IT Service Asset Management - Example & Advantages

IT Asset Management with EcholoN

Optimise costs for hardware and software with efficient IT asset management (ITAM).

Whether you are a listed company or an owner-managed medium-sized enterprise with 10 employees: today, efficient, reliable IT is absolutely critical for the success of every company. In order to always maintain an overview of the entire IT with all relevant key data (e.g. costs, life cycles, licences), you need flexible inventory management or - in new German - IT asset management.

"Saving costs alone does not make companies competitive in Germany as a business location." Hans-Jörg Bullinger

With the help of ITAM, you can manage not only information on the IT infrastructure (hardware and software, licences, components, etc.), but also more extensive information on the configurations of all IT services. This is possible with the EcholoN Configuration Management System (CMS). It consists of a central database - the Configuration Management Database (CMDB) - as well as additional documents that you can store for each item stored in the CMDB. Each configuration item (CI) is linked to all relevant objects (e.g. location, contract, maintenance and costs) and can also be selected accordingly.

EcholoN Process example: Service Asset Management & IT Asset Management ITAM
Example of structure and introduction of service asset management
  • Define measurable goals 1

    What benefits should the SACM bring? What exactly is to be improved and how can success be objectively measured?

  • Determine responsibilities 2

    Both in the introductory phase and in the ongoing process, responsibilities must be clearly regulated and communicated to all those involved.

  • Choosing the right approach for the launch 3

    How should information and records be brought together in the company? How are consistency and correctness of content of the data ensured?

  • Define contents of the CMDB 4

    If you do not use a ready-made CMDB solution, you must define the contents in advance. Typically, these are further attributes and relations in addition to the CIs, whereby the following applies: as much as necessary, as little as possible.

  • Fill CMDB with data 5

    If possible, prepare all data in such a way that it can be automatically transferred to the CMDB. This way you avoid errors and need less time.

Central data storage with EcholoN

In the EcholoN CMDB, all configuration items (CI) of the company are stored and all relationships and dependencies to other objects are displayed for each object. The objects are classified hierarchically: depending on the concrete requirement as complex business service, simple service element or basic base element. In addition, the relationships are visualised so that you can see at a glance how the individual CIs are put together to provide a certain service.

For this purpose, the CIs in the EcholoN CMDB can not only be stored with type, category or technical attributes, but also related to other CIs. For example, you can link assets with faults, changes or legal documents and thus control the entire life cycle of a CI - even if its data is constantly changing. This gives you the ability to control, maintain and monitor a CI from acquisition through its entire useful life to scrapping. This additional transparency with regard to IT assets ensures that your employees always have up-to-date information available in all service management processes.

This not only increases the quality of service in the long term, but also enables you to optimise costs. Because with EcholoN you provide the transparency that is necessary to make fact-based decisions with regard to hardware asset management and software asset management. An automatic target/actual comparison shows you possible weak points or problems and supports you in identifying risks in business processes at an early stage. This enables you to react before the situation escalates and to convince your customers with outstanding service. Last but not least, with EcholoN's IT Service Asset Management you ensure that your IT also meets all requirements in terms of compliance and legal security. In this way, you protect yourself and your company from legal difficulties and always stay on the safe side.

 

Good reasons in favour of IT asset management with EcholoN:

  • All CIs and IT services can be tracked at a glance
  • Centralised maintenance of all dependencies and relationships of the individual CIs
  • Seamless documentation of the entire life cycle of an asset
  • Mapping of all planning, analysis and maintenance processes
  • Compliance and legal certainty

 

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