7 Ways You Can Save Money with an IT Asset Management Solution

We live in a world where IT assets form a bulk for any and all companies. And yet, a large chunk of these companies declines using an IT asset management solution.

Their excuse?

“It’s expensive to buy and maintain”

“I have a team that can do that”

“My company has few employees”

Would they say the same things if they knew that an asset management solution can help them save a lot of money?

From centralised data management to lesser time spent on asset tracking, an asset management solution helps companies make smarter analysis of asset information. Its primary concern is to ensure that a company gets the most out of its IT assets, with proper tracking and allocation.

7 Ways IT Asset Management Can Save Your Money

Here are 7 ways that an asset management solution can help an organization reduce IT asset management costs. Let’s check them out.

• Centralised Management of Asset and Equipment

IT asset management software helps IT teams in accumulating all the information about assets. Information such as the date of purchase, location, configuration, operational status (active or inactive), warranty details, serial numbers, documents, equipment model images, ID tags, usage history and more, can be recorded and viewed using an IT asset management software.

Through a centralised operational system, all this data gets stored in one place for easy access. Such a system allows employees and IT teams in retrieving asset-related information a lot faster than traditional paper-based systems. It also saves employees time, who don’t have to spend hours sifting through papers or non-centralised solutions. By eliminating inefficient asset management processes, IT professionals of any organisation can decrease the time taken between jobs, complete work faster, and consequently, save money and resources.

• Reduce Wasteful Spending

Because an IT asset management software provides the entirety of asset information, IT teams can use it to reduce wasteful spending. IT teams can keep a tight noose around their assets by discontinuing inactive and unnecessary assets that are costing money and, deploying devices in storage. It also helps in saving money by preventing excess spending on buying new assets when there are spares in the inventory.

An IT asset management solution allows IT asset managers to know the total volume and types of software licenses in use. This data can be used to prevent over-purchasing of licenses, which occurs when companies are unaware of the exact number of licenses they need to remain compliant.

Additionally, when companies are aware of license duration and expiration dates, they can take measures to have them renewed on time. It prevents the possibility of paying heavy penalties because of accidentally using the software beyond its licensing tenure. More and more software companies are conducting periodic audits to check if organisations are misusing their products, and they slap a hefty fine on those who are non-compliant. Sometimes these fines can be higher in value than the software cost. An IT asset management tool helps prevent such a situation from arising in the first place.

• Effective Inventory Management

As previously mentioned, an asset management solution helps in centralising all asset-related information. Consequently, an IT team can use this information to keep track of assets in their inventory. Knowing the location, purchase & depreciation value, method of procurement and operational status, will help a company in accurately assessing the total value of its IT assets.

The total value of assets is helpful in determining expenses and maintenance costs, and also provides a clearer picture of asset status. Subsequently, companies can develop better asset management strategies when they know the total asset value.

• Put an ITAM Policy in Place

An IT Asset Management (ITAM) policy defines the rules of asset management in a company and helps in managing purchase, usage, deployment, retirement and disposal of assets.  With an ITAM policy, companies can spell out end-user responsibilities, software usage policies, standard hardware configurations, asset deployment policies and other asset-related processes.

Such compliances will help optimise asset utilisation and define the responsibilities of IT department. Finally, an ITAM policy will save an organization’s money by eliminating redundancy and extracting more value from their assets.

• Automate Whatever You Can

Any company, big or small, needs to learn the art of working smart instead of working hard. An ITAM policy and software will help in automating a lot of the manual work that an IT department must perform. Instead of exhausting manual procedures, an asset management solution automates the process with the inclusion of technology. IT department personnel’s can automatically keep track of various assets both digitally and physically. They can use digitally-stored data records and search capabilities to seek out assets.

Physically, IT asset managers can use barcode scanners, RFID readers, etc. to scan and record asset data into the system. A company gets notified about asset expiration with an ITAM solution, preventing asset depreciation and financial loss.

• Save Physical Space with Cloud Storage

When a company uses a cloud-enabled IT asset management solution, it can significantly reduce physical space as the need for servers and mainframes is lessened. Cloud-enabled solutions are automatically updated, ensuring up-to-date security for asset data.

Our very own asset management tool, IT Bank, is a cloud-based ITAM solution which assists users with cost management, vendor management, asset tracking, lifecycle management, inventory management and more. Its thorough modules ensure that a company’s asset management is taken well care of, with the least amount of intervention necessary. The best part- it is entirely free!

• Increased Safety Leads to Increased Savings

An ITAM system maintains inspection and maintenance histories, detailed checklists, and status reports of all assets. Information and data like these facilitate company with corrective actions and process improvements to prevent inefficiencies and accidents. We have discussed how license non-compliance could lead to penalties, a problem that an IT asset management tool can solve with automated reminders. Additionally, keeping periodic checks on assets helps with on-time maintenance, decreasing the likelihood of assets’ not performing. This in turn reduces the add-on expense of procuring asset replacement.

These are just a few ways in which an IT asset management solution helps companies in saving money. An actual list would be ten times longer. The bottom line is that a company cannot go wrong with an IT asset management solution. So, what are you waiting for? Try an ITAM solution today and let us know if we were wrong.