The Importance of IT Asset Management

IT Assets can be some of the most expensive assets your company owns and having no visibility over them can have costly effects detrimental to the daily operations of your business. IT Asset Management simply means managing your IT Assets but by using powerful and smart software to do so, and no, we aren’t talking about the likes of a spreadsheet… Although they are easy to use, technology has come a long way since then! 

To explain in better detail, IT Asset Management is a process used to ensure your business’s assets are maintained, used, accounted for and disposed of when no longer required. It’s a super-easy way to make sure all of your tangible and intangible assets are monitored and used efficiently. 

You may be confused on whether IT assets include hardware or software or both? Well, IT assets do include both! 

• Software: Programs and other operating systems purchased or leased by your company. This could include a bookings system your business uses daily, or even a graphic design programme used to create your marketing graphics. Although you may wonder why you’d consider tracking software as it’s not a tangible asset, there are many good reasons! For instance, a lot of software is leased on a subscription basis and may run out each year, by tracking software you will be able to keep an eye on your renewal dates without it impacting your usage. 

• Hardware: IT Hardware is usually considered to be any component of a computer or digital item. Examples of IT hardware are: Computers, keyboards, a mouse, printers, USB sticks the list extends quite far. Hardware is a more obvious asset to track since it’s tangible and can more easily become lost. It’s also evident tangible assets can be moved around between many more locations, require greater maintenance and have shorter life spans than non-tangible assets which highlight a real need to track hardware within any business that wants to save both money and time. 

itemit’s asset tracking software can be utilised to manage your IT Assets. As you may already know itemit has many useful and smart features, but the question is which are the best to use for IT asset management? Let’s have a look at those features and how they can aid in your IT asset management journey.

Two of itemit’s main features and most important are the asset register and asset tags. The asset register logs all of the assets that your business owns and identifies who is responsible for those assets. Whilst asset tags can be QR or RFID and aid in identifying your assets and displaying their profile. 

An asset register will help you manage your IT assets through its ability to give instant visibility and an overview of all the IT assets you own. From the asset register, you will be able to see who is responsible for each asset which will instantly improve accountability and minimise the chance of a lost asset, particularly hardware that can easily go walkabouts! Not only this but the asset profiles displayed within the register can contain as much data about each asset as you like. It even allows attachments so you can upload warranties for hardware, or licence agreements for software! It’s the ultimate place to store important information. 

Asset tags are a great addition to hardware in particular, through using itemit’s QR asset tags you can attach them to an asset profile which means each time the tag is scanned, the profile will open. This means it’s easy to find out important information about an IT asset at the click of a button! Saving time and making your operations more efficient. Alongside this super useful feature, each time a tag is scanned the last seen location will update using GPS, this is a great tool for knowing the whereabouts of your IT assets and can once more decrease the chance of a lost asset.

Both reminders and issues are added benefits of using itemit’s asset tracking software. Reminders allow you to schedule important dates, this may be maintenance for your hardware or even regular PAT testing. Having the ability to never miss an important maintenance date again will lengthen your hardware’s lifespan, lessen the chance of broken hardware going unnoticed and maximise your return on investment. Reminders are also the perfect solution to remembering your software renewal dates and licence end dates. Reminders all in all allows you to have streamlined organisation over your IT assets.

The issues reporting function allows users to report problems with their hardware and then gives the ability to notify those in charge of repairs and maintenance. Having hardware issues visible and recorded increases the chance of IT assets being repaired quicker due to the right persons being promptly notified which means the asset is likely to be out of use for a lesser time than would be the case without IT asset management.

A perfect way to increase visibility and organise your IT assets is through the use of locations and collections. Both features allow you to organise your IT assets into hierarchies, making searching for multiple assets easier. 

Locations is also a great tool to ensure IT assets are being kept in the right place, if you found an IT asset and were not sure where it belonged you could scan its tag and identify where it should be. Similar to the last seen location, locations can also help minimise lost hardware. You can even utilise locations to display for example which buildings were using certain types of software. This can be used for future planning and business decisions. It’s a great way to open up the visibility of your IT assets and become the most organised business around!

Tracking IT assets in your business is just as important as tracking any asset, the benefits outweigh any implications or challenges a business may face from their assets.

That’s why it’s important to track your IT assets to improve your business and instantly see results, if we were to breakdown the main benefits of IT asset management they would be:

• Improve Visibility Of Assets
• Ensure Optimum Utilisation Of Assets
• Reduce Costs 
• Ensure Compliance Regulations Are Met
• Reduce The Likeliness Of Lost Assets 
• Increase Accountability

So now you must be thinking why haven’t I used IT asset management before? Well for many it’s a completely new concept but one that’s never too late to start!

If you’d like to drastically increase visibility over your IT assets, and save your business time and money then take advantage of itemit’s free 14-day trial to access all of its powerful features and take a peek into all the benefits it could offer you! 

If you have any questions or would like to know even more on how itemit can help you then what are you waiting for book a demo today and see itemit in action. You won’t regret it! Or alternatively don’t be shy to pop the team a message at team@itemit.com

Instant access. No credit card details required.

or, download the itemit app to get started