It can be difficult for IT support professionals to navigate through the wide variety of concepts. One such example that often causes difficulty is IT Service Management and IT Asset Management – ITSM and ITAM.
It would be reasonable to say that combining ITAM practices with ITSM processes will improve efficiency and produce meaningful results in the delivery of IT services and the accounting of IT infrastructure in a company.
In this article, we will discuss the relationship between ITAM and ITSM, and how their joint integration contributes to quality IT service delivery, improved management and business efficiency.
What is ITAM?
ITAM (IT Asset Management) stands for IT Asset Management and is the processes that ensure the accounting of all assets, including hardware, software, licenses, network equipment, as well as the process of controlling finances, contractual obligations for the company’s IT infrastructure objects, etc. ITAM processes are inextricably linked to the management of assets at all stages of their life cycle: from planning, procurement and registration to commissioning, repair, write-off and subsequent disposal. ITAM ensures effective IT asset lifecycle management especially effectively in cooperation with other IT and non-IT practices.
Within the ITAM practice, two areas related to asset types can be distinguished: HAM (Hardware Asset Management), which focuses on tracking and managing physical hardware, and SAM (Software Asset Management) – software asset accounting, including software usage control and license compliance.
Interest in ITAM is actively growing along with the rapid expansion of IT infrastructure, not only in volume but also in diversity. Adopting ITAM practices helps organizations manage and optimize IT-related costs and maximize the return on IT investments through proper resource allocation – IT assets must deliver value at a reasonable cost and acceptable risk. By tracking IT resource utilization, it is possible to reduce procurement, support and licensing costs, and ensure compliance with policies and regulations.
By making transactions – moving, modernizing or selling assets – transparent, ITAM strengthens the protection and control of assets within a single owner, even when they are used in different group companies. In addition, ITAM involves monitoring costs, measuring return on investment (ROI) and assuring compliance with contractual terms and regulatory requirements, which has a significant impact on the prosperity, stability of the company and facilitates timely response to industry trends and vendor reviews/audits. ITAM also provides confidence in information about IT assets and related entities (contracts, vendors).
The goals of ITAM:
- Visibility and control of assets
The goal of ITAM is to provide organizations with a complete and accurate database of IT assets, providing visibility and control over their use, location and condition.
The result is a complete view of assets, their configurations, and their relationships with other IT infrastructure components.
- Cost optimization and efficiency
ITAM provides a comprehensive view of an organization’s IT assets, covering their current status, contractual obligations, associated costs and procurement requirements, and as a result, facilitates transparency and cost optimization.
The result is cost-effective asset management and financial optimization throughout the asset lifecycle.
What is ITSM?
While ITAM practices refer to the management of hardware and software assets, ITSM (IT Service Management) – or IT service management – describes the management of the delivery of IT services to users, taking business needs into account as well. ITSM includes all tasks related to the planning, design, implementation and support of IT services.
The central object of ITSM is the configuration unit – any component that needs to be managed to deliver IT services. ITSM practices rely on the control and support of configuration units – they are what make up IT services.
To implement ITSM in a company, it is necessary to follow a set of recommendations from the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL), a widely accepted framework that describes a service lifecycle model and provides structured methods and best practices for managing them effectively at each stage.
An important component of ITSM is the service level agreement (SLA) – it establishes clear criteria for quality, availability and timeliness of service delivery, regulating expectations and allocating responsibilities between the IT department and business customers. SLA increases the transparency of interaction, which is necessary for complex, multi-component services.
ITSM offers a systematic approach to IT service management based on standardized processes. This allows you to improve the efficiency and quality of service and ensure smooth operation of processes.
ITSM Objectives:
- Service delivery and support
ITSM aims to ensure effective delivery and support of IT services in line with business requirements and customer expectations.
The result is efficient and timely services to support business processes.
- Risk management and problem resolution
ITSM focuses on minimizing service disruptions by promptly resolving incidents and fixing problems.
The result is rapid service recovery, minimizing downtime and the impact of risks on the company’s business processes.
- Continuous improvement of services
ITSM strives to continuously improve service quality, operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.
The result is the adaptation of IT services to changing business needs through continuous development.
How do ITAM and ITSM complement each other?
To separate or contrast ITAM and ITSM is not quite correct, these methodologies complement each other, expanding the management options for the organization. In addition to setting up IT service delivery processes, it is possible to establish a process of asset management and control over the optimal use of IT infrastructure resources, which becomes especially relevant during the growth of companies and the branching of the organization’s structure.
As mentioned earlier, ITAM has traditionally focused on “accounting and control”. For larger organizations, the primary focus is usually on optimizing the use of IT assets and their associated costs – for example, to make sure that existing servers, networking equipment, storage and other physical equipment are being used as efficiently as possible to deliver optimal value to the company (as well as to meet maintenance and replacement requirements). ITAM, like ITSM, is about management. It is true that ITSM focuses on the delivery and management of IT services, but also has maintenance, incident management, and service improvement objectives. ITSM uses configuration units in its processes. If a company uses ITAM in addition to ITSM, certain configuration units can be linked to the corresponding asset records. In this way, two-way communication between applications can be set up and information about the affected assets can be obtained.
Some examples of ITSM use cases related to ITAM include: change management, incident management, configuration management, capacity management, disaster recovery, etc
Although these areas of IT management focus on different types of activity management, they share similar goals: ensuring that a company’s IT investments best meet both the needs of the organization and the needs of end users.
Moreover, they are not only similar in their objectives, but also contribute greatly to each other beyond simply providing information about IT assets to the ITSM system (as mentioned above). For example, ITSM requires effective financial management, but this is not possible without ITAM information (in other words, IT asset expense management).
When considering the benefits of ITSM and ITAM collaboration, it’s worth understanding that it’s not about merging teams, but about improving the interaction between them. The key to success and the first factor is to assess the current level of processes in the company and understand the goals before determining how each party can help the other.
The second factor is sharing data between systems to ensure the quality of information. The data sets in enterprise ITSM and ITAM tools have traditionally been isolated from each other. However, by combining these sets, the value of each part can be enhanced. At a minimum, each data set can be used to enhance the quality of the other. For example, ownership and usage scenarios of configuration units that were not detected by network scanning tools can be verified with help desk data.
The third factor is the integration of ITSM and ITAM solutions, and sometimes other processes, to improve efficiency and effectiveness, ensure correct IT asset management and data accuracy. For example, if configuration items are added, deleted or changed in an ITSM system during incident management, service request management or change implementation, an ITAM solution can reflect this by tracking the relationship of the affected configuration items to assets. Monitoring and reconciling asset changes can identify issues that arise when assets are moved or in situations where employees leave the organization and their equipment is not returned to the department.
Conclusion
IT asset management can interact with IT service management – the solutions share a common goal and can be easily integrated, such as in SimpleOne’s ITAM product. ITAM processes utilize AMDB (Asset Management Database), while providing a link to CMDB (Configuration Management Database), enabling business customers to customize the ITAM solution’s link to the company’s ITSM system.
Joint implementation of ITAM and ITSM practices allows to ensure holistic management of the company’s IT resources, increase operational efficiency and improve the quality of the company’s business processes.
