ITAM Challenges

Key ITAM Challenges and What to Do About Them

The “new normal” post COVID-19 crisis has placed renewed focus on IT assets and their management. This is from a number of perspectives. For example, there’s the harsh financial reality of the “new normal” as the commercial impact of the crisis continues to be felt. Then there’s the fact that IT assets are now distributed outside of the workplace, likely supplemented with the personal devices of home workers. Plus, the higher levels of IT security threats during the crisis mean that organizations need to ensure that software-based vulnerabilities are not left unchecked.

The solution to these and other IT asset challenges is IT Asset Management (ITAM) – which is one of the single most important activities you can do to manage, control, and protect your enterprise IT environment. To help your organization, this blog looks at 10 of the key ITAM challenges and offers guidance on what to do about them in the “new normal.”

This blog by @Joe_the_IT_Guy looks at 10 of the key #ITAM challenges and offers guidance on what to do about them in the “new normal.” Click To Tweet

Challenge 1: ITAM is only talked about when an audit is due

What to do about it: Embed ITAM activities into your business-as-usual (BAU) operations. It sounds like a big ask I know, but it doesn’t have to be a daunting prospect. For instance, do you have any existing ITAM tasks – even though you might not even think of them as being ITAM – in place that you can build on?

Examples here include:

  • Does your IT service desk verify end user devices against an asset tag when logging incidents and service requests?
  • Is software deployed and recorded centrally via a definitive media library (DML)?
  • Is hardware issued via the IT department from a build room or hardware store?

Another tip is to build your processes as if you were due to be audited tomorrow. It’ll keep everyone in the right mindset and help you establish the right levels of ITAM process over time.

Build your #ITAM processes as if you were due to be audited tomorrow. It’ll keep everyone in the right mindset and help you establish the right levels of ITAM process over time, says @Joe_the_IT_Guy. Click To Tweet

Challenge 2: People thinking “Do we really need ITAM now that we use the cloud?”

What to do about it: Cloud or otherwise hosted applications reduce some of the stress associated with ITAM, but it’s not a silver bullet. It doesn’t matter where the service is hosted, you’ll still need to make sure that you have the appropriate licensing in place.

Things to consider here include:

  • If you use SaaS, does your licensing reflect it?
  • Cost control may become more challenging due to:
    • Business units purchasing IT services outside of IT so there’s no opportunity to take advantage of bulk licenses
    • Personal subscriptions being taken out and left to auto-renew even if the accounts are no longer used
    • Joiners and leavers not being processed in a timely manner, especially as your organization changes to reflect the “new normal.”

Challenge 3: The perception that no one owns ITAM

What to do about it: So many people are under the impression that ITAM is someone else’s problem – perhaps even that it’s covered by the cloud service provider.

However, we all have our part to play with ITAM. For example:

  • Senior management – in setting out the appropriate governance structure for ITAM, underpinned with policies and frameworks
  • Service desk – which tracks requests and incidents against registered equipment
  • Support teams – that ensure only authorized licensed software is installed
  • Information and cyber security teams – who ensure that the environment is protected
  • Change control/management personnel – in understanding the impact of change on IT assets
  • Business continuity – by working with ITAM personnel to ensure any disaster recovery environments are appropriately licensed.

Challenge 4: Licensing complexity

What to do about it: Not all licenses are created equally. What works for one vendor might be completely different for another, so the golden rule is, if in doubt, check! The assumption that software vendor contracts cover all vendor titles (and variants) is often a cause of real pain come vendor audit time.

Challenge 5: People thinking “How much can an ITAM process help?” or “Shouldn’t the ITAM tool fix everything?”

What to do about it: An ITAM process can’t do everything, but it will get you started. A solid ITAM process can help you set the scope for ITAM, carry out a baselining exercise on your estate, prioritize services by risk, and keep on top of BAU operations. Plus, if you don’t have solid processes in place to support your ITAM tool, then you won’t get everything you expect from it including value for money. Your processes are there to maximize the effectiveness of your ITAM tool and to make sense of the data generated. And the tool is there to enable the ITAM processes. An ITAM tool alone won’t do everything you need and, if you focus on technology alone, you’ll likely have gaps in both knowledge and compliance.

Remember, an #ITAM tool alone won’t do everything you need and, if you focus on technology alone, you’ll likely have gaps in both knowledge and compliance, says @Joe_the_IT_Guy. Click To Tweet

Challenge 6: People thinking “Isn’t ITAM just a fancy term for inventory management?”

What to do about it: Let’s get this right. Inventory management takes care of consumables – keyboards, mice, CD drives, power cables, and USB sticks. Equipment that needs to be tracked for monetary value and to make sure it’s in stock. That’s it. I don’t know about you, but I can’t get too excited about keyboards and mice.

ITAM, on the other hand, is much more exciting (well, it is to me). It’s the set of management practices that combines financial, technical, and service management functions to balance spending versus usage and to support lifecycle management for IT hardware and software.

Inventory management can help you manage your consumable situation but done well, ITAM can save you time, money, and legal exposure. Which one would you like to focus on in the “new normal”?

Challenge 7: Demonstrating the value of ITAM activities

What to do about it: Track your ITAM spending and achievements over time so you can capture and share the savings and benefits. Carry out a baselining exercise on your live environment (or at least the top ten most critical services) before you start. This will enable you to understand how ITAM is making a difference.

Challenge 8: Dealing with the IT assets of joiners, movers, and leavers

What to do about it: Have a process for new employee hires. What access rights do they need? What software and hardware do they need? What are the licensing applications?

At the tail end, can the hardware or licenses be re-issued if someone changes job or leaves the business? With this now more complicated with the increase in home workers post-crisis.

It’s ultimately all about being joined up with human resources (HR) and other business units such that any change in personnel kicks off a workflow that provides or reclaims both physical and digital assets.

Challenge 9: Dealing with virtualization sprawl and zombie servers

What to do about it: Virtual machines (VMs), plus cloud environments, are awesome! They reduce costs, take up fewer data center resources, and make it easier to provision applications and services. Let’s go to town and virtualize everything in sight, right? Wrong!

Yes, it’s easy to quickly spin up a new VM but if you don’t keep track of them it can lead to problems in production or delays to important projects because all the available licenses are in use or the available capacity has been taken up by machines that were once needed but no one can remember why. Which all creates additional work for the server team because they need to be reviewed and switched off.

Have a process in place that everyone must go through before launching a VM. Make sure the reason for the VM is captured as well as the contact details for the appropriate support teams so that if you hit resource or licensing constraints your VM estate is just as easy to manage as any other part of your environment, virtual or otherwise.

ITAM tip: Make sure you track your #ITAM spending and achievements over time so you can capture and share the savings and benefits. Click To Tweet

Challenge 10: ITAM and the disaster recovery environment

What to do about it: If you have a disaster recovery (DR) environment make sure that you have the appropriate licensing in place for it. Software vendors will still likely demand that their installed software is licensed. There’s nothing worse than being in a DR situation, only for some things not to work because no one thought to ensure that the correct licensing was in place. And haven’t we all just been through some form of DR event?

So, that’s 10 key ITAM challenges covered. What else would you add to the list? What other guidance would you share with organizations looking to up their ITM game for the “new normal”? Please let me know in the comments.

 


Posted by Joe the IT Guy

Joe the IT Guy

Native New Yorker. Loves everything IT-related (and hugs). Passionate blogger and Twitter addict. Oh...and resident IT Guy at SysAid Technologies (almost forgot the day job!).