How to Create an Effective IT Asset Management Strategy

IT asset management (ITAM) is an excellent tool to gain control over your devices and boost efficiency and accountability. Of course, as with any project or business plan, you first need to develop a thorough IT asset management strategy in order to reap these benefits. So, where do you begin?

Let’s take a look at some critical steps to create an effective ITAM strategy.

Determine your goals and objectives

Before you can build the framework for your IT asset management plan, you first need to identify the goals and objectives of your ITAM program. While you likely want to boost productivity and gain visibility into your asset estate (two common goals of ITAM), consider exactly how you will make these goals actionable and measure their success over time.

Define what you consider an IT asset and want to include in your inventory

Many items can be considered IT assets across your hardware and software. Before you even begin to upload your IT inventory into your chosen platform, it is essential to define what will count as an individual asset versus what might be part of a kit. Kitting smaller items like headphones, keyboards, and mice can help streamline asset deployment processes.

When taking stock of your IT inventory, you can also use auto-discovery to see the assets that are on and off your network. Auto-discovery helps you get real-time data on the devices currently accessing your network so you can easily account for any discrepancies. These discrepancies can show you 1. if any items may have been lost or stolen and 2. the number of off-network devices you have, indicating a surplus and helping you better plan for future IT asset purchases.

Name and tag your IT assets accordingly

Once you’ve decided which items are part of your IT asset estate, you must ensure that each asset has its own unique ID. This will make it easy to upload the assets into your software, so you know what is what. Ideally, you should also tag each asset with its own barcode label so you can more easily deploy and audit them in the future. If you’re unsure where to start, take a look at some common IT asset tagging best practices.

Use a lifecycle-based approach to ITAM

After your assets each have their own unique IDs and/or barcodes, you’re ready to set clear processes for your IT asset management program. These processes should cover the entire lifecycle of your assets and go beyond simply registering and tracking IT assets.

When outlining your ITAM strategy, consider the workflows you’ll need for each of the following stages:

• Procurement: Budgeting for and purchasing your assets
• Asset identification and registration: Capturing asset details like type, serial number, specifications, purchase date, warranty, etc.
• Deployment: Distributing IT assets to their intended users or departments (this can include asset tagging, assignment, configuration, installation, etc.)
• Asset tracking and monitoring: Routinely reporting on the status of your assets and conducting audits to ensure data remains accurate
• Maintenance and support: Proactively tracking maintenance and repair needs as well as warranty and support service contract expirations
• Asset retirement and disposal (ITAD): Retiring assets at the end of their life and recycling or disposing of them properly
• Refreshing and replacement: Replacing IT assets that have been disposed of or are no longer meeting the organization’s needs in terms of cost-effectiveness and technological advancements

Conclusion

With a clear IT asset management strategy in place, you’re ready to implement your workflows and work toward your goals. Of course, as your ITAM program scales over time, be sure to revisit your strategy documentation to ensure that it’s accurate.

For even more tips to launch an effective IT asset management program, check out our ITAM Best Practices guide.

If you’re still searching for a comprehensive ITAM platform, Asset Panda can help. We serve customers across 160+ industries and allow you to customize your platform to match your current workflows. Request your demo today to see Asset Panda in action.