On its surface, Asset Management seems to be about tracking your hardware and software assets, which is important to organizations concerned about theft, but it’s hardly revolutionary. A deeper inspection shows a key piece of IT management software that has implications on everything from costs to compliance and cybersecurity.
Asset management doesn’t simply tell you which employee has what piece of hardware, or the floor and where each printer is located on. The module is used extensively by IT teams to keep employees productive and networks secure.
Delivering Calculatable ROI with IT Asset Management System Software
There are at least three areas where IT teams use Asset Management tools to reduce costs.
Software licensing is one of the IT department’s biggest expenses. Research has shown that 30% of all software licenses are unused, and another 8% are rarely used. As a result, IT teams are wasting more than a third of their licensing budget on software that no one is using. For large companies, the overspending reaches millions of dollars, while small and midsize companies frequently find themselves spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in unused software licensing.
At the same time, some companies overuse their licenses, putting themselves at risk of significant penalties from software vendors.
Asset management tools enable IT teams to manage their software licenses, ensuring that they aren’t spending too much on licenses or at risk of onerous penalties for using unlicensed software. Introducing automation tools within the asset management tool can simplify software license management.
Tracking assets also provides insight to IT teams regarding the hardware being used. These tools include notes on incidents involving laptops, printers, network tools, peripheral items, and other hardware.
Running monthly reports that look at models, brands, and hardware types can help IT teams identify assets that frequently break down and guide them when making future purchases. As a result, future purchases are optimized based on reliability.
A third area where Asset Management tools help save money is productivity. The faster issues can be resolved, the more productive team members can be. By tracking all incidents that relate to specific hardware or software, helpdesk agents can review the history and resolve issues in a fraction of the time.
Using IT Asset Management Software to Ensure Compliance
Asset management plays an important role in ensuring a company’s network complies with industry regulations or partner requirements.
Asset Management tools enable organizations to easily generate lists of hardware and software they are using, which can be checked against the policies of industry regulators or partners. Without an effective tool in place, it would be nearly impossible to demonstrate that every asset used meets the requirements that are demanded of them.
Checking on Security with IT Asset Management
Cyberattacks pose a significant threat to business continuity. Companies that are held hostage by ransomware or find themselves unable to provide services due to a DDoS attack often find their viability as a company is at risk. According to Cybercrime Magazine, 60% of small companies go out of business within six months of a cyberattack, while CNBC reported that cyberattacks cost businesses an average of $200,000.
As cyberattacks continue to increase, we’re also seeing a global shortage of cybersecurity professionals. More and more businesses lack the personnel to properly defend their network.
More than ever, it’s vital that IT teams keep their software and hardware up to date with security, which is where Asset Management tools play a large role. As mentioned earlier, asset management helps to eliminate unused software. This is important from a security point of view because unused software is often forgotten about. It goes unpatched, creating security vulnerabilities that can be exploited by cybercriminals.
The Bottom Line on Asset Management
Asset management is an undervalued tool by most management teams, who view it as a way to track where all their company devices are located.
In reality, it is a mission-critical tool that delivers real value to businesses. It limits unnecessary license spending while protecting against penalties for using unlicensed software, guides IT teams in future purchases, and helps teams get back to work faster.
The tool also validates teams’ claims that they are compliant with software requirements and guides IT teams to deploy software patches cyberthreats strike.
