HAM Plan pt. 2

IT Asset Discovery

In order to effectively manage your IT infrastructure, it is essential to establish a comprehensive understanding of your hardware assets. This can be achieved by utilising discovery tools and purchase records to create a baseline of the hardware assets within your IT estate. It's important to note that no single platform can provide complete coverage of the IT estate, as each platform is tailored to meet specific environmental requirements. Ideally, at least 80% of discoverable IT assets should be reported into your ITAM Tool instance to ensure accurate tracking and management.

To enhance the accuracy of your asset inventory, it's recommended to triangulate the discovery data from various sources, such as Active Directory (AD), System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), and antivirus software. This process will not only validate the data but also identify opportunities for optimisation and efficiency improvements within all the tools.

Conducting a thorough gap analysis will offer a holistic view of the discoverable hardware assets across your IT estate. Moreover, it's important to recognise that any hardware assets that are not discoverable, also referred to as standalone assets, should be physically audited and accounted for separately. Therefore, it is considered best practice to perform an annual audit of all hardware assets in your IT estate. This practice will allow you to validate your asset register and investigate any discrepancies that may arise.

IT Asset Lifecycle

The hardware asset management lifecycle consists of 5 stages.

Planning marks the beginning of the lifecycle, where the organisation's needs are identified. Key stakeholders must understand and agree on the requirements and determine the best course of action. Important decisions to consider include the return on investment, such as:

• Are there existing assets within the organisation that can fulfil the same purpose?

• Should the new assets be purchased or leased?

• Will the new assets require hardware maintenance?

• Will the new assets enhance productivity?

• Are the new assets environmentally sustainable?

The next stage is acquisition, involving the formal procurement of assets. In larger organisations, this process may be handled outside of the ITAM team due to the nature or cost of the IT assets. However, the ITAM team should be informed about the ordered and received assets for proper registration.

Once the assets are received and/or registered, they are then ready for the deployment stage.

During the deployment stage, new or existing assets are put into operation following a formal request process.

Following deployment, the management stage is crucial for maintaining an updated and accurate asset register that reflects any changes in asset movement post-deployment.

The final stage is end-of-life, at which point assets no longer hold value for the organisation and can be retired and physically disposed of.

IT Asset Processes

It is crucial to maintain efficient processes and controls for your asset data, as any inefficiencies can significantly impact the accuracy of the asset register. This, in turn, can have far-reaching effects on other business areas that rely on this data. Consequently, users may lose trust in the data, leading to damaging consequences.

The high-level asset lifecycle includes the following stages:

1. Acquisition – Bringing new IT assets on to your estate

   1. Purchase

   2. Receiving

2. Deployment – deploying IT assets to end users

   1. Check out

   2. Install

3. Management – movement of IT assets once deployed on your estate

   1. Check in

   2. Move

   3. Change

   4. Audit Reconciliation

   5. Leavers

4. End of Life – decommission and disposal of IT assets from your estate

   1. Lost/stolen

   2. EOL identification

   3. Physical Disposal

Metrics

Typical key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure your hardware asset register against include:

• Number of assets recorded by type

• Number of assets recorded by state

• Number of discoverable assets

• Number of non-discoverable assets

• Number of new assets by month

• Number of disposed assets by month

• Frequency of periodic reviews

  • Number of discrepancies

  • Number of rejected software assets discovered deployed

• Physically audited assets

Please feel free to contact us for more information. We’d welcome the opportunity to discuss how we can support your HAM ambitions or objectives.