“ITAM is a mandate, not an option.” Compliance issues, the need for accountability to management and heightened cost concerns have transformed IT asset management into a critical, next-level business discipline.

If you answered no to any of these questions, then you are at the beginning phase of IT Asset management.  An IT asset is dynamic in nature; therefore, it is imperative that your organization can keep up with the pace.

Many organizations feel the first place to start is with a physical inventory.  So, they hire a company to tell them where all of their assets are.  While this may seem like an appropriate starting point, an important thing to remember is that this data will not remain static.  With that in mind, how long will this data really be viable?   Particularly if it takes months to compile before it is utilized.

A better solution would be to come up with a strategic plan for managing your IT assets, then identify the tools that will best support your plan, and most importantly define all of the processes to support the infrastructure identified. Unfortunately, there is no magic product that can fix your companies IT asset management pitfalls and processes do not change overnight.  However, there are many tools, which can help your organization achieve its asset management goals.  Nahteava can help you find the right tool for your environment and define the processes to support it.

If your organization cannot determine basic asset tracking Information such as where assets are and who is using them, there is likely little to no total cost of ownership data to analyze.

Defining, changing, or implementing asset management related processes could be one of the hardest objectives for an organization.  This is where hiring an outside organization, such as Nahteava can be extremely beneficial.  Nahteava works with your organization as a third party providing a non-biased approach outside of the corporate politics and can utilize industry knowledge to help tailor a plan for your specific organization.

While there are best practices – no two organizations are exactly alike, and it is important that the processes and tools are customized to meet the individual needs of an organization.

Each of these pieces should be thought about not just in terms of the physical asset, but the financial aspects related to that asset as well.  For example: when an asset is moved, there is more than just the physical move to consider.  There are costs involved, which can vary from the technician sent to complete the move, network drops, etc.

Another example: when an asset is retired, it is important to be able to know if the asset was leased or purchased.  A purchased asset is often tracked and depreciated by the accounting or financials department; so, they will need to be notified to remove this asset from the books. By defining processes, your organization can move from asset tracking to asset management.