It's Almost 2007 - Do You Know Where Your IT assets are?

Published on this site: November 30th, 2006 - See more articles from this month

With the enormous increase in technology, companies large and small are accumulating more and more IT equipment. Keeping track of PCs, laptops, PDAs, printers, network equipment, software (the list goes on) can be a challenge. Assets move locations, get reassigned to other people, get replaced, etc. Management wants reports about asset allocation, usage and service history. Accounting personnel need accurate data for calculating depreciation.

Knowing what assets you have, where they are located, when they were purchased, if they are still in use, etc. is critical to any organization.

According to Gartner, Inc., a Stamford, CT-based research firm, IT asset management rank as one of the top five priorities for CIO"(tm)s in 2006. Furthermore, The Gartner report revealed that the majority of organizations do not have efficient ways of keeping track of their IT assets*. In addition to managing the huge amount of spending that companies place in their IT equipment purchases are the looming costs associated with system downtime (and related rebound customer service issues), potential overpayment on leasing, and software compliance issues.

Asset Management Software is a helpful tool to keep track of your company"(tm)s assets. Asset management systems allow you to keep track of your assets in one centralized place.

A well-equipped system should include the following features:

• Ability to sort assets by type, classification (sub-classification), location, and status.
  
  
• Asset description details including related images, attachments, notes & tag numbers.
  
  
• A complete transaction history to keep track of assets as they are moved around, status levels changed or re-assignment to different end users.
  
  
• Ability to relate assets to other assets and to define relationships between assets.
  
  
• Well-built reporting & strong search functionality. Another helpful tool is a PC inventory module, which will allow you to retrieve information from all of the PC's in your entire network. The software scans your network not only for hardware, but also software which aids in the management of software compliance issues.
  

Asset management systems can stand alone, and are available as a companion to many help desk software systems. When united with a help desk, you gain the ability to tie an asset to an incident which allows you to evaluate the life history of the asset, and flag any recurring problems.

So, as you consider future goals for your technology department, be sure to give strong consideration to the added value of an application designed to help protect your valuable IT investments. In the end, implementing a strong asset management system will most likely prove to have been a very wise use of your budget dollars.

Anne Sych - Marketing Manager for Novo Solutions, Inc. Novo Solutions, Inc. is an Independent Software Vendor (ISV) in Virginia Beach, Virginia specializing in Customer Support Software. Free trial versions of the Novo Help Desk Software, Knowledge Base Software and suite of web-based Customer Support
Solutions are available. Contact: [email protected] for more information. http://www.novosolutions.com/