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IT Asset Management Software
Manage Your IT Assets More Efficiently Throughout Their Entire Lifecycle

IT Asset Management Software

FNT's IT Asset Management solution enables you to manage your IT assets (physical devices or intangible components such as software instances, software licenses and virtualized functions) throughout their entire lifecycle - from procurement to decommissioning. Features such as powerful contract management, high-performance planning functionality, and efficient work order management help you actively manage this lifecycle. Automate the processes for managing your IT assets. Reduce total cost of ownership. Maximize the value of every asset in use. Use more than 70,000 pre-defined server, network and data center components in photo-realistic representation thanks to the comprehensive component library. As a result, assets can be captured quickly, interactively, and with minimal effort in a complete IT documentation.

What is IT Asset Management?

IT Asset Management - also known as IT Asset Lifecycle Management - is primarily a concept and framework for actively managing the valuable components of the IT infrastructure landscape throughout their entire lifecycle. Management of assets begins during the procurement phase and continues through production, use and maintenance to decommissioning at the end of the lifecycle.

It is important to distinguish ITAM from IT Operations Management (ITOM) and IT Configuration Management (CM). ITOM and CM focus on provision of services, management of relationships and dependencies between the components of the IT infrastructure, technical configuration and the optimization of performance during operation. ITAM, on the other hand, implements and automates all essential processes for managing complex asset inventories, from acquisition to disposal, and takes a more cost-oriented perspective. ITAM is an important component of IT infrastructure management that works in concert with ITOM/CM to fulfil all requirements.

Why IT Asset Management?

The sheer volume of IT assets requires a systematic way to manage them. While cloud computing means fewer elements of IT infrastructures are considered individual devices, the growth of IT in almost every industry cancels out the effect. Rather than less assets to manage, there are actually more because:

  • new technologies are being adopted with new asset types
  • IT devices are penetrating almost all workplace environments
  • the perception is growing that wireless towers are assets
  • IoT is driving a huge increase in connected devices in service
  • “mission critical” private clouds are operated on an infrastructure of physical assets

 

All these factors contribute to higher asset counts and larger, more complex and diversified IT asset landscapes. They also make IT asset management a strategic success factor and necessary to minimize risk.

What is an IT asset?

Valuable IT assets can be both physical equipment (racks/EDP cabinets, servers, active and passive network devices, workplace terminals) and intangible components (software instances, software licenses, virtualized functions). A significant monetary value must be represented, and a concrete sequence of lifecycle phases must be relevant for an IT component to be managed as an asset. For example, a data center cooling double floor panel worth several thousand dollars with software-controlled actuators, fans and fully variable ventilation geometry, which is subject to regular maintenance intervals, is just as much an asset as an expensive server or a high-priced software license.

What lifecycle phases does ITAM cover and what functions does it fulfil?

IT asset management begins with demand planning and procurement. Here’s how it applies to each phase of the asset lifecycle:

  • Demand and technology planning
    Checks asset types that are new and requested for the first time, new hardware models, or new software that has not been used before against predefined criteria to see if their use is target-oriented.
  • Procurement
    Covers the selection of providers and suppliers, contract negotiation, and transfer of delivered assets to the inventory in a highly automated inventory process.
  • Deployment and operation
    Preliminary planning of the asset’s deployment, equipping hardware assets with sub-modules, finding installation locations, controlling assembly and commissioning or close collaboration with the rollout procedures of software instances for the software assets, regularly updating operational status overviews and the documentation of the effects of changes, as well as updating the inventory management.
  • Maintenance
    All physical maintenance work, software updates, repairs, and care and cleaning measures, including the optimized control of these processes and the workers involved.
  • Shutdown/phase-out
    Timely warning of the end of manufacturer support (end-of-life) and the expiration of maintenance contracts, including controlling the dismantling.

What benefits does ITAM contribute to the management of IT infrastructures?

The main purpose of IT asset management is to consistently optimize the ROI of investments in IT infrastructure and to maximize the benefits of each asset.

Optimization and maximization occur from consistent reduction of the total cost of ownership (TCO).

Key contributors are:

  • Better, more informed technology decisions
  • Improved purchasing conditions
  • Needs-based licensing (especially in software asset management)
  • Optimization of maintenance with proactive and predictive upkeep to avoid and minimize downtimes
  • Reduced lifecycle management process costs
  • Optimized use of assets as resources
  • Value recovery from the decommissioning of assets by reuse or sale
  • Transparency also contributes to ROI optimization and benefits maximization by providing insight into asset details such as: location of each asset, responsibilities for each asset, operating conditions, and linking of accounting assets with real assets

 

ITAM means an individual asset never has to be searched for, and no research is required to determine its condition. Complex overall inventory processes can be reduced to the bare minimum or eliminated entirely.

Sustainability and future viability are also noteworthy benefits of ITAM. ITAM brings concrete and immediate cost benefits to phasing out IT assets at the end of their lifecycle. It can facilitate a second use for assets as reprocessed devices, expedite selling them, or optimize proper disposal. It also allows long-term sustainability goals from corporate governance to be supported effectively.

FNT IT Asset Management: Software accompanied by consulting expertise

Good consulting is essential for fast and sustainable success in IT asset management. FNT’s experts are happy to support you with guidance about asset management software or standardization options for both individual product portfolios and broader service management. Contact us to start the discussion!

Advantages of our solution for IT Asset Management

Optimized use of assets as resources of IT infrastructure

Reduced lifecycle management process costs

Better, more informed technology, purchase and operations decisions

Display of FNT's IT asset management software on various end devices.
IT asset management tools are needed because they help automate processes to manage IT assets while maximizing the benefits of using these assets – from demand planning all the way to decommissioning.

Highlights of Our IT Asset Management Solution

Lifecycle management

Extensive lifecycle management functions.

Inventory management

Comprehensive inventory management and high-level capacity of integration into procurement processes.

Contract management

Powerful contract management functionality.

Planning functionality

Planning functionality that supports the placement of physical assets and the management of rollout and commissioning.

Ready-made dashboards

Ready-made dashboards, dashlets and reports for quick and precise analysis of IT asset management issues.

Component library

A component library of more than 70,000 elements that stores hardware assets with their essential properties as well as with photorealistic representations so assets can be graphically represented during planning of commissioning and operation.

Software asset management

Meets the specific needs of software asset management.

Work order management

Work order management for assigning work orders (tasks) to staff and external workers.

Out-of-the-box integration

High level out-of-the-box integration into a comprehensive IT infrastructure management and the CMDB of FNT's configuration management.

Piktrogramm eines Servers.

Would you like to see how our solution for IT Asset Management works? Request a demo!

IT Asset Management (ITAM)

IT environments are becoming increasingly complex. So are the technologies and asset types that can be integrated into the IT infrastructure. It is therefore critical to acquire, catalogue and analyze asset data in a cost-efficient and automated way. If you can do that, you’ll be able to manage and actively administer every process in the lifecycle of every IT asset.

Matthias Gromann
Matthias Gromann
Head of Business Line Asset and Configuration Management
IT technology expert and topic leader for service-oriented automation in IT infrastructure management
Send an email Phone: +49 7961 9039 0
Further Downloads
White Paper
The Sustainable Infrastructure
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Actions data center and network operators can take today for a more environmental-friendly tomorrow

Businesses concerned about sustainability are taking stock of their current situation, identifying areas to target for improvement, and formulating plans for how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. There are many strategies that can be used, and not all of them are obvious. This paper is an enlightening look at a number of different actions businesses can take to minimize the impact they are having on the environment.


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