Numerous questions emerge when it comes to asset management. IT hardware, which brings us to the question Are we aware of where we stand in terms of our computers? IT hardware management is not a one-time project where you do it once and expect things to be finished.
How IT asset management may go wrong for an organization
Companies are investing in IT asset management hardware, and their reasons are viable.
- It could be the result of a failed audit and a hefty bill from Adobe or Microsoft.
- There may arise a sudden need to fix patches on systems that were spread far and wide to ensure recurring credit card processing capabilities.
Coming to the question, where do we start efficient practices for asset management for IT hardware? Establishing an efficient IT hardware management system is a challenging task. It deserves your full attention, and you need to meet the challenge head-on. At the same time, you need to avoid the financial and reputational consequences that a poor IT hardware management system can bring to an organization.
Enroll a visible, active executive champion
First and foremost, you need to find and enlist an executive sponsor along with a visible IT asset management hardware champion. Just like any organizational change, your efforts will not bear fruit until you have the backing of an executive sponsor.
Without this, most of the ITAM strategies fall by the wayside as budgets and priorities shift. Communications, along with understanding the value, will keep the project funded. The ITAM project has to derive value, and you should be able to prove it.
The ITAM should be included from Day 1
The organisation of ITAM implementation has to be precise from day 1. There is a need to get them involved from the start, as it enables them to build the practice from day 1. Once people are handed a process, they are bound to follow it blindly.
When people are involved in the process and not told simply to follow it, they are more interested and will be involved in it.
Begin with a pilot
Do not go overboard and start everything at once. Any type of Big Bang approach is likely to fail, as the key is to pick a manageable plot and work around it. You need to improve it before you extend it to other areas.
Defining critical assets
IT asset management hardware clearly specifies what constitutes a critical asset. It can be software or some form of hardware. Discovery tools are expected to provide you with a huge asset list. Some assets will necessitate greater oversight or administration than others.
There is a need to make an early decision on which assets deserve full attention and are critical to your success. The reason is that it will stop you from being overwhelmed by the volume of data you receive.
Automate
Automation is going to enhance the performance of asset management IT hardware. You need to constantly explore new opportunities for automation, as technology in this area is improving drastically.
What you are manually or repeatedly doing regularly, you need to ask yourself, Can the process be automated? If yes is the answer, there are various opportunities through which you may be able to do the same.
Use a lifecycle-based approach
A lifecycle-based approach to IT asset management hardware, don’t forget to reinvent the wheel. IT hardware management starts from the time a request is made and ends after a device is depreciated.
Exploit data
Do you think you are making the most of the data that you have collected? You need to consider who in your organisation may benefit from ITAM data or from access to manage device changes in a remote or automated session. One popular integration is with the service desk. ITAM data integration with the service desk
- Enhance the overall satisfaction levels for both the business and users of IT.
- Outcome of less escalations
Change management can also benefit from asset data, ensuring that the changes do not consequence in unintended outages or additional topics that could impact critical assets or business users.
Be aware of your software licenses
When it comes to software licence management, knowing what you are entitled to have deployed is critically important. More often than not, organisations fail software audits for over-deployment precisely because they have the right to deploy.
Make it a point to have licence documentation. Make it a point that the ITAM process compares deployed instances with this information. This makes sure that there are no nasty surprises when the software auditor calls.
Feedback is vital for continual improvement.
To facilitate continual improvement, allow for feedback mechanisms. The longer it takes to integrate with IT hardware management, the more you are likely to learn.
One of the things that you can learn from IT asset management hardware is that everything keeps changing. Information technology is one of the static environments out there that keeps changing. If you are dealing with something that keeps on changing, odds are that you will need to manage right along with it.
These are some of the best practices for IT asset management hardware. However, you need to be aware that ITAM needs to be constantly updated and nurtured. If you neglect asset management IT hardware for a reasonable amount of time, it is going to reduce the value of the entire practice. An inaccurate or incomplete dataset will cost you more than having no data at all.