IT Asset Management

IT Asset Management is a fundamental discipline that enables improved cost control and truer understanding of IT’s business value. It is a set of business practices that join financial, contractual and inventory functions in order to support life cycle management and strategic decision making for the It environment. Asset management is primarily a financial activity. It combines physical, financial and contractual management of IT assets in order to drive costs down and improve service levels.

Asset Management Tools:

1. Asset Tracking Tools avoid over provisioning by tracking IT needs more efficiently and redeploy assets to maximize useful life. Help Desk Support provides an accurate repository of hardware and software information that can help in the diagnosis and solving users’ PC issues. Security helps to identify the physical location of an asset on the network at all times.
2. Asset Management Repository is the critical tool that enables cohesive managing of physical, financial and contractual information to deliver the benefits of IT asset management.

IT Assets include all elements of software and hardware that are found in the business environment. Software Assets include licenses and installed applications. Hardware Assets are the physical components of computers and computer networks. For an IT organization, the following assets need to be tracked: Base Machines, Installed Components, Peripherals, Operating System, Licenced Software, Phones and PBXs.

An Asset Management Tool is a software program that allows technical support personnel to catalog and track an organization’s physical equipment, including PCs, printers and other business devices. A database that contains information on a wide range of features and characteristics about the organization’s assets is located at the base of the applications. With an asset management tool, many areas are integrated for productivity.

An Automated Asset management Tool is a simple means of discovering, auditing, tracking and managing the many and various elements of a company’s IT infrastructure. This process allows the realization of optimum efficiency.

Asset Maintenance Tools help to preserve an asset’s value. Asset maintenance Tools enables targeted action to be taken in a timely and cost effective manner. The Benefits of Asset Maintenance Tools include;

1. Resource control
2. Better cost management and audibility
3. Ability to schedule complex, fast moving workloads
4. Integration with other business systems
5. Improved reliability of physical assets through the application of an effective maintenance program

Base Lines or Base Machines include routers, desktop computers, servers, or any other computer based gear.

End user support involves installing, upgrading and maintaining hardware and software, monitoring network services and running system backups. End user support professionals are responsible for trouble shooting a wide variety of problems. End user support for information systems covers:

1. ensuring that the users are involved and supported in IT related programs
2. provision of support facilities like help desks
3. taking the requirements of end users into account in the specification, design, development, implementation and operation of information systems and services

A Software License is composed of permissions, rights and restrictions imposed on software. Under a software license, the licensee is permitted to use the licensed software in compliance with the specific terms of the license. In an IT asset management system, one key reason for managing the software licenses is to avoid illegal software usage and minimize the risk of the organization’s non-compliance with the terms of the license. The software licenses must be tracked and properly allocated and used.

Asset Documentation makes it possible for an organization to secure asset information in one place, accessible to anyone in the organization. Using asset documentation, the organization can quickly asses their loss as well as their ability to reallocate resources and recover. Asset information, terms of equipment warranties and services contracts and budgets and operating costs are all included in the asset documentation. Asset documentation aids in identifying unused software and hardware assets and helps in improving the life cycle of the network. It also helps in the improvement of the IT operations process.

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