Information Technology Asset Management (ITAM) is a seemingly mundane, often overlooked term. It reminds us of tedious admin work or routine checklists. However, ITAM is one of the most powerful tools at an IT leader’s disposal and deserves serious attention.
To put it simply: proactive ITAM is a strategic advantage. It’s the first step in modernization and plays a critical role in Zero Trust security and managing IT budgets.
In this article we’ll be diving into why you should be prioritizing ITAM, and the role it plays in succeeding as a modern IT leader.
It’s Time to Take ITAM Seriously
We know ITAM feels like yesterday’s news. And while the underlying methodologies remain the same from 20 years ago, the data sets are now different. And the stakes are much greater.
Intentionally or not, all IT leaders are doing ITAM. The problem is most businesses only focus on ITAM in response to an external trigger. For example, a business might deploy an audit in response to a merger, acquisition, sudden growth, or concerns about licensing compliance and true-ups.
Even then, the approach to ITAM is rushed and reactive. It can take months to properly collect and sift through the data to get a full picture of your IT environment, and you still haven’t moved forward on your strategic plans.
Benefits of Comprehensive ITAM
Pushing for a proactive, robust ITAM practice has several big pay offs to IT teams.
- Modernization: ITAM provides the foundation for any modernization project, including GenAI initiatives. Knowing what your team is already using, what licenses you need, and your security status is essential for a smooth transition. A prime example here is getting ready for Copilot for Microsoft 365. As we’ve reported, doing so is nearly impossible without automated, data-driven insights about your licensing, security score and application usage trends.
- Cost Management: Effective ITAM cuts costs by eliminating redundancies and optimizing resource usage. That’s something nearly all businesses benefit from. According to our Benchmarks for CIOs report, 97% of servers use less than 25% of available resources, leading to unnecessary expenses on power, cooling, and floor space. Without ITAM, it’s difficult to spot the waste and cut accordingly.
- Security Posture: Good ITAM highlights blind spots in security – another common challenge for IT leaders. For example, our newest Benchmarks for CIOs report found 60% of endpoints are exposed to critical vulnerabilities. Without a comprehensive asset inventory, you can’t protect what you don’t know exists. We’ve also written previously about the deep connection between ITAM and successful zero trust deployments. By definition, you can’t offer the granular control you need for Zero Trust without detailed visibility.
- Centralized Insights and Management: Modern ITAM creates a single, centralized source of truth. By consolidating reporting and management, IT teams improve compliance, accelerate decision making, and drive efficiencies – with far less chaos!
It’s Simple: ITAM is an IT Leader’s Best Friend
It’s time to take ITAM seriously. Not only does it lay the groundwork for modernization and enhance your security posture, it also provides significant cost savings. There’s simply no major challenge for IT leaders it doesn’t help address. And there’s simply no IT ambition it doesn’t help you achieve.
How Block 64 Can Help
It’s time for IT leaders to stop guessing, and start managing.
Block 64’s platform tackles the most costly and time-intensive ITAM burdens, including inventory, license compliance, expense management, contracts, and hardware lifecycle. It is trusted by thousands of organizations world wide and used by IT service providers, VARs and MSPs to elevate their assessment services. Visit Block.64.com to see how we make modern ITAM easy with effortless discovery tools, centralized reporting and insight-packed automatic assessments.
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