Are you researching IT asset management (ITAM) but need help figuring out where to start or what is considered an IT asset in the first place? Many business leaders run into the same question, so you aren’t alone.
In this article, we’ll explore some IT asset examples to help you learn what IT assets are to identify them in your company’s operations. We’ll also explain what’s included in asset inventories and some best practices for success in the IT asset management process. Read on for all the details.
What Is An IT Asset & What's Included?
First, you probably want to have a defined IT asset meaning. IT assets include any computer equipment you spend money on that provides value to your business. That can range include personal computers, software, and networking and connectivity equipment.
However, there are some types of assets that are the most essential to optimize for success. Namely, the most important being hardware assets like personal computers, hard drives, and sever units. If these assets aren’t functional, you can’t make proper use of software or other digital systems.
That’s why our team at Multiply chooses to focus on hardware asset management. We’ll help you align those most critical assets for success, which will have a ripple effect across other business operations.
What Are Some Key IT Assets?
Now let’s take a look at a list of IT assets that will be most important for you to optimize in your operations. Those include:
- Personal Computers: Devices used for day-to-day computing tasks and productivity, including both desktop computers and laptops.
- Servers: Powerful systems that manage network resources, facilitate data storage, and provide services to multiple users.
- Network Switches: Devices that enable connection and communication between devices within a local area network (LAN), facilitating data transfer.
- Storage Devices (Hard Drives or Solid-State Drives): Devices used to store and retrieve digital data, ranging from internal drives within computers to external storage devices.
- UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply): Backup power supply devices that provide temporary power in the event of a power outage or voltage fluctuations, protecting IT assets from potential damage.
As you can tell, each of these key assets can have a huge impact on business operations. That’s why managing them effectively is important. That process usually starts by creating an effective IT asset inventory.
What Is Included in IT Asset Inventory?
An IT asset inventory can include many of the specifics of each piece of computer equipment. Some of the most common aspects of IT asset inventories are:
- Asset location: Many companies, especially those with multiple locations, will want to track exactly where each IT asset is located. The location can be a certain city where a company office is or a department within the building.
- Cost and current value: Since asset management is all about maximizing the value of each asset, keeping track of the initial cost and current value of the equipment is an excellent idea. Plus, it helps when going into asset disposition to know what the resale potential of equipment is.
- Lifecycle stage: When going through the asset management process, there are various stages assets could be at in their lifecycle. For instance, one computer could be in deployment while another one is beginning the disposition process. It helps keep tabs on everything going on within the company.
While these three aspects are often prevalent in inventories, there are several other specifics you may track. Let’s take a look at a quick IT asset list template to see what it could contain.
IT Asset List Template
When setting up an IT asset inventory list in a spreadsheet, some headings you may want to use for information on each asset are:
- Asset ID
- Description
- Category
- Manufacturer Model
- Serial Number
- Purchase Date
- Purchase Cost
- Current Value
- Location
- Lifecycle Stage
- Assigned To
Entering information in each of these categories will give you a good overview of each asset you own. However, this is just a short list of what a complete ITAM system may track. Plus, using manual spreadsheet systems for this process takes a lot of work to manage and scale.
If you want more comprehensive information about each piece of equipment, our complete asset journey platform that our team at Multiply uses can help to give you complex data in a way that’s still easy to understand.
What Is the Importance of an IT Asset Inventory?
An IT asset inventory is important because you must keep tabs on how your assets are progressing throughout each stage of their lifecycle. That way, you know what their value is, if they’re being used effectively, and when old assets need to be replaced to improve performance in daily business functions.
Ultimately, your inventory and ITAM system will help you optimize business operations and get the most value out of what you own. It’s an essential system to have in place.
What Is IT Asset Management?
IT asset management is the process of tracking and optimizing computer equipment your business owns for success throughout its lifecycle. It starts with asset discovery and inventory to gather data about each piece of computer equipment and follows each unique stage from purchasing new equipment to deploying and maintaining it to disposing of it as it ages.
If you want help at each stage of the ITAM lifecycle, our team at Multiply will be an excellent partner that can help.
How Multiply Can Help
When you aren’t experienced in ITAM, it can feel like a tricky process to get started. If you’d like a partner to help guide the way, our team of service technicians and consultants at Multiply are experts in the field with over a decade of experience.
When you bring our team on board, we can help you get started with asset discovery and creating an easily manageable inventory system. Plus, we can conduct regular audits for compliance, help you optimize performance, and bridge communications between every team involved.
Contact us today for more information on how we help with IT assets and data management!
