Aug
28
2009

Time to replace your Legacy IT Asset Management tool

Gartner estimates that fewer than 25 percent of companies worldwide have implemented a formal IT asset management (ITAM) strategy. If your company is one of those without a solid ITAM plan, or you feel that your legacy tool is not providing the value you expect, then this post – which will discuss why today’s new breed of hosted ITAM solutions are far superior to legacy ITAM systems – is quite important.

As we hear quite often from our customers, legacy ITAM tools are cumbersome, outdated, and expensive to maintain. They require huge upfront investments, have long and complex deployment cycles, and are often built on antiquated technologies that are more than a decade old. Many of the legacy ITAM tools in the market where developed a while ago and simply can not be agile and flexible enough to effectively support today’s business needs. This not only has the potential to drain financial and human resources, it can make positive return on investment (ROI) from your legacy ITAM system much, much harder to achieve.

And while these legacy ITAM solutions are still readily available, and frequently purchased by companies who simply don’t know that there are more viable options out there, it is the emerging crop of ITAM suites – particularly hosted inventory management, and hardware and software asset management solutions – that are proving to be the most innovative, and deliver the most value.

Today, a new generation of ITAM solutions exists, ones that are designed from scratch to deliver immediate advantage and substantial, measurable ROI. Delivered via the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, also known as hosted ITAM, or on-demand ITAM, SaaS-based IT asset management solutions offer benefits that are far greater than those delivered by legacy ITAM systems.

Why is on-demand ITAM the better choice? SaaS ITAM minimizes deployment time and effort, allowing companies to begin reaping benefits almost immediately. There is no hardware to purchase, making hosted ITAM far more economical and budget-friendly, so businesses can achieve faster, higher ROI than they would with legacy ITAM. Additionally, because there are no software to be installed and maintained, SaaS based ITAM poses no burden on internal IT teams.

But, perhaps most importantly, due to the nature of the software-as-a-service delivery model and extensive use of agile product development methodologies, hosted inventory management software is extremely diligent when it comes to upgrades and enhancements. This means that customers always have access to the latest and greatest cutting-edge ITAM features and capabilities and without having to go through lengthy and painful upgrade cycles – something that is lacking in most legacy ITAM solutions.

When it comes to hosted ITAM, there is no better provider than SAManage. Our solutions leverage SaaS and cloud computing to provide the most efficient way to manage all your technology assets. Feature-rich, fast to implement and roll out, easy to use, and far more cost-effective than legacy ITAM systems, on-demand ITAM from SAManage delivers high functionality, tremendous value, and maximum affordability.