Every business has several pieces of IT equipment that must be tracked and managed appropriately. To help with that, deploying some IT asset management (ITAM) best practices is a great idea to get you on the right track toward success.
In this article, we’ll cover the basics of ITAM, principles and best practices, and the typical asset management process. Read on to get all the details.
What Are the Basics of Asset Management?
Before getting into IT asset management best practices, let’s quickly cover the basics of what ITAM is and why it’s important.
At its core, ITAM is meant to help businesses get the most value from the IT equipment they invest in. You always want to ensure you’re spending your money and utilizing resources wisely to achieve the highest bottom line.
An ITAM system will help you keep an inventory of equipment, manage it throughout its lifecycle, and keep business processes running at full functionality. There are many routes you can use with asset management, such as software asset management tools, physical hardware storage, and manual inventory systems.
Many companies can run into confusion when getting started, so partnering with a team like Multiply can be a great way to alleviate the stress that comes with ITAM. Our team can help you implement all the asset lifecycle management best practices and processes that we’ll cover in the rest of this article.
What Are the Principles and Practices of Asset Management?
Now that you have a basic idea of what ITAM helps with let’s go over some of its core principles and best practices you can use to run an ITAM system successfully.
What Are the 4 Principles of Asset Management?
There are 4 principles of asset management that define the core of why this system is effective and useful for businesses. The main principles of asset management are:
- Assets are meant to provide value: One of the fundamental concepts and reasons behind the necessity of an ITAM system is that all the computer equipment you buy is meant to provide value. ITAM helps optimize equipment so it can provide the most value possible to help your organization be successful.
- Leadership is important: Another core concept of asset management is that leadership is important to help systems run smoothly. You should designate roles on your IT team and have someone skilled in charge to keep things running smoothly. Additionally, partners like Multiply can also help you run a successful ITAM system.
- Creating organization: ITAM is meant to facilitate organization within business environments. Any time IT equipment malfunctions, it can cause a lot of stress and confusion. Therefore, having a systematic process in place to organize maintenance and repair processes is essential to ensure every situation is handled smoothly.
- Assuring functionality: The regular maintenance and management of assets throughout their lifecycle is meant to provide assurance of functionality. The core processes should help your equipment last longer, perform better, and provide more value to your business.
Overall, these four principles are why ITAM is such a good investment of your time and resources.
What Are the Best Practices of Asset Management?
To help achieve the principles of asset management, there are some common best practices you can follow. Those best practices are:
- Perform self-audits: Your team should regularly conduct self-audits about how you’re managing your computer equipment and the data you’re recording and ensure everyone is following key protocols. It helps protect the business in times of emergency and in case the company’s records are ever audited.
- Designate roles: As mentioned, leadership is essential in ITAM. You should designate roles throughout your IT team to know who’s in charge, who performs maintenance, and who updates inventory systems, among many other tasks.
- Facilitate communication: Systems should be put in place to encourage communication between all teams involved. That way, if the equipment is getting replaced, systems are being updated, or changes to floor plans are being updated, everyone can be informed and prepared. It creates a better working environment.
- Have a financial plan: Since ITAM is about optimizing value, a big part of that is staying on top of the company’s financial situation. There should be a plan in place for spending limitations, how much it’ll cost to replace IT equipment, and estimates for big expenses that will occur.
Following all these best practices will help you be successful in managing assets at each point in their lifecycle.
What Are the 5 Key Stages of Asset Lifecycle Management?
The five key stages of IT asset management lifecycle are:
- Developing and updating an inventory of all the IT equipment your company invests in.
- Procuring new assets as needed due to company expansions or needing to replace old equipment.
- Deploying newly purchased assets with best practices to ensure they get set up and running without issues.
- Routine maintenance and audits to ensure assets continue performing at full capacity.
- Disposition of assets as they age by selling them for the best value or recycling them in accordance with proper regulations.
If you’d like help implementing the best practices of ITAM at each of these key stages, Multiply could be the partner for you.
How Multiply Can Help
Multiply is a team of senior service technicians and IT consultants who partner with companies to help with IT asset and data management. We can assist in setting up audits, conducting inventories, and facilitating communication between all teams involved to make implementing the core ITAM processes much easier.
Contact us today to learn more about how Multiply can help!
