Why your ITAM strategy needs a makeover

Debate of the decade: Team Apple or Team Android?

Everyone's a smartphone owner today. The average life span of a smartphone is two to four years. How do you decide when it's time for an upgrade? Maybe you notice performance issues and take it to an expert who tells you it'd be cheaper to buy a new phone than to repair it. Or perhaps you just feel like you've earned it and splurge on the latest tech gadget. Whatever the reason is, you can make that decision for yourself. However, on a much bigger scale, it's impossible for a sysadmin to evaluate and make decisions for an organization's assets without the help of a dedicated tool.

If your organization has an IT asset management (ITAM) tool in place, then congratulations—you're on the right track. Now, are you confident that the tool is being used to its fullest potential? Probably not. Although it seems pretty straightforward, there are many ways to fine-tune an asset management strategy that are often overlooked. Here are some potential gaps in your ITAM strategy that stand in the way of your business and IT goals, as well as a few solutions that will withstand the test of time.

1. Undefined control center

Asset distribution may be under the control of multiple stakeholders and teams. If multiple verticals are granted the same privileges, the organization loses control and order over its asset management. This also leads to poor visibility at the higher level and interferes with decision-making.

For example, HR has access to resource distribution for employees onboarding, the IT team responds to various asset requests from other departments, and the facilities management team operates separately for its own asset requirements like security and maintenance of the premises. You've got three different verticals operating independently. For the finance team, all this comes under one domain: IT assets. They can only allocate one budget for all annual asset requirements. What they need here is a single source of truth. Organizations need a control center to take charge of asset management and distribution. This centralized team should also be able to share information across departments.

2. Disjointed workflows

Complex workflows that aren't interconnected can result in lower productivity. Your organization applies multiple process streams like change management, capacity planning, incident management, and problem management. ITAM cannot operate independently from them. Instead, it must be weaved in seamlessly with other business and IT functionalities to serve its purpose.

Consider a scenario where Zylker, a pharmaceutical company, is hit with a critical incident. A server that hosts confidential customer data suddenly goes offline. The sysadmin is notified through their monitoring tool about the outage. However, without an integrated system, the sysadmin cannot pull up specific details like hardware and software configurations and maintenance history.

Without a complete asset inventory, it's also hard to figure out whether a recent change in hardware or software caused the issue, resulting in a delay in the incident response time. Downtime continues, and affects its operations for hours. Had Zylker chosen to integrate ITAM with its service desk (ITSM), the sysadmin would have been able to correctly identify the server and its relevant details, assess it's criticality to operations, and diagnose the issue promptly.

Now let's say Zylker needs to upgrade its software. It conducts a preliminary impact analysis on its assets manually, conclude that it would not affect any applications or services, and proceed with the upgrade. Unfortunately, they failed to update their asset documentation and missed out on a new application. After the software upgrade, the application faced unexpected issues, forcing the sysadmin to pause other tasks and respond. This situation could have been avoided with an integration. When ITAM is integrated with a configuration management database (CMDB), it provides clear insight into the CIs mapped to the workflow that are required to deliver a service.

Combine ITAM with the CMDB and service desk. When a user raises a change request, the system automatically identifies all the CIs or assets related to the software. It analyzes the impact on all dependencies to reveal potential risks, allowing the sysadmin to address the risk first, while updating the application, before proceeding with the system upgrade.

3. Absence of AI and automation

AI and ML are crucial aspects of almost every IT process today, and asset management is no exception. Let's take device EOL for instance. If you haven't implemented AI tools yet, there's a good chance you're still relying on averages or guesstimates to make repair vs replace decisions. Your organization could be bleeding money by choosing to hold on to devices that should have been retired months ago. With the technology that is available today, you shouldn't have to make these decisions. ML algorithms can read through past data and provide a more accurate report on whether that five-year old server can be restored or if it would be cheaper to replace it.

Organizations can also leverage AI for proactive detection and immediate response. Here's an example: Zylker uses a talent acquisition solution for managers to update open positions, interview status, and selected candidates. If Zylker's IT team can integrate that database to their asset management tool and allow AI to read through the data, it predicts upcoming asset demand and allows the IT team to procure devices accordingly.

Manual asset tracking and data collection is another time-consuming process that is prone to errors. Small businesses and start-ups tend to rely on manual processes since the asset count is relatively low. Sure, it's easy to update one software on seven devices manually. However, the application and user count are bound to increase over time and it makes more sense to invest in a tool that can automate these processes for you. Redundant tasks like patch and software updates, periodic scans, and report generation can be put on autopilot, allowing your team to focus on other critical tasks.

4. No knowledge sharing

The IT team is primarily responsible for ITAM but it also requires coordination from multiple stakeholders. It can be jarring to bring in a tool out of the blue, particularly for non-IT employees or those with limited technical understanding. And if they don't understand it, they won't use it. Now you've got a tool nobody wants to use and assets you can't keep track of.

To get the most out of an ITAM solution, stakeholders should be involved in the process from the get-go. This means they should have a say in the tool evaluation stage and be provided with adequate training. A knowledge base or manual should be created and updated periodically to keep users in the loop.

Those directly involved should have well-defined roles and responsibilities, as well as standard operating procedures (SOPs). Likewise, they must be made aware of the criticality their role and its impact on the organization. Training is often overlooked in an attempt to cut costs. However, you will reap its benefits in the long run when the organization is compliant with regulations and uses resources effectively.

5. Sustainability on the back burner

Having sustainability goals may not be a top business priority, but it's time to incorporate green IT measures into your ITAM strategy. IT leaders and C-suite executives must understand that organizations have a social responsibility to minimize their environmental impact and meet environmental, social, and governance (ESG) requirements. From a business perspective, environmental concerns and its surrounding regulations have a direct influence on cost management, resource utilization, and risk management.

Let's take the hypothetical example of Velocitech, a manufacturing company based in Europe. Being a mid-sized firm with a restricted budget, they opted to go for low-cost equipment instead of evaluating long-term usage or environmental impact. This led to excessive energy consumption and frequent hardware retirement and disposal. Velocitech's outdated ITAM practices led to improper e-waste disposal far beyond their estimated capacity. Many European countries have strict laws regarding e-waste disposal and a committee to oversee its implementation. Since they were non-compliant, the committee imposed a fine and issued corrective measures for the organization to implement. Unfortunately, this also meant that Velocitech would lose out on government contacts for the foreseeable future-a loss that could have been avoided if they had an eco-friendly approach to asset management.

Tip: A few practices organizations can implement to become sustainable:

• Set quarterly or annual KPIs for reducing environmental impact
• Engage with vendors to procure energy-efficient assets
• Provide an asset maintenance guide for all users
• Create a plan for e-waste and other asset disposal
• Opt for cloud services wherever possible

6. Inconsistency in process controls

ITAM is not a one and done solution that you apply during audit season and forget about when it's over. It should be a part of your daily practice and embedded in the company culture consistently, especially if your organization follows a hybrid work model.

Zoho Corp has adopted an IT asset policy. Just like the code of conduct, safety and security, privacy, and other corporate policies, an ITAM policy sets a standard that employees are expected to adhere to. This documents the types of assets provided, procurement process, and asset lifetime and maintenance. An IT acceptable use policy can also be combined with the asset policy to address appropriate usage and establish professional boundaries with these assets.

The IT team can begin with a basic policy that takes shape along with the organization's growth and technological changes. These guidelines should be clear and concise, ensuring that they do not contradict any existing policies, and can get the message across without unnecessary technical jargon.

7. Using the wrong tool

There's a plethora of options online when it comes to asset management tools. How do you know which one aligns with your needs and is "the one" for your organization?

Velocitech is on its path to becoming an enterprise, but the ITAM solution they've chosen is suited for SMBs. How does that affect their operations? The primary issue is that it interferes with decision-making. CIOs need solid, comprehensible data and reports are key for this. A tool with limited reporting capabilities and scalability will affect an organization with a highly complex IT infrastructure. Velocitech struggled with resource allocation and optimization because the reports could not provide information on crucial assets like servers being underutilized or hardware due for retirement.

When you're on the lookout for a solution, your IT asset management checklist should include:

• Adaptability: Start by defining your objectives and gaps in existing processes (detailed reports, cost reduction, compliance, etc), and identify solutions that prioritize these features.
• Scalability: The tool should be able to scale up along with your operations. If you have a tentative five-year plan, chart the growth of assets and narrow it down to solutions that can accommodate your growth.
• Integrations: Look for a solution that integrates with your existing operations—like your CMDB, service desk, and network management tools—without disrupting operations or causing too many changes.
• Budget: Keep in mind that the cost involved is not just the upfront purchase cost but also includes implementation, training, and annual maintenance costs as well. Allocate your budget accordingly.
• Reporting and analytics: Extensive reports enable efficient decision-making. A simple mantra that helps leaders on their hunt for the right tool.
• Ease of use: Lastly, your ultimate aim is to find a solution that can be easily accepted by all. Seek input from stakeholders and test it out before you invest to ensure quick adoption.