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CHRISTUS Health
Enterprise Asset Management: Do you have what you need
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.
As more and more assets sit on a corporate set of books to be tracked and depreciated, having a strong SAM and HAM program can be a great value to insure accurate reporting and even remove old and retired equipment. This should be part of any life cycle style program, but in this age of getting more out of every investment, the wise manager recognizes this opportunity to improve their balance sheet.
As the number of IoT endpoints begins to appear in organizations, having a strong HAM process will provide some protection for compliance audits from software vendors
When implementing any tool or process, there are always pitfalls you must be mindful to avoid. A good SAM or HAM program is only as strong as the governance it supports. Know going in what your objectives will be. Most organizations who install a SAM want to reduce risk of being out of license compliance. A few others may be focusing on cost savings. The tool selection and its processes setup during implementation will determine how successful the program will become. Of course there is always my favorite in that if a regulatory agency comes knocking at your door, you have a set of tools which can keep you from wearing orange or bold black stripes.
There are several tools available to in the market for asset management. There are some designed to support cloud based assets but most are offerings designed over generations of releases rooted in on premise asset tracking. Just because the EAM may be offered in cloud does not mean it is designed to track assets in the cloud. The opposite is just as true. You need to look closely at the architecture being offered and insure they meet your requirements in service, security, and technical performance.
As a closing thought, a big challenge with many of the tools today is the lack of a master record. The lack of a master record opens the potential for duplicate records. In order to manage duplicate records, additional manual intervention will be required and at any point, the quality of the data would be suspect. Duplicate records can lead to a potential of false compliance reporting.
Every good EAM will always incorporate some basic components: acquire, assign, monitor, maintain, review, dispose, and replace. What is your EAM strategy focus and is it what you wish it to be in the coming years? Does it meet the basic needs and if so, does it meet the needs of your company over the next five years? When you can answer these questions comfortably, you will have a good program.
See Also: Top EAM Solution Companies In Europe
