How to implement IT asset management into your business

What do you do after your organisation has chosen a specific IT asset management software to use? Or maybe your company is just beginning to realise the need for IT asset management, but you don’t really know how to go about enforcing it.

Implementing an IT asset management system into your business can seem daunting. But with some supportive guidelines, and the right mindset, it can be done. Here’s a quick breakdown of how your business can work towards implementing IT asset management.

Create a strategy, define your goals:

Start by identifying what the goals of your business are when it comes to IT asset management. The most common reasons that organisations like to employ IT asset management are to make registering, tracking, and managing their IT assets easier, or to improve their productivity and increase their operational efficiency.

To work towards reaching the goals that have been set, break them down into small, specific, and measurable targets. Analyse how an IT asset management framework can get you from where you are right now, to where you need to be.

As your business scales, you can take a step back to re-assess your needs and goals and amend them as you see fit.



Define your IT assets:

What does your organisation classify as an IT asset? IT assets exist in many forms. They can range from hardware to software, employee laptops to enterprise-level network servers. It's important to classify what your business will define as an IT asset. This helps your organisation understand the scope of everything that will fall under its IT asset management.

To make things a bit easier, you can group together certain IT assets when they tend to exist in a group or pair throughout their use. For example, the mouse and keyboard that new employees in your organisation are given could be paired together as one set or one kit.

Give your IT assets a unique identity:

Tagging or assigning a unique identification code, number, or name to each IT asset is a crucial step. This unique identification, possibly in the form of a bar code or QR code, helps IT asset management software to easily track a company’s IT assets.

Without any identifying factor, it leaves the IT assets at risk of misuse, damage, or theft. It also makes it hard to enforce the accountability and responsibility of users towards their assigned devices.

Adopt the IT asset management life cycle approach:

While addressing the IT asset management prospects of a business, it is best practice to acknowledge and utilise the IT asset management life cycle. It covers the fundamentals of the end-to-end processes of IT asset management.

Here is a quick summary of each stage in the cycle:

1. Planning: Where a business analyses its need for new IT assets, subsequently plans a budget and allocates funds for the same.
   
   
2. Procurement: Where a business uses its allocated budget to procure the necessary IT assets. This can be done through renting, leasing, buying, or other methods of acquisition.
   
   
3. Integration: Where the acquired IT assets need to start being put into use. The business needs to set up all its IT assets-installations, updates, enabling user access, and other similar tasks- then assign them to the respective users.
   
   This step is key when it comes to IT asset management. Devices need to be tagged or ID’d in the right way, and assigned to the right employees, and data regarding the same needs to be well accessible and well-managed.
   
   
4. Management: Where a business manages the day-to-day operation of its IT assets. After proper set-up of the IT devices, this is the stage in which they are closely tracked, routine maintenance is scheduled, and alerts are in place for when repairs are required, or when licenses are due to expire.
   
   
5. Disposal: The final stage of the life cycle. Where a business deems a particular IT asset to be at the end of its useful life, and thus calls for disposal. Before a company disposes of its IT assets, it needs to ensure that all the required data erasure processes are carried out.
   
   Disposal can be carried out through various methods, such as physical destruction of the device, selling it off to refurbishment firms, or even recycling. Businesses need to ensure that disposal of their e-waste is handled properly, so as not to cause harm to the environment.
   
   Before a company disposes of its IT assets, it needs to ensure that all the required data erasure processes are carried out.

If you want to know more about the topic, here’s our article on the stages of the ITAM life cycle.


Following these basic guidelines can help your business make a start toward employing a solid IT asset management strategy. With a good IT asset management strategy in place and the right IT asset management software to go with it, your business will be all set to move toward a bright, better-managed, and more efficient future.