The IT Asset Management (ITAM) is one of the essential parts of your corporate governance, and if you want to save millions of dollars in running your organization, then you have to focus on this vital aspect. A well-planned and diligently executed IT Assets Management program will increase the overall efficiency of your organization’s functional units and help you save substantial amounts of money while undertaking your business activities.
But we see that only some organizations achieve great success in making the basic principles of ITAM work for them while some other companies are miserably failing in implementing their planned ITAM programs. Though these companies’ management is interested in getting the benefits of the ITAM, they are not able to get its benefit as they lack the right workforce required to implement and manage the IT Assets Management programs.
Without experienced talent working on the ITAM initiatives, your organization will not be possible to achieve the benefits of this vital area of your business. In the present day, there is a large shortage of trained and dedicated IT talent on a global level, and still, even among the available IT skill sets, the ITAM enabled workforce is not finding its due place in the overall IT resources hierarchy.
This type of workforce trained to run the IT Asset Management and Disposition is not even considered as a core IT skills as it is taken as a branch of the IT sector that is more focused on administrative functions with the financial implications of the organization rather than focussing on the core IT related functions in the functioning and operation of the business.
Usually, we find that the ITAM skill set is not clearly defined even in large corporations; this vital human resource is not given its required level of importance. The key positions in the ITAM are handled by non- IT persons or filled by persons who are driven to achieve singular business unit goals sidelining the main ITAM functions that must be carried over by persons who have sound knowledge and sufficient knowledge in IT Assets Management and related fields.
Yet another glaring disrepute to the ITAM is the way of allotting the ITAM functions to the entire business units without employing dedicated, qualified people to work as empowered teams to bring in the benefits of the ITAM to the organization in a consistent manner. This leads to complete failure of the ITAM functions.
With a little effort and clear direction in your business’s governance, you can easily overcome the shortage of qualified and experienced ITAM talent and still run a well-oiled and smooth functioning ITAM program for the overall benefit of the organization.
Give The Required Importance To IT Asset Management In Your Organization
If you want to become a successful ITAM enabled entity, your organization needs to focus on ways of making the necessary organizational changes that are required to bring in the feeling that it is the responsibility of each and everyone to implement ITAM. Each one in your organization must contribute to its success as much as they can. The ITAM initiatives in your business make each one in the organization a stakeholder.
Due to this, the IAITAM has stated that the “ITAM joins the financial, inventory and contractual responsibilities to manage the overall life cycle, including tactical and strategic decision making.” Thus, the impact of the ITAM is seen at every corner of your organization, and with the advanced discovery and inventory data, the ITAM teams will be able to
- Pinpoint the locations of the IT Assets
- Track the software installations
- Determine the entitlement for each of the IT Assets for better management
- Implement the right security stance at all times
- Assess security threats
- Anticipate and provide for system vulnerabilities
Respond properly to security threats and security incidents
Due to the above, it is now necessary to entrust the ITAM functions to a well-defined group among the organization’s functional units. This group must have all the required cross-silo skills and must understand the value and significance of the ITAM program, and must work in such a way that all the short-term and long-term goals are realized at all times.
The team that is made responsible for the implementation of ITAM must be chosen purely on the following skill sets and cross-silo expertise like
- Good communication to impart knowledge to the entire organization about the benefits of the ITAM program
- Technical proficiency to monitor and report licensing and other needs of the IT assets
- Good administrative skills and organizational skills
- Financial skills for effective financial management and maintain required accounting standards.
- Legal knowledge to realize the risks of non-compliance and obligations arising out of contracts.
As the persons with the above widespread skillsets with proficiency in IT is hard to find, utilizing the services of an ITAM program Managed Service Provider ( MSP) will be of much help.
Find The Right MSP To Provide The Necessary IT Asset Management Skillset
Outsourcing such an important part of the organizational program is not always appreciated favorably by companies, and due to this, most of the time, we find that there are no internal ITAM programs. But finding the right MSP with the necessary skillset can be the best answer for filling the gap in resources that are required to run your internal ITAM program.
The MSP must be able to fill in all the gaps in the lack of workforce in specific areas with a good cost to benefit ratio as per the set ITAM program goals. Your MSP will be the best party to help you in providing an end-to-end lifecycle management, giving the necessary boost to your business goals integrating perfectly with the corporate culture.
ITAM should not be treated as an afterthought to deal with non-compliance or to undertake vendor audits or to deal with security issues in the present business scenario. It must be made a core part of your organizational operations, and with the right resources to run the program, ITAM can give better results to save millions of dollars.
Hence, it is necessary to plan the ITAM program with the utmost care and involve a good Managed Services Provider to accomplish all your IT Asset management goals.
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