What makes ITAM so important?

There are countless reasons why ITAM is important or should be important to any organization. First and foremost, ITAM touches on all aspects of an organization—anywhere from small projects to corporate compliance and everything in-between. Anything that can touch upon all aspects of an organization has to be vitally important. With ITAM, we've only just begun our journey. ITAM is still a maturing practice, but the following are some common critical factors that make ITAM important:

• Compliance: Compliance, whether it's with software vendors or with government regulators, is a key issue for any organization. Noncompliance means one thing, huge costs—fines, fees, and, in some cases, even jail time, not to mention bad PR. All of these things cost an organization dearly. ITAM is an efficient way to keep track of all of your IT assets so that you always know what you have, where it is deployed, and who is using it. When the auditors come calling, you will be better prepared to answer their questions and have a better understanding of your levels of compliance. Being unprepared is never a good option.
• IT asset lifecycle: IT assets, be it software, hardware, or mobile assets, are the lifeblood of an organization in today's world. Managing their life cycle efficiently can bring cost savings to your organization. For example, if a piece of hardware is no longer performing as it should be, it could actually hinder productivity and cost you money every minute it's in use. Constant evaluation of your assets and their performance is a great way to keep everything running at its optimal level and keeping productivity up at all times.
• Expense management: IT assets and their maintenance come with a cost, typically as much as 20% of the IT budget annually. In order to keep that line item on the expense report to a minimum, properly managing your assets can help in many ways—from ensuring that assets are properly retired to reconciling your equipment against fees. For example, are you paying for assets that you aren't using? When employees come and go, is there a process in place to reassign their cellphone, laptop, and other equipment? In a large organization, with constant changes on a large scale, lack of a process can mean big expenses for idle assets.
• Security: When you think of ITAM, security isn't usually something that comes to mind, but it should. A successful ITAM program can mean increased security and decreased risk. How? For starters, consider that virtually every employee has a computer at home, some of them company-issued. How do you keep track of what they are downloading or sharing when they are outside of the office? If they don't vpn, how are you ensuring that they are getting the necessary patches? You may be pushing out to all assets connected to the network. A solid set of IT policies and procedures can control the level of security risk your organization is exposed to simply by setting limits. Another way to think of security is the collaboration between ITAM and the IT Security team. Your security team can leverage the data that ITAM has collected to proactively identify known software vulnerabilities. IT security will be able to assess the assets that pose a threat to your organization. They will know where the assets are located, view software, install data, and the business service it is tied to. This is all possible by having ITAM in place.
• Software contract management: With most organizations in a constant state of change, managing software contracts is often overlooked. The finance department needs to understand that there are significant cost savings to be had simply by paying close attention to terms and conditions and renegotiating when the time calls for it. Additionally, with vendors changing their rules as frequently as they do, not being on top of your terms and conditions can equal noncompliance, and we know what that means! Suppose that your organization has just opened an office in London, and your IT department ships them preloaded laptops to use, but nobody checked your software licensing agreement. Your terms and conditions don't include transferability. Software licenses generally limit transferability. Lack of transferability increases the cost of divestiture, requiring additional licensing for the divested company and creating a glut of additional licenses for the retained companies. Additional licensing terms, including pricing, may be less favorable for the divested company, further increasing the divestiture costs. If the divested company owns the contract and licenses without transferability, the divested company may be stuck with a glut of licenses and create a gap and licensing requirement for retained entities covered by the contracts licenses. This is just one example of how organizations can fall out of compliance, resulting in additional hefty fees and penalties.
• IT service management: IT isn't just something that affects employees; it affects everyone touched by your organization, from vendors to customers. Any finance executive worth their salt can see how a failure in IT can directly affect the bottom line. On the flip side, having a solid performing IT department will result in a better experience for everyone, including customers. The degree to which IT affects the customer service will vary according to industry, but it will have an effect.