Maintaining an accurate and complete asset inventory is a crucial aspect of delivering high-quality IT and security services. Yet, many MSPs often overlook it.
An asset inventory allows you to protect and manage all client assets effectively. However, many MSPs find themselves chasing “ghosts” — assets the customer is either unaware of or forgot to list during initial assessments.
One of the most common challenges MSPs face is that customers don’t have an accurate asset inventory. Customers frequently believe they have accounted for all their assets, but in reality, they miss critical components. This can lead to significant issues down the line, from security vulnerabilities to operational inefficiencies.
Taking Stock of Your Assets Helps MSPs Deliver Effective Services
Without an asset inventory, you might find yourself trying to manage or troubleshoot systems you weren’t aware of. This wastes your time and increases your customer’s risk. By providing a complete asset inventory as part of your services, you can mitigate these risks and provide better service to your customers.
Christina Cravens
By having an accurate inventory, you can implement comprehensive security measures across all of your customer’s assets, reducing the overall risk and enhancing your customer’s security posture.
Asset inventory is foundational for the many services IT and security MSPs provide. From disaster recovery planning to cybersecurity improvements, knowing exactly what assets exist and how they function within the business context is critical. Not having visibility into your customer’s entire infrastructure makes it challenging for you to deliver effective services.
Aligning and Maintaining Inventory
To provide the best service and reduce customer risk effectively, you should align assets to the business functions they support. For example, knowing which assets support key business functions like logistics, customer service, or financial operations allows you to focus your efforts where they matter most, enhancing service quality and increasing customer satisfaction.
Maintaining a complete asset inventory also helps clients with regulatory compliance. Many regulations require organizations to have an inventory of their IT infrastructure and demonstrate that they have taken steps to protect their critical assets. By providing a detailed asset inventory, MSPs can add value, helping clients meet regulatory requirements and avoid potential fines or penalties.
An asset inventory enables you to create comprehensive disaster recovery (DR) plans. It gives you better insight into your customer’s assets and which ones support critical business functions. This will allow you to better allocate resources and prioritize during recovery efforts. You can also quickly restore critical business systems, and minimize downtime and impact.
For digital transformation projects such as cloud migration or implementing zero-trust architectures, having a detailed asset inventory is invaluable. With a clear understanding of what you must transform, you can plan and reach time to value faster. This leads to more accurate project planning, efficient execution, and better alignment with business goals.
Inventorying Assets Enhances Cybersecurity Protection
In the realm of cybersecurity, an asset inventory supports several key activities:
- Attack Surface Management: Understand your customer’s complete attack surface, prioritize the most important assets based on their impact on critical business functions, and implement measures to protect them.
- Vulnerability Management: Knowing all assets allows for thorough vulnerability assessments and allows you to accurately prioritize patching those vulnerabilities that have the largest impact on your customer’s business.
- Incident Response: A detailed inventory helps you identify not only affected assets but also assets they are connected to. This facilitates quicker and more effective incident response. You can also identify lateral movement and quantify the impact on the organization.
- Security Tools Coverage: Ensure that your customer’s security tools are deployed effectively, maximizing their value by covering all critical assets.
Finding the Win-Win
For MSPs, an accurate and complete asset inventory is not just about knowing what assets exist; it’s about understanding how they support the client’s business functions and ensuring they are protected and managed effectively. This enhances disaster recovery planning, supports digital transformation efforts, strengthens cybersecurity measures, and helps your customers achieve regulatory compliance.
By providing an asset inventory, MSPs can provide superior service, reduce risks, and add significant value to your customers’ operations.
Christina Cravens, chief growth officer of Redjack, has 25-plus years of experience in sales and marketing for cybersecurity and SaaS companies. She previously was a C-level coach and fractional CRO/CMO for private equity-backed businesses. She also was named a Top 10 CMO by industry publications.
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