IT Asset Management

[errol_rodericks]

On the 21st of November 2013, we at ServiceNow presented a webinar entitled "Winning The IT Asset Management Challenge". I was joined by my esteemed colleagues David D'Agostino and Andy Crosby and we highlighted to you why IT asset management (ITAM) is more than just tracking barcodes and software licenses and how it is a significant contributor to the success of your business helping with the control of inventory levels and consumption, enforcement of standards and policies, and maintenance of accurate records throughout an asset's entire lifecycle. This in turn, helps avoid massive unplanned expenses, increase productivity and provide visibility for decision makers.

The role of ITAM in ITSM
So when and where do you start to address ITAM (IT Asset Management)? Well firstly, one must acknowledge that ITAM is crucial to the service life cycle that is now described as part of ITIL Version 3 Service Asset and Configuration Management. Simply knowing where your infrastructure assets are and in what state they are in, can provide service continuity and availability and can enable the management IT services costs. It also helps with chargeback of services and also with the reuse or retirement of assets thus contributing to better IT financials. The support provided for the basic service management processes is also crucial in resolving problems and dealing with incidents that speed up time to market for new services being deployed and also for reducing the risks associated with such changes.

A single system of record
An ITAM repository is not the same as a CMDB (Configuration Management Database). Information relating to asset inventory management, contract management, financials and vendor management are included in such a repository. Also the processes associated with maintaining such information are different and need to be as automated and integrated as possible. However, the information is linked to other repositories including the CMDB, financials, resources, documents and having all of this in one repository ecosystem has benefits associated with reduction in errors, speed improvements and cost reduction. The metrics for measuring successful ITSM and ITAM are different but linked too. Thus shared knowledge and integrated processes on a single platform is a good thing! Combine this with the benefits of SaaS where you do not need to worry about system upgrades, backward compatibility and implementation challenges and you are onto a winner.

Who is involved
Within an organization, there is a community involved in ITSM and its related processes and information. While there is overlap, the community involved in ITAM is not exactly the same. Asset requesters can be different and often one also has procurement, legal (contracts), logistics and warehouse (receivers), financial and other planning (resource management and capital expenditure), compliance and also those involved with the retirement of assets. Often these people have different business objectives that must be addressed and met. Any platform used to address ITAM must make provisions for all of these stakeholders in terms of process automation, integration and reporting. Typically, ITSM rolls up under the CIO while ITAM is under the domain of the CFO.

Assets in the cloud
With the success of cloud based services and infrastructure deployment comes the added challenge of being able to deploy, track, manage and retire assets in the cloud and the ability to address highly virtualized environments is a must if you are to achieve successful ITAM in the modern world. Any platform capable of discovering assets in the cloud and tracking them is highly valuable.

And finally
A final word to emphasize that while we address IT Assets here, the discipline can be applied to some of the other assets managed within an organization and while we have primarily addressed ITSM in the past, more than 70% of our customers have gone on to deploy ServiceNow in other areas of the business.

More information on IT Asset Management

You will find below the presentation. It is only available to community members, so please login to access.