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IT Asset Management (ITAM) considers assets from “cradle to grave,” e.g., from planning through acquisition, discovery, optimization, management, and ultimately, disposal. From a best practices perspective, ITAM considers all the physical, financial, and contractual aspects of IT assets throughout their life cycles. The goals of a comprehensive ITAM program should be:
- To cost-effectively acquire the most appropriate IT assets for the organization with minimal risk and maximum benefit
- To maximize IT asset utilization
- To retire or re-purpose IT assets when they no longer provide benefit commensurate with the cost to maintain them
- To provide decision support mechanisms in support of specific internal and external requirements, e.g., mergers and acquisitions , audits, regulatory compliance, etc. Additionally, effective ITAM requires a balance of people, processes and tools. A team approach, with participation by Purchasing/Procurement, Contracts/Legal, IT, Business Units, Finance, and Asset Management, ensures this balance.
Potential ITAM Benefits
HARD BENEFITS are those that you can quantify in dollars saved. Most common examples are:
- Reduced IT spending because unused hardware and software products have been reassigned or eliminated
- Just-in-time licensing and maintenance payments
- Improved cash flow
- Paying only what you owe because you can reconcile invoices with asset management inventory, payment and contract data.
- Replacing multiple spreadsheets and databases with a centralized, accurate and up-to-date asset repository
SOFT BENEFITS are those that are measured in terms of time and labor costs saved improvements to processes, and the ability to perform activities that might otherwise be difficult or impossible. Soft benefits can significantly outstrip “hard” benefits. However, they are more difficult to quantify. Most common examples are:
- Reduced labor costs associated with time saved by accurate, consolidated asset reports
- Reduction in numbers of Service Desk personnel
- Better budgeting, buying and sourcing decisions, e.g. less time needed to consolidate data for decision-making
- Increased credibility with senior management based on comprehensive, cross-functional IT asset information
- Ability to capture and redeploy assets from personnel who have left the company
- Ability to implement IT standard configurations, thus leveraging suppliers and reducing internal and external support costs Automated procurement of assets
- Ability to justify IT service costs based on hard data
- Improved service management
COST AVOIDANCE This represents the opportunity costs, money that would have been spent if the ITAM program had not been in place. Most common examples are money saved when you:
- Harvest and reuse current IT assets instead of buying new ones
- Negotiate better volume agreements with your hardware and software suppliers
- Transfer software licenses (where contract rights allow) to new employees when others leave
- Stop leasing payments as soon as leases expire because you have accurate contract expiry information
- Do not overbuy software licenses or capacity just to be compliant in case of an audit
- Avoid supplier-driven software audit penalties
- Improve vendor management
RISK MITIGATION This represents reductions in organizational liability that could cost the organization considerably and hurt its reputation if the ITAM program had not been in place. Most common examples are:
- Software license compliance
- Reduction in liability due to business change
- Reduction in contractual liability
- Managed electronic software distribution
- Reduction in liability due to employees’ personal software being loaded on company systems
- Proper asset disposal in compliance with regulations
- Increased security
- Reduction in liability due to information management issues resolved with proper disposal processes
- Compliance with governmental regulations, such as Sarbanes-Oxley (See Section 3)
The Role of People, Processes and Tools in ITAM
PEOPLE A successful ITAM program requires senior management support. Also, there is no substitute for teamwork in any asset management initiative. The absence of a cohesive team drawn from these key functional areas — Purchasing and Procurement, IT, Legal and Contracts, the Business Units, Asset Management — is a major reason some asset management
programs fail to deliver the benefits expected. Political barriers, lack of interest, unclear goals and the absence of senior leadership support generally erode team-building efforts even before an asset management program is launched.
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