You have a mandate to create an accurate and actionable database of the IT assets in your environment, but:
- The data you have is often incomplete or wrong.
- Processes are broken or non-existent.
- Your tools aren’t up to the task of tracking ever more hardware, software, and relevant metadata.
- The role of stakeholders outside the core ITAM team isn’t well defined or understood.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
ITAM is a foundational IT service that provides accurate, accessible, actionable data on IT assets. But there’s no value in data for data’s sake. Enable collaboration between IT asset managers, business leaders, and IT leaders to develop an ITAM strategy that maximizes the value they can deliver as service providers.
Impact and Result
- Develop an approach and strategy for ITAM that is sustainable and aligned with your business priorities.
- Clarify the structure for the ITAM program, including scope, responsibility and accountability, centralization vs. decentralization, outsourcing vs. insourcing, and more.
- Create a practical roadmap to guide improvement.
- Summarize your strategy and approach using Info-Tech’s templates for review with stakeholders.
Member Testimonials
After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve. See our top member experiences for this blueprint and what our clients have to say.
8.2/10
Overall Impact
$55,724
Average $ Saved
26
Average Days Saved
Client
Experience
Impact
$ Saved
Days Saved
TransAlta Corporation
Workshop
5/10
$2,000
2
Unfortunately, I don't feel that we accomplished what was needed from this workshop. Part of that is from our side with the lack of engagement from... Read More
City Of Mesa
Workshop
10/10
$123K
32
Joe Riley gave the experience extra value. His examples from real-life experience were both entertaining and enlightening. The templated approach g... Read More
Indigenous Services Canada
Workshop
8/10
$25,000
20
Thanks Joe, great workshop and thank you for adapting your content to our situation. No worst part.
Virginia Department of Health
Workshop
10/10
$77,999
60
The process of arriving at conclusions based on logic by working through the workshop and excersises was invaluable. We were able to arrive at a ce... Read More
Department of Energy and Public Works
Guided Implementation
9/10
$40,849
23
It was great to have an independent space to explore our operations. Its been hard as a leader take over responsibility for a function new to me, w... Read More
Coherus Biosciences
Guided Implementation
7/10
$64,999
20
Best: - Initial presentation was thought provoking and informative providing a few possible outcomes for our situation - take away discussions le... Read More
Asset Management
Learners will have started to develop some of the key elements of a successful IT asset management practice.
All of our Info-Tech Academy courses have closed captioning available. To turn this function on, click on the C.C. in the bottom right corner of the video screen and click "English" on the options that pop-up.
- Course Modules: 8
- Estimated Completion Time: 1 hour
- Featured Analysts:
- Andrew Sharp, Research Director, Infrastructure & Operations
Workshop: Develop an IT Asset Management Strategy
Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.
Module 1: Identify ITAM Priorities & Goals, Maturity, Metrics and KPIs
The Purpose
- Align key stakeholders to the potential strategic value of the IT asset management practice.
- Ensure the ITAM practice is focused on business-aligned goals.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Define a business-aligned direction and expected outcomes for your ITAM program.
Activities
Outputs
Brainstorm ITAM opportunities and challenges.
- ITAM opportunities and challenges
Conduct an executive alignment working session.
- Align executive priorities with ITAM opportunities.
Set ITAM priorities, goals and tactics.
- ITAM metrics and KPIs
Identify target and current state ITAM maturity.
- ITAM maturity
Module 2: Identify Your Approach to Support ITAM Priorities and Goals
The Purpose
- Translate goals into specific and coherent actions to enable your ITAM practice to deliver business value.
Key Benefits Achieved
- A business-aligned approach to ITAM, encompassing scope, structure, tools, audits, budgets, documentation and more.
- A high-level roadmap to achieve your vision for the ITAM practice.
Activities
Outputs
Define ITAM scope.
Acquire ITAM services (outsourcing and contracting).
Centralize or decentralize ITAM capabilities.
Create a RACI for the ITAM practice.
Align ITAM with other service management practices.
Evaluate ITAM tools and integrations.
Create a plan for internal and external audits.
Improve your budget processes.
Establish a documentation framework.
- Your ITAM approach
Create a roadmap and communication plan.
- ITAM roadmap and communication plan
Develop an IT Asset Management Strategy
Define your business-aligned approach to ITAM.
Table of Contents
17 Phase 1: Establish Business-Aligned ITAM Goals and Priorities
59 Phase 2: Support ITAM Goals and Priorities
116 Bibliography
Develop an IT Asset Management Strategy
Define your business-aligned approach to ITAM.
EXECUTIVE BRIEF
Analyst Perspective
Track hardware and software. Seems easy, right?
It’s often taken for granted that IT can easily and accurately provide definitive answers to questions like “how many laptops do we have at Site 1?” or “do we have the right number of SQL licenses?” or “how much do we need to budget for device replacements next year?” After all, don’t we know what we have? IT can’t easily provide these answers because to do so you must track hardware and software throughout its lifecycle – which is not easy. And unfortunately, you often need to respond to these questions on very short notice because of an audit or to support a budgeting exercise. IT Asset Management (ITAM) is the solution. It’s not a new solution – the discipline has been around for decades. But the key to success is to deploy the practice in a way that is sustainable, right-sized, and maximizes value. Use our practical methodology to develop and document your approach to ITAM that is aligned with the goals of your organization.
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Realize the value of asset management
Cost optimization, application rationalization and reduction of technical debt are all considered valuable to right-size spending and improve service outcomes. Without access to accurate data, these activities require significant investments of time and effort, starting with creation of point-in-time inventories, which lengthens the timeline to reaching project value and may still not be accurate. Cost optimization and reduction of technical debt should be part of your culture and technical roadmap rather than one-off projects. Why? Access to accurate information enables the organization to quickly make decisions and pivot plans as needed. Through asset management, ongoing harvest and redeployment of assets improves utilization-to-spend ratios. We would never see any organization saying, “We’ve closed our year end books, let’s fire the accountants,” but often see this valuable service relegated to the back burner. Similar to the philosophy that “the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago and the next best time is now,” the sooner you can start to collect, validate, and analyze data, the sooner you will find value in it.
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Executive Summary
Your Challenge
You have a mandate to create an accurate and actionable database of the IT assets in your environment, but:
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Common Obstacles
It is challenging to make needed changes because:
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Info-Tech’s Approach
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Info-Tech Insight
ITAM is a foundational IT service that provides accurate, accessible, actionable data on IT assets. But there’s no value in data for data’s sake. Enable collaboration between IT asset managers, business leaders, and IT leaders to develop an ITAM strategy that maximizes the value they can deliver as service providers.
Unlock business value with IT asset management
This blueprint will help you develop your approach for the management of IT hardware and software, including cloud services. Leverage other Info-Tech methodologies to dive directly into developing hardware asset management procedures, software asset management procedures, or to implement configuration management best practices. |
Info-Tech Members report significant savings from implementing our hardware and software asset management frameworks. In order to maximize value from the process-focused methodologies below, develop your ITAM strategy first. Implement Hardware Asset Management (Based on Info-Tech Measured Value Surveys results from clients working through these blueprints, as of February 2022.)
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ITAM provides both early and ongoing valueITAM isn’t one-and-done. Properly supported, your ITAM practice will deliver up-front value that will help demonstrate the value ongoing ITAM can offer through the maintenance of an accurate, accessible, and actionable ITAM database. |
Example: Software Savings from ITAM![]() This chart shows the money saved between the first quote and the final price for software and maintenance by a five-person ITAM team. Over a year and a half, they saved their organization a total of $7.5 million from a first quote total of $21 million over that period. This is a perfect example of the direct value that ITAM can provide on an ongoing basis to the organization, when properly supported and integrated with IT and the business. |
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Examples of up-front value delivered in the first year of the ITAM practice:
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Examples of long-term value from ongoing governance, management, and operational ITAM activities:
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Common obstacles
The rulebook is available, but hard to follow
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ITAM is a mature discipline with well-established standards, certifications, and tools, but we still struggle with it.
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Info-Tech's IT Asset Management Framework (ITAM)
Adopt, manage, and mature activities to enable business value thorugh actionable, accessible, and accurate ITAM data
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Enable Business Value | ![]() |
Business-Aligned Spend
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Facilitate IT Services
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Context-Aware Risk Management
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Plan & GovernBusiness Goals, Risks, and Structure
Ongoing Management Commitment
Culture
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Build & ManageTools & Data
Process
People, Policies, and Providers
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Info-Tech Insight
ITAM is a foundational IT service that provides actionable, accessible, and accurate data on IT assets. But there's no value in data for data's sake. Use this methodology to enable collaboration between ITAM, the business, and IT to develop an approach to ITAM that maximizes the value the ITAM team can deliver as service providers.
Key deliverable
IT asset management requires ongoing practice – you can’t just implement it and walk away.
Our methodology will help you build a business-aligned strategy and approach for your ITAM practice with the following outputs:
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Each step of this blueprint is designed to help you create your IT asset management strategy:
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Info-Tech’s methodology to develop an IT asset management strategy
1. Establish business-aligned ITAM goals and priorities | 2. Identify your approach to support ITAM priorities and goals | |
Phase Steps |
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Phase Outcomes | Defined, business-aligned goals and priorities for ITAM. | Establish an approach to achieving ITAM goals and priorities including scope, structure, tools, service management integrations, documentation, and more. |
Project Outcomes | Develop an approach and strategy for ITAM that is sustainable and aligned with your business priorities. |
Insight Summary
There’s no value in data for data’s sake
ITAM is a foundational IT service that provides accurate, accessible, actionable data on IT assets. Enable collaboration between IT asset managers, business leaders, and IT leaders to develop an approach to ITAM that maximizes the value they can deliver as service providers.
Service provider to a service provider
ITAM is often viewed (when it’s viewed at all) as a low-value administrative task that doesn’t directly drive business value. This can make it challenging to build a case for funding and resources.
Your ITAM strategy is a critical component to help you define how ITAM can best deliver value to your organization, and to stop creating data for the sake of data or just to fight the next fire.
Collaboration over order-taking
To align ITAM practices to deliver organizational value, you need a very clear understanding of the organization’s goals – both in the moment and as they change over time.
Ensure your ITAM team has clear line of sight to business strategy, objectives, and decision-makers, so you can continue to deliver value as priorities change
Embrace dotted lines
ITAM teams rely heavily on staff, systems, and data beyond their direct area of control. Identify how you will influence key stakeholders, including technicians, administrators, and business partners.
Help them understand how ITAM success relies on their support, and highlight how their contributions have created organizational value to encourage ongoing support.
Project benefits
Benefits for IT
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Benefits for the business
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Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs
DIY Toolkit |
Guided Implementation |
Workshop |
Consulting |
"Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful." | "Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track." | "We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place." | "Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project." |
Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options |
Guided Implementation
A Guided Implementation (GI) is a series of calls with an Info-Tech analyst to help implement our best practices in your organization.
A typical GI around 12 calls over the course of 6 months.
What does a typical GI on this topic look like?
Call #1: Scope requirements, objectives, and your specific challenges.
Call #2: Review business priorities. Call #3: Identify ITAM goals & target maturity. |
Call #4: Identify metrics and KPIs. | Call #5: Define ITAM scope.
Call #6: Acquire ITAM services. |
Call #7: ITAM structure and RACI.
Call #8: ITAM and service management. Tools and integrations. |
Call #10: Internal and external audits.
Call #11: Budgets & documentation Call #12: Roadmap, comms plan. Wrap-up. |
Phase 1 | Phase 2 |
Workshop Overview |
Contact your account representative for more information.
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Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | |
Identify ITAM priorities & goals, maturity, metrics and KPIs |
Identify your approach to support ITAM priorities and goals |
Next Steps and wrap-Up (offsite) |
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Activities |
1.1 Define ITAM. 1.2 Brainstorm ITAM opportunities and challenges. Conduct an executive alignment working session: 1.3 Review organizational priorities, strategy, and key initiatives. 1.4 Align executive priorities with ITAM opportunities. 1.5 Set ITAM priorities. |
2.1 Translate opportunities into ITAM goals and tactics. 2.2 Identify target and current state ITAM maturity. 2.3 Create mission and vision statements. 2.4 Identify key ITAM metrics and KPIs. |
3.1 Define ITAM scope. 3.2 Acquire ITAM services (outsourcing and contracting) 3.3 Centralize or decentralize ITAM capabilities. 3.4 Create a RACI for the ITAM practice. 3.5 Align ITAM with other service management practices. 3.6 Evaluate ITAM tools and integrations. |
4.1 Create a plan for internal and external audits. 4.2 Improve your budget processes. 4.3 Establish a documentation framework and identify documentation gaps. 4.4 Create a roadmap and communication plan. |
5.1 Complete in-progress deliverables from previous four days. 5.2 Set up review time for workshop deliverables and to discuss next steps. |
Deliverables |
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Phase 1:Establish business-aligned ITAM goals and priorities |
Phase 11.1 Define ITAM and brainstorm opportunities and challenges. Executive Alignment Working Session: 1.2 Review organizational priorities, strategy, and key initiatives. 1.3 Align executive priorities with ITAM opportunities & priorities. 1.4 Identify business-aligned ITAM goals and target maturity. 1.5 Write mission and vision statements. 1.6 Define ITAM metrics and KPIs. |
Phase 22.1 Define ITAM scope. 2.2 Acquire ITAM services (outsourcing and contracting). 2.3 Centralize or decentralize ITAM capabilities. 2.4 Create a RACI for the ITAM practice. 2.5 Align ITAM with other service management practices. 2.6 Evaluate ITAM tools and integrations. 2.7 Create a plan for internal and external audits. 2.8 Improve your budget processes. 2.9 Establish a documentation framework. 2.10 Create a roadmap and communication plan. |
Phase Outcomes:
Defined, business-aligned goals, priorities, and KPIs for ITAM. A concise vision and mission statement. The direction you need to establish a practical, right-sized, effective approach to ITAM for your organization.
Before you get started
Set yourself up for success with these three steps:
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1. Identify participantsReview recommended roles and identify who should participate in the development of your ITAM strategy. |
2. Estimate assets managed todayWork through an initial assessment to establish ease of access to ITAM data and your level of trust in the data available to you. |
3. Create a working folderCreate a repository to house your notes and any work in progress, including your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template. |
0.1 Identify participants
30 minutesOutput: List of key roles for the strategy exercises outlined in this methodology
Participants: Project sponsor, Lead facilitator, ITAM manager and SMEs
This methodology relies on having the right stakeholders in the room to identify ITAM goals, challenges, roles, structure, and more. On each activity slide in this deck, you’ll see an outline of the recommended participants. Use the table below to translate the recommended roles into specific people in your organization. Note that some people may fill multiple roles.
Role | Expectations | People |
Project Sponsor | Accountable for the overall success of the methodology. Ideally, participates in all exercises in this methodology. May be the asset manager or whoever they report to. | Jake Long |
Lead Facilitator | Leads, schedules, and manages all working sessions. Guides discussions and ensures activity outputs are completed. Owns and understands the methodology. Has a working knowledge of ITAM. | Robert Loblaw |
Asset Manager(s) | SME for the ITAM practice. Provides strategic direction to mature ITAM practices in line with organizational goals. Supports the facilitator. | Eve Maldonado |
ITAM Team | Hands-on ITAM professionals and SMEs. Includes the asset manager. Provide input on tactical ITAM opportunities and challenges. | Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent |
IT Leaders & Managers | Leaders of key stakeholder groups from across the IT department – the CIO and direct reports. Provide input on what IT needs from ITAM, and the role their teams should play in ITAM activities. May include delegates, particularly those familiar with day-to-day processes relevant to a particular discussion or exercise. | Marcelina Hardy, Edmund Broughton |
ITAM Business Partners | Non-IT business stakeholders for ITAM. This could include procurement, vendor management, accounting, and others. | Zhang Jin, Effie Lamont |
Business Executives | Organizational leaders and executives (CFO, COO, CEO, and others) or their delegates. Will participate in a mini-workshop to identify organizational goals and initiatives that can present opportunities for the ITAM practice. | Jermaine Mandar, Miranda Kosuth |
0.2 Estimate asset numbers
1 hourOutput: Estimates of quantity and spend related to IT assets, Confidence/margin of error on estimates
Participants: IT asset manager, ITAM team
What do you know about your current IT environment, and how confident are you in that knowledge?
This exercise will help you evaluate the size of the challenge ahead in terms of the raw number of assets in your environment, the spend on those assets, and the level of trust your organization has in the ITAM data.
It is also a baseline snapshot your ability to relay key ITAM metrics quickly and confidently, so you can measure progress (in terms of greater confidence) over time.
Download the IT Asset Estimation Tracker |
“Any time there is doubt about the data and it doesn’t get explained or fixed, then a new spreadsheet is born. Data validation and maintenance is critical to avoid the hidden costs of having bad data” Allison Kinnaird,
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