IT Asset Management Guide for Large Companies

Importance of IT for Large Companies

In the transition period to the digital economy, in today's world where everything evolves from traditional to digital, can companies and institutions adequately adapt to this transformation? The business environment is now getting more competitive. Competitors are spreading from local to global and organizations are turning to various methods and solutions in order to increase their efficiency even more.

Large-scale companies need an advanced IT structure as they carry out large-scale operational activities. Businesses with advanced IT structures save time and labor by automating many micro and macro business processes through applications, hardware and systems. For this reason, the level of development of the IT structure is critical for the competition of large companies.

What is IT Transformation?

IT transformation is the strategy implemented to prepare your hardware, software, systems and methods for the challenges of both today and the future to keep your business competitive. One of the biggest drivers of a successful business is efficiency and the ability to automate routine tasks.

IT transformation involves making smart investments in your compute, storage, and network layers to strike the right balance of cost, performance, and efficiency, with the ability to scale as needed.

Although the IT department is responsible for IT transformation, it should not be forgotten that it is a culture transformation. All company employees should support the building of this culture.

What is IT Asset Management?

IT asset management is the business process for monitoring and evaluating applications, hardware and systems in companies. IT asset management ensures that inventories of all technology assets owned by the company are kept. In this way, companies evaluate the assets in their IT inventories according to IT value and cost, enabling the detection of inefficient applications.

The purpose of IT asset management is to ensure that IT resources are used properly, efficiently and effectively within an organization.

IT asset management helps identify hardware and software assets in an organization, their location and current status. It also helps determine whether these assets are being used optimally, or if they should be redeployed or retired.

The goal of IT asset management is to make sure that the company has the right amount of hardware and software at all times. This ensures that the company can continue to operate smoothly while keeping costs low.

ITAM enables companies to make their IT infrastructures more visible and to simplify their enterprise architecture. As a result of all this, the IT structure of the company becomes optimized. Thus, the IT budget is spent in the most efficient way.

The most important functions of IT asset management include:

• Asset tracking: A good IT asset management tool will allow you to keep an eye on all of your company's computers, servers, printers and other technology devices so that you can see when they're due for an upgrade or replacement.
• Asset monitoring: This function enables you to monitor what's going on with each device in real-time so that if any problems arise, you'll be able to address them before they become major issues.
• Asset inventory tracking: This function allows you to keep track of how many devices are currently in use within your organization so that you know exactly how many items are needed when it comes time for upgrades or replacements.

Benefits of IT Asset Management

The benefits of IT asset management (ITAM) are many. Not only does it help you to stay on top of your IT assets, but it can also save you money, time and frustration.

Here are some of the most important ITAM advantages:

• ITAM helps to reduce costs by avoiding unnecessary purchases, maintaining existing equipment longer than necessary or purchasing new equipment unnecessarily early. By having a clear understanding of your current hardware inventory and software licenses, you can make informed decisions about whether you need to upgrade an existing piece of hardware or software or replace it altogether.
• ITAM helps you to plan ahead. For example, if you know that your server will need upgrading in three years’ time, you can start saving now so that the cost is less than if you wait until the last minute.
• ITAM improves security by reducing the risk of data theft or loss through theft or human error when handling sensitive data or confidential information. It also allows for better protection against cybercrime such as ransomware attacks and phishing scams by ensuring that all company devices are properly secured with up-to-date antivirus software and other security measures such as firewalls, encryption software and password protection systems.

Additionally, ITAM helps organizations to comply with data security regulations such as HIPAA, GLBA and PCI DSS by keeping track of their data storage devices and ensuring that they are properly disposed of when no longer needed.

Application Portfolio Management in Large Companies

Application Portfolio Management (APM) is the inventory build process for the management of in-house software and SaaS applications. Application portfolio management supports companies to perform application rationalization. Companies that perform the APM process find answers to the following questions.

• How many apps do I have?
• How much do these apps cost?
• Who uses these apps?
• When is the license renewal date for these apps?
• Are there duplicate applications?
• Are there any ghost apps?

Hardware Asset Management in Large Companies

Computers, notebooks, monitors, servers, printers, converters, machines are called hardware. Large companies have thousands of hardware assets. Hardware asset management is the name given to the business process for monitoring and management of hardware in companies.

Hardware asset management is of course not a one-time process. HAM encompasses management throughout the lifecycles of hardware assets. With an effective HAM process, you can have the answers to the following questions.

• How many hardware assets do we have?
• Who uses these hardware assets?
• Where are these hardware assets located?
• When were these hardware assets purchased?
• When are our hardware maintenance dates?
• Are these hardware assets still under warranty?

Integration Inventory Management in Large Companies

Large companies have large and complex business processes. Companies integrate systems and applications to simplify these processes. This is why large companies have hundreds & thousands of integrations running behind their operations. Because some of these integrations are vital, companies need to better monitor and manage their integrations.

Integration inventory management enables companies to create an inventory of system and application integrations and monitor the connection of these integrations with each other.

IT Cost Management in Large Companies

Large companies have large IT budgets. But that doesn't mean they can use the budget inefficiently. The CIO is responsible for the most effective use of this budget. CIOs must communicate the benefit and IT value of technology assets from acquisitions to the board.

This is where IT cost management comes into play. With cost management, companies evaluate their IT assets according to their costs and IT value and detect the assets with unnecessary costs. Companies need an effective ITAM policy to optimize cost. ITAM enables companies to make decisions that will optimize IT costs with the reports and insights it provides.

IT Asset Management Software for Large Companies

Loggle is an IT Asset Management software that provides end-to-end ITAM solutions. Loggle provides a single IT inventory management platform for simplifying and transparency of complex IT infrastructure in large companies. With Loggle, companies can keep an inventory of their applications, hardware, integrations and systems and manage the lifecycles of the assets in this inventory.