| | June 20218CIOReviewIN MY OPINIONIT ASSET MANAGEMENT: DRIVING VALUE TO THE BUSINESSBy James Kittle, Director of IT Operations, Rent the RunwayYou'll be forgiven if the topic of IT asset management (ITAM) doesn't immediately excite you. ITAM lacks the complexity of network engineering, the sophistication of software development and even the sense of power you might get from account administration. But what IT Asset Management may lack in excitement, it more than makes up for by delivering clearly demonstrable value to the business operations it enables and supports. In fact, a well-structured ITAM can be the keystone to a well-run IT operation. IT asset management is often mistaken for mere inventory management. How many PCs are in stock for the new hires? How many Macs are we replacing this year? And, actually, those are very important questions which ITAM managers are often called upon to answer. But IT asset management is more than just inventory taking and stock keeping. The IT asset manager is also responsible for negotiating contracts, leading the procurement process for software, hardware, and professional services. ITAM managers lead vendor evaluations and are often required to shepherd non-disclosure agreements and statements of work multiparty negotiations. In many organizations, the IT Asset Management team is at the nexus of budget planning and monitoring the health of an IT department's budget throughout the fiscal year. The IT asset manager oversees software as a service (SaaS) spend and traditional software and service contracts. In a healthy organization, the IT asset manager sits at the nexus of the budget and has visibility into the requirements and standards of all various lines of business and business operations in the enterprise. A highly functioning IT department seeks constant ways to drive value to the business. No IT business function is more important in this value proposition than the IT asset management function. And because IT asset management is intrinsically metric based, the IT asset manager can often very easily demonstrate value to executives in dollars and cents. Your business CEO may not easily grasp the value of SD WAN over point to point IP Sec VPN tunnels. But if you show them that you reduce the number of per seat licenses for video conferencing, or eliminate redundant spending in project management SaaS applications that same CEO will be singing your praises at the next all company meeting. If you're looking to build credibility with your senior leadership team, show them the value of well managed IT spend and through well managed IT asset management.IT asset management can be broken into three interrelated categories: application management, hardware management, and vendor management. The key to application and hardware management is automation in tracking IT assets, while process management and critical business analysis is the key to good vendor management.You won't regret starting your ITAM practice with good SaaS management. Most companies are oversubscribed to familiar SaaS vendors who provide everything from document and spreadsheet application to project management to video conferencing and instant messaging communications. Today's SaaS management tools have API's to "identity systems" such as Okta and authentication standards such as OAuth. Through these API's and the magic of their programming, SaaS management tools can easily report on license allocation versus actual use. If the IT asset manager sees a full license but no usage, they can recover that license and
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