What is IT Asset Management?

IT assets are the foundation for digital-first companies. They are no longer just support tools; they are the backbone of modern business operations and competitiveness. Effective management transforms technology from a costly overhead into a strategic advantage, improving productivity, reducing risks, and boosting the bottom line. 

Depending on the size of the company, average annual IT expenditure per employee ranges between €1,200 and €3,000. For a company with 5,000 employees, this quickly adds up to $10 million or more per year.

Every IT department faces a similar challenge when planning and procuring IT assets. IT assets must be tracked and maintained throughout their life cycle. To stay organized and optimize IT spending decisions, there is a plethora of information that must be recorded and monitored. Everything from date of purchase and relevant contracts to IT asset owner(s) and device servicing must be recorded, and the information made accessible to those who need it. But what is IT Asset Management (ITAM) and how can a company maximize their IT Asset Management value?

In this article, we’ll provide a zipped guide on what IT Asset Management is, why it’s important and how you can optimize your company’s IT assets with USU’s versatile ITAM software solution.

IT Asset Management is the process of planning, procuring and maintaining all types of technology assets, including physical and virtual assets, throughout their lifecycle. IT asset management is not a one-time project, it is an ongoing process that serves to organize IT asset inventory, optimize asset usage and costs. ITAM provides the documentation and data needed to make informed financial decisions.

ITAM is closely related to IT Service Management (ITSM). However, ITAM and ITSM each focus on a different area of IT management. ITAM primarily involves managing the financial and compliance aspects of an asset, including total cost, ownership, contracts and warranty information.

ITSM, on the other hand, manages the operational and support aspect of an IT asset. IT Asset Management and IT Service Management work hand-in-hand, therefore it’s important for a company to choose an ITAM solution that is compatible with the company’s ITSM solution.

IT Asset Management is a process that can be systematically executed. To ultimately achieve the company’s objectives, it’s important to have a thorough understanding of the different stages of an asset’s life cycle and maintain asset records. The life cycle can be divided into five principle stages: planning, procurement, deployment, maintenance and decommission/removal.

IT Asset Management also involves phases of critical financial planning, benefit analysis and deployment analysis. Purchasing and deploying an asset requires thorough documentation, maintenance of records, contracts and vendor relationships.

IT Asset Management is more than just a process. Rather, it is a set of procedures to improve a company’s technology asset management system and reduce or eliminate overspending.

Analyst firm Gartner projects global IT spending will reach $5.43 trillion in 2026, with software and cloud services driving much of that growth. This brings opportunity—but also
complexity.

You may already have several tools managing IT assets. But without a unified approach, growth becomes uncontrolled spend, audit exposure and wasted budgets. That’s where IT Asset Management (ITAM) comes in.

The business value of an ITAM system is largely dependent on a company’s record-keeping and reporting capabilities.

Some proven benefits of modern ITAM include:

• Automated Discovery: Real-time inventory updates without manual intervention
• Ensure license compliance by balancing purchased entitlements with actual usage
• Extended compliance: Cloud-based subscriptions, which requires tracking user-based access rather than just installations
• Increased efficiency: Better spending decisions based on data-driven insights
• Detection of Shadow IT: From uncontrolled license purchasing and usage
• Management of IT costs and asset usage in nearly real-time
  
• Unified Repository: A single dashboard to track all IT and non-IT assets
• Proactive Health Monitoring: Alerts for low disk space, high CPU usage, or expiring warranties
• Integration with ITSM: Seamless connections with IT Service Management platforms like ServiceNow for automated workflow
• IT-Governance: Alignment of IT resource spending with business goals

With an IT Asset Management system in place, customers can control their IT asset inventory with automated tracking and reporting tools. Furthermore, an organized IT asset register makes risk management easier, helps streamline IT operations and reduces overspending on IT assets. ITAM reporting capabilities also improve visibility, enhance productivity and provide the information needed to achieve the IT department’s objectives.

Would you like to learn more about how we help our customers to discover and manage all IT assets, ensure license compliance or help to reduce their software spend? 

Every IT department has an asset inventory that requires consistent maintenance. This inventory consists of both physical devices such as computers and other tangible devices and virtual assets such as software licenses, contracts and software applications. These include both tangible and intangible assets. 

Tangible/Physical Assets:

• Laptops and computers
• Mice
• Keyboards
• Printers
• Monitors
• Servers
• Drives

IT Asset Management can be separated into multiple categories with subcategories and managed individually according to their attributes and purposes:

Hardware Asset Management:

• Hardware Asset Management tracks and maintains physical IT assets, such as laptops, servers, workstations, endpoint devices, etc.
• Fixed Asset Management tracks and maintains physical assets used within an IT office, such as network cabinets, cables, desks, server room equipment (such as AC units), etc.

Software Asset Management encompasses the management of all software assets, including licenses and applications used within the IT infrastructure.

Cloud Asset Management:

With the shift to remote work and cloud-first strategies, this category tracks virtualized resources. It manages:

• Software as a Service (SaaS): Monitoring subscriptions and usage.
• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): Tracking virtual machines and storage.
• Platform as a Service (PaaS): Monitoring cloud platforms used for development.

Digital Asset Management (DAM):

Digital Asset Management tracks and maintains all digital content or files owned by an organization. Some examples of digital assets include: documents, images, video files, metadata, presentations, etc. Digital assets are intangible, right-to-use assets.

Enterprise Asset Management (EAM):

Enterprise Asset Management helps you manage assets that keep your business running, even when they sit outside your traditional IT landscape. It includes IoT devices and other non-IT assets connected to your network, bringing everything together as one technology ecosystem.

1. Planning

The planning stage is a strategic phase involving important financial planning, benefit analysis, procurement and deployment phases and finally decision-making about asset purchases.

2. Procurement

Asset procurement may involve purchasing the asset, signing a licensing agreement or even building the asset. This stage also involves the process of cataloging all asset information into an asset register or ITAM software platform.

3. Deployment

Deployment involves the configuration, implementation and assignment of asset ownership and permission rights.

4. Maintenance

The maintenance phase involves tracking asset ownership, recording device servicings, ensuring licensing compliance, monitoring license renewals and software upgrades.

5. Decommission

The decommission stage of the asset lifecycle is also known as the retirement or removal phase. Assets that are, for example, outdated, broken or dysfunctional must be removed and usually require a replacement.

Here’s a simple way to understand the difference between ITAM, SAM, HAM and CMDB—and how they work together.

IT Asset Management (ITAM):

Software Asset Management (SAM):

Hardware Asset Management (HAM):

Configuration Management Database (CMDB):

The CMDB is a central data source, not a management practice. It stores detailed information about configuration items—such as devices, software, services and their relationships. ITAM, SAM and HAM all use CMDB data to understand how assets connect to each other and support your services.

In short:

• ITAM manages all IT assets

• SAM manages software licenses and usage

• HAM manages physical hardware

• CMDB stores the data and relationships that support all of them

Together, they give you a complete, reliable view of your IT environment so you can make better decisions.

As a recognized leader in IT Service Management and IT Asset Management, USU combines deep product expertise with integration and services. Learn more about how we help our customers to integrate multiple source to create "Golden Records" as an integral part of IT processes.

ITAM software are tools designed to improve the process of tracking and maintaining an IT asset throughout its life cycle, as well as optimizing usage and reducing spending.

The business value of an ITAM system can be gained largely from a company’s record-keeping and reporting capabilities. A company’s IT Asset Management value can be realized by utilizing the information collected from ITAM software to optimize current IT assets and strategically plan and execute future asset procurement and deployment.

Having an efficient IT Asset Management platform where all asset information is centralized and accessible to relevant individuals is a key component to driving success within the IT infrastructure and maintaining a budget. By optimizing the IT asset data management process, companies can more effectively record and monitor both physical and virtual IT assets, forecast IT spending, run internal IT asset audits and consequently reduce overall IT spending.

An ITAM software solution should include several basic functions to keep your IT assets organized, maintain compliance and optimize security. Some of these functions include spending reports, license usage reports, asset ownership tracking, inventory tracking, configuration management tools, auditing capabilities and more.

• Organizations & People: The first dimension outlines the need for allocating roles and responsibilities within an organization. For ITAM, this includes assigning certain asset management responsibilities, such as asset register maintenance or IT asset compliance, to certain asset managers.
• Information & Technology: The second dimension refers to the reliance on technology solutions to optimize workflows and expense management. Manual record keeping is no longer as reliable or expedient as software and hardware asset management tools that can automate these processes and improve visibility with real-time reporting.
• Partners & Suppliers: The third dimension defines the relationship between an organization’s IT department and third-party vendors or suppliers. Most virtual IT assets, such as software application licenses and cloud licenses, are provided through third-party vendors and suppliers. This dimension provides a set of guidelines to record all details including purchase date, contracts, warranties, renewal dates, etc.
• Value Streams & Processes: The fourth dimension touches on the relationship between ITAM processes and IT Service Management (ITSM) as a whole. This includes the collaboration between the IT Asset Management and IT Service Management teams to improve IT services across the department.

IT Asset Management also requires the establishment of ITAM policies. ITAM policies are guidelines that help ensure the proper documentation and handling of IT assets. Some of the purposes of IT Asset Management policies coincide directly with each stage of the asset life cycle.

Important elements of an ITAM policy include the governance of:

• Software catalogues
• IT asset purchasing
• IT asset deployment
• Maintenance & upgrades
• Functionality monitoring
• IT financial management
• Asset ownership
• Asset removal
• Record keeping

A clearly defined ITAM policy provides more than just a set of spending and usage guidelines, it can also help improve the optimization of IT asset spending, utilization, risk management, compliance, strategic decision-making and vendor information management.