Features to Look for in an Asset Management Software Solution

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IT asset management, which is also called ITAM, is becoming increasingly important in the modern business world. At its core, ITAM is designed to ensure that both the hardware and the software being used in a company is being managed correctly to ensure security, ensure that everyone has the needed software and hardware packages, and to be sure that everything is up to date in an organization.

As a result, the incidence and likelihood of problems and risks are dramatically reduced. Proper asset management includes the stewardship of hardware assets throughout your organization, software that is installed on your physical devices, and it can also ensure that the data housed on these systems is well managed as well.

So, how can you ensure that your IT asset management is up to snuff? Well, many companies use asset management software like SysAid to ensure that everything is running properly within the organization. Forbes has a great article on everything that you need to know about asset management that can help you understand the value of a good asset management system.

The Best ITAM Software Packages Should Have the Best Features

As you might expect, there are a wide array of asset management programs out there that will provide varying degrees of functionality. Typically, it’s very important to have a suite of features that’ll make your IT folk’s jobs easier. Check out ABS Group’s asset integrity and reliability solutions and learn more about what a ITAM has to offer. Here are a few that you should look out for:

  • Asset visualization – This feature is often overlooked because many business owners just want the bottom line information about their assets, but a good visualization system is crucial. The best software packages out there will provide a plethora of important KPIs about your assets in an easily digestible format so that your IT management team can quickly make changes, see where there might be vulnerabilities, and monitor system status.
  • Comprehensive reporting – your asset management solution should make it easy to generate reports. This way, your IT team can bring any interesting metrics to you that can help you streamline your IT processes.
  • Hardware inventory management solutions – Every organization out there needs to manage a wide variety of hardware assets. These can include servers, laptops, desktop computers, company phones, tablets, and can even expand to things like printers and copiers. A good asset management software solution will provide insights into all of these hardware devices so that your team can take inventory, track changes, and keep your hardware tracked and secure.
  • Software inventory management solutions – You’ve probably seen situations where one employee prefers a work laptop that runs Mac OS X El Capitan, while another prefers Windows 10. Each of these software options may be installed on similar systems, but keeping track of these software licenses is important to your IT functioning. Software inventory management solutions will allow your IT team to track the full picture of the software products that are running on each of your hardware assets. This can help with provisioning, budget management, and can also help your team track licensing information.
  • Remote Control – Your IT team will almost always be busy, which means that they won’t always be right at the helpdesk. In this situation, it’s very useful for a software solution for asset management to have a remote control feature so that members of your IT team can remote into network devices from wherever they happen to be. In fact, software solutions like SysAid provide HTML5-based control panels for your IT to address asset management needs.
  • Integration with your helpdesk – Having a well-oiled helpdesk is crucial to the performance of your IT superstructure, so asset management solutions should seamlessly integrate with your existing helpdesk software. The best solutions will even allow an end user to open incident reports that will automatically provide information about the assets that they are using, including both hardware and software configurations.
  • Software patch management – Recently, major corporations have been hacked simply because of inefficient patching procedures. This is one of the most important features to look for in an ITAM solution because vulnerabilities need to be patched up as soon as possible. This is why it’s imperative for your ITAM solution to be able to deploy patches to both multiple and individual computers so that your IT supersystem can remain secure.
  • The better software solutions will even semi-automate the process by allowing you to set up policies that allow you to decide which patches can be deployed to your various hardware assets.
  • ITAM Service History – Sometimes, incidents recur, and when that happens, it’s good to have a service history so that your team can address the issue at the source if possible. When your software has this feature, your team will be able to see previous tickets associated with an asset, even if they are active or currently classified as resolved.

Final Thoughts

Finding a good asset management solution can be tough, but fortunately, there are some great software options for your company. When you’re looking into a particular solution, try to make sure that it has as many of the features that we’ve outlined above, your team will thank you.