Best IT Asset Management Software

What IT Asset Management Software?

IT asset management software is a set of business practices that consolidate IT assets across business units within the entire organization. It merges the financial, inventory, and risk management responsibility and manages the entire lifecycle of crucial assets. In simple words, asset management software is a dedicated application that is used to track and record the details of an asset throughout its entire lifecycle starting from procurement until it is disposed of. It provides an organization with detailed information on the location of the assets, the people who are using it, and how they are using it. This asset tracking software is used to manage both software and hardware asset.

An asset tracking system is also sometimes referred to as IT inventory management software or asset management tool because it involves gathering detailed information about the hardware and software inventory information which is then used to decide how purchases are made and how assets are used. Having an accurate IT asset tracking software helps the organizations to use their assets more effectively by re-using the existing resources and avoid making unnecessary purchases.

An asset management system keeps track of each and every aspect of an asset and it a crucial part of the organization. Besides tracking assets it is also used to provide additional functions like:

• Measuring the performance of the vendor

• Optimization of the supplier portfolio

• Vendor policy and vendor audit compliance

• Optimization of licensing costs

• Streamlining of procurement processes

Why is an Asset Management System Important?

Asset Management Software provides all the necessary details associated with a company’s assets. It includes – asset procurement, delivery and deployment, inventory locations, product utilization, and a lot more. An organization can maximize resource utilization and track the performance of vendors as well as the suppliers with its help. Asset tracking software is vital because of the reasons discussed below. However, its usage doesn’t confine to these points only, and the real importance is understood only upon implementation.

1. Rectifies Risks at Early Stages

The software keeps track of the usage and ownership of various assets. With a high level of documentation, any deviation from the ideal progress-road is easily identified. The company can hence avoid the risks that can be mitigated and prepare in advance to counter those that aren’t avoidable. The approach of “prevention” as well as “cure” is inculcated in the digital asset management software.

2. Understand the Real-World Value of Assets

A manually operated asset management system can keep track of the company’s resources, but it cannot instantly match its real value with the existing competition. The asset tracking software monitors the capabilities of all the assets and notifies the organization about its effective utilization. This way, no assets are under or over-utilized.

3. Enhance the Prevailing Financial Stability and Accuracy

Periodic evaluation of the inventory ensures that the stored data is precise and aligns with the manual paperwork. Asset management software regularly checks on the various attributes of the assets and thereby increases financial accuracy. With error-free progress, the company attains financial stability as the asset’s operations are kept in check.

4. Keep a Track of Asset Maintenance

The expenditure on maintenance for any business is very critical. Organizations want to ensure that there’s no budget overflow because of maintenance, and at the same time, assets should not be under-maintained. The asset management software guides the business with regards to appropriate investment in maintenance and helps to save precious money.

Benefits of IT Asset Management System

1. Better Inventory Tracking 

With so many tasks at hand, IT staff members have very little time to keep everything in place within their infrastructure. Having fixed asset inventory software in place will help you identify, track, and classify assets across vendors.

This will allow the senior managers to have a clear picture of what assets are now available and what they will need in the near future. Monitoring each and every technology can be tiresome and complex at the same time, but with enterprise asset management software you will be easilgood asset tracking softwarey and accurately tracking your resources.

2. Improved Provisioning

By using a fixed asset tracking system, the organization will be able to track licenses and use the appropriate hardware to improve cost savings. A capable Asset management partner will be able to identify the underperforming resources and will recommend better ways to improve the capabilities. Using this information the company leaders can support their employees with useful tools and discontinue using outdated technologies and services.    

3. Controls Expenses

 Asset management software can help you keep your budget within the limit as it will curtail extra expenses It will help you to actively utilize your current software licenses, purchase new ones, reclaim or reallocate existing licenses for unused software.

4. Avoid Penalties

Software damage can make you liable for damages if you are not prepared in advance. An online asset management software will help you stay updated on your licensing needs and also keeps track of the renewal dates of the software you are using.

5. Enhanced Security

An asset management software will help you to manage both hardware as well as software risks. Software risks comprise compliance where you can identify issues related to access and permissions and also make sure that only authorized users are able to access it. Plus an asset management software also helps you to avoid hardware problems as you can easily identify issues related to software computability, and completely understand the hardware properly.

Features to Look for While Purchasing a Fixed Asset Management System

The following factors should be considered before purchasing a best-fixed asset management software

Impact Of IT Asset Management Solutions

1. Planned Purchases and Deployment

When you have a great IT asset management solution, your understanding of the IT requirements of users and organizations improves a great deal. This helps you in well-planned purchase and deployment decisions well ahead of time with better pricing terms.

2. Business Continuity

With a centralized repository of all your IT assets, software licenses, device locations, dependencies, and configuration data available, the IT team can ensure faster data backup, smooth migration of operations to alternate sites, and speedy recovery from disasters. IT Asset Management Software can help build redundancies and failsafe mechanisms to cope with any eventuality.

3. Optimal Utilization

Asset management system keeps all data updated, so you can eliminate waste and improve utilization ratios. You can identify resources that are being underutilized and deploy them to locations or users who have more pressing needs.

4. Better Compliance

Asset management solutions can help you keep track of all licenses and subscriptions and their terms. You can check which users or devices have the software installations and if they are authorized to use them. By avoiding non-compliance with license and subscription terms, you avoid facing exorbitant legal and penal costs.

5. Reduce Total Cost of Ownership

The total cost of ownership (TCO) of an asset is not the acquisition price but the costs incurred over its entire lifetime. Managing TCO effectively, the overall costs due to duplication, overstocking, mishandling, etc., can all be eliminated.

6. Standardization

Acquiring sub-standard IT hardware and downloading pirated software can cost your organization a fortune. When something goes wrong, you don’t have any means to avoid the catastrophic outcomes. ITAM brings standardization in hardware quality, services, and license terms and helps the team be more productive and prevent disasters.

What is the Life Cycle of an IT Asset?

The lifecycle of an IT asset helps the organization to understand and monitor its assets. With prior knowledge of any asset’s probable future, smart decisions can be taken beforehand. There are five stages in the life cycle of an IT asset. They are:

Stage 1: Procurement

In the very first stage, the asset is added to the rest of the inventory. Here, it transforms from a market product to a company’s asset. The asset finds its right place amidst the other IT assets, and soon after begins stage 2

Stage 2: Deployment

Stage 2 marks the beginning of the implementation phase. The asset now comes into the “running” or “executing” phase and is put to use by the company employees. Relationships are mapped between the newly added asset and the pre-existing ones

Stage 3: Monitor and Maintenance 

In this stage, the asset is evaluated based on its ROI, and the depreciation over time is also calculated. All the legal licensing and compliance aspects of the IT asset are handled.

Stage 4: Support

The productivity and usage of the asset are being monitored. The technical staff looks into the contractual agreements of the asset alongside the expiry dates. The support stage marks the fall in the asset's life cycle graph.

Stage 5: Final Disposal

All the data associated with the IT asset is removed. The internally linked ecosystem is informed about the removal of the asset. The status of the asset is finally updated to disposed of or expired.

How to Start Managing IT Assets Using Asset Management Software?

1. Optimize your Hardware Assets

Every organization owns many computer hardware, including servers, desktops, network equipment, etc. the first step is to know accurately and entirely about the availability, location, use, custody, and status of these hardware assets. This will help you identify underutilized resources, obsolete systems, and systems in need of maintenance.

2. Software License Compliance

Your IT asset management tool must centrally manage all licenses’ details with specific terms and usage locations and user privileges. The ITAM must allow an audit of such software resources to check if any license terms are being violated. It must also alert the manager for renewal of the license before time.

3. Improve IT Services Management

A reliable IT asset management solution must offer automated and comprehensive incident management, ticket management, and issue redressal mechanisms. If a single system manages your IT assets and issues, then identifying the cause of the problem and cross-referencing can make the resolution process quick.

4. Better Inventory Management

With a centralized IT asset management tool, with an inventory module, you can track procurement, delivery, returns, disposals, and movement of all IT assets from one platform. You can easily plan future procurement needs or check when service contracts need renewal.

Future Trends In Asset Management Systems

1. Human-Centered Design

Asset management may be managed by software and used by human users for maintenance, purchase decisions, and software installations. Therefore, a system with a human-centric approach would put the users’ needs above the system’s needs and find a way to converge them.

2. Adaptable Systems

The increasing push for BYOD, work-from-home, and shared office spaces will bring new asset management solutions. The IT workplace is no longer an island isolated from the rest of the world but is actively interleaving with it. The system must be flexible and adaptable to accommodate all these unforeseen future changes to the IT workspace environments.

3. Improved Lifecycle Visibility

Many systems cannot still give a comprehensive lifecycle view of any IT asset to the last detail. With a more granular approach to lifecycle management, improved visibility of IT asset lifecycle is an option in great demand.

4. Cloud-Based Solutions

Remote teams, work-from-home, and shared office data centers also challenge managing the IT assets from a private network. Therefore, more and more ITAM systems would migrate to cloud-based solutions offering more services from anywhere and any device. ITAM systems would also adopt the subscription model that is popular among most cloud-based software systems.

5. Preventive Maintenance

Sudden disruptions and inadequate backup plans prove to be the Achilles’ heel for most organizations. An ITAM system with capabilities for preventive maintenance can help avoid big disasters with proper care. The must-have features like robust asset maintenance planning, checklists, team allocation, cross-verification, user rating, and reminders to add value.

6. Real-time Data Analysis

An ITAM solution that offers real-time organization-wide data analysis in graphical dashboard-style will be in demand. With real-time analysis, you can identify peak hours or peak loads and plan your asset deployment accordingly. The real-time analysis would also help identify problems at the source before they propagate through the system.

What To Look For When Choosing The Best Asset Management Software?

The objective of an ITAM system is to help the CTO create a centralized repository of all data and information that can help the IT team achieve organizational goals. The varied nature of IT assets, multiple locations, cloud-based access to systems, security concerns, and many other factors makes it challenging.

When you are scouting for an IT Asset Management Software, you must look for the following core and ancillary capabilities in it:

• Easy Data Import/Export.
• Centralized Repository to manage all IT assets.
• Support for defining a relationship between Assets, Users, and usage privileges.
• Easy integration with existing business systems.
• Support for Tracing and Audit.
• License, Subscription, and Compliance Tracking.
• Configuration and Setting Repository.
• Asset Lifecycle Tracking.
• Inventory Management.
• Issues, Tickets, and Maintenance Management.
• Requisition and Procurement Management.
• Vendor and Servicing Management.

Top 5 IT Asset Management Software

1. ManageEngine Asset Explorer Review

This Asset tracking system is available in 29 languages and the price for this one begins at $795 per year for 250 assets. It is an affordable and Full-featured asset management solution for global and distributed companies that are looking for cloud-based asset management software. It comes with excellent reporting and relationship mapping.

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