IT Management’s Hidden Value

"IT management is quite often seen only as some back-office activity that’s needed to keep the gears greased and running. Just another expense on the spreadsheet," says Todd Labrum, product manager of information technology asset management at Ivanti. "The misconception that IT management doesn’t bring any strategic value to an organization can place companies in bad and costly situations."

In many traditional models, IT asset management (ITAM), IT service management (ITSM) and security are treated as separate issues, even though there is often overlap.

"If you connect the dots between these three groups, you can achieve better clarity concerning the health of your IT programs while providing improved efficiencies, mitigating your risk and really starting to innovate," says Jason Christensen, Ivanti’s product marketing manager.

"After the dots are connected, you can avoid duplication of effort in overlapping initiatives. For example, asset management is about tracking software and hardware. If you establish an overarching and comprehensive system, when one of those pieces of hardware gets lost or stolen, the security component of protecting sensitive data will already be in place."

Cyber security is always a major concern for both consumers and businesses.

"Since every company is different, we go in and see how we can best improve their IT procedures and systems," says Labrum. "One of our healthcare clients uses data encryption, so in the event that assets are lost or stolen, life isn’t as stressful as it might otherwise be." 

Ivanti can help clients monitor their hardware more closely by implementing systems that allow them to track their assets, know which employee is using them, and when that piece of hardware might have gone missing.

"For example, a prime time for assets to go missing is when an employee leaves the company and takes the computer or other piece of equipment with them," says Labrum. "We can help establish an offboarding asset reclamation policy that saves the company money by collecting assets back from employees before they leave. This policy has saved some companies more than $1 million in cost avoidance."

Managing which software their employees are using can save a company a lot of headache.

"Some software programs that were once useful, but are now old and forgotten and no longer supported by the developer, can lead to holes in your security," says Labrum. "It’s also important to set a standard of what data storage application employees should use. Employees often use their cloud storage system of choice and, if a company doesn’t get that locked down, their data will get spread everywhere without them knowing."

Proper software management can save company money, too.

"Think about all of the software on your own laptop, on your tablet, and on your workstation. Can you name every program and application and the last time you used it? Probably not, right?" asks Labrum.

"All of that software is wasted money, so why wouldn’t you be trying to save some of it? Through our discovery tools, we’re able to track how often each software application is used and when. If we detect something isn’t getting used, we can automatically uninstall it and reclaim the license."

Once the software license is reclaimed, that software program can be installed onto a different machine where it is needed and save the company the cost of purchasing it again. 

"From a security perspective, you can’t secure what you don’t know about," says Christensen. "You need that asset management tool to blacklist and whitelist the applications you are tracking, which prevents security threats in the process."

Better integration and managing of ITSM, ITAM and IT security can greatly benefit a company.

"Once each of these organizations starts working together, they can be seen as a strategic partner to the rest of the business," says Labrum. "At Ivanti, we’re not just a leading provider of IT operations software. We’re focused on driving solutions that enable IT to be high-performing.

"Our attainment models for ITSM, ITAM and security help organizations understand where they are currently providing capabilities and how to lay down a roadmap for increased organizational improvement as well."

For more information, call 888.253.6201 or visit ivanti.com. You can also contact John Speakman, Territory Manager, at 614.989.2159 or email him at john.speakman@ivanti.com; or Michael Joyce, Territory Manager – SLED, at 614.266.1170 or email him at michael.joyce@ivanti.com.