Enterprise Asset Management: Do you have what you need

When different people are approached about thoughts on Enterprise Asset Management (EAM), the responses can certainly have a wide range of reactions. There are those who see it as a financial tool while others may see it as an integral component of their life cycle management program. Then there is my favorite, “Keeps me from going to jail” response, as it is a view of compliance. Regardless of your perspective, having an EAM is becoming a vital necessity as the number of devices are accelerating in our growing digital world.

An EAM can span across several platforms and serve a number of different purposes. The organizational goal of a successful EAM strategy will dictate the type of EAM tool set you will want to acquire. It is important to qualify the difference and need to understand the approaches to hardware and software asset management. It is common for an organization to rely on its financial division to manage the hardware assets as part of the company’s balance sheet. However, a number of important assets may not be covered under the capital polices, but will require tracking, monitoring and life cycle management. For example, the price of desktop computing has dropped significantly over the past several years. Consequently, a device may no longer be considered capital. However, there may be reasons such as regulatory requirements, the device must be monitored for encryption and tracked for its appropriate use and disposal.

Some organizations found themselves at the bad end of a software licenses issue and started their strategy with a Software Asset Management (SAM) tool on premise. Such tools allow you to manage licenses purchased and distributed within the organization. As part of the tool, some have a scanning function, which can be a great assistance with annual true-up licensing that might need to occur. Yet most of these types of tools provide little value when it comes to tracking the utilization of cloud-based services. With software as a service (SaaS) technology and more vendors offering cloud services, the ability to insure proper tracking of your software assets is growing more complex and requires a different set of tools and potentially skill sets in your organization.