5 Tips to Finding the Best IT Asset Tracking and Management Software
IT asset management, otherwise known as ITAM, is critical for your business as it covers the management of some of your company’s most valuable assets. And we don’t just mean valuable in terms of the item’s purchase price tag.
What is IT asset management or ITAM?
IT asset management is a set of business processes and practices that manage the inventory and lifecycle of an organisation’s IT assets and support strategic decision making.
What are IT assets?
IT assets include all IT related hardware and software within your business. Your IT assets can be either tangible or intangible. Tangible, or physical assets, are those which have a finite monetary value should the company choose to sell the asset. Tangible assets, therefore, include laptops, desktops, tablets, even USB sticks. Intangible assets, on the other hand, are assets that do not have a physical nature and include software, licences and even patents and copyright.
5 tips for choosing the best IT asset management software for your business
Fortunately, there are plenty of options when it comes to choosing the right IT asset management software for your company. With lots of choices available though, it’s essential to assess your options beforehand, so you find the perfect ITAM software for your requirements. To help you, have a read through our top 5 tips for choosing the perfect ITAM solution.
1. Consider why you want to implement an ITAM solution
As your business is unique, you will have your own pressures and reasons for rolling out an IT asset management system. Here are some of the most common causes.
Increased visibility
If you’re struggling to answer questions like “What software licences does the business use, and can we cut down on spend?” or “When do the company’s laptops need replacing?” Then IT asset management software is about to change your life. If you have a complete list of software licences, you can avoid unnecessary purchases and make the best use of current resources.
Increased accountability
It’s a common struggle for businesses to keep track of all their assets and who has them. With the right IT asset management system, you can have full visibility over where your assets are and who has them thanks to asset tracking using QR code tags and RFID tags.
Cost savings
When it comes to IT asset management, the recipe for wasting money is not knowing what the business owns and pays for. You know how it is, you’ve got a bunch of different departments all purchasing licences and solutions and no central responsibility for ensuring there isn’t any duplication, unnecessary spend or any opportunities to cut costs by merging licences or accounts. ITAM gives you the transparency and control you need to avoid unnecessary spend.
Eliminate waste
A lean business is a successful business. With so much technology, software and tools available to us now, we’re all trying to ensure our operations run with minimal waste. Your approach to IT asset management should be the same.
Compliance
Not only must your IT assets be handled effectively in terms of accounting and audits, but there is an additional need to monitor IT assets in particular due to the sensitive data held by this type of asset. In particular, to ensure your company is GDPR compliant, you must know what sensitive data is held by which asset and who has access to it.
2. Know your IT assets
Get to grips with what your IT asset management system needs to cover. It’s always worth discussing this with other key stakeholders, departments and management so that the solution you implement helps the wider business too – it’s a sure-fire way to increase the chance of a successful rollout.
Here are some suggestions for what to include:
- Identify tangible assets (e.g. computers)
- Identify intangible assets (e.g. software licences)
- Gather feedback on asset attributes to be logged
- Gather financial asset attributes, including value, purchase cost, replacement dates, warranties etc.
3. Choose a system that allows for growth
The size of your business now will dictate the budget you have for an ITAM solution, but you must ensure that the system you select also allows for affordable growth in the future. Some IT asset management software is charged by the number of assets logged, whereas others are priced according to the number of licences you need for staff to access the system. Either way, we would always recommend running the numbers to make sure that your predicted growth over the next five years does not make your solution unaffordable. After all, once you’ve chosen your solution and got the whole team on board, you don’t want to have to change it in the near future (if ever!)
4. Define your processes
Similar to knowing all assets a business needs to track, it’s vital you also uncover all the processes the company wants to be covered by this new system. Different systems provide different tracking and monitoring capabilities. We recommend that you purchase an IT asset management system that not only allows for quick and easy logging of assets to produce an IT asset register but one that provides flexible tracking of assets too. Not all assets will need to be tracked via the same method, so having options will help you get the most out of the software.
5. Schedule dedicated time to roll out the new system
From our experience working with clients across different industries, to ensure a successful rollout of a new ITAM system, it’s crucial to allow time for staff members to get used to the new processes and system and also to build in the necessary time for the logging of assets in the system and the tagging of assets if you are opting for a solution that includes asset tracking via QR codes or RFID.
Using itemit to Track Your IT Assets
itemit is a flexible, powerful and secure IT asset management solution, ideal for growing companies. itemit is comprised of a web portal, iOS and Android app to ensure your whole team have access to the data they need, whenever they need it.
Our impressive asset tracking app gives you the flexibility you need to track both tangible and intangible IT assets using one system. The intelligent itemit reporting functionality means you’ll always have the answers at the touch of a button.
Contact us today to find out more about how itemit can fulfil all your ITAM needs.
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