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The Right Tools for Your IT Asset Management Project

MRO Software, Inc.

100 Crosby DriveBedford, MA 01730

Phone: 800.244.3346

Fax: 770.481.3071

www.mro.com

September 2003

Asset Tracking, Software Usage

and Asset Repository



MRO Software | The Right Tools for Your IT Asset Management Project

1 ..........Introduction

2 ..........What is IT Asset Management?

3 ..........What Tools Do I Need?

6 ..........How MRO Software Solutions Address IT Asset Management

Contents



1 — MRO Software | The Right Tools for Your IT Asset Management Project

The Right Tools for Your

IT Asset Management Project

Introduction

Analysts, service providers, and companies practicing IT asset management agree that an IT asse

management program can drive down IT costs, improve service levels, and facilitate more effective IT

planning and budgeting. There are a wide variety of issues that an IT asset management program ca

address — redeploying inventory effectively, streamlining procurement, reducing help desk costs, and

reducing software license costs to name a few.

Analysts recommend that companies assess where they are in their IT asset management program

— from no management to reactive management to proactive management to value creation. They

also recommend implementing an IT asset management program in phases, beginning with the area

of greatest potential impact. Using these guidelines, you can ensure that your company selects

appropriate projects based on where you are in your IT asset management experience and what area

will deliver the highest returns. By delivering benefits in phases, you can demonstrate ROI before

tackling the next IT asset management project.

Because of the variety of issues addressed and the variety of tools and services available in the market

IT asset management can appear very complicated. However, once you identify your most critica

projects, you can map that to a tool or set of tools that will best meet the needs for your program.

This document defines the different components of an effective IT asset management program. It also

maps specific business issues to the components required to solve them. With MRO Software’

solutions, you can create an IT asset management program suited to your company’s unique businessneeds according to the ones that will deliver the most value.



What is IT Asset Management?

IT asset management brings together physical, financial, and contractual management of IT assets in

order to drive costs down and improve service levels. Managing the physical aspects of a technology

asset portfolio can provide insight about what assets are in your environment, where they are

physically located, to whom they are assigned, and to what extent they are being used.

By combining comprehensive contract management with physical management of IT assets, you wi

minimize the adverse risk regarding license agreement and other contractual compliance while

providing deeper insight into supplier performance in meeting contractual agreements.

Effective financial management captures, monitors and manages all the costs associated with an ITasset — from purchase price to service costs to depreciation and taxes — for the entire life cycle o

the asset. Implementing financial management enables you to understand the total cost of ownership

of your assets, track spending compared to budget, and allocate expenses via chargeback. All of this

will lead to better planning and decision-making regarding IT investments.

The Right Tools for Your

IT Asset Management Project


Components of IT Asset Management

IT Asset

Management

• Inventory Management

• Electronic Distribution

• Version Tracking

• License Tracking• Usage Monitoring

• Refresh/Retirement

• Provisioning

Contractual

• License Compliance

• RFP Preparation and Review

• Negotiations

• Contract Maintenance

• Supplier Management

• Service-Level ManagementCopyright © 2002

Financial

• Procurement

• Budget

• Cost Control

• Chargeback

• Operational Efficiencies

Physical

Gartner



What is IT Asset Management? (continued)

The tools that support the collection, maintenance, reconciliation, analysis and reporting of this

information are asset tracking (also known as autodiscovery or inventory), software usage, and asset

repository. Asset tracking and software usage support collecting, analyzing and reporting on physical

IT data accurately and efficiently. The repository serves multiple purposes as the place to aggregateall the physical, contractual, and financial data, analyze and reconcile the information, and provide

reporting and analysis results.

This defines life cycle asset management – comprehensively managing IT assets from procurement

through disposal. With changes in budgets, accountability and resources, you should implement your

IT asset management program in phases in order to address specific business issues. How can you

implement IT asset management in order to more effectively manage leased PCs, to better negotiate

with vendors, to ensure software compliance? The following guide details which tools address

specific business issues so you can choose products that deliver returns for your set of challenges.

RepositoryWhat Tools Do I Need?

Asset Tracking Tools

You should start almost any IT asset management project with a basic inventory of your IT assets in

order to assess what you have deployed and begin to assess where you wil derive the greatest potential

savings. The ideal way to complete an inventory is through an autodiscovery of your assets. The next

phase is to understand what software applications are being used and to characterize the frequency of

use. This is most efficient to complete in conjunction with an autodiscovery of your assets.

Combining autodiscovery and software usage with a historical perspective is known as asset tracking

— tracking hardware, software and usage information about your IT assets over time. Implementing

asset tracking in a first phase, while it cannot deliver all of the cost savings of a comprehensive IT

asset management program, can be appropriate when you have a limited budget to complete a

targeted project. It is also appropriate as a starting point for a comprehensive IT asset management

project. Business issues that can be addressed with just autodiscovery and software usage products

are the following:

Asset Tracking

Avoid overprovisioning by tracking IT needs more efficiently and redeploy assets to maximize

useful life. Knowing what assets you have and where they are located facilitates effective

budgeting and planning for upgrades and critical application rollouts. Additional benefits are for

disaster recovery and insurance purposes.

Software Compliance

Companies risk potential millions of dollars in penalties and possible negative publicity for

noncompliance. Knowing what and where assets are installed is the first step in any compliance

project. Add to that knowing what applications are being used and how frequently and you not

only get compliance but also the ability to control your software costs.





What Tools Do I Need? (continued)

Help Desk Support

Having an accurate repository of hardware and software information can assist help desk

technicians diagnosis and resolve users’ PC issues. Information such as RAM configuration, O/S

patch installation and the physical location of a machine can improve call resolution times,

lowering costs and improving end-user uptime.

Security

Organizations commonly lose a percentage of their PCs in the course of normal operations.

Without an accurate tracking of these PCs, identifying and accounting for this loss is impossible

With business critical applications and data installed and stored on these PCs, this presents a

significant security risk in additional to the financial loss. Asset tracking can identify the high-risk

applications, identify their physical location on the network at all times, and notify when these

have been moved or cannot be found.

Building Block for IT Asset Management

To achieve the business results outlined in the following section requires a solid foundation of

asset tracking.

Collecting accurate IT asset information is more challenging than you may think — PCs, servers and

software applications reside throughout the organization, both physically within company walls, and

more frequently, in remote locations, home offices, and virtually anywhere. IT assets are continuously

changing, according to set processes or seemingly at random.

It is always better to automate the collection of physical information about IT assets as it is more

costly and less accurate to do it manually. When considering a toolset, critical features to identify are

■ Broad platform support for all your devices: Windows, Unix, Linux, printers, network devices

■ Software usage capability

■ Identification of physical locations

■ Flexible client deployment options

Asset Management Repository

An asset management repository is the critical tool to enable cohesively managing physical, financia

and contractual information in order to deliver the benefits of IT asset management. This leverages

the physical information already gathered in an asset tracking project and extends it by performing areconciliation with what assets you own, are authorized to use, and how you are authorized to use

them. The cost savings and service improvements are substantial at this level of an IT asset

management implementation.

The cost saving to be made by implementing asset management can be as much as 26%

of an organization’s total IT budget – GIGA Information Group, 2002





Addressing some or all of the following business issues derives the cost savings and service

improvements:

Lease Management When you cannot identify and locate equipment that needs to be returned under a lease, you

can pay penalties, expensive lease extensions, or be forced to purchase obsolete equipment.

To better manage leased equipment you need to associate what equipment falls under a lease

and know the location of that equipment to facilitate a timely return.

Software Asset Management

Companies risk potential millions of dollars in penalties and possible negative publicity for

noncompliance with software license agreements. Almost as bad, analysts estimate that most

companies are overlicensed by around15%. Once you identify what you have and match it up

with what you own, you can ensure compliance. Adding to that knowing what people are using

or not using, you can drive down license costs with more effective vendor management.

Technology Standardization

Implementing a system to standardize technology drives down IT costs in several ways:

leverage vendor relationships for better discounts and terms; reduce support costs and improve

service levels by improving knowledge levels of supported platforms; and streamline

provisioning, deployment and upgrade processes.

Vendor Audits

How do you know if you are being properly charged for equipment and services? How can you

ensure you received what you paid for? An IT repository can automate auditing vendor invoices

to ensure proper terms, discounts and pricing are used, as well as ensure the equipment orservices were delivered satisfactorily.

Warranty and Maintenance Management

Warranty and maintenance agreements are complex and you may well be paying warranty and

maintenance expenses for assets that are no longer in use. An IT asset management program

enables you to schedule repairs and replacements to take advantage of warranties, to

determine when a repair or upgrade of equipment may invalidate a warranty, and to identify

when an asset should be removed from a warranty agreement.

Shared Services/Chargeback

Avoid overprovisioning while complying with corporate standards. A shared services approach

can provide the right data to optimize IT spending and make value decisions. By utilizing a

system of chargebacks, IT becomes accountable for overall standards and resource

effectiveness, while costs are allocated accurately, even as assets move throughout the

organization.





When considering an asset repository solution, critical features and functions to identify are:

■ Support for out-of-the-box integrations to existing desktop management tools

■ Open architecture for interoperability with critical systems

■ Phased delivery approach

■ Best practices knowledge

■ Flexible to configure to your business processes

How MRO Software Solutions Address IT Asset Management

MRO Software provides you the right solution to your most pressing IT asset management issues.

With MAXIMO®

Asset Tracker, you can start with a physical inventory to get an accurate assessmentof your IT assets and get control of software compliance while you work on planning your IT asset

management program. To control software purchase costs, reduce lease penalties, better negotiate

with vendors, or more effectively redeploy assets, MAXIMO® MainControl® can provide you the

product and services to get you up and running quickly with industry best practices, and work with

your existing business processes to ensure a successful implementation.

Analysts agree that the combination of asset tracking, software usage and asset management

repository, especially when linked to back-end systems, will drive the most cost savings and will drive

strategic planning initiatives. The combination of MAXIMO Asset Tracker and MAXIMO MainControl

is a comprehensive IT asset management solution. MRO Software delivers what you need to achieve

the cost, service and risk reduction benefits of IT asset management. We recommend a phasedimplementation, focusing on the greatest pain points in your organization, and have the products and

services to expand the program to gain ever-increasing returns and benefits.

“An effective, mature IT asset management program includes autodiscovery, repository

and usage software. These tools can work independently to address targeted problems

or in conjunction with other back-end systems to create strategic savings that will help

control IT budgets and planning.” April 2003 — Patricia Adams, Gartner



About MRO Software

MRO Software is a leading provider of strategic asset management solutions. The Company’s

integrated suite of applications optimizes performance, improves productivity and service levels and

enables asset-related sourcing and procurement across the entire spectrum of strategic assets. The

Company’s asset management solutions allow customers to manage the complete life cycle o

strategic assets including: planning, procurement, deployment, tracking, maintenance and retirement

Using MRO Software’s solutions, customers improve production reliability, labor efficiency, materia

optimization, software license compliance, lease management, warranty and service management and

provisioning across the asset base.

MRO Software (Nasdaq: MROI) is a global company based in Bedford, MA, with approximately 900

employees, 10,000 customers and 260,000 end users. The Company markets its products through a

direct sales organization in combination with a network of international distributors. MRO Software ha

sales offices throughout North America, Europe, Asia/Pacific and Latin America. Additional informatio

on MRO Software can be found at www.mro.com.

Copyright 2003 MRO Software, Inc. All rights reserved. MAXIMO® and MainControl® are registere

trademarks and MRO Software™ is a trademark of MRO Software, Inc. Other products and brand

names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

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