Whether you are a small or a big company, IT asset management is essential in order to keep track of your IT assets. It is considered as a baseline requirement for every business in order to prevent IT problems that may lead to serious security issues.
So what is exactly IT asset management? Why is it important? And how can you do it?
Before you can discuss the importance of IT asset management and and what it can do for your business, you need to understand the basics. The first step is the inventory, a complete list of all the company’s IT assets. This inventory is the central point of your management in order to validate what is still in use or not.
There are many different types of IT assets.
1 – Hardware, is any physical equipment that has a function in your business operations. For example, computers, printers, scanners, fax machines, photocopiers, etc. fall into this category.
2 – Software, (intangibles) are all the digital tools used by your employees in the course of their work or to process data in your company’s systems. Examples include accounting software like QuickBooks or payroll applications like Gusto, productivity tools like Microsoft Office 365, collaboration platforms like Google Hangouts, licenses and so on.
IT asset management allows you to keep track of all the hardware, software and data that make up your IT portfolio.
If you have a well-maintained preventive maintenance plan and IT asset inventory, you’ll know exactly what assets are in use, where and when they need to be replaced or updated.
Here are some reasons why you should start:
Rigor is going to be important and a structure in your company is going to be paramount to keeping your IT inventory up to date. Every IT asset has a life cycle with five phases that you need to understand.
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The IT asset lifecycle is the entire process of managing your company’s assets, from purchase to disposal.
Here are the different phases of the IT asset lifecycle:
The planning stage of the IT asset lifecycle is the phase when a need is triggered within your company and is not being met appropriately. In this first step, you need to gather information about what you need, why you need it, and how much it will cost you.
The second phase of the IT asset lifecycle is acquiring. This phase is about purchasing and getting the IT asset delivered to your company. It also includes any installation processes and costs. So if your IT asset requires any type of installation, make sure to include it within your planning stage while setting your budget.
Simply put, this is the phase when your asset is being put to use by your employees. Throughout this stage, it is essential to determine whether your IT asset needs corrective maintenance, perfective maintenance, or preventive maintenance. Some businesses will limit equipment maintenance due to budget and time constraints, but neglecting this can negatively impact your productivity.
This is the most critical stage in the IT asset lifecycle. A proper maintenance should be provided regularly to each asset within the company to ensure they are all running smoothly. Once assets are used successfully during their initial deployment period, they move into the maintenance phase where they begin experiencing normal wear and tear over time due to regular use by end-users within an organization’s daily operations or workflow processes.
During the previous stage, you determined whether your assets need corrective maintenance, perfective maintenance, or preventive maintenance. In the maintenance phase, it is time to deploy the one that is suitable with the asset you acquired.
Here are some of the benefits of regular maintenance:
This is the last stage of your IT asset lifecycle. When the maintenance starts costing you more than your asset value, it is time to remove it from service, repurpose it, sell it or recycle it. There are many ways this phase can be handled, and it depends on your asset condition.
The first step to implementing a good IT asset inventory management system would be to look at asset management software.
If you use a manual method to track your assets (such as a spreadsheet, Excel), you expose yourself to cumbersome and error-prone management.
An automated solution like Hector software is faster and will definitely avoid errors. It also allows you to manage your software licenses and IT assets in the same platform.
Hector also allows you to synchronize your organization’s devices automatically every day or manually after configuring your JAMF Pro, Intune or SCCM/MECM integration.
Are you ready to better manage your IT assets now? If you have more questions, contact our team.
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