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Getting Your Arms Around IT Asset Management

Therese Rutkowski October 2006

After surveying a cross-industry spectrum of companies, Lori Sechio confirmed what she already suspected: 95% of them had inaccurate information on the number and configuration of their IT assets-a discrepancy that could put these firms at risk of Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) noncompliance if they were publicly held and did not implement a rigorous IT asset management (ITAM) program.

"We looked at our client base over the past two years, and 95% of the time the technology assets they had on their books did not match what we actually found," says Sechio, CEO of TekMethods, a Tampa, Fla.-based IT asset management (ITAM) services firm.

In the current business environment, companies cannot afford to be lax about accounting for their IT assets, according to Sechio and other sources.

In particular, SOX requires executives of publicly-held companies to ensure the accuracy of their financial statements - and a company's IT estate can often account for 50% of the total enterprise asset base and sometimes as much as 80% of capital expenditure, according to Peter O'Neill, a U.K.-based analyst at Forrester Research Inc., Cambridge, Mass.

"CFOs can sign on the dotted line about their asset base with a much higher degree of confidence if they have an ITAM program in place," says TekMethods' Sechio.

Companies also can recover from disasters more quickly, Sechio adds. In fact, in addition to SOX, the 2005 hurricane season brought ITAM to the forefront of executive concerns.

"Essentially, ITAM is the discipline of knowing the technology assets you have, where they are, how they are configured, who is using them and other information," she says. "It provides a comprehensive view of your technology portfolio."

Specifically, a solid ITAM program has five components, she says:

* Configuration Data: The software on each piece of hardware and the actual hardware configuration (RAM, hard drive memory, microprocessor speed).

* Basic Asset Data: Manufacturer, model number, serial number for hardware and software assets.

* Demographic Data: Physical location and users for all IT assets.

* Financial Data: Cost of each asset.

* Contractual Data: Warranty information, maintenance programs, lease information, licensing agreements.

Therefore, a company using ITAM technology can recover critical information on their hardware and software assets-at a moment's notice-to help them configure new equipment much more quickly if disaster strikes. The data also can be used for taxes, technical support, contract administration and risk management, she adds.

THE BIGGEST DRIVER

From the perspective of the insurance industry, companies need to make sure they don't lose IT assets-such as laptops-that have private data on them," says Patricia Adams, a research director specializing in ITAM and configuration management database (CMDB) technology at Gartner Inc., Stamford, Conn.

The recent incidents of stolen laptops containing personal information may be a factor in IT asset management growth in financial services, she says, because ITAM plays a role in making sure companies are tracking those assets.

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