IT Asset Management
With the implementation of IT Asset Management, an organisation is able to achieve Compliance, Control & Cost savings for their IT. The motto that forms the centre of all Softline services. With the move of Software Asset Management to IT Asset Management three years ago, Softline House of ITAM® was introduced. Based on the (then new introduced) ISO/IEC 19770-1:2017 standard for ITAM, combined with best practices of hundreds of SAM and ITAM projects, the Softline House of ITAM® was developed. Offering organisations a strong framework to implement ITAM. Not educating the need to implement all building blocks of the house, but the ability to choose what steps need to be taken to be able to reach the organisations' long term (strategic) goals in the area of Compliance, Control & Cost savings.
Gartner defines IT Asset Management as “ITAM provides an accurate account of technology asset lifecycle costs and risks to maximise the business value of technology strategy, architecture, funding, contractual and sourcing decisions.” Meaning, ITAM provides organisations with the much-needed insight into their entire software landscape and IT infrastructure. ITAM lets organisations better manage IT costs and risks, improve IT processes and supports their strategic IT plans.
Moving from SAM to ITAM
When the new ISO standard 19770 for ITAM was released, the scope of Asset Management expanded from SAM to ITAM. Not only software assets should be in scope of Asset Managers, but hardware and predominantly services as well. Covering all “As a Service” (XaaS) IT components becomes even more important in the upcoming years since many publishers try to move organisations to their cloud environment and a variety of hybrid or multicloud solutions will occur.
But it is not just developments within a theoretical ISO standard that force Asset Managers to shift their focus to services. In a quest to move from re-active Asset Management to pro-active Risk Management, ITAM specialists should claim "their place at the table" when strategic or tactical decisions are made regarding services throughout their life cycle. This change in mindset allows IT Asset Managers to reach out to other functions within organisations and move to higher levels of maturity and agility.
For the hardware part the importance might be obvious, since software is being installed on particular hardware. However the most common used hardware is due to developments and many techniques related to virtualisation, containers, kubernetes and so on. This increases the attention and specialised knowledge required by IT Asset Managers.
What would you like to achieve?
IT asset management is not a project! It is not a one-off exercise that is finished after ticking the last check box. ITAM is a practice that needs to be nurtured and continuously improved. ITAM is also not self-contained, but affects the entire organisation. It provides important information for all fields of expertise - from IT to finance to purchasing.
ITAM helps you realise:
- Continuous insight into and control over the software license compliance position for your top x software publishers;
- Realisation of savings on existing contracts;
- Insight and control in order to draft budgets based on well-founded forecasts;
- Software licensing and contract optimisation for all software products your organisation uses;
- Preparation for audits of your most important software publishers.
Whatever your organisation’s objectives are, Softline can help you realise them in a way that suits your organisation. Because only when ITAM is implemented correctly, it enables organisations to achieve Compliance, Control & Cost savings for their IT!
ITAM Developments
Where traditional ITAM (or SAM) focuses on the correct use of assets according to legal agreements, the focus radically shifts when (dark) clouds appear on the horizon. Regarding cloud infrastructures, the focus of ITAM shifts from compliance towards cloud consumption management & optimisation.
While in 2020 only up to 20% of enterprise applications are cloud based, a move towards the cloud can be expected in the upcoming years. This increasing shift towards cloud-based solutions means your ITAM processes will need to become even more finely tuned and nuanced in order to adapt. So which cloud developments should you keep track of from an ITAM perspective? Here are some trends to watch:
