IT Asset Management or Inventory System: Better Together?

In the ever-evolving IT landscape, the debate between IT asset management (ITAM) and inventory systems is more relevant than ever. While both are crucial in optimizing an organization’s resources, many continue to ask which practice truly reigns supreme: Is it the meticulous tracking and lifecycle management of ITAM or the detailed cataloging and strong compliance focus of inventory systems?

It might be controversial, but IT asset management is not better than a comprehensive inventory system, and having an inventory system is not better than practicing asset management.

Why? When you boil it down to functionality and use cases, each is necessary for creating a comprehensive, effective IT asset inventory management strategy that supports operational efficiency, security and compliance, and productivity.

Contrary to popular belief, ITAM isn’t just another term for inventory management; it’s a broader concept that goes beyond tracking inventory. However, accurate inventory information remains crucial to ITAM.

Think of ITAM as providing a bird’s-eye view of all your assets, like a theme park map. On the other hand, inventory management is like having a detailed list of where and how many rides, food stands, and souvenir shops are in the park. You can see how, without this specific information, the map wouldn’t nearly be as valuable – especially when you’re trying to find the snack carts.

This blog post will present an overview of IT asset management and inventory management, compare them in detail, and discuss the growing trend of converging these practices into one strategy to enhance operational efficiency, improve asset visibility, and streamline IT processes not easily achievable through separate efforts.

We’ll also offer suggestions on what to look for in a comprehensive asset inventory management solution that helps organizations manage the IT assets and investments that drive their success.
 

• IT inventory management vs. asset management
  • What is asset management?
  • Is asset management the same as ITAM?
  • What is IT inventory management?
  • Is inventory management the same as IT inventory management?
  • Is IT inventory management different than ITAM?
• The convergence of asset management and inventory management
• What is an asset inventory management system?
• What are the benefits of using an asset inventory management system?
• How to choose the best inventory and asset management solution

IT inventory management vs. asset management

To appreciate the differences between inventory management and asset management, it’s important to understand the broader scope and mission of IT asset management and the more focused role that IT inventory management plays in supporting asset management with a complete, real-time inventory of software and hardware assets.

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What is asset management?

Asset management is the tracking, management, and repair of all assets in an organization. An asset is anything of value that a company uses to run its business. Assets include buildings, property, machinery, vehicles, hardware devices, software licenses, furniture, and more. Organizations rely on assets to build products, deliver services, or undertake other activities directly related to their operations.

Asset management allows organizations to track critical information about every asset by providing deals about every phase of the asset lifecycle: purchase dates, department allocation, physical location, asset maintenance schedules, and (when appropriate) end-of-life schedules and disposal.

While asset management covers a broad spectrum, it often fails to effectively oversee IT resources in today’s organizations. Let’s explore how ITAM solutions help address the unique challenges of managing modern IT assets and why.

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Is asset management the same as ITAM?

IT asset management, or ITAM, is a subset of asset management focused exclusively on the end-to-end tracking and management of IT assets to ensure their proper use, maintenance, and disposal. A good example of the differences between general asset management and how IT uses asset management is that the asset IT wants to manage is the computer, not the desk it sits on.

As organizations have become more digital, the importance of managing IT assets effectively has risen.

While traditional asset management provides a solid foundation, it often falls short in addressing the unique requirements and complexities associated with managing IT infrastructure, leading to inefficiencies, increased costs, operational disruptions, and challenges in maintaining up-to-date asset information.

Why is traditional asset management insufficient for IT? The challenges are primarily due to lacking the tools and processes needed to manage IT assets effectively, including:

• Real-time visibility to ensure accurate inventory records that prevent oversights
• Proper management over consumables like software licenses that can otherwise cause potential key shortages and overspending when available licenses are sitting unused on devices
• The oversight needed to address compliance requirements and mitigate security risks effectively

IT asset management emerged to address these shortcomings by providing a more comprehensive and streamlined approach to managing IT assets. ITAM not only helps teams track the assets employees rely on daily to perform their work more effectively, but it also offers organizations insights into specialized assets, such as software licenses. ITAM supports meeting compliance standards and optimizing asset usage by ensuring all IT assets are efficiently tracked, properly maintained, and securely decommissioned, maximizing their value while minimizing costs and risks.

By leveraging ITAM, organizations gain a comprehensive asset tracking system designed specifically for IT assets to streamline operations, reduce costs, and enhance security, ultimately driving greater efficiency and productivity to keep their IT environments running smoothly and effectively.

Let’s shift our focus to another critical aspect of ITAM: IT inventory management. Understanding the role IT inventory management plays in providing comprehensive oversight and control over IT resources within an effective ITAM strategy is crucial for fostering a more organized and efficient business environment that drives better decision making and operational success.

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What is IT inventory management?

IT inventory management provides a comprehensive list of all the IT assets in a company: everything from software licenses and servers to laptops and IoT devices. This inventory list aims to be exhaustive by providing asset data for every piece of software or hardware the organization currently possesses or interacts with on its networks.

The more detailed an IT asset inventory is, the better. For example, suppose an organization wants to find out how many of its laptops purchased in 2019 are no longer under warranty. In that case, the inventory tracking system should be detailed enough to provide the manufacturer, model number, serial number, location, and warranty status of all assets meeting those criteria.

Like asset management and ITAM, it’s important to note that there is a type of inventory management not distinctly related to IT inventory management. While IT inventory management focuses on tracking IT assets, general inventory management typically refers to physical commodities or products. Let’s explore these differences more and clarify how each practice serves its unique purpose.

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Is inventory management the same as IT inventory management?

Inventory management refers to the process of overseeing and controlling the ordering, storage, and use of non-IT assets, including tracking everything from raw materials and components to finished products and supplies. The primary goal of inventory management is to ensure that the right amount of inventory is available at the right time to meet customer demand while minimizing costs associated with holding and managing inventory.

For example, in the manufacturing industry, inventory management involves tracking stock levels, managing reorders, and optimizing inventory turnover to improve operational efficiency, meet production schedules, and reduce waste. Physical assets might be tracked using barcodes, QR codes, or RFID tags.

For manufacturers, inventory management tracks assets and parts on hand for building products and the finished goods ready for sale by balancing having enough inventory to meet demand and avoiding excess stock that ties up capital and incurs storage costs. This inventory strategy is similar for hospitals and other medical facilities that need to track equipment, medication, and supplies.

With this type of inventory management, organizations can better manage their supply chain by completely and timely understanding their inventory to ensure it has the assets they need without overstocking or running into shortages that might stall production.

[Read also: What is software supply chain security?]

Like ITAM, this type of asset tracking also needs to be detailed, timely, and accurate. However, general inventory management is a different practice than the one IT departments use to create a continuously accurate accounting of all the IT assets the organization controls with its own set of unique challenges and requirements. Also, in many cases, organizations in these industries have IT assets they need to effectively track.

We’ve compared asset management to ITAM and inventory management to IT inventory management, now let’s explore whether IT inventory management is distinct from IT asset management and how these two concepts are interrelated.

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Is IT inventory management different than ITAM?

It’s true: at first glance, ITAM and IT inventory management might seem like two sides of the same coin. When we talk about ITAM and IT inventory management, it does sound like they’re basically the same approach. However, it’s important to clarify that ITAM and IT inventory management serve very different purposes.

IT asset management is a strategic approach designed to manage and optimize IT assets throughout their entire lifecycle. By ensuring efficient use and minimizing costs and risks, ITAM covers everything from tracking and maintaining hardware and software to securely decommissioning assets when they’re no longer needed, helping organizations get the most value out of their IT investments while maintaining a secure and efficient IT environment.

IT inventory management focuses on maintaining an accurate record of IT assets, including their identification, location, condition, and maintenance history – essentially providing the visibility needed for effective ITAM.

So, while it might be tempting to think of inventory management as its own IT discipline, it’s not really separate from ITAM. In fact, asset management and inventory management for IT practices are beginning to converge.

What exactly does converge mean? In technology, we often see the convergence of different methodologies when each practice’s value becomes significantly greater when combined than when approached separately.

For ITAM and inventory management, organizations are starting to realize that relying solely on inventory management to track their assets can result in limited visibility into the long-term lifecycle and maintenance needs of IT assets. On the flip side, leveraging only ITAM often doesn’t provide real-time insights into the current state of all devices, especially in large, distributed environments. Both siloed approaches can lead to oversights that cause increased downtime, higher replacement costs, security vulnerabilities, and other issues.

How to achieve complete IT visibility with Tanium

Let’s explore what it means to manage IT inventory through the larger lens of IT asset management and how this will shape the future of ITAM and inventory management.

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The convergence of asset management and inventory management

Convergence has happened many times before, from smartphones combining the use cases of telephones, computers, and the internet into one powerful, ground-breaking device to converged endpoint management consolidating all the necessary capabilities to revolutionize how organizations control, remediate, and defend devices by having these individual components inform one another using a central solution.

Today, there’s a growing recognition that IT teams can’t afford to think of asset management and inventory management separately — or as separate from the businesses they support.

‘Convergence’ as I put forward is an expansion of ITAM into Enterprise Asset Management. The scope starts to widen because the business realizes it can capture a more holistic inventory and usage data set beyond traditional IT. In fact, the fastest way forward for organizations is to copy many of the best practices, policies, and data systems ITAM teams have built.

In other words, organizations benefit from leveraging the rich data insights of asset management for their inventory management efforts, especially when tackling problems involving IT assets for their specific departments.

By definition, assets are things of value to an organization. They enable the organization to operate. So, it only makes sense to recognize asset management and inventory management for their individual merits while also seizing the opportunity to converge these practices into one comprehensive strategy.

It’s time for IT leaders to begin thinking of these two disciplines as one solution: an asset inventory management system.

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What is an asset inventory management system?

Asset inventory management software combines the strengths of IT asset management and IT inventory management while prioritizing real-time visibility to help organizations build and maintain a complete and accurate inventory of their IT assets – whether physical, digital, or non-tangible assets like software licenses – to ensure the inventory is not only complete but actionable in real time.

Asset visibility is foundational to the ability to serve, secure, control, and optimize the components of IT service. Performance, cost, and security all depend on the completeness and accuracy of ITAM information.

This integrated approach features what you’d expect from an ITAM solution as it helps organizations manage and optimize IT assets throughout their lifecycle by providing and maintaining updated and detailed information, including identification, location, condition, and maintenance history. By effectively managing and enhancing the utilization of equipment, software, and other assets, organizations can extend the lifespan of their resources and minimize asset loss.

An asset inventory management system enhances traditional IT inventory functions, including cataloging IT assets (hardware, software, and network resources), by consolidating device information with lifecycle insights that enable an organization to more easily calculate depreciation schedules, forecast repairs, and plan replacements. These real-time dashboards also allow teams to drill down into device information and uncover dependencies.

A key feature of an asset inventory management system is its ability to consolidate ITAM and inventory insights to help you act on any findings. This is commonly done by integrating with other IT management systems or as part of a larger platform approach that allows you to quickly remediate issues like updating patches to address potential vulnerability risks and perform everyday tasks like assigning software licenses to specific employees or managing access policies — all from a single solution.

Gone are the days of manually tracking assets in spreadsheets or piecing together separate ITAM and inventory tools: asset inventory management systems provide the comprehensive and scalable management solution organizations need as they grow.

With this understanding of what an asset inventory management system is and can do, let’s delve into why modern organizations are eager to deploy one.
 

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What are the benefits of using an asset inventory management system?

An asset inventory management system combines data insights with the IT-focused perspective to provide organizations with various benefits, including:

• Streamlining operational efficiency: Modern asset management software automates tasks that used to be manual, such as identifying hardware devices and software licenses, tracking patch status, and so on.
• Enhancing security efforts: Identify and address vulnerabilities promptly, ensuring that all assets are secure and up-to-date with the latest patches and updates. With real-time visibility into all assets, IT teams can quickly identify and address vulnerabilities, reducing the risk of cyberattacks and upholding data privacy best practices.

[Listen to our free podcast: We need to get proactive about vulnerability management]

• Informing compliance: Asset tracking software helps ensure that all assets comply with regulatory requirements and internal policies, reducing the risk of noncompliance. It also simplifies audits while improving their accuracy and completeness by providing comprehensive, real-time visibility into all IT assets under management.
• Facilitating better lifecycle management: Track the entire lifecycle of assets, from procurement to inventory control to disposal, optimize usage, and plan for upgrades or replacements. Tracking usage data gives purchasing departments the metrics they need to negotiate pricing with vendors ranging from hardware suppliers to managed service providers.
• Improving employee experience and productivity: Ensure that the assets assigned to employees are in good operating condition and up-to-date with patches and repairs. When employees use secure and well-maintained IT assets and don’t experience disruption or frustration, their productivity and job satisfaction increase.

As you can see, the benefits of an asset inventory management system include everything from operational efficiency to security and compliance to employee job satisfaction.

[Read also: What is digital employee experience (DEX)? And why does it matter]

Now that you understand the benefits of these systems, let’s review how to choose and the most important features to look for in an asset inventory management solution that will help you achieve these benefits.

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How to choose the best inventory and asset management solution

Choosing an inventory and asset management solution involves understanding your organization’s unique asset management requirements and recognizing features, such as real-time data collection, essential for managing assets in today’s vast, complex IT environments.

Here are some tips to guide you in making the right choice around what to look for:

• Assess your needs: Start by evaluating your organization’s specific requirements. Consider the size of your IT environment, the types of assets you need to manage, and any unique challenges you face. This will help you identify the features and capabilities that are most important for your solution.
  
  You should also determine if the solution can scale with your organization’s growth, such as being able to handle an increasing number of assets and adapting to more complex IT environments without compromising performance.
• Leverages real-time data: The solution must use real-time asset data to ensure your inventory is always up to date with accurate information about the status and location of your assets to enable better decision making and resource allocation. Real-time data allows for immediate identification of discrepancies, reducing the risk of errors and ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements.
  
  Additionally, real-time asset information enhances the ability to respond swiftly to changes in demand or operational needs, which increases efficiency and cost savings. By leveraging real-time data, organizations can maintain a competitive edge and ensure optimal utilization of their resources.
• Provides comprehensive visibility: Ensure the solution provides a holistic view of all your endpoints, both physical and virtual. This includes different types of devices, IoT, OT, and more. Having a unified view helps in better management and security of your assets.
  
  By choosing a solution that can integrate with various device types and platforms, this will enable you to monitor and manage all assets from a single interface, ensuring no endpoint is overlooked.
• Offers reliable automation capabilities: Automation reduces manual effort and minimizes errors. Choose a solution that provides automated asset discovery, updates, and monitoring to streamline your IT asset management processes and security capabilities to identify and address vulnerabilities promptly.
  
  By automating these processes, you can ensure that all assets are secure and up-to-date with the latest patches and updates, reducing the risk of security breaches. Additionally, automation enables more proactive decision making and resource allocation, ultimately leading to improved operational performance.

[Read also: What is security automation? The benefits, importance, and features]

• Features a user-friendly, centralized interface with customizable reporting: A user-friendly interface is essential for ease of use. The solution should be intuitive and easy to navigate, reducing the learning curve for your IT staff and improving overall efficiency.
  
  By consolidating information from various sources into a single, reliable system, organizations can streamline operations by automating routine tasks and workflows, improving efficiency, and reducing manual effort. Detailed insights and analytics are vital for informed decision-making. Look for a solution that offers customizable reporting features, allowing you to generate reports tailored to your organization’s needs.
• Integrates with your existing tools and third-party vendors: Ensure the solution can integrate seamlessly with your existing IT and security tools to enhance visibility and control over your IT environment and allow for a more cohesive management approach. Additionally, look for a system that can work with third-party vendors to provide a more cohesive and comprehensive management approach.
  
  When your tech stack can communicate and leverage the same dataset, it creates a unified view of your assets, reduces data silos, and improves decision making, which in turn allows for more efficient operations, better risk management, and a streamlined workflow that enhances your overall efforts.

Ultimately, the best way to track all the hardware and software assets your organization relies on is by using IT asset management and inventory management in a single, centralized, and comprehensive solution. Asset inventory management systems should be able to manage the broad range of assets that organizations work with today — everything from mobile devices to SaaS software licenses — with the power to scale with you to track and manage IT assets of all kinds as your organization continues to grow.

By combining asset tracking with a rigorously complete inventory, teams get the best of both worlds: a truly complete understanding and actionable view of every single IT asset.

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Tanium Asset Discovery and Inventory, a core capability of the Tanium platform, offers a comprehensive software and hardware inventory solution to help organizations efficiently track and manage millions of endpoints. It provides the ability to discover every device, typically in minutes, and eliminates the need for multiple discovery tools or numerous scans.

The solution also continuously builds a real-time inventory, seamlessly categorizes new assets, and provides a complete list of software by product or vendor, making it easier to find unauthorized or underutilized software leveraging out-of-the-box reporting usage statistics at a glance.

Tanium also integrates with your CMDB, like ServiceNow, ensuring up-to-date device information, and other popular IT tools for managing devices and applications, including Microsoft Intune, to allow for more consistent, accurate reporting and better collaboration.

Additionally, Tanium Autonomous Endpoint Management (AEM) enhances our current platform by leveraging AI insights from real-time, Tanium cloud-managed endpoint data to recommend and automate changes in a customer’s environment safely and at scale. Tanium AEM also includes machine learning capabilities that allow it to continuously adjust and refine based on evolving IT conditions and predict the impact of changes in real time with high confidence.

By converging AI and ML with comprehensive endpoint management, Tanium AEM not only automates routine tasks but also helps organizations improve their security posture while enhancing operational efficiency – and we’re committed to continue building additional functionalities that help our customers address their growing needs and challenges to make managing, securing, and improving their entire IT environment easier.

Request a free demo personalized to your IT environment and see how Tanium can streamline your asset management processes and more.

¹ https://itassetmanagement.net/2024/12/03/convergence-is-coming-to-asset-management/
² https://media.bitpipe.com/io_17x/io_176691/item_2647551/2023-09-22_EMA-ITAM-Final-eBook-.pdf