What is IT Asset Management?

By: Matt Shanklin LinkedIn | December 30, 2015

Without good IT asset management software, “asset management” is basically one of your team members walking around with a clipboard writing down model numbers and guessing what software is on each computer. If that’s where you’re at in your asset management, it’s hard to even begin to catalog information like whether software licenses are up-to-date without a lot of frustrating, intensive labor.

There’s a reason that IT asset management is a cornerstone of ITIL. It gives you the framework to document and manage the lifecycle of each IT asset from when it’s first requested to retirement of the asset, and all of the moves in between. When the service desk has details on each IT asset and where it resides, IT workers can provide continuity of service and can better manage service costs. If you follow the ITIL framework, or at least jump on a few of the best practices, you are setting yourself up for success through a robust IT asset management program.

What is Good Asset Management?

The goals of ITIL asset management include:

Acquiring appropriate IT assets while keeping costs low and benefits high
Optimizing the use of each IT asset
Disposing of IT assets when cost of maintaining them exceeds their benefits
Providing information necessary for regulatory compliance, license renewal, and contract renewal

An ITIL asset management program allows for better incident and problem management by providing IT service desk workers with important asset details. This can improve resolution rates and keep repair time short. It also makes it easier to move, add, or change configurations by connecting service information to specific assets. And, a good asset management program makes it easier to track software licenses and warranties so that your business can avoid unnecessary repair charges or fines for breaching license terms. This helps keep IT service management costs down.

ITIL Best Practices for IT Asset Management

ITIL best practices suggest a staged implementation of IT asset management, from incident management through configuration management. It is also suggested that service metrics be introduced from the start, and that recurring tasks be automated whenever possible.

Organizations should treat ITIL asset management as a means rather than an end. ITIL best practices are the foundation for better IT service management and don’t in themselves add up to better IT service. ITIL should be a guide, not a rigid set of implementation blueprints. ITIL best practices improve IT asset management, reduce risks and are a pivotal part to a company’s overall IT service management program.

Benefits of an ITIL Asset Management Program

With an ITIL-guided asset management program, your business will be better equipped to:

Manage asset compliance
Reduce unnecessary purchases
Redeploy IT assets quicker
Manage contract service levels
Automate contract renewal
Improve budgeting
Improve management of depreciable assets
Reduce payments made due to ignorance of warranty status
Better measure and control IT costs
Manage every asset from requisition through retirement

How the Right IT Service Desk Software Helps ITIL Asset Management

The “right” IT service desk software doesn’t add to asset management problems by being difficult to implement and upgrade. This is why so many IT service desks are moving toward cloud-based IT service desk software, allowing all customers to use the same and latest software version. Beyond that, when your IT service desk software has great asset management features like: