Most companies that develop real time monitoringsystems include proposals associated with IT asset management (ITAM) processes within their products. It is often elusive if we consider that the process of collecting, maintaining, and presenting the monitoring data, once executed, can easily be used to carry out the administration of IT resources.On the other hand, the professionals who are in charge of maintaining the optimal functioning of a company’s platform and systems are usually also responsible for the control and management of computing resources.Therefore, it is not unusual to raise the ITAM issue in sessions to highlight the benefits of a GPS tracking monitor to use as a real-time GPS tracker.
Now, what is a computer asset management system?
Understanding the life cycle of assets
When it comes to a life cycle, we tend to think of the sequence of states in which an organization’s assets transit during the period of ownership. Take the following list as an example of the basic life cycle of assets:
- Planning.
- Obtaining.
- Deploy and discovery.
- Use.
- Maintenance and support.
- Withdrawal and disposition.
Understanding the relationship between assets
Let’s consider an asset such as a Blade Center server for a moment. This type of product consists of many other assets such as chassis, disk controllers, hard drives, memory, blade servers, etc. We can say that the server contains the other assets, but each of them must be inventoried separately. Now our asset management Software has to be designed to reflect this and other types of relationships.
We must also consider the relationship between equipment and consumables or equipment and parts, such as printer cartridges and toner or the printer and its main tray. You may request answers from your IT asset management system to questions such as how many consumables of a given type a printer has consumed in a period, or how many times the main tray of a particular printer had to be replaced in a period.
Defining an effective Deployment and Discovery process
If you are starting a project from scratch or IT asset management processes have already been implemented, discovering and obtaining asset and inventory information from all of that information can be difficult. The main goal is to achieve the level of automation we need to reduce the time and errors associated with manual procedures. In this case, the relationship between ITAM and the real-time GPS tracker could be useful.In the market, we can find GPS tracking monitors integrated into a global IT assistance solution. The benefits are the improvement of the quality of IT services, as well as more information on the use of assets.
The influence of new technologies
The asset base is changing with new emerging technologies such as a server, container, and cloud virtualization. The software licensing challenges, cost optimization, data collection, and security risks involved in these new technologies are very complex.
ITAM is the set of business practices that unite financial, contractual, and inventory functions to support lifecycle management and strategic decision-making for the IT environment. This concept sounds a bit abstract, but in practice, it is easy for all of us. Whatever our role in an organization; it is important to recognize that your technology investment is worth maintaining and protecting.
However, many times what leads companies to achieve the overall objective of protecting their investment in technology for the final implementation of the processes associated with ITAM is usually a crisis. This crisis could be a failed internal or external audit process, the unforeseen payment of a maintenance contract, the sudden need to patch a system without knowing how it is distributed on our platform, etc.
Diversity of assets and their nature:
- Software: operating systems, development tools, utilities (such as office tools, web browsers, antivirus systems, etc.), database systems, end-user application software, server application software, etc.
- Hardware: computers, monitors, keyboards, netbooks, removable media (such as CD-ROMs, DVDs, portable hard drives, PC card storage devices, USB storage devices, etc.), servers, cabling items (such as cable, patch panels, extension cords, patch cords, etc.), network switches, routers, firewalls, modems, PBX and telephones, power supplies, printers, etc.
Once an IT asset management system is installed it can bring many benefits to an organization:
- Better justified purchase plans.
- The definition of asset redistribution plans.
- Improving the quality of IT services.
- Have a better understanding of the cost associated with assets.
- Carrying out better withdrawal and disposal processes.
- The money saved in the acquisition, installation, and maintenance of the technology.
Angelique Chrisafis is the Guardian’s Paris correspondent. She is responsible for churning out quality articles based on her research while keeping an eye on the tech world. She likes technology, gadgets, and food. Works as an individual contributor to the team.
