...and keep your asset register up to date
Effective IT asset management can bring significant benefits for your business, including cost control, reduced security risks and agility. But the number of devices per user is on the rise and employee mobility is increasing, which makes asset tracking more complex and time consuming than ever.
According to our research, nearly a fifth (19%) of businesses are not able to track and locate all of their devices all of the time and 30% have faced an increased security risk due to the growing number of devices.1
Now more than ever, businesses need a clear view of IT assets and a strategic approach to the IT asset lifecycle. So, where do you start?
The IT asset management challenge
IT asset management can be a labour-intensive, repetitive and error-prone job that IT teams would love to automate completely. But if people are to be involved – which they are for now – than IT experts need a clear compliance process and a centralised tool for asset administration.
Legacy software remains a huge challenge, as does the overwhelming number of systems and suppliers that an IT manager has to engage throughout the lifecycle of a device.
Organisations often use a technical equipment register, such as Efecte, Alteris, Miradore, Service Now, and in some cases even Excel, to manage the physical IT devices in the workplace. In addition, most also have a financial register or a fixed assets accounting system to manage the IT budget and IT procurement processes.
More often than not, these systems are not linked to each other and keeping information up to date is a huge challenge. Fragmentation increases the risk of duplicated and inconsistent data and makes it difficult to track device information.
It seems that as devices proliferate, so too do the outdated and disconnected tools that a business needs to manage them, draining resources, increasing service ticket time and impacting productivity. But what’s the solution?
1. Centralise your IT asset management platform
Our IT asset management platform comes free with our Technology Lifecycle Management service. We provide a device audit log and inventory management all in one place, plus full technical and financial reporting capabilities. We’ve got you covered for every stage of the IT asset lifecycle, with advance insights and automated actions every step of the way, from device acquisition, management and refresh to IT asset disposal.
2. Simplify the maintenance of your IT asset register
Register maintenance can be a chore and often falls to the bottom of the to do list, which can cause headaches down the line. As a business grows and more devices are needed it can be difficult migrating all IT assets to the same system. Register maintenance is almost always self-service or a costly add-on, but we do things differently. As part of our service, we load all device data on to our IT asset management platform for our customers, removing a huge resource burden from the IT team and ensuring clear, consistent data is available when you need it.
3. Visualise your data
IT leaders are increasingly accountable to Board and being asked to demonstrate ROI on their budgets. Our IT asset management platform has a dashboard that collates all your data in one place. IT allows you to create bespoke reports focused on specific metrics or pull off visual representations of your data so you can access clear insights about your IT estate, with a click of a button.
4. Connect easily with APIs
An API is simply a set of rules that enables access to the features or data of a system. It acts as a software intermediary that allows two systems to talk to each other. API integrations are the building blocks for a modern application ecosystem and have become a necessity for many businesses to streamline operations. When building an IT asset management strategy, it is important to seek out applications – including asset registers – that are equipped with easily-integrated APIs. We offer our customers the 3ConnectIT API to help connect asset information and automate IT administration processes.
The benefit of better IT asset management
A central IT asset management platform reduces risks and yields many business benefits including:
1. Better business processes: Automating data transfers avoids wasting resources on data aggregation and process monitoring. You can expect higher efficiency from the more accurate performance and timely responses to automated tasks.
2. Improved data quality and visibility: The real-time visibility of integrated data is essential for making informed decisions. When all device information is easily accessible in a single place, your IT team can provide better service responses to end-users and implement more informed replacement plans.
3. Time and cost savings: Instead of updating multiple systems, device information is only updated in one place and then synced to the others. This results in a significant decrease in operational costs and time, allowing resources to be redeployed to activities that contribute to business growth.
Ready to streamline your IT operations? Why not check our new product comparison guide today or contact us today for more information.
