Ivanti Insiders Chime in on the Importance of ITAM

In the spirit of this month’s “12 Days of ITAM Awareness,” and in keeping with the mantra “What you know you have, you can manage; what you don’t know you have, manages you,” we reached out to a number of gifted IT professionals known as “Ivanti Insiders” for their responses to these three questions:

1. How does ITAM impact your organization?
2. What is your organization’s approach to IT asset management?
3. If your IT assets could talk, what would they say?

Their answers are insightful and entertaining. Read on.

How does ITAM impact your organization?

• “It's a source of truth.” — Ivanti Insider
• “We need that info and we need it today!” — Ivanti Insider
• “Very important as we need to know where our machines are and what is on them.” — Josh Castleberry, Cyber Security Administrator, MDU Resources Group, Inc.
• “We have no idea because we don’t do ITAM well ... yet. Who knows what we’ll learn?” — Ivanti Insider
• “ITAM is about budget and fiscal responsibility. You can't manage what you don’t know about, and you can’t plan without knowing what you have.” — Ivanti Insider
• “ITAM is very important as a misplaced asset can cost my company big time.” — Ivanti Insider
• “Without it, we won’t know which machines have been stolen.” — Ryan Black, Systems Administrator, US Synthetic
• “Compliance and security. Knowing what we have out there helps immensely when it comes to what needs upgraded/replaced.” — Ivanti Insider
• “Asset management is an important part of our organization in being able to provide the best customer service, beginning with being able to handle our assets we provide to end users.” — Ivanti Insider
• “We have 38 locations, so knowing where everything is could be a full-time job.” — Jason Koslowski, Senior Systems Analyst, Frandsen Financial
• “It gives us the ability to track our assets, where they’ve been, and what’s been done to them. Helps a ton!” — Ivanti Insider
• “We can’t manage end-to-end lifecycle without adequate ITAM resources in place.” — Ivanti Insider
• “It’s critical. With close to 1,000 locations and many hundreds of mobile users, we need to know where things are.” — Ivanti Insider
• “ITAM is a large part of ensuring our equipment is always operational.” — Ivanti Insider
• “We need to have a better handle on our laptops in the organization!!! Device reconciliation is non-existent.” — Adam Howard, Systems Administrator, Rack Room Shoes, Inc.
• “Control and budget (or budget control). We have lots of expensive assets around and not enough accountability for them.” — Daniel Cogny, Systems Developer, OPS
• “Enables us to effectively secure devices when out in the field.” — Ivanti Insider
• “It’s an every-day struggle to make sure all assets are accounted for and no human error accrued.” — Jim Brunetti, Cyber Security Engineer, Terumo BCT, Inc.
• “It ensures we have assets on hand to fulfill requests quickly and maintain awareness of important assets.” — Ivanti Insider

What is your organization’s approach to IT asset management?

• “It must be done!” — Ivanti Insider
• “No clue.” — Ivanti Insider
• “Manually track everything.” — Ivanti Insider
• “Everything located and ready at all times.” — Ivanti Insider
• “Using Ivanti and MobileIron to track devices.” — Josh Castleberry, Cyber Security Administrator, MDU Resources Group, Inc.
• “Constant update check via Internal programs dedicated for this type of work.” — Ivanti Insider
• “Using ITIL to register all assets and link it to all the changes/incidents, etc.” — Ivanti Insider
• “It could be of great value, but not implemented yet.” — Ivanti Insider
• “We should probably be better about actually doing it.” — Ryan Black, Systems Administrator, US Synthetic
• “Inventory and manage the asset from the minute it comes off the pallet to when it goes out the door.” — Ivanti Insider
• “Our Asset Management department scans and tags all items as they hit the loading dock. After that, each area manages their assets.” — Ivanti Insider
• “It’s a buzzword, but never fully implemented, so visibility is limited and often outdated.” — Ivanti Insider
• “We like to know where everything is, but we don’t like to proactively replace old hardware.” — Jason Koslowski, Senior Systems Analyst, Frandsen Financial
• “Slow, incremental improvement in figuring out what’s coming in and what’s going out. So much room to improve tracking of usage.” — Ivanti Insider
• “We want to know where everything is at all times so we can properly manage the device lifecycle.” — Ivanti Insider
• “Ivanti Endpoint Manager with a home-grown Inventory web app that keeps history.” — Jeremy Shupick, Network Administrator, Wyoming Machinery Company
• “It runs well; we know where our machines are and what users are using them for.” — David Gregory, IT Support Specialist II, US Synthetic
• “It has been spreadsheets. In the process of rolling out Ivanti Endpoint Manager and asset management." — Tad Thies, DevSecOps, AutoAlert LLC

If your IT assets could talk, what would they say?

• “Where am I?” — Ivanti Insider
• “Don’t forget about meeeeeeee!” — Ivanti Insider
• “Dang! Now they know about my software I’m not to have.” — Thomas Smith, Director, Telecom and IT Support, SCI Funeral and Cemetery Purchasing
• “I’ll hide, you count to 100, and then try to find me!” — Ivanti Insider
• “Quit using me for more than three years. I want to retire.” — Ivanti Insider
• “Why doesn’t my user keep me connected during Patch Week?” — Josh Castleberry, Cyber Security Administrator, MDU Resources Group, Inc.
• “Why haven’t I been reimaged or had my hardware upgraded since I was deployed five years ago?” — Ivanti Insider
• “Here’s my number. Write it down!” — Ivanti Insider
• “We are being used and maintained properly.” — Ivanti Insider
• “Please track me, inventory me, and use me. I can show organization value, too!" — Ivanti Insider
• “It’s so cold being left in the back-room closet.” — Ivanti Insider
• “It’s so dark in this drawer. Wish someone would come visit.” — Ivanti Insider
• “I have so many friends sitting on these shelves, pallets, and cabinets.” — Ivanti Insider