Business growth and IT growth are very closely connected. If your business is doing well, more employees will be hired and more computer hardware, more licenses, more software systems, and bigger networks are needed. You will have to keep in mind what assets are used, how often, where, by whom, and whether updates and maintenance are up-to-date and licenses not exceeded.
It is a time-consuming process and prone to human error - if you don’t have efficient IT assets management software in place. ITAM software is here to help you to simplify these processes on a unified platform and to make sure that your IT investment returns are maximized.
What is IT asset management (ITAM)?
IT asset management is the continuous process of categorizing, tracking, maintaining, deploying, and monitoring an organization’s technology assets. With ITAM, the asset’s lifecycle can be proactively managed, and the total cost of ownership monitored. The role of ITAM is to bring out maximum value from IT investments and to monitor compliance with licensing agreements, thus saving company money by avoiding penalties.
It goes beyond inventory tracking, as ITAM allows you to specify technical parameters such as disc space, processor speed, and IP address. Apart from recording assets details, KPIs will provide you with metrics needed for planning and budgeting. Good asset management software will also integrate other modules such as purchasing, documents or checklists.
What is an IT asset?
An IT asset is defined as any company-owned information (treated as an entity), subscription-based software, license, system, or hardware used in business activities across all company departments and units.
What is the role of an IT asset manager?
An IT asset manager manages the organization’s IT assets throughout their life cycle. The IT asset manager will set and follow the company’s purchasing procedures and typically liaise with the finance department to report on asset purchases. The assets manager keeps the business assets inventory up-to-date, monitors budgets and subscriptions, and helps the organization to make the best use of existing IT asset resources. The asset manager will have a deep understanding of the value of all the IT technology assets that your organization owns.
Why is ITAM important in your IT company?
Every company needs to keep track of its assets. Good ITAM will help you reduce waste, optimize assets usage, maximize returns, and minimize risk. Using ITAM will significantly increase the visibility of the organization’s assets and the speed and quality of IT assets’ deployment. You will be able to assess third parties' software installations, analyze usage data, and gain insight into what assets are used and to what extent.
All this information will help you to plan and allocate budgets. In addition to that, knowing which IT assets need upgrading or replacing will increase the level of performance and can retain tech-savvy employees and attract new talents.
Other benefits of integrating ITAM in your business include:
Central data repository of all your company assets
ITAM allows you to consolidate your assets’ inventory, assets’ owners, assignees, and asset events in one place. A centralized assets data repository allows for better information sharing and communication between involved departments. Ideally, purchasing and asset management will be integrated.
Clear record of company assets
Whether a tangible or intangible asset, recording all aspects of asset management from the acquisition to disposal provides clarity, transparency and assures policies compliance. You can record cost, asset type, model, serial number, asset kit, purchase orders, acquisition, track assets movements, assign them to employees and more.
Staying organized with all assets
Stay organized as you categorize assets and add labels, tags, warnings, and notes to alert you about license renewals, service agreements and warranty expiration dates.
Eliminating waste by avoiding unnecessary asset purchases
Comprehensive insight into all assets inventory will eliminate waste as you can move assets easily and therefore avoid unnecessary purchases. You will be able to see the financial impact of each asset’s replacement or upgrades on the company and will gain an extensive understanding of IT’s business value.
Providing faster technical support
An IT helpdesk linked to asset management software can provide faster technical support as basic information about the asset is available such as previous issues, maintenance logs, service contracts, location, purchase date, and more.
Having life cycle of IT assets under control
ITAM software allows you to control the life cycle of assets from acquisition to integration and maintenance/upgrade to retirement.
Save time
Tracking assets with an asset management system can save you time. Having a mobile application on hand means you can get immediate response 24/7 about any asset in your company and react quickly if any fixes need to be made.
Manage your IT assets with Vault ERP
Using Vault, you can gain a comprehensive insight into KPIs with graphic data showing assets by warranty, type, by store versus in use and asset status. Navigation through Vault ERP’s Assets Module is user-friendly and fast. With a few clicks, you can access tools to categorize assets, move and transfer them in and out, log their maintenance and inspection, record technical parameters, add notes and reminders, highlight important dates, print labels, dispose of them, or export reports in PDF or Excel format.
Custom fields allow you to add information in as much detail as you want. Enabling the Documents and Checklists Modules makes the asset management process even more efficient. For example, creating a comprehensive checklist for IT assets’ safe disposal by taking data security and environmental policies into consideration can prevent major security breaches or financial penalties. Assign a task to employees, monitor their completion and if you want, you can track time against checklist tasks too. Your entire assets database, no matter how large, is securely stored in one place, well organized, and accessible from anywhere.
Get in touch and schedule your demo today.
