SAManage IT Management Blog

Most companies today manage their technology inventory by logging and tracking assets manually, a process that is both cumbersome and error-prone. In fact, more than 65 percent of companies have immature IT asset management strategies in place, according to Meta Group.

Companies who don’t use automated tools to manage hardware and software inventory are likely to face significant challenges. For a variety of reasons, they will struggle to effectively monitor the various components within their infrastructure, and maximize the value of IT assets throughout their lifecycle.

A Dynamic Business Landscape

Today’s organizations are undergoing rapid change – mergers and acquisitions, expansions or downsizing, etc. Each one of these changes has an impact on IT inventory, making hardware and software asset management somewhat of a “moving target”. For example, new employees will require new equipment, while a layoff will make PCs, software licenses, and IT other assets available for use by others. Opening a new branch may call for the purchase of new hardware, while a shift in business strategy may require new applications to be acquired and deployed. This type of dynamic, ever-changing environment makes taking IT inventory a challenge.

A Geographically-Dispersed Network

Long, long ago, companies operated out of a single location. If they wanted to know what IT assets they had, and where they were located, they simply walked around and took stock. However, today’s firms do business on a global scale, with branches, offices, and even remote or home-based employees performing work out of numerous locations spread across the world. With IT assets housed at so many different locations, it becomes harder to manually monitor changes or additions in the environment, such as when an employee installs software on a PC, or when a new peripheral like a scanner or printer is connected to a network. As a result, IT asset inventory logs can quickly become outdated.

Constant Asset Upgrades or Replacement

Technology innovations emerge at a sharp pace, as new and better software and hardware solutions are being introduced by vendors all the time. And, while technology budgets are stagnant or shrinking in today’s tough economic times, companies still invest in the latest and greatest solutions to help them maintain an edge. The acquisition of new hardware, software, or subscription-based technology services means more than just a new physical asset to track – there are financial assets to consider, like contracts and software license management.

Only comprehensive, fully automated IT asset management solutions can help organizations keep their technology inventory up-to-date and balanced at all times, even in the face of rapidly-changing architectures and business conditions. With IT asset management systems, businesses can achieve complete, real-time visibility across their entire technology landscape, knowing exactly what they have, where it is located, and how it is being used at all times.

Learn more about powerful, on-demand IT asset management solutions from SAManage, and how they can help you can avoid the pain of manually managing your IT assets

For most companies, PCs are the most commonly-used technology component. In any given organization, there will be more desktop and laptop computers than any other type of hardware or software. That’s why the effective handling of PC and software inventory throughout its lifecycle is such an important business discipline. And many organizations are turning to PC inventory software to facilitate more effective tracking and management of these important assets.

But, with so many inventory management software on the market, how do you separate the good from the bad? It’s best to conduct a close evaluation of each solution of interest, keeping an eye out for the following traits:

Comprehensiveness

Successfully managing your PC and software inventory is about more than just keeping a log of what you have and documenting where it is located. It’s about effectively auditing changes to your assets and network, and about linking IT inventory to financial assets, such as software licenses or hardware leases, and understanding their impact on the business. Choosing a solution that provides complete, fully integrated capabilities to support all facets of PC inventory management will enable more precise correlation of IT investments to core business activities. Additionally, a comprehensive system will allow for more in-depth analysis of business risks, such as compliance, so they can be proactively addressed.

Simple deployment

In today’s economy, companies are running “lean” when it comes to human resources. Few IT departments have the staff available to support a long, complex implementation. Therefore, you should choose a PC inventory solution that can be deployed and rolled out quickly. This will not only minimize the burden on your technical teams, it will accelerate your return on investment and be flexible enough to provide you with a deployment that fits your network.

Ease of use

As with any software application, features that are difficult to navigate will provide only limited value. On the other hand, an intuitive interface can go a long way towards ensuring broad user adoption and the realization of true business advantage. Make sure your inventory management software is user-friendly, so all users can fully leverage all its powerful functionality – without the need for lengthy and expensive training.

Minimal maintenance

When solutions are cumbersome to administer, companies are more prone to abandon their use. And in today’s organizations, where many mission-critical IT projects must be prioritized and juggled at once, tools that are hard to maintain can become more of a burden than a blessing. Only a system that requires minimal maintenance overhead will provide your business with the PC inventory management capabilities it needs, in the most efficient and economical manner possible.

For example, choosing a SaaS IT Asset Management solution will eliminate the hassles associated with deploying and administering your PC inventory system, since all required hardware and software is installed, tested, monitored, and maintained by the provider’s staff at their own facilities.

Proactive

To make it easier to manage the day-to-day operation of your PC’s, consider a system that can stay on top of issues and let you know when your attention is required. This includes the ability to define and customize system alerts and events to monitor, and flexible enough to monitor issues across multiple domains, both IT inventory related (for example, missing security patches or illegal software) as well as business related issues (for example, license compliance gaps).

When it comes to software asset management, there are many aspects to be considered. But perhaps the most critical is the tracking of software inventory. In fact, Gartner believes that ensuring that inventory records are accurate, up to date, and consistent with those of the various software vendors a company works with, is an essential part of the asset management process.

But what makes software inventory management so important? Some of the key factors that contribute to the growing need for effective logging and tracking of software inventory include:

Security

With breaches, data theft, and other cyber crimes on the rise, companies need to boost protection of their desktops, laptops and other systems. But, without unhindered insight into existing PC and Software inventory, it will be harder to identify when users download and use unauthorized software packages – such as games, chat programs, or applications from unknown or unreliable sources – that put these internal systems at risk.

Compliance

The frequency of external software audits is rising at a rapid pace. Understanding current licensing arrangements, and guaranteeing full adherence to them, requires the ability to correctly track how many licenses were purchased, and how many users/desktops have actually deployed the application(s).

License Costs

In today’s tough economy, companies of all sizes, across all industries, are embarking on aggressive cost-cutting measures. Shelfware and unused licenses – which can be eliminated through a comprehensive software inventory management strategy – are simply wasted money, and must be avoided. Additionally, businesses can avoid paying for upgrades, license transfers, and other items they may be entitled to by gaining greater insight into their software license inventory and related contracts through having an accurate software asset inventory and tracking your software asset.

In addition to addressing these critical requirements, well-defined and well-enforced software inventory management policies can result in other benefits, such as:

Improved vendor negotiations

The ability for a company to compare what they have to what they are actually using can help them avoid unnecessary expenses when the time comes to renew licensing agreements, and can put them in a better position to negotiate exactly what they need to renew.

Increased auditing efficiency

A Gartner Group anonymous December, 2006 survey uncovered the fact that 35% percent of clients had experienced an on-site audit from a major software vendor. And, the leading research firm expects this trend to continue, with more vendors conducting an even greater number of audits in the near future. A solid software inventory tracking plan will eliminate the need to perform cumbersome manual audits, which can distract from other critical IT projects, in these situations, by making the complete, accurate data auditors are looking for readily available whenever needed.

The SAManage IT Asset Management service includes a comprehensive, feature-rich module for IT Inventory Management. This module dramatically increases efficiency and accuracy by improving the way software, hardware, and other technology assets are identified and tracked throughout their life cycle. SAManage makes it easy to know which assets an organization have and keep track of their status and physical location.

Computer Inventory Management

Powerful, yet intuitive functionality make it easy for IT staff to manage assets from end to end. They can:

1. Create an inventory of existing assets. In just a few clicks, IT staff can quickly generate a list of all assets, or assets by type (i.e. workstations). For more granular detail, lists can be further filtered using specific criteria such as “PC” or “laptop”.
2. Track assets by vendor. By simply running a list of all PCs, sorted by vendor, then filtering by a specific provider (i.e. Lenovo), IT staff can identify which components were purchased from which supplier.
3. Determine PC configurations. A computer’s hardware configuration can be viewed by clicking on the “inventory” tab and choosing a particular workstation from the list. The detailed PC configuration page as multiple tabs to choose from, such as the “software” tab that provides a list of all applications currently installed on that workstation or the “hardware” tab for detailed hardware configuration.
4. Modify asset status. Authorized users can change the status of an asset at any time. For example, if a PC is currently being serviced, the status can be adjusted to reflect that it is “in repair”. Or, if an asset has been made obsolete or replaced, it can be marked as “disposed”. Lists of all assets by status can then be easily generated for further review.
5. Change an asset’s location. This can be accomplished by selecting a specific component, then modifying its location using one of the locations configured in SAManage. Lists of assets by location can be created at any time, to accurately track where various assets reside and to further track a technical owner or the asset’s user.

IT Audit – Audit changes to your assets and network

The SAManage inventory management module also boosts audit productivity and helps easily audit changes to your assets and network. Users can rapidly generate an audit report by clicking on “Inventory”, then selecting “Audit”. This report can be filtered by any type of event and the related property, for example “Added Network Adapter”, and extracted to a CSV file. Using the same selections, IT staff can also view when a software application was installed or removed on any specific computer and at any time, making it easy to generate detailed audit reports and meet regulatory and audit requirements.

Software Inventory Management

SAManage also provides powerful capabilities for software inventory tracking that helps know what software you are using. Key features include the ability to:

1. Track all software by vendor (i.e. Adobe) by simply running a list of all installed software, then filtering by the vendor’s name.
2. View where an application is installed by entering the name of the software package in the search facility, or by selecting it from the list of assets.
3. Monitor new software applications across the network by selecting “inventory”, then “software”, then applying the “new” filter by days.
4. See a list of all drivers, patches, and other hidden software by selecting “inventory”, then “software”, then viewing “hidden”. SAManage automatically excludes all system files from your inventory, so you get a clean, actionable view of your assets.

To learn more about the SAManage inventory management software, and how it can help you better track and monitor your IT assets, visit www.SAManage.com.

SAManage Revolutionizes IT Asset Management: Free On-Demand Solution

Software-as-a-Service solution enables organizations to better control IT assets and resources as budgets tighten up.

Seattle, WA October 15, 2008 — A new era in IT Asset Management has begun today with launch of the SAManage free SaaS service. For the first time, organizations around the world have an easy way to control and manage their IT assets, with minimal effort, and at absolutely no cost.

Using the free IT Asset Management service by SAManage, IT departments are empowered with complete visibility into the entire IT environment, so they can more effectively manage their assets and ensure that assets are fully utilized. Delivered on-demand over the Internet, the SAManage solution provides a real-time view of PCs, laptops, servers, and other IT assets throughout the organization, including assets that are not connected to the company network. With the instant access to asset configuration data enabled by SAManage, IT departments are able to improve service levels, reduce problem resolution time, and easily audit changes to their assets.

The SAManage Software-as-a-Service application removes the costs and efforts associated with the deployment of traditional IT Asset Management solutions: it requires no hardware or software infrastructure, no implementation effort, and no ongoing maintenance. Now, with the launch of the free SAManage service, organizations and their IT departments can enjoy the benefits of SAManage at no cost whatsoever.

“With SAManage, there is no concern over all the usual IT issues such as hardware, software, capacity, performance… and no need to worry about service, implementation, and maintenance. This is a zero impact service that is practically seamless,” explains Micha Katz, head of technology at financial services company 10X Investments.

“The announcement of the SAManage free service comes at a time when organizations worldwide will be looking to reduce IT budgets and tighten controls to ensure that IT assets are utilized appropriately and effectively,” says Doron Gordon, SAManage founder and CEO. “We are happy to be able to provide organizations worldwide with tools and services that will enable them to face the demands of these challenging times.“

In addition to the free service, SAManage offers a premium plan that adds the ability to proactively detect IT-related risks such as illegal software, security gaps, or missing patches. Also included in the premium plan is a Software License and IT Contracts management module that provides a central repository for tracking and managing software licenses and IT contracts with providers of hardware, software, network, and other IT services. The premium plan is available at the low cost of $20 per computer per year.

“SAManage dynamically updates the information we are tracking and presents it in an actionable format, which means that we can immediately take action when a risk is identified anywhere throughout the organization,” says Miki Shvo, director of IT for Dassault Systèmes Israel. “By providing clear and accurate visibility into our IT inventory information and highlighting the areas that require attention, SAManage has eliminated a labor-intensive process that was a source for risks with the previous system,” adds Shvo.

Additional benefits realized by organizations using the SAManage solution include:

• Complete visibility to inventory and up-to-date configuration of PCs and software installed across the company
• Audit log of any changes to asset configuration and installed software
• A central repository for software licenses and IT contracts
• Immediate detection of risks such as illegal software, games, or unprotected computers
• Ongoing software license compliance monitoring
• SaaS service delivers quick time-to-value with no servers or software to install and no implementation effort
• Extremely low risk with a service that is free forever

SAManage SaaS service is available immediately. For more information or to sign-up for a free SAManage account, visit www.SAManage.com.

Today’s modern IT infrastructure is dynamic and rapidly changing, and a typical computer inventory is constantly evolving: new computers are acquired and provisioned, old computers are disposed, employees are hired (need a new computer) or terminated (need to reformat and reassign their old computer) and external parties are granted access to your network. Assets are being sent to repair and maintenance and aging computers are disposed. Even the increasing popularity of virtualization is bringing new complexities to asset management (Virtual Machines are easily created, launched, terminated and disposed, and many customers are debating whether they should track them as part of asset management).

Your IT Asset Management system should be flexible enough and accommodate for your infrastructure changes so that you can stay on top of your inventory and know the status of your assets. That’s why we are introducing a couple of new features that makes it easier to manage your dynamic asset inventory:

Scavenging - provides the ability to remove obsolete duplicate computers from your inventory. Since there is no automatic way to define an obsolete asset we have added a new “duplicate” view under the Workstation Inventory section, and included a number of filters such as “by Mac Address”, “Mac Address & Computer name” and a couple of other to help you seek for scavenging opportunities in your inventory. Simply use the view to go through the duplicate entries listed and remove old assets from the inventory. When you select an asset for removal, the asset status will change to “duplicate” or “disposed” based on your selection.

Disposing - when you dispose old assets or no longer wish to track an existing asset (for example, you no longer wish to track your Virtual Machines or Network Attached Storage), simply mark the asset as “disposed” (under workstation -> asset status change to “dispose”).

When an asset is marked as duplicate or disposed it is excluded from your summary reports, dashboards and your asset counts. SAManage will no longer scan that asset for risks or correlate the software installed on that asset against your licensing records. However, for audit purposes and to provide for an easy way to “undo” your disposals, you can still find all your previously disposed and duplicate assets by going to the Workstation Inventory -> “view by Asset Status” and using a filter to view duplicates or disposed assets.

As always, please let us know what you think and ideas to improve. Happy scavenging.

SAManage got some extra brainpower with this week’s release with the addition of Computer Asset Intelligence (“AI”). With the new AI capabilities, SAManage will now analyze each new computer that subscribes to the service and categorize it by physical and virtual types including workstations, laptops, servers and virtual machines.

The new AI makes it easier for IT Administrators to identify, track and manage IT assets across your network. You can now easily verify that your asset allocation is in line with your policy (for example, that your engineering team is using workstations and not laptops, and your servers are not running any productivity suites). You can easily audit your physical and virtual assets at any time and track all the virtual machines used across your network.

Tracking usage and proper licensing of virtual machines (“VM”) is a huge challenge for IT Asset Managers: with VM’s, each user can create and launch his own VM and run multiple VM’s on his local computer. According to many of the software vendor’s license agreements, these VM’s still have to be properly licensed for the operating system and (many of the) server products they run – new VM, new license. S0 now instead of a single license we have to track multiple licenses on a single computer, and account for these VM’s as part of our inventory even though they may or may not be running on a regular basis.

SAManage is the easiest way to manage your IT assets, and it will now make your job easier by tracking all your VM assets (including servers that are running one or more VM’s). The virtual machines supported are:

• EMC’s VMware (both virtual machines and servers running virtual machines)
• Microsoft’s Virtual PC
• Citrix XenSource
• SWsoft (Parallels)
• Virtual Iron

We tested the new capabilities over the past few weeks and refined the asset intelligence algorithms to make them more accurate and support most common hardware configurations. If there is anything we have missed, please let us know.

Take the product tour to learn more about the new capabilities or sign-up for a free trail and see how simple it is to manage your IT Assets with SAManage.