IT asset management (ITAM) is a comprehensive approach to tracking and managing all IT assets within an organisation, including hardware, software, cloud services, and more. By implementing an ITAM system, organisations can reap numerous benefits, including:
Improves Security
ITAM provides a clear and up-to-date picture of all IT assets, enabling organisations to identify unauthorised devices or software. By tracking assets and identifying vulnerabilities, organisations can proactively address potential security threats and prevent data breaches. ITAM helps organisations comply with industry regulations and standards, such as GDPR and HIPAA, by ensuring proper asset management and data protection.
Control IT Environment
Controlling the IT environment means providing visibility of IT assets and correctly optimising them. It is essential to have a clear picture of the quantity and the type of IT assets (computers, servers, and other IT infrastructure) the organisation owns, which is made possible with IT asset management. This prevents any chances of untracked resources and helps oversee costs by avoiding unnecessary purchases of assets. Apart from this, IT asset management manages the lifecycle of IT assets to ensure timely upkeep and upgrades, minimising downtime.
Increased Productivity
IT asset management can play a crucial role in increasing the overall productivity. This system, when used across departments, can increase efficiency as there is no need to spend time transferring, converting, downloading, and consolidating the same information several times. This way, teams can focus on other important tasks of the organisation.
Better Compliance
Compliance is a critical aspect of modern organisations, ensuring adherence to industry regulations and standards. However, maintaining compliance can be complex and time-consuming, especially as regulations evolve and IT environments become more dynamic. IT asset management (ITAM) provides a structured approach to tracking and managing IT assets, enabling organisations to identify non-compliant assets, automate compliance checks, streamline remediation, minimise downtime and risks, and generate compliance reports for auditors and regulators.
Strategic Inventory Planning
One of the biggest reasons why organisations should adopt IT asset management is that it enables strategic inventory planning. This helps save a lot of money as one can plan how much they have to spend on assets in the future. For instance, when the information about how much hardware and software is available in the organisation is unknown, one cannot plan a budget. Organisations can end up buying more IT assets than required, leading to higher spending. IT asset management keeps centralised and streamlined data where the inventory can be collectively viewed.
Using systems like IT asset and operations management can help create an ecosystem that is safe and organised, ensuring streamlined workflow in the organisation. By implementing a robust ITAM system, businesses can improve security, optimise costs, enhance efficiency, and make data-driven decisions to achieve long-term success.
