IT professionals, because of the massive shift to Everywhere Work, have been tasked with blazing the trail for a fast-tracked automation and AI process at their organisation – as well as a move to the cloud. 

With constantly expanding IT environments, automation has moved from a luxury to a priority for IT professionals. But for your automation processes to be successful you need to consider investing in IT asset management (ITAM). Why? Because one of the key areas for automation is unifying your existing asset information. 

According to EMA research, 18% of respondents plan to manage all asset types on one platform. 

15% of IT professionals say that incomplete, siloed, conflicting or inadequate asset information is standing in the way of automation. If you want to introduce AI and automation that will increase efficiency and productivity, investing in an effective asset management solution is a step that can't be skipped. 

How ITAM is a cornerstone for automation 

Your AI implementation is only as good as your data. AI and automation won't work well when your data is hard to find and spread out. A lot of EMA respondents are already on the right track; with 43% reporting that AI is aiding their automation. 

In addition to increased automation, 55% of EMA research respondents reported that they already use one platform to unify asset visibility, workflow and automation. The consolidation of asset information allows for holistic and comprehensive understanding of processes - including dependencies between assets and software and streamlining processes. 

ITAM also provides necessary details when automating or applying AI, especially when you connect it with endpoint management and discovery solutions – helping to provide real-time insights into health, security and performance of all devices. 

Being able to have this level of data can help remediate any device issues and security threats before they can cause harm to the IT environment or impact user productivity. With 80% of IT professionals planning to change their current systems either by adding on or doing a complete rip-and-replace, ITAM will be an integral part of the transition to automation and AI for organisations. 

How ITAM improves IT operations

An investment in automating your asset management is almost certain to bring value to your operations. IT professionals need to be ready and able to operate at scale and address any issues, while juggling delivering business value and implementing strategic initiatives like speeding up resolution times, reducing costs and improving service quality.

Being able to automate repetitive tasks and leverage AI for proactive identification and remediation of performance and security risks generates operational benefits. Reducing manual tasks will not only take pressure off your team, but you also improve operations by eliminating the possibility of human error, leading to improved accuracy and efficiency. 

Eliminating these manual tasks opens new doors for IT professionals to take on innovative and strategic projects for the organisation, such as cloud deployments to accelerate ROI. Even though cloud is the number-one challenge to delivering high-quality IT service, it should be noted that ITAM maturity is highly correlated with having cloud waste below 5%.

With asset management growing in importance for security and employee experience initiatives, having automation will help IT professionals become a strategic partner and enjoy heightened levels of influence.

An overwhelming 85% of respondents rated automation and AI investments as profitable ventures, with an additional 10% as a breakeven proposition. When you’re looking to implement effective AI and automation initiatives in your organisation, having an effective ITAM solution can't be skipped. 

To explore all EMA’s research findings, download the eBook.