The challenges of IT asset management– and why spreadsheets are not the solution

Managing the IT assets of an organisation is not a clear-cut or easy task in any sense. Whether your company is a small business or a large enterprise, the challenges of managing your IT assets remain present. In a large organisation, the sheer number of devices, software licenses, networks, and data servers make it difficult to keep track of and manage everything. In smaller businesses, the unpredictability of day-to-day operations, the potential for explosive growth, and the expansion of the company make it equally challenging for them to manage their IT assets.

This article discusses the main challenges faced by companies when it comes to the management of their IT assets, and why spreadsheets do no favours when it comes to addressing them.

1) Lack of visibility and control:

One of the major problems of improper IT asset management is the lack of visibility of the IT asset infrastructure of your company. Without proper knowledge of what type, how many, and where your IT assets are, it makes your business susceptible to theft, loss, or misuse of IT assets. This point stands even stronger when an organisation deals with multiple locations or remote workspaces.

The lack of visibility in turn leads to a lack of accountability or responsibility for IT assets in the company. Individuals within the organisation are less likely to take responsibility for their devices when there is no robust framework in place to keep track of them.



2) Data inaccuracy and security concerns:

When IT asset management is undertaken manually, generally using spreadsheets, there is a high margin for error. Missing, incorrect, or even loss of data is frequently observed when manually managing IT assets. This article discusses the negative impact of spreadsheets in IT asset management in the subsequent sections.

Data security and safety are also of concern when it comes to improper IT asset management techniques. When there is no proper tracking or visibility of devices, there is an increase in the likelihood of loss, internal or external theft, and damage to IT assets. Following this, there is a big risk of losing sensitive data stored in those assets.

At the same time, there is a higher possibility of misuse of IT assets, i.e. the use of IT assets without the knowledge or approval of the organisation. This further increases the risks to the company’s data security.



3) Compliance and regulatory difficulties:

Companies are required to follow specific laws and regulations in terms of compliance. Without the right tools in place, it can be challenging for businesses to keep up with regulatory standards and ensure that they remain compliant.

Without employing a working IT asset management system, a business won’t have a proper overview of all its IT assets. When a business has no proper understanding of where its assets are, and what they are being used for, it creates a high risk of breaching compliance regulations.

Whether it’s software compliance issues, missing licenses, or the blatant loss, theft, or mishandling of sensitive data– a breach in compliance regulations can be extremely expensive for a company.



4) Restricted scalability and growth:

When a business grows, and its operations expand. Correspondingly, the need for more employees, IT assets, and other resources increases. With a surge in the number of IT assets, and their users (in the form of employees), companies find it difficult to keep up with the management of the same.

This gap in a company’s ability to manage its increased inventory and IT assets can hamper and slow down a company’s growth. The use of the right IT asset management strategy can help a business focus on its core operations, without having to worry about factors that could slow down its growth.


Keeping all these challenges in mind, let's look at how to address them.

Most organisations in today’s world use spreadsheets in their daily operations. In one way or another– tracking daily to-do lists, managing employee payrolls, managing inventory changes, and regrettably, IT asset management. Spreadsheets, no matter how good you are with them, leave a lot of room for error.

Let us look at a sample case for the use of spreadsheets in IT asset management. Suppose you have been assigned the responsibility of managing an Excel spreadsheet for managing your organisation’s IT assets. This includes logging unique, complex, and lengthy IDs for each device, assigning and unassigning unique assets from employees and updating them as necessary, and several more manual tasks.

This will take a lot of your time, leaving it impossible for you to complete your normal workload. In a rush, you are more likely to make mistakes and errors in the sheet. Even minor spelling errors when it comes to the unique ID of an IT asset can be very frustrating to deal with down the line.

Approximately 88 percent of spreadsheets contain at least one error - Spreadsheet Risks, Corporate Finance Institute

Around 65 percent of corporate risk and compliance professionals said that using technology to streamline and automate manual processes would help reduce the complexity and cost of risk and compliance – Thomson Reuters Risk and Compliance Survey Report, 2023

The significance of this example is to show that the manual handling of IT assets, especially using spreadsheets, is far from ideal. It can be very easy to lose track of data or log inaccurate data into your database. Setting up consistent maintenance schedules for your IT assets, observing and supervising the movement of devices within the organisation, have all become near impossible with manual management systems.

Ultimately, this manual management system creates a high risk for your company. Increased risk of loss and theft of assets, lower-quality maintenance of your IT assets, leading to shorter life spans and higher costs. These factors can also easily contribute to a breach of compliance regulations.



IT asset management software can be the all-in-one solution to these challenges. They can accurately track your organisation’s IT assets, set reminders for regular maintenance, assign and unassign devices from users, and many, many more features. Such tools can also better equip your company to be compliant with all the necessary laws and regulations.

Not only this, but IT asset management software can help you automate certain management processes, and provide your business with real-time data and analytics. Through such software, you can also input depreciation rates and calculate precise IT asset depreciation values. Which in turn allows your business to claim depreciation on its financials, enabling your organisation to recover the cost of your IT assets over the extent of their useful life.

Insightful data gained from these tools can help boost your business’ performance and efficiency in multiple ways. The data from these software tools is reliable and accurate, in contrast to the data derived from manually managed spreadsheets.