The Need for IT Asset Management
Today’s corporate technology environments have become increasingly complex. Globalization, product diversification, mergers and acquisitions, and other business trends have resulted in a rapidly growing number of PCs, servers, software applications, and databases used in the corporate environment. Additionally, these components have become increasingly diverse, and tend to change rapidly in order to keep up with the pace of business as well as technological advances.
As a result, organizations are challenged to more closely track their IT purchases, adhere to licensing agreements, analyze system usage, keep all software and hardware up-to-date, and ensure optimal performance levels.
ITAM can help businesses overcome these obstacles by empowering them to:
- Improve the way they manage all hardware and software components
- More accurately oversee IT purchase contracts, user licenses, and leases
- Routinely identify and meet upgrade and maintenance requirements
- Minimize the risk of security breaches or system failures
- Facilitate regulatory compliance
Define Your Requirements
Before an ITAM project is initiated, project leaders must determine exactly what they are trying to accomplish through the use of the solution, so requirements can be defined as thoroughly and accurately as possible. For example:
- Does the entire IT asset lifecycle need to be monitored and audited?
- Do IT and financial resources need to be better aligned?
- How should IT risks be identified and controlled?
- What usage policies exist or need to be created and how will they be enforced?
The answers to such questions will not only help a company define what ITAM features and capabilities are needed, but also build a very strong business case for ITAM in the organization.
Continue reading - Uncovering the Value of IT Asset Management
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