Enterprise asset management isn’t an easy task, especially in an IT environment. From acquisition to disposal, each phase presents its own set of challenges. Join us as we delve into the intricacies of IT asset life cycle management, unveiling the keys to efficiency and success in this ever-evolving digital landscape.
What This Article Covers
- What Is IT Asset Life Cycle Management?
- Stages
- Benefits
- Implementation Process
- Best Practices
- ISO Standards
- Use Cases
- FAQs
- Next Steps
What Is IT Asset Life Cycle Management?
IT asset life cycle management is a strategic approach to managing and optimizing an organization’s information technology (IT) assets throughout their entire life cycle, from acquisition to disposal.
IT assets include hardware, software, data and other technology-related resources.
Its primary goal is to maximize assets’ value while minimizing costs and risks.
Stages
Just like humans, IT assets have a birth, purposeful existence and, eventually, retirement. The IT asset life cycle is like a journey that these assets embark on, and it consists of several stages that shape their destiny.
Let’s explore these stages in detail.
Planning
Imagine you’re about to make a significant purchase for your organization, say a brand-new piece of technology. It’s a bit like buying a car — you wouldn’t just walk into a dealership and pick the flashiest one without thinking, right? You’d plan.
Asset planning is your roadmap for making smart decisions. This process involves several key steps:
Needs Assessment
Start by aligning your IT asset needs with your business objectives. Ensure that every asset you acquire or retain directly contributes to achieving these goals.
Value Projection
Estimate the asset’s likely life span and its projected performance over time. Like a skilled seer, you must see beyond the present and envision the financial benefits this asset could bring.
Cost Analysis
Alongside value projection, consider assets’ acquisition and maintenance costs. This includes initial purchase, installation, ongoing operational, and potential future upgrade or repair expenses.
Risk Evaluation
Identify and assess acquisition risks, including technological obsolescence, equipment failure, resource availability and more. Conduct a comprehensive risk assessment to devise mitigation strategies to minimize potential setbacks.
Digital Twin Creation
A digital twin is a virtual asset representation, allowing you to run simulations and predict performance under different conditions. This advanced technology offers invaluable insights into an asset’s likely performance and its alignment with your intended use cases.
Procurement
Once your plan is in place, it’s time to procure the necessary IT assets. Here’s a procurement process you can follow:
- Vendor Selection: Identify and choose reputable vendors who can supply your required IT assets.
- Request for Proposals: You send out requests for proposals (RFPs) to selected vendors. Outline your specific needs and selection criteria in your RFP.
- Negotiation: Negotiate with vendors to secure favorable terms and conditions, including pricing, warranties and delivery schedules.
- Decision-Making: Select the proposal that aligns best with your organization’s needs and budget.
- Contract Signing: Formalize the agreement by signing a contract that specifies the terms, conditions and expectations.
- Asset Acquisition: Oversee the acquisition process, ensuring that you receive assets as agreed upon with your chosen vendor.
- Record Keeping: Maintain records of procurement documents, including contracts, invoices, receipts and correspondence, for future reference and tracking.
Your acquisition approaches can vary based on your business strategy and environment. Here are some common IT asset acquisition approaches:
- Outright Purchase: You buy the IT asset from a vendor, owning it entirely. Payment can be a lump sum or in installments, with potential future costs for support or spares.
- Leasing: You rent the IT asset, saving upfront costs but possibly incurring higher long-term expenses. This allows flexibility for upgrades.
- Bring Your Own Device (BYOD): Users bring their own IT assets, typically for end-user devices, following a BYOD policy you establish. Your IT team configures these devices for business use.
Deployment and Discovery
After procurement, deploy assets to their intended locations or users. During this phase, it’s crucial to track and discover assets, both hardware and software. Use asset discovery tools to automate this process and maintain an up-to-date inventory.
Before putting assets into full operation, you should conduct testing to ensure they meet the specified criteria and work seamlessly with your existing systems.
Maintenance
Ongoing maintenance is essential to keep your IT assets running smoothly. Actively monitor your assets for any signs of problems or performance issues.
Regularly schedule and perform preventive maintenance tasks like cleaning, inspections and part replacements to prevent unexpected breakdowns or failures.
You can use a maintenance management system to keep track of your maintenance activities.
Consider implementing enterprise asset management (EAM) systems to monitor assets in real time to help extend assets’ life spans and boost productivity.
You can also use CMMS solutions as a part of your EAM strategy. They provide asset performance management tools to improve assets’ reliability.
CMMS also helps you maintain a historical record of assets’ activities, including critical data like purchase dates and maintenance costs over time.
You can also use asset tracking tools to manage and allocate resources efficiently. They provide asset tagging capabilities like:
- RFID Tracking: Broadcast data via radio-frequency signals and Bluetooth, providing info like temperature, humidity and indoor location.
- WiFi-Enabled Tracking: Use asset tags for data transmission within indoor WiFi network range.
- QR Codes: Scan QR codes from any angle to gather asset information using smartphones or scanning devices.
- GPS Tracking: Monitor assets in transit, communicating real-time location via the global navigation satellite system (GNSS) network.
Without a maintenance plan, you might have to deal with unplanned downtime, resulting in high repair costs. According to Siemens’ True Cost of Downtime 2022 report, unplanned downtime costs the manufacturer at least 50% more per hour now than it did in 2021.
An ideal maintenance plan helps you:
- Minimize unexpected repair expenses
- Enhance equipment uptime
- Extend assets’ life spans
- Prevent downtime
Support
You should provide technical support and assistance to end-users as needed. This stage involves troubleshooting, resolving issues and ensuring that employees can effectively use IT assets.
Use a configuration management database to actively map asset dependencies. Understand how assets are interconnected within your IT environment. This helps you identify potential impacts on other assets when changes or issues occur, allowing for quicker and more precise problem resolution.
Freshservice’s configuration management database. Source
Maintain a helpdesk or support ticket system to track and manage user requests. Continuously improve support processes to enhance user satisfaction.
Retirement and Disposal
IT assets have finite life spans. When the useful life of assets reaches the end or you don’t require them, you should plan for their retirement and disposal.
Some active measures you can take to optimize this phase and pave the way for new assets include:
- Data Backup and Erasure: Securely backup asset data or transfer it to new systems. Then, systematically erase sensitive data to protect confidential files.
- Documentation: Maintain records of retired assets like specifications, retirement date and disposal methods.
- Compliance Adherence: Adhere to environmental regulations and disposal laws during the retirement process. Ensure that you dispose of assets containing hazardous materials safely and responsibly.
- Disposal Method Selection: Select appropriate disposal methods, such as recycling, selling or donating, based on the asset’s condition and value. Make this choice in alignment with your organization’s sustainability goals and financial considerations.
- E-Waste Management: Seek certified recycling centers or disposal services that can properly handle electronic waste, minimizing environmental harm.
- Inventory Update: Update your asset inventory to reflect assets’ retirement and disposal to plan for future asset acquisitions.
The above process focuses on the financial, legal, managerial and informational aspects of the IT asset life cycle, such as contracts, vendors, inventory, costs, data and documents.
Some small organizations that have fewer IT assets and requirements use a six-step process instead:
- Request: Stakeholders identify their IT needs and objectives, and they submit a formal request for an IT asset.
- Fulfill: The IT team approves and processes the request. They check asset availability or purchase new assets if needed.
- Deploy: The IT team provisions and deploys the IT asset into service. They configure the asset and assign it to the end user.
- Monitor: The IT team tracks and monitors the IT asset for performance, usage, security and compliance. They collect relevant data and analyze it to optimize the asset’s value and efficiency.
- Service: The IT team maintains and services the asset throughout its useful life. They perform regular updates, upgrades, repairs or replacements as needed.
- Retire: When the IT asset is no longer needed or useful, the IT team decommissions the asset, removes it from service, wipes out any sensitive data, and either recycles or resells it.
The above process focuses on the technical aspects of the IT asset life cycle, such as provisioning, configuration, performance and maintenance.
Primary Benefits
We’ve highlighted some benefits of IT asset management (ITAM) below.
Reduce Costs
Asset life cycle management enables you to identify underused or redundant assets, helping you avoid unnecessary purchases and reduce costs.
With a clear view of your IT asset life cycle, you can make informed decisions about when to retire or replace aging equipment, optimizing your budget.
Improve Asset Visibility
With IT asset management, you can maintain an accurate IT assets inventory, from computers and servers to software licenses. This enhanced visibility means you always know what assets you have, where they’re located and their current statuses.
You can easily track assets’ changes, upgrades and retirements, preventing the loss of valuable equipment and ensuring efficient resource allocation.
Increase Efficiency
Implementing ITAM tools simplifies many complex and time-consuming tasks within your IT department.
It automates routine tasks like asset tracking, software license management and maintenance scheduling, helping you save time and minimize manual data entry errors.
Furthermore, it enables your IT team to allocate their time and energy more effectively, focusing on strategic initiatives and high-priority projects.
This reduced administrative workload lets IT professionals respond more promptly to user needs, troubleshoot issues faster and provide better support.
Streamlined workflows foster improved collaboration and communication among your IT team members.
Reduce IT Risks
ITAM ensures compliance with software licensing agreements and helps you avoid costly fines or legal issues.
It also enables proactive identification and mitigation of security risks by ensuring that your software and hardware are up to date with security patches.
Furthermore, it helps enhance your organization’s cybersecurity posture and reduce the potential for data breaches or system vulnerabilities.
Enhance Employee Experience
With effective IT asset life cycle management, employees can access well-maintained and up-to-date IT assets. They can work efficiently without disruptions caused by outdated or malfunctioning equipment.
ITAM ensures that your staff have the right tools they need to excel in their roles, ultimately leading to increased job satisfaction and productivity.
Improve Decision-Making
IT asset management provides valuable insights into asset performance, usage patterns and maintenance requirements. This helps you prioritize investments, plan for the future and align your IT strategy with your business goals.
Increase Customer Satisfaction
By ensuring that your systems are up to date and running smoothly, you can minimize downtime and provide uninterrupted services. This enhances customer satisfaction and helps build trust in your organization.
Centralize Procurement
With ITAM, you can centralize procurement efforts, allowing you to negotiate better deals with suppliers. It helps you standardize hardware and software purchases, reduce costs through bulk orders, and improve vendor relationships. You can also avoid duplicate purchases and ensure that your acquisitions align with your organization’s needs.
Implementation Process
Now that you know the stages and benefits, let’s dive into how to kickstart your asset life cycle implementation process.
- Define Scope: Identify what IT assets you need to manage. Determine whether this will apply to a particular department or your entire organization.
- Establish Roles and Responsibilities: Specify who’ll undertake asset procurement, tracking, maintenance and disposal tasks. Ensure that everyone understands their roles to ensure accountability.
- Develop Policies and Processes: Define guidelines for hardware requests and acquisitions, asset labeling and tracking, quality assurance, deployment, maintenance, retirement, and disposal. Ensure these policies align with your organization’s goals.
- Select a Digital Tool: Invest in a digital tool that aligns with your organization’s scalability and integration needs to optimize the implementation process.
- Train Staff: Train your staff on the newly established policies and your chosen management solution. Ensure they understand processes and can use the tools effectively. Use workshops, documentation or online courses for training.
- Roll Out the Process: Start with a pilot phase to identify any potential issues or bottlenecks before full-scale implementation. Communicate changes to all stakeholders and make necessary adjustments based on their feedback.
- Monitor and Evaluate: Regularly assess policy adherence, process execution and tool effectiveness. Employ key performance indicators (KPIs) to gauge implementation success.
- Iterate and Improve: Based on the evaluation results, adjust your asset life cycle process as needed. Continuously collect feedback from staff and stakeholders to identify areas for improvement.
Best Practices
Let’s uncover the essential best practices in IT asset life cycle management that drive efficiency, cost-effectiveness and optimal resource use.
Visualize Your Asset Life Cycle
Create a clear flowchart or document detailing your asset life cycle, from procurement and deployment to maintenance, upgrades and disposal. Having a visual representation of the process helps teams understand their roles and responsibilities.
Track Assets
Implement an IT asset tracking system to log asset changes and updates. Record the initiator, date and reason for asset movements between departments, ensuring accountability and detecting unauthorized changes.
Optimize Operations
Use a digital platform to automate tasks such as asset discovery, inventory tracking and license management.
View inventory summary via Zoho Inventory’s dashboard. Source
For instance, when you acquire a new software license, the system can automatically update inventory and notify relevant personnel, reducing manual errors and streamlining processes.
Empower Your Team
Conduct regular training sessions for your IT and non-IT staff on asset life cycle policies and procedures. For instance, educate your employees on how to request new assets, report damaged equipment and properly dispose of retired assets. Regular training helps ensure compliance and reduces the risk of misuse or loss.
Maintain Compliance
Periodically audit assets to match recorded data. Implement license compliance tools for software licenses to prevent legal and financial risks from over- or under-licensing.
Manage Vendors and Contracts
Maintain a vendor contract and agreement repository, including renewal dates and terms. This will help you avoid unexpected costs or lapses in services. For instance, you can renegotiate contracts before they expire to secure better terms.
ISO Standards
ISO standards are developed based on industry best practices and input from experts, enabling you to adopt tried-and-true methodologies and processes. Let’s look at some standards below.
- ISO/IEC 19770-1:2017: Provides guidance on IT asset management processes, covering asset identification, control, tracking and reporting.
- ISO/IEC 19770-2:2015: Focuses on software asset management, offering guidelines for using software identification tags effectively.
- ISO/IEC 27001:2022: Centers on information security but includes IT asset management requirements for safeguarding sensitive data and ensuring asset availability and integrity.
- ISO 55001:2014: Encompasses a broader asset management standard — physical, financial and information assets.
- ISO 55002:2018: Offers guidelines for implementing ISO 55001, adaptable for addressing IT asset management needs.
- ISO/IEC 27002:2022: Provides comprehensive information security control guidelines with some relevance to IT asset security.
- ISO/IEC 20000-1:2018: Primarily focuses on IT service management, incorporating asset management requirements for effective service delivery.
Use Cases
Let’s explore the practical applications and benefits of IT asset life cycle management through a series of use cases.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML)
- Predictive Maintenance: Analyze historical asset data, sensor data and maintenance records to help predict equipment failures.
- Parts Management and Inventory Optimization: View assets’ repair history to optimize spare parts — know when and which parts to replace or stock based on predictive analytics.
Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR)
- Technical Training and Education: Allow workers to simulate complex maintenance tasks in a safe and controlled virtual environment, reducing training time and cost while improving proficiency.
- On-Site Diagnostics: Enhance the diagnostic capabilities of field technicians by overlaying real-time data and information on their physical surroundings.
- Site Safety: Provide AR and VR-based safety training and real-time safety alerts to workers while they perform maintenance tasks.
- Remote Work and Collaboration: Enable remote experts to collaborate with on-site teams, share knowledge and troubleshoot issues in real time.
Robotics and Drones
- Site and Equipment Inspections: Deploy robotics and drones for routine equipment, facility and infrastructure inspections, reducing manual inspections, improving data accuracy and minimizing risks to human inspectors in hazardous environments.
- Repairs in Dangerous Locations: Use robotics and drones equipped with maintenance capabilities to perform repairs in high-risk environments, such as underwater pipelines, nuclear facilities, or remote and inaccessible locations.
- Sensor Readings: Automate data-gathering tasks to collect sensor readings from critical equipment and infrastructure.
FAQs
Why is asset life cycle management important?
Asset management is important because it helps you:
- Calculate assets’ depreciation values
- Contribute to sustainability efforts
- Reduce safety risks
- Reduce insurance costs
- Recover assets and plan replacements
- Understand the true cost of ownership
Should I incorporate IT asset management into my risk management strategies?
Yes, IT assets can be a source of both opportunities and risks for organizations. Incorporating IT asset life cycle into risk management helps identify, assess and mitigate potential risks like data breaches, cybersecurity threats, budget overruns, hardware failures and compliance violations, ensuring business continuity and security.
What’s the difference between IT Asset Management and IT Service Management?
| IT Asset Management (ITAM) | IT Service Management (ITSM) |
|---|---|
| Focuses on managing IT assets throughout their life cycles | Concerned with managing and delivering IT services |
| Manages assets from acquisition to disposal | Addresses incidents, changes and service requests |
| Aims to optimize assets, control costs and ensure compliance | Aims to align IT services with business needs and improve user satisfaction |
While IT asset management and service management are distinct, they’re interconnected. Accurate asset information from ITAM can help ITSM teams deliver services more effectively. For example, knowing assets’ statuses and configurations can aid in troubleshooting and resolving incidents faster.
How can I select an ITAM system?
To select an ITAM system, consider the following factors:
- Purpose: Define your goals, whether for software compliance, hardware management, security, cost reduction or a combination.
- Cost: Evaluate total ownership costs, including initial purchase, maintenance, training and potential expansions.
- ROI Potential: Assess cost-saving potential, like improved license management or reduced hardware expenses.
- Technical Support: Review vendor support quality, responsiveness and service level agreements.
- Reviews: Read user feedback and independent assessments for insights into software reputation.
- Features: Ensure the system aligns with your needs, including license management, asset discovery, reporting and integration capabilities.
- Scalability: Confirm the system can scale with your organization’s growth.
- Integration: Check compatibility with your existing IT infrastructure and data exchange capabilities.
- Security: Verify compliance with security standards to protect sensitive asset data.
- Demo and Trial: Test usability and compatibility through a demo or trial version.
- Vendor Reputation: Research the vendor’s reliability, track record and financial stability.
- User Training: Ensure vendor-provided training resources for effective system use.
Next Steps
IT asset life cycle management is a vital strategy for modern organizations. It enables cost optimization, security, compliance and operational efficiency. With EAM tools, you can maximize your assets’ value.
But how do you select the best one for your company? Get your hands on our free comparison report to compare multiple solutions simultaneously. View technical and functional requirements, individual product scores, benefits and user sentiment ratings.
What does your IT asset life cycle management process look like? Please let us know in the comments below.