Develop a Comprehensive Hardware Asset Management Strategy

Introduction Info-Tech Research Group2 Many see Hardware Asset Management (HAM) as a cost center rather than as an important aspect of an organization’s IT Asset Management (ITAM) practice. Effective HAM forms the base for lifecycle and software management, financial management of assets, and more effective service management reporting. This research is designed for: This research will help you: CIOs IT managers IT asset managers Anyone looking to rationalize or optimize their IT asset management practice Align your hardware asset management strategy with operational goals. Identify best practices to maximize hardware asset ROI while offering adequate risk protection. Construct the supporting documents you need to make the case. Use this research to gain a better understanding of how HAM best practices can help save money, gain efficiencies, and secure data.

Executive Summary Hardware Asset Management (HAM) provides a framework for managing equipment throughout its entire lifecycle. HAM is more than just keeping an inventory. It focuses on knowing where the product is, what costs are associated with it, and how to ensure auditable disposition according to best options and local environmental laws. Just over 30% of Info-Tech’s research panel has a mature asset management practice, with the remaining organizations either in the early stages of building one or still looking for the best methods to implement. As HAM is function-specific to IT and not to any other business units, it often gets set aside for more pressing projects, but the methods used in the interim often produce incomplete, inaccurate, and cumbersome inventory lists that provide little value. Implementing a HAM practice enables integration of data and enhancement of many other IT services such as financial reporting, service management, green IT, and data and asset security. Cost savings and efficiency gains will vary based on the organization’s starting state and what measures are implemented, but most organizations who implement HAM, benefit from it. As organizations increase in size, they will find the greatest gains operationally by becoming more efficient at handling assets and identifying costs associated with them. This document will provide case studies showing returns of 200% in six months, significant lease payment reductions, service desk efficiencies, and disposal processes that create income for the IT department. Info-Tech Research Group3

Implement HAM to reduce & manage costs, gain efficiencies, and ensure regulatory compliance Info-Tech Research Group4 Companies with effective HAM practices achieve savings of up to 20% through redeployment, reduction of lost or stolen equipment, power management, and on- time lease returns. Insurance companies may offer reductions of as much as 10% off the cost of insuring organizational assets if they are actively managed. The right HAM system will enable more accurate planning and budgeting by business units. Save & Manage Money Integrating the hardware lifecycle with the service desk will enable efficiencies of up to 20% through Install/Moves/Adds/Changes (IMAC) processes, for larger organizations. Gain Service Efficiencies You can’t secure organizational assets if you don’t know where they are! Meet governance and privacy laws by knowing asset location and that data is secure. Meet Regulatory Requirements

Strategize Understand Manage Lifecycle Learn how HAM can help reduce equipment costs. Understand how HAM integrates with software asset management & service management and supports your organization’s green initiatives. Understand the stages of HAM to determine at what phase your organization sits and where it should be going. Roadmap Understand HAM benefits to integrate into your asset strategy Next Section in Brief 1 24

14% 59% 13% 40% 38% 37% Source: Info-Tech Research Group N = 53 Overall People Success 47% Overall Process Success 19% Overall Technology Success 33% Execute an effective HAM practice with policies, processes, automated tools, and an Asset Manager Info-Tech Research Group6 Automated tools are the greatest contributors to the success of a hardware asset management practice, but they require people who are able to maintain records and who are willing to align with best practices. Automated tools on their own will not enable effective HAM management. Have a dedicated asset manager who actively maintains records to ensure accuracy and for fast access to information. Our IT team has ready access to our asset data for quick decision making, problem solving, and planning. A corporate policy is in place regarding security, including locked storage. End users are educated on best practices regarding proper handling and security of equipment and data. Auto-discovery and inventory tool(s) are in place to maintain an accurate equipment count and have instant access data. Technology is in place to track lost or stolen equipment. Each bar represents a statistical estimate of the strength of the correlation between each aspect of maturity and the overall success of hardware asset management.

Manage hardware to reduce costs by as much as 20% and pave the way for additional savings & efficiencies Minimize lost or stolen equipment by setting policies and using automated tools to monitor and enforce policies. Tracking software or devices can also help recovery efforts. Redeploy and cascade equipment rather than buying new computers for each new hire. Report on repair and service costs to determine appropriate end- of-life for products. Plan for hardware upgrades with detailed equipment reports. Manage warranties, extended warranties, or service level agreements, and compare to asset statistics to analyze continued appropriateness for your needs. Eliminate late lease returns by managing renewal dates, monitoring asset location, and reconciling invoices with assets. Quickly identify assets and locations for mergers and acquisitions or space planning and design. 7 A New Zealand Company saw immediate gains by implementing a HAM solution. An asset management consultant worked with this company to discover hardware on the network, reconcile lease agreements to equipment, and implement HAM best practices. By gaining intelligence on their hardware, the company was able to identify a large percentage of machines past their return date that were generating monthly payments, some as much as 18 months overdue. This became the catalyst to renegotiate the lease agreements. See the appendix for more money-saving ideas Info-Tech Research Group

Use HAM as the starting point to create a software asset management practice to optimize savings & efficiencies Use auto-discovery tools to manage hardware and software, making it easier to manage licensing that is dependant on specific hardware configurations such as number of processors or cores. Identify hardware and the user, which is key to managing software, including changes, upgrades, patching, license harvesting, and redeployment. Attach software license and maintenance information to specific assets, allowing more accurate reporting and management for situations where there are multiple agreements. For more information, refer to Info-Tech’s solution set, Manage Software Assets Efficiently. Manage Software Assets Efficiently Info-Tech Research Group8 “” You cannot have SAM without HAM. You must have Hardware Asset Management first to understand how software is installed. ~ John Boisvenue, Consultant Many of the process changes required to build an effective hardware and software practice overlap, so ideally these two areas should be built simultaneously.

The consultant completed a requirements assessment, removed the old inventory tool, and installed an Altiris and HP Asset Manager solution. A process assessment identified problems that could be improved through a realignment between IT Asset Management (ITAM) and IT Service Management (ITSM). This brought clarity to deployments for needed computer upgrades and server consolidations. Info-Tech Research Group9 A government agency with 5,000 users implemented an inventory product to achieve software compliance, cost reductions, and governmental compliance requirements. After several months, they had only implemented the tool and were not seeing any benefits. They hired a consultant to perform a recovery operation on the project, but additional challenges had to be addressed: o Management was focused on implementation of several projects at once. o Staff did not feel that process changes were necessary. o The tool was not adequately scoped out and could not fulfill the requirements. o Too many vendors made adherence to standards difficult. Additional work would need to be done to make the cultural changes needed to improve processes. The ProblemThe Solution Cost & Value Proposition In the first seven months, the client paid out $312,000 for consulting services and technology. An estimate of another $78,000 and an additional months will be required to reach organizational goals. Savings to date have included over $624,000 in hardware redeployments and Microsoft application licenses. Case Study: Inventory and reconcile assets to see quick payback, then focus efforts on process integration & improvement

Support your green IT initiatives through HAM with power management, reporting, and detailed disposition processes Generating utilization and capacity reports through an ITAM tool will provide data to determine which servers or printers can be consolidated. Set policies for lowering power consumption or shutting down redundant machines and workstations left running overnight using power management capabilities of ITAM tools. Generate detailed reports that provide energy consumption by product or department to use for chargebacks and energy rebates. Manage the disposition process to support reuse, reduce, and recycle requirements. For more information on green IT initiatives, refer to Info- Tech’s solution set, Take a Strategic Approach to Maximize the Benefits of Green IT.Take a Strategic Approach to Maximize the Benefits of Green IT Info-Tech Research Group10 A green IT initiative is a subset of Asset Management; by driving things away from ITAM you create additional IT silos, which we have all wanted to eliminate over the past 25 years. ~ John Siniawski, Partner, Pilot Services “”

Gain insight into assets to provide support, plan hardware upgrades, and stay aware of what devices are on the network for capacity and service planning. Map assets to business units or projects for financial reporting or chargebacks. Map assets to internal services and outsourcing contracts to get a more accurate view of TCO and to reconcile invoices. Automate policy-based, repeatable tasks on assets, trigger notifications, and workflows. Gain access to warranty and leasing details at the service desk. Report on warranty and non-warranty work by asset. Info-Tech Research Group11 Integrate HAM into service management processes to accurately and efficiently manage lifecycle changes My philosophical view of asset management is that IT’s management of IT assets is directly related to service management. You don’t need service management if you don’t have any assets. - Daryl Frost, Consultant, Burswood Information Solutions “ ” Know what assets you have, where you keep them, who is responsible for them, and how they are used.

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