SMBs Cover Their IT Assets
After years of service in the enterprise, IT Asset Management is moving into the SMB space, offering cost control, management efficiency, and regulatory compliance–not to mention opportunities for you.
By Lisa Hyatt Smith
With companies buzzing about cutting costs, improving visibility, and reducing risk, it’s no surprise that interest in IT Asset Management, or ITAM, is on the rise-and for good reason. “ITAM is good business,” says Barbara Rembiesa, president and co-founder of the International Association of Information Technology Asset Managers. “IT is the second largest expense next to employees. And if your clients are not managing IT well or getting the necessary value from IT assets to move forward, they are wasting time and money,” she says.
Dennis Drogseth, vice president of Enterprise Management Associates, an IT management research and consulting firm in Boulder, Colo., puts it more succinctly: “If you own infrastructure for IT, then you need to understand what you own and how to optimize it for your needs,” he says. “It’s as simple as that.”
But managing the physical, financial, and compliance aspects of a company’s IT assets is not just of benefit to SMBs; it’s a growing opportunity for solution providers as well, according to Jack Heine, research vice president at Gartner Inc. and a member of the firm’s IT Asset Management group. “Resellers today have a great opportunity to cement service relationships and provide real value by offering ITAM information and support,” he says.
SUPER SAVINGS
One of the biggest benefits to managing IT assets is hard, bottom-line savings. SMBs don’t have the luxury of wasting dollars on unnecessary hardware or software. And, because they are smaller, IT assets are often more valuable.
“When you have relatively small offices, every piece of equipment becomes more vital to that office’s ability to function,” says Heine. And unlike larger businesses, SMBs just don’t have extra PCs, IT equipment, or even backup printers on standby. “To keep business operations flowing smoothly and employees productive, SMBs must be sure that equipment is properly maintained, serviced, and provisioned–and ITAM helps with that,” Heine says. ITAM tools also enable SMBs to manage assets in multiple offices from a central location.
Another key part of ITAM is keeping clients from paying for assets that don’t exist or aren’t functional. “All businesses are looking for ways to find savings outside of simply cutting jobs,” says Rembiesa. “If you can help clients track, organize, repair, and repurpose equipment, you’re helping them avoid repurchasing assets as well as paying maintenance and licensing fees for equipment and software they aren’t using.”
Bigger companies are finding huge value and savings in documenting assets and software licenses–and SMBs can too, even when IT is outsourced. “This is actually a growth area that service providers of all kinds can tap into, particularly in this time of economic crisis and calls for visibility,” says Drogseth.
MANAGING RISK
And in this economy, business audits are on the rise. Unfortunately, smaller companies can be easily intimidated into paying penalties if they don’t have the tools to provide essential documentation during an audit. “If you have the appropriate ITAM tools, you can track software, easily verify licenses, and will be less likely to pay penalties,” says Heine.
“Compliance agencies like the Business Software Alliance and SIIA [Software & Information Industry Association] tend to hit SMBs,” says Rembiesa. “Audit-related costs can be upwards of $250,000 to $500,000, which could wipe out a small business and really hurt a midsized business.” Aside from penalties and fees, the negative publicity of an audit can be devastating.
ITAM is more than a machine and license counter, however; it documents IT policies and enforcement–a boon during an audit. Are employees trained regarding what they can and cannot do with corporate assets, for example? Are they downloading music or loading software from home onto corporate computers and servers? These actions put the organization at risk. “If you have the correct IT asset management policies, enforcement, and ability to show a pattern of enforcement, you’ll have a much better chance of surviving an audit as a company,” notes Rembiesa.
KEEP IT SIMPLE
Tony Thomas, senior network engineer and product manager at Numara Software Inc., a Tampa, Fla.-based provider of software solutions for IT professionals, says the most important thing to keep in mind when approaching SMBs about asset management is to keep it simple. “SMBs are looking for simple solutions that address pain points right out of the box,” he says. “They don’t have the money or time to roll out a complex asset management process or purchase expensive professional services to help them deploy or support a sophisticated program.” But that doesn’t mean that they aren’t interested in or already thinking about asset management.
Some SMBs are tracking their assets using spreadsheets, but an Excel spreadsheet is neither centralized nor dynamic. “The primary advice I would give to SMBs as a starting point is to invest in an automated tool,” says Thomas. Automation is the key to turning data into insight business leaders can actually use to make better business and procurement decisions, he says.
Drogseth advises that resellers tailor offerings to the needs of the client. A small retailer, for example, who hasn’t incorporated IT services throughout his or her business, may not need a complicated ITAM system. But the retailer certainly wants to know what and where the company’s IT assets are, if equipment is working properly, and if it’s serving a purpose. He also points out that some ITAM tools can help manage inventory as well as monitor assets and even point-of-sale terminals.
“Resellers can create packages targeted at different-size environments while addressing ITAM in terms of reducing, retiring, and replacing technology,” says Drogseth. At the high end of this market, he suggests offering help in managing application services as assets over the life of the infrastructure. For smaller markets, focus on IT infrastructure and software licensing for desktops. And sell these packages as an extension of your business, rather than as add-on technologies.
“By offering ITAM, you’re helping clients evolve business processes from reactive to a proactive service-oriented model,” says Thomas. “Your SMB clients will see you as a knowledge expert. Plus, if you solve business problems for SMBs, you’re going to attract larger customers as well.”
LISA HYATT SMITH is a freelance writer and business communications professional focusing on emerging technology and life sciences.
