The lack of centralized IT asset management can cost companies big overruns due to unnecessary purchases, license violation fines and system downtime. This article reveals the top ways to bring order to a diverse IT infrastructure and optimize costs with ITAM practices. A detailed breakdown of processes for automating asset accounting, resource planning, and finance will identify areas for savings in your organization.
Chaos in the IT department of a large company: employees are scattered in different offices, and their workstations are a jumble of different hardware and programs from different origins. No one really knows what has been purchased, what has been installed, or where any asset is located.
This situation can lead to serious problems – from system failures and data loss to legal sanctions. Especially if an organization ignores the importance of competent IT asset management.
IT assets are elements of the modern company landscape that have a certain value for the business.
Lack of centralized accounting of assets throughout their entire lifecycle – from purchase to disposal – often leads to a lack of up-to-date information on the condition and volume of equipment, contract expiration dates, which complicates cost planning and, as a result, leads to financial losses, downtime and unnecessary spending. The situation can be controlled with the help of specialized IT Asset Management (ITAM) systems.
In this article, we look at how to streamline IT asset processes and optimize related costs through automation, analytics, and comprehensive controls.
Automating asset accounting and tracking
Imagine it’s time for a scheduled inventory of IT equipment in your company. This usually means weeks or even months of monotonous manual work – going around offices, interviewing employees, querying mail, reconciling data with outdated documents and scattered Excel spreadsheets. All of this is a time-consuming and unreliable process. Especially for companies with distributed infrastructure and large fleets of equipment. According to some estimates, up to 65% of entries in corporate asset registries are incomplete or inaccurate, and 10% to 30% of recorded assets are actually missing.
This problem of so-called “ghost” assets generates a number of negative consequences:
- Distortion of financial reporting;
- Expenditure of budget on maintenance of non-existent equipment;
- Decreased productivity due to real equipment shortages.
Automating the processes of accounting and tracking IT assets avoids such problems. Specialized ITAM systems help to register and inventory IT assets, recording not only their presence, but also their technical configuration, location, related incidents and service requests. All this information is consolidated and displayed in a single system.
Thanks to automation, data relevance is achieved and manual accounting errors are eliminated. Vendors estimate that ITAM solutions save up to 70% of the time that staff would spend on inventory and spreadsheet reconciliations. Freed labor resources can be used more productively.
Example: A large retail chain lost data on the movement of POS terminals between stores due to the lack of centralized equipment accounting. During an audit, it was discovered that dozens of terminals costing about $100,000 were listed in the register but were not physically present.
After the ITAM solution was implemented, the situation changed. The system records all POS terminals with serial numbers and location. When moving, tasks with mandatory acceptance and transfer of equipment are created. After the ITAM solution is implemented, the situation has changed.
It is estimated that only on accounting and tracking the movement of terminals for the first year ITAM-system would save the company about $120,000 and fully recoup the cost of implementation.
Optimization of procurement and resource allocation
Excessive and irrational equipment purchases are a common problem leading to budget overruns. Companies are faced with situations where an excessive number of devices are purchased, many of which remain unused for long periods of time or are never used at all.
The reason is the lack of reliable data on real needs and current equipment fleet. IT departments purchase resources based on outdated or incomplete information in Excel spreadsheets and documents, without being able to assess the actual utilization of existing IT assets.
Wasted resources are not the only problem. Overprocurement leads to unnecessary support costs. Unused equipment becomes obsolete over time, and the company continues to incur maintenance and storage costs.
ITAM processes allow you to optimize procurement and resource allocation with:
- Detailed analytics on the utilization of existing hardware and software to identify the real needs of the company;
- Accounting for the life cycle of assets and planned preparation for equipment renewal;
- Collection of requirements from all departments in a centralized catalog of requests;
- Optimizing the allocation of available and purchased assets according to the identified needs;
Example: In an industrial company, the implementation of an ITAM solution avoided inefficient spending of up to $260 per workstation on average due to unused equipment alone. For an organization with 1,000 workstations, the savings amounted to $260,000 already in the first phase of cost optimization.
ITAM’s well-established processes for accounting, requirements analysis and resource allocation ensure that the IT asset budget is maximized.
Transparency of lifecycle and financial flows
Effective management of IT assets implies control at all stages of their lifecycle.
The ITAM system, in turn, provides transparency of the processes occurring with the assets at each of the stages:
- Registration of new hardware and software purchases;
- Inventory and record of location, responsible persons;
- Tracking movements between departments;
- Repairs and upgrades of obsolete components instead of full replacement;
- Controlled disposal or transfer after end-of-life;
Transparency of processes allows you to make the necessary decisions in time – to update devices in a timely manner, to optimize maintenance and procurement processes.
In addition, ITAM approaches help with financial accounting:
- Tracking IT asset purchases;
- Tracking maintenance, repair, and disposal costs;
Operational data for each asset provides a complete picture of the lifecycle and associated costs. This allows you to reduce financial risks, accurately calculate budgets and optimize costs in a timely manner.
Example: In one manufacturing company, after implementing ITAM, the finance department received comprehensive data on all assets and their transactions. As a result, the IT budget was optimized by 12% by streamlining accounting, procurement planning and operational costs.
How SimpleOne ITAM helps to optimize costs
There are not many solutions on the Russian market that allow you to fully solve the tasks of IT asset management. One of the brightest representatives is the SimpleOne ITAM system – a software product for automating IT asset management processes throughout their entire life cycle in accordance with the ISO 19770-1 standard.
The system includes:
- IT Asset Lifecycle Management
Registration, inventory, issuance, relocation, repairs, upgrades, write-offs, disposal/transfer.
- Contract management
Negotiate and monitor the expiration dates of maintenance, warranty, procurement and disposal contracts by asset.
- One-stop-shop for IT assets
Visualize and consolidate access to all IT asset information and tasks – from inventory to request processing.
- Integration with ITSM
With SimpleOne ITSM in place, seamless integration of ITAM and ITSM solutions is possible to establish a link between assets and the correlated configuration units that are affected in maintenance requests, incidents and change requests.
- Integrations with financial accounting systems
For SimpleOne ITAM, integration with any business application that supports REST APIs is possible, including disruptive solutions and financial systems.
SimpleOne ITAM implements all necessary entities for asset accounting – from initial registration to disposal.
ITAM functionality adds all the capabilities of the SimpleOne platform with flexible no-code, low-code customization, integration capabilities, analytical tools, and references.
SimpleOne ITAM updates will include new functionality for IT asset planning and cost accounting. Users will have access to tools for budgeting, requirements generation, procurement and cost control throughout the asset lifecycle.
Conclusion
With ITAM solutions, an organization gains complete control over the entire asset lifecycle, from procurement to disposal. IT resources can be scaled according to real needs, the fleet can be updated in a timely manner, and existing hardware and software can be used more efficiently.
Ultimately, ITAM increases the flexibility of IT asset management, its ability to adapt to change faster, optimize costs along the way, and maximize the return on infrastructure investments. Leading analysts agree that ITAM systems should be a must-have element of a digitalization strategy for any modern organization.
When choosing an ITAM system, you should pay attention to its comprehensiveness, process automation capabilities, integration with other corporate systems and compliance with standards. A reliable vendor is also important – it is a guarantee of regular product updates and access to expert support.
A well-designed ITAM system will not only help save on costs today, but will also be a guide to a lean and efficient approach to assets in the company. After all, people and technology are the main assets of any business in the 21st century. Intelligent management of them opens up new opportunities for growth.
