greater visibility into asset utilization, maintenance, and overall cost. Overall, an asset management solution decreases administrative costs while improving service.
What are Enterprise Asset Management Solutions?
ITAM and EAM are similar in that they both manage important assets. While ITAM focuses on assets specific to technology, EAM involves the management of physical assets of an organization throughout each asset’s lifecycle. EAM can include assets like office furniture, vehicles, ships, machinery, financial assets, facility equipment, and other tools across the entire enterprise.
EAM is used to plan, optimize, execute, and track the purchase, maintenance, and use of each asset spanning across departments in the entire enterprise. This includes the design, construction, commissioning, operations, decommissioning, and replacement of assets.
Enterprise asset management solutions can be used in conjunction with an asset management software and cloud based IT service management software just like ITAM. Cloud based asset management solutions ensure that software asset management solutions can be accessible anywhere, which is especially helpful for a blended or remote workforce.
How Asset Management Solutions Transform the IT Department in Your Industry
Regardless of your industry or department, asset management solutions can help in a number of ways. From reducing waste to renewing expiring licenses, enterprise asset management solutions used with best practices can slash administrative costs by 30 percent, according to Gartner.
Below is a list of industries who may find IT and enterprise asset management solutions beneficial. It should be noted that this list is not exhaustive, and that asset management solutions can be beneficial in nearly any field.
Financial Industry
The financial industry has several different types of assets to manage, from monetary to software and equipment. Financial asset management solutions often refer to the management of monetary assets including investment portfolios, savings accounts, and other vested interests.
However, in the context of IT asset management and service asset and configuration management software, it is a little bit different. Those in the financial industry rely on important software that must remain in compliance with both local, federal, and international laws and regulations. Software asset management solutions can ensure that all economic assets, equipment and software in use both meets the needs of the staff and remains compliant with all regulations, including those relating to expiring licenses, deletion of personal data assets, and more.
An example of asset management in action in the financial industry comes in the form of online banking. If the bank’s licensing for the platform hosting their online banking site should lapse, thousands of customers could be without vital banking information which could lead to overdrafts or other major issues. However, an asset management solution would keep the online banking team aware of the expiring license and afford them the opportunity to renew licenses before it is too late.
Banks and other financial institutions must be sure that their IT assets are managed properly, which can be a time-consuming process. However, asset management solutions can reduce the risk of expiring licenses, compliance issues, and lost equipment.
Information Technology (IT) Industry
Information as an asset is beginning to take off. Ideas, information, and technology are arguably some of the most important assets in any given industry or enterprise, which is why proper IT asset management and best practices are so vital.
Financial management software can track and manage IT expenditures with ease. This will guide I&O leaders to understand how much is being spent on IT service delivery, software, and hardware assets. It will also help integrate these IT financial processes with other ITIL processes to ensure service and asset management are always taken into account.
Additionally, the EasyVista IT asset management software and CMDB (configuration management database) is the definitive trusted source for all IT information. Our configuration management database tools define the relationship between assets in order to represent any IT service.
The CMDB contains intangible assets, such as services, and links them to physical assets, such as hardware and software, making it essential in managing IT service delivery across all IT processes. Consequently, the CMDB allows service change and impact analysis, purchase management, stock management — and so much more.
With a CMDB that supports multiple data sources, you can accurately track the current state of all of your IT assets. You get fully integrated technical and financial data, such as location, service contract status, ownership, and logistical information.
IT asset management software and configuration management database tools will also ensure that IT teams remain in compliance. With version management, reconciliation, flexible software detection rules, monitoring during migrations, and multi-level tracking software, you can confidently identify gaps and quickly adapt to new contractual rules.
Education and Higher Education
Especially in the era of virtual classes, asset management is crucial. While the management of physical assets, like classroom equipment, is vital, the management of digital assets in education is key.
Tracking not only shared hardware, such as laptops and other computer equipment, but the software licensing for digital tools is pivotal in providing a positive classroom experience. With so many assets spread across various schools and even geographically large school districts, a lapse in a software license for something as simple as Microsoft Word could cause major issues. But, with an IT asset management solution, there is less risk of disruption from a broken, expiring, or missing asset.
In higher education, licenses for platforms to host online classes or digital gradebooks, as well as expensive projectors, computers, 3D printers, and sound systems can be tracked in an IT asset management tool.
Because thousands of students, both K-12 and at the university level, access and use several digital tools every day, an IT asset management solution is necessary to ensure that licensing is up-to-date and software is retired and replaced while taking into account the additional wear and tear to each piece of hardware. This can save the school district or university board thousands in administrative fees to track, trace, and replace these important items.
Healthcare Industry
In healthcare, keeping hardware and other major pieces of technology up to date can be a matter of life or death. An asset management solution can help ensure that not only are software licenses and contracts are renewed in a timely fashion for programs such as digital charting, but can ensure that major pieces of equipment, such as MRI machines, are serviced and maintained.
Asset management software can also ensure that contract renewals and budget preparation demands are met in relation to these assets. IT asset management software is a simple way to track hundreds of digital assets and thousands of pieces of vital equipment that may move between office locations or hospitals.
Asset management software is a solution that can take the stress of tracking these assets off of the administrative team, or in the case of a smaller office, the doctors and nurses, and frees up more time and energy to dedicate to helping patients.
Construction, Chemicals, and Energy Industries
Construction, chemicals, and energy all require expensive tools. How do you track vehicles or computer equipment across multiple jobsites? Enterprise asset management solutions.
The benefits of an enterprise asset management solution are the same as the others, including a reduction of costs and downtime. However, with construction, chemicals, and energy, there is also a need to track several assets across a large geographical location as well as software licensing for all computing equipment.
Asset management solutions can make it easier for IT teams to track these mobile assets across multiple jobsites. Additionally, rather than relying on the IT team to track these assets, a self-service portal can allow employees to log their assets locations, which takes pressure off of the overwork service desk and IT team. All of this results in cost-savings as well as reduction in loss of expensive assets.
Make the Most of Your Assets
You companies assets are only as good as their management system. Your growing industry needs scalable solutions in an omnichannel experience.
Manage the ITAM lifecycle of your software, hardware, licenses, and contracts using our IT asset management software and mature configuration management database, which integrates with most discovery tools. The foundational capabilities in EasyVista Service Manager include: Discovery and Dependency Mapping, Inventory Management, Software License Management, Contracts Management, and a lot more.
To learn more about how we can help your enterprise, get a personalized demo here.
