Information Technology Asset Management (ITAM)

T Asset Management (ITAM) is a type of business management that is directly tied to an enterprise's IT infrastructure. ITAM is essentially a form of business process management (BPM) that focuses on the overall deployment, use and lifespan of products, rather than other IT management components.With ITAM, professionals review the an organization's total business hardware and software inventory and make comprehensive decisions about sourcing, use and all other aspects related to an asset lifecycle. ITAM managers are responsible for maintaining control over inventory and ensuring that business assets fit the organization's operating needs. Other ITAM goals include compliance with industry standards, best practices for environmental usage and efficient asset reuse or purchases.

Evaluating an Information Technology Asset Management (ITAM) System When an organization is evaluating and later configuring an ITAM system, there are many key criteria to consider, including:

• Which assets you have and how they are expensed
• What you’re tracking – the real-time status of servers or websites or the physical tracking of assets
• Personnel resources – how much time is currently being spent on IT asset management and what is the potential cost savings of an automated solution
• Budgeting and Use Cases – which parts of the organization can contribute to the upfront costs associated with an advanced ITAM system – and how that contribution will be offset by the overall gains realized by the solution
• Customization – what are the requirements for your organization’s needs for customization. This could be based on pre-existing ITAM processes that are in place, based on ITIL Service Asset and Configuration Management, or could be based on organization-specific needs or software configurations
• Integration with help desk ticketing, services and/or other IT services/solutions

Further Reading

• IT asset management: How to be efficient