10 Ways IT Asset Managers affect the Top and Bottom Line

With the increase of business technologies that help fast-moving organisations achieve competitive advantages, IT asset management continues to grow and evolve as a critical area of focus for IT departments. IT Assets include all hardware and software owned or leased by an organisation, and a scalable ITAM practice grows in importance in direct correlation to the size and complexity of the organisation it serves. The main concerns for IT Asset Managers are compliance, mitigating risk, reducing costs, and increasing profitability.

With so much responsibility, IT Asset Managers are the CIO’s best friend and arguably one of the IT department’s most valuable team members.

Below are ten ways IT Asset Managers affect an organisation’s top and bottom lines:

IT Asset Managers are accountable for managing the organisation’s IT assets across their lifecycles. They must develop policies, standards, processes, systems, and reporting that enable the organisation to manage the entire IT portfolio.
IT Asset Managers must create and implement critical business processes that affect financial transactions and contractual agreements.
IT Asset Managers must compile and maintain one trustworthy and completely accurate record for all IT assets so that their company can manage costs and maximize margins.
IT Asset Managers must accurately report on all IT asset data, including software licensing, hardware leasing, etc. They must provide actionable data on all IT assets organisation-wide.
IT Asset Managers form procurement strategies to optimize technology spending across the organisation.
IT Asset Managers must make recommendations and decisions on tools and technologies to run their ITAM program efficiently and cost-effectively. The right tools must track, manage, and report on IT assets.
IT Asset Managers must master integrated software solutions that work with all departments involved in the procurement, deployment, management, and expense reporting of IT assets.
IT Asset Managers must decommission and dispose of an organisation’s IT assets at the end of their lifecycles, and before disposal, IT Asset Managers must consider factors like data sanitization, recouping costs, recycling, and tax liabilities. Afterward, they must verify that the assets have been disposed of properly and manage records to prove it.
IT Asset Managers must resolve compliance exceptions in the IT environment and ensure corrective actions are taken to address any non-compliance.
IT Asset Managers must understand the licensing approaches of the organisation’s vendors.

Organisations that have sound ITAM practices in place are well-positioned against their competitors, as they are facing less risk and have more accurate and trustworthy data on which to make business decisions. IT Asset Managers should be considered one of the IT department’s most valuable human assets.