Asset management moves beyond tracking inventory

"Salespeople get very creative with things like caps and prepayment options, but their invoicing systems are often inept at taking those things into account." Invoice reconciliation features help catch the ones that don't match contract conditions.

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Most suites also get you to the Service stage, where you build automated processes on top of your asset management and other integrated systems. For example, you can set up an approval process for procurement and then have the asset information added to the database the moment it's deployed. Or you can set up an automated equipment requisition process when a new employee enters the HR system. Some asset management packages include their own bare-bones self-service procurement and catalog features that users employ to request hardware and services from IT. BMC ties its change management system to its asset management database so that all changes to hardware and software are recorded.

The last stage is Value. "Value-oriented is when you analyze your data, find opportunities to lower cost, and actually make recommendations back to the business units on a monthly basis," Gartner's Adams says. Some asset management vendors are starting to supply more extensive data analysis tools for this purpose. CA has a product called Unicenter Asset Intelligence, and Peregrine has its Asset Optimization module. You can also find vendors such as Blazent and Datastream that specialize in this kind of IT-based business intelligence and in analytics that analyze information across asset management and other systems as well. "We have a whole application layer around business-scenario-based analytics to slice and dice the asset data from many perspectives," says Gary Oliver, Blazent's president and CEO.

Slow and steady wins the race

Getting to the Value stage is a multiyear undertaking that may be too much for many organizations to handle. Most analysts and vendors advise starting an asset management deployment with small, manageable steps. "Don't try to boil the ocean," BMC's Wilt says. "Start with a single business unit or department, or a single asset management process. Pick the low-hanging fruit."

Ron Exler, service director at Robert Frances Group, agrees. "If you're doing this with a spreadsheet, move up to automated inventory," Exler says. "Then you can start thinking about integrating with financial systems or HR."

"You have to get used to what your asset information is and how to leverage it first," Peregrine's Macdonald says. "After six months, when you have a good process for keeping it intact and up-to-date, you can go to the next level." Asset management is as much about processes as it is about the software, and it will undoubtedly take time to refine those processes and overcome political hurdles. "One of the biggest issues with asset management is deciding where it will lie in the organization," Gartner's Adams says. "You have to get that out of the way first."

Most IT departments, however, will find that they can't meet the requirements of new regulations or run themselves anything like a business without knowing what they have. Having a handle on asset management is one of the most effective ways of getting there.