Mining Corporate Gold with IT Asset Management

A free article on Strategic Planning

In today's economy and competitive environment, organizations must continue to improve profitability in order to be considered a viable and worthwhile enterprise. There are many methods used to accomplish this such as reductions in work force, corporate restructuring, avoidance of spending, streamlining and automating processes - and the list goes on.

Another alternative, which has been around for some time and is now gaining in popularity, is to implement a formal IT Asset Management solution to more effectively manage prior and future capital investments in technology.

A consolidated asset management solution will aid in optimizing the business and in maximizing shareholder value, by:

Achieving Capital and Expense Targets

* Hardware and Software Maintenance - With a consolidated enterprise view of hardware and software assets you will be better able to apply the correct coverage to the correct devices and eliminate maintenance coverage for non-existent or non-essential assets.
* Software License Compliance - With a consolidated enterprise view of software assets you will be better able to avoid audits and litigation and assure that compliance is consistently maintained.
* Hardware and Software Acquisitions - With a consolidated enterprise view of hardware and software assets you could better avoid acquiring unnecessary capital acquisitions when inactive or redeployed devices are available in your inventory.
* Application Rationalization - With a consolidated enterprise view of the applications that run on your computing assets you could better determine the total cost of ownership impact or benefit by eliminating particular applications. This will lend support in reducing asset and labor overhead improving organizational efficiency.

Optimizing Cost Structure

* Scaling - Due to ineffective controls, most organizations have too many hardware and software assets to get to where they need to be. These companies will need to significantly reduce the number of assets and improve utilization of each to compete effectively. Having effective control and knowledge of what is in your environment will aid tremendously in necessary tasks such as application rationalization, decommissioning of unnecessary assets, and eliminating costs associated with these unnecessary assets.
* Labor Efficiencies - Many organizations have no centralized control of their assets and often times have too many employees conducting manual data entry across multiple tools. A consolidated asset management solution will significantly diminish this wasted labor and improve quality of information to make better informed business decisions.
* Software and Contract Controls - Another common control issue is in the area of overspend of software license and maintenance fees due to inaccurate inventory information. Furthermore, many companies must rely on vendors to provide entitlement information. A consolidated asset management tool would significantly decrease these vulnerabilities.
* Tracking Assets - In an organization that does not have a centralized solution or organization for managing their assets through the entire lifecycle (acquisition through decommission and disposal) there are additional risks associated with discontinuing payment of maintenance and property tax, and being able to produce proof of proper disposal to ensure EPA regulations are not violated.

Providing Agility, Simplicity and Improved Availability

* Agility - If your IT shop is similar to most, in order for you to further reduce expense and capital costs, it will be necessary for you to move to a provisioning and fulfillment model. Most IT organizations can no longer rely on a "one application per server" approach. Utilizing products such as VMware will require that you have the ability to accurately and efficiently manage applications and data across "farms" of servers, processors and storage. A consolidated asset management tool is absolutely necessary for managing in the virtual server world.
* Availability - Currently, there is no enterprise view of the IT asset portfolio (i.e., servers, storage, desktop, network, software, etc.). A consolidated asset management tool would provide this enterprise view.

Mitigating Privacy and Compliance Risks

* Risk Management - With a solid plan and repeatable asset management processes you will be able to convey a proactive position for your organization to manage licensed products per the contract terms thereby avoiding the risks associated with violation of Federal Copyright laws or fines levied by third party auditing firms such as the Business Software Alliance or the Software and Information Industry Association. Your asset management solution will maintain compliance artifacts as proof that licensed products were legally acquired, configured, and are being utilized in accordance with contract terms.

Improving Stability and Launch Readiness

* IT Projects and Deployments - Minimize the risk of missing or delaying a product or infrastructure launch by having sufficient information about the assets deployed across your enterprise so that you can make a timely, fact based, and cost effective decision about your needs to accomplish a deployment or future capacity adjustments.

Now that you are armed with high-level asset management opportunities and benefits there is no reason for you to continue to manage an inefficient and high cost IT operational environment. In fact, you now have an opportunity to step outside of the box and apply non-traditional methods to streamline your business, improve efficiency, and significantly lower your operational costs.

Article Source: http://www.cyberlines.net/directory

Information about the Author:

Rick Calligaris is a Certified IT Asset Manager (CITAM). He has 20 years of expertise in IT management, business operations, cost cutting, continuous improvement and process engineering. View Rick's Professional Profile!