IT Asset Management Tools help monitor and track business assets in organizations. Moreover, businesses today have plenty of assets to manage than before considering the increase in the use of remote and mobile devices due to the pandemic.
Now, the question arises, What is an IT asset? IT asset refers to any hardware, software systems, or information that adds value to businesses. Further, IT assets have a limited term of use. Hence, businesses use IT Asset Management Tools to maximize their value by managing the IT Asset lifecycle.
Consequently, one of the most important aspects of IT Asset Management software is to apply the process across all lifecycle stages. Therefore, this helps businesses comprehend the cost of ownership and maximize the use of their assets.
Earlier, businesses would manually track, update, and manage assets using spreadsheets. As a result, this process would be tedious and be time-intensive. Although recently businesses now have modern asset management systems hosted in the cloud. Therefore, businesses can now easily manage assets without bearing the cost and maintenance of owning servers.
Hence, in this article, we will understand IT Asset management and the tools that businesses must invest in.
Learn about the Top IT Asset Management Tools for Businesses
What is an IT Asset Management Tool?
An IT asset management tool is a compact system that enables businesses to analyze pivotal details about assets in real-time. Above all, it mitigates the cost of administration, enhances services, and provides complete visibility.
Further, an IT asset management tool determines the usage of an asset to record and track it throughout its lifecycle. It certainly offers businesses key information about the location of assets, their users, method of utilization, etc. Additionally, an IT management software manages and monitors both software and hardware assets.
According to the International Association of IT Asset Managers (IAITAM) “IT Asset Management is a set of business practices that incorporates IT assets across the business units within the organization. It joins the financial, inventory, contractual, and risk management responsibilities to manage the overall life cycle of these assets including tactical and strategic decision making.”
Types of IT Asset Management
- IT Asset Management: It is a suite of business practices that combine financial, contractual, and inventory functions. It also supports lifecycle management and strategies for decision-making in an IT environment. Most importantly, ITAM is an important unit in the IT Service Management function.
- Digital Asset Management: It is an important aspect of the intellectual property management functions in the business. Moreover, it manages electronic media content that includes images, videos, etc. Hence, it concerns more with managing digital assets and data that businesses may produce or license from third-party organizations.
- Software Asset Management and License Management: It includes effective management, control, and security of various software assets. It incorporates software that is both produced and licensed by businesses. As a result, it ensures the smooth functioning of the software within the business and its compliance with licensing agreements.
Importance of using IT Asset Management Tools
- Firstly, IT Asset Management tools offer businesses a centralized source. That is to say, there are systems and solutions aligned to monitor assets centrally. Hence, businesses can easily track and control assets as well as monitor their usage in a systematic manner.
- Moreover, it helps businesses by providing real-time information. Therefore, businesses can mitigate waste and enhance the utilization of assets.
- It is also a cost-effective solution as it eliminates unnecessary purchases by monitoring licenses and support.
- The efficient usage of ITAM solutions enables more productivity while providing more reliability on platforms and infrastructure services.
- Above all, it enables effective control, visibility, and allocate responsibility to the teams. Hence, avoiding overprovisioning, idle instances, and unnecessary costs.
Further, Stephen White, Research Director at Gartner explains this for IT Asset Management Software, “Gartner defines a ‘technology asset’ as one that can generate, receive or process digital information to support business activity. Things like ownership, subscription status, or location are not important anymore. What matters is that all assets are governed and managed according to ITAM principles and best practices.”
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How to find and choose the right IT Asset Management Tools?
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Understanding the Requirements and Objectives:
While selecting the right IT asset management tools, it is important to define the goals and objectives of a business. Further, businesses must invest in tools that help them achieve their current and future goals while helping them create more opportunities.
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Cost-Effective Solutions:
IT asset management tools must offer businesses opportunities to mitigate costs by optimizing the usage of the solutions. Moreover, it needs to optimize complex licenses by automating, accelerating, and enhancing manual processes.
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Relying on Spreadsheets:
Spreadsheets are still a common technique for businesses to monitor assets. But, they do not ensure complete accuracy as these sheets require manual interference. Hence with IT asset management solutions, businesses can expect more accuracy and reliability.
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Constant Changes in the Businesses:
Businesses certainly keep adding new assets to endure their solutions and services. Moreover, businesses often go through different changes and expansions that require additional processes. Hence, businesses must look for solutions that are flexible and agile to manage both new and old assets.
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“Shadow IT” is a Constant Concern:
“Shadow IT” refers to the usage of applications, licenses, and other IT assets without the knowledge of the central IT team. Therefore, it is important for solutions to collaborate easily and updating the IT team regarding its functions. Hence, this will help teams to be more productive and efficient.
ManageEngine AssetExplorer
ManageEngine AssetExplorer is a web-based IT asset management tool. It also enables teams to track and monitor assets from their planning phase to their delivery.
Moreover, it provides asset discovery capabilities in a network to help manage the status of contract renewals and license compliance. Hence, it helps separate redundancies in the inventory.
Key Features:
- Firstly, it offers multi-source asset discovery.
- It also schedules asset scans.
- Moreover, it provides real-time hardware and software dashboards.
Spiceworks IT Asset Management
Spiceworks IT Asset Management tool offers solutions for inventory management. IT can also easily integrate with existing helpdesks, network monitoring, and other ITSM systems.
Additionally, it can also automatically identify, secure, and categorize any asset in the IT environment. Further, it provides additional information about the assets.
Key Features:
- It can easily monitor network licenses and devices.
- Moreover, it manages the licensing, network, exchange, and other functions.
- It also provides a comprehensive report on the inventory, assets, and licensing.
SolarWinds Service Desk
SolarWinds Service Desk is one of the top automated IT Asset Management tools. It is also a comprehensive system that offers consistent discovery and management of assets.
Moreover, it provides complete visibility into the asset lifecycle. Hence, it enables businesses to analyze and identify the unnecessary components to decrease the cost and maximize the ROI.
Key Features:
- Firstly, it ensures that the infrastructure is compliant with regulatory standards.
- It also automates risk detections and policy deviations.
- Further, it offers an insightful dashboard that is easy for users to manage.
IBM Maximo Asset Management
IBM Maximo Asset Management is of the best tools to manage the complete lifecycle of an IT asset. It also offers solutions to monitor asset operations and other business processes.
Above all, it provides comprehensive and real-time information about the assets. It also includes the current status and insights on other business activities.
Key Features:
- It offers customizable functions for easy integrations.
- It also provides features to deploy and design workflows and automate processes.
- Moreover, it is a central platform that provides analytical insights on assets.
Snipe-IT
Snipe-IT is an open source online IT asset management tool. It is an application that provides multiple features to manage inventories.
Its dashboard also provides an overview of real-time activities. Moreover, it allows integration in the app with the system and uses REST API.
Key Features:
- It monitors assets on the basis of location, assignments, and status.
- It also offers email alerts in case the licenses are expiring.
- Moreover, it audits the assets and also manages the imports as well as the exports.
ServiceNow ITSM and ITAM
ServiceNow is a leading IT asset management software according to Gartner’s Magic Quadrant. Further, it provides two solutions for IT asset management, namely, ServiceNow ITSM and ServiceNow ITAM.
Key Features:
- It offers both hardware and software asset management solutions.
- Moreover, it provides a comprehensive Configuration Management Database for businesses.
- Most importantly it provides lifecycle automation for IT and non-IT assets.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, IT Asset Management Tools provide a complete and ongoing overview of the assets. It is a solution to fundamental business practices for planning, acquisition, and maintenance of assets.
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