If finance were to come and ask you, right now, how many new laptop purchases we need to make next quarter, would you be able to tell them? What about whether or not all the corporate mobile devices are running on the latest software to meet your compliance controls? Do you know if you have enough ready to deploy devices in inventory to provide incoming employees, or do you need to purchase more?
Too many enterprise IT teams struggle to not only quickly answer these questions, but to have control over the process and the data in the first place.
As finance teams scrutinize every dollar within CapEx and OpEx, hybrid and remote work–as well as the challenges they bring–persist and new compliance regulations take effect, IT asset management teams need efficient ways to deal with the expectations surrounding hardware asset management (HAM). Yet, according to a 2023 Deloitte-led ITAM survey, only 30% of ITAM teams feel they are well-equipped to do so.
The security vulnerabilities, compliance gaps, and budget constraints that arise from lacking a federated and accurate IT asset foundation are all too real. Trying to scale your business without a firm grip on hardware asset management all but guarantees disaster.
However, there are steps leaders can take to optimize hardware asset management, implement solutions that actually address every stage of the asset lifecycle, and protect against the dangers of bad IT asset data.
Keep reading this blog to learn:
- The all-too–common challenges that stem from poor hardware asset management and a lack of control across your IT Asset Lifecycle
- The steps your ITAM team can take to effectively transform your hardware asset management processes
- The criteria for finding the right hardware asset management software for your enterprise
The Road Poor Hardware Asset Management Leads You Down
When an engineer resigns, HR, IT, and Security scramble to find which of her 3 devices still hold source code and who’s collecting them; quarter-end arrives, and IT and Compliance hunt through five systems to prep records for an audit; meanwhile the CFO wants next year’s laptop-refresh budget, but no one can say how many machines sit out of warranty or idle in a storeroom.
That isn’t an inventory problem; it’s an asset lifecycle intelligence and orchestration problem.
While there is no shortage of problems that can result from mismanaged assets and poor IT asset data, some of the most common hardware asset management challenges include:
Overbuying and Wasted Budget
When IT teams lack accurate usage data, they tend to over-purchase devices, assuming it's better to have too many assets than run out and leave employees without one. However, this guesswork in itself leads to additional problems.
Overprovisioning ties up valuable dollars, with Gartner reporting that IT wastes up to 20% of their hardware budget. Meanwhile that unused inventory creates stockpiles of hardware that never get deployed or refreshed on time.
Gaps in Compliance and Security
It's extremely difficult for IT asset management teams to enforce security policies, apply patches, or prove IT compliance when they're working with decentralized and outdated tracking methods.
Until they're able to rely on accurate, unified asset, full lifecycle asset data, these teams are left using manual, error-prone, and gap-ridden processes to maintain security and audit readiness–all the while, never truly knowing if they can actually trust what they're looking at.
Shadow IT and Untracked Devices
You can't track assets that you don't know about. When non-IT teams acquire devices outside of official channels, they typically bypass asset tracking entirely.
Since IT doesn't have a firm grasp on the data related to those devices, they create major hardware asset management gaps. These devices are ripe for data breaches–which cost an average of $4.9M, according to IBM Security’s annual Cost of a Data Breach report. They cannot be included in lifecycle planning, disrupting overall management. And asset compliance? It's nearly impossible.
Manual Workflows
Relying on spreadsheets and siloed tools turn hardware asset lifecycle management into a relay race of system swivels and copy-and-paste: Procurement logs in their own tools, the warehouse marks “received” in a Google Sheet, IT spins up a ticket, HR fires off an email checklist, and Finance reconciles weeks later. Each manual hop invites typos and timing gaps—new hires wait for laptops stuck “somewhere in shipping,” off-boarded contractors keep credentials overnight, and duplicate serials sneak onto the depreciation roll. The cumulative drag shows up as missed SLAs, audit findings, and surprise CapEx.
When these challenges pose such grave financial, legal, and safety risks to your enterprise, it's no surprise that many IT leaders are searching for better tools and processes that improve hardware asset management. To successfully do this, they should follow a framework that addresses the full asset lifecycle.
A Framework for Complete Hardware Asset Management
Effective hardware asset management is not something that can be done on a partial scale. To gain the visibility, control, and governance needed to make informed, strategic decisions about IT, finance, and compliance, HAM must support every stage of the hardware lifecycle, from forecasting to final depreciation.
A complete modern asset lifecycle framework looks at 11 different phases.
Optimizing hardware asset management within each phase allows IT teams to combat the challenges of poor HAM while reducing manual work and protecting against waste and risk.
The catch here is that a “complete” framework includes the pre-network life of an asset (stage 1.0-5A) as well as after its post-network life (stages 9.0-11.0). For some organizations, this is a positive since, if they don’t need this level of management, they can opt for a more basic solution at a lower cost. For those enterprises that do, however, the search for hardware asset management software can be tricky, since many HAM solutions don’t include this level of visibility.
As IT leaders work to create a system that supports this framework, they need to make sure they are following a process that best sets them up for success.
First Steps in Automating Hardware Asset Management
Beginning the process of moving from manual, siloed methods to automated, complete hardware asset management can be intimidating. From the countless tools on the market to various pieces of advice about improving your current methods, it's understandable to wonder where to start.
Luckily, there are a few things you can do to get the ball rolling.
Look at Your Current Maturity
The health and scale of your current asset management practices says a lot about what you need to look for both in terms of changing your processes and the hardware asset management software you decide to implement.
Do you have access to accurate data? If you do, what, honestly, is that accuracy level? Are any of your workflows automated? Do you have the capability to track an asset at every single lifecycle stage?
Identify Critical Gaps
Determine which areas of your hardware asset management processes lack visibility, integration with other systems, or rely on slow, manual actions.
These are areas where you are particularly susceptible to overspending, compliance risk, and decision paralysis until you implement more automated HAM processes.
Define Your Value KPIs
Enterprise stakeholders, particularly finance teams, are going to want proof that your investment into automated hardware asset management is creating positive, effective change for the organization.
Establish key performance indicators that speak to and align with specific business outcomes like device reclamation, refresh efficiency, audit readiness, and cost savings. As time goes on and your new HAM processes improve these areas, you will be able to demonstrate IT’s strategic value within your organization.
Choose a Platform Built to Scale
The last thing you want to do is spend time and money investing in a solution, only to discover, too late, that it doesn't actually support every stage of the hardware lifecycle or is limited in how it can scale with your organization.
As you explore solutions, look for hardware asset management software that supports the full lifecycle and connects with existing systems, without the need to rip and replace your current tools.
Your system of choice should also allow for near-perfect data accuracy via intelligent system integrations and automated normalization. After all, that data foundation is what allows you to build a strong HAM program.
With so many tools on the market, there are several features that you will want to ensure the software you choose delivers.
Must-Have Features in an Effective Hardware Asset Management Software
When it comes to efficiently running and scaling your hardware asset management program, simply knowing where a device is isn't enough. You need a platform that provides accurate, trusted visibility and automates workflows across your entire ecosystem.
Unfortunately, not every available platform supports that.
When exploring hardware asset management solutions, make sure you invest in a solution that provides:
- Accurate Data: It should automatically ingest and reconcile asset data across existing IT, Procurement, Security, and Finance systems, eliminating duplication and the need for manual cleanup.
- Lifecycle-Wide Asset Context: It should track assets at every lifecycle stage, so you always know where each device is, who it's assigned to, and what it's worth.
- Governed Automation: It should offer a well-integrated workflow engine to allow you to automate/orchestrate complex workflows across systems and teams related to Onboarding, Refresh, Compliance, and Offboarding without relying on a bunch of manual work in a ticketing system.
- Flexible Data Model: It should support multiple schemas and data formats to continuously normalize, relate, anomaly detect, and manage records from diverse systems.
- Audit-Ready Dashboards and Reporting: It should provide always-on dashboards, automated reporting, and asset lineages to prove compliance in seconds.
- Financial Closure Support: It should automatically track asset value depreciation and retirement to provide context for budgeting, forecasting, and accounting accuracy.
Once you find the solution that works for your business, you then need to follow the right steps to making that platform work for you, efficiently running in the background without the need for hands-on intervention.
Want a checklist to strengthen your IT operations and get ahead of risk, cost, and complexity? Find our 10 suggestions in this guide.
Oomnitza Delivers Modern Hardware Asset Management
We recognize a dangerous pattern within this space–too many organizations lose visibility and governance when hardware falls outside the traditional purview for off-network devices, opening dangerous security gaps from unpatched, misplaced, or unaccounted-for devices.
We offer a safer alternative.
Our object-centric, integration-first hardware asset management platform allows you to:
- Connect and aggregate your IT asset data to keep all systems updated
- Automate IT workflows to speed service and reduce human error
- Gain actionable insights to ensure compliance and optimize costs
Whether you're maturing your ITAM practice, improving audit readiness, or scaling automation, Oomnitza helps you turn asset chaos into clarity—and decisions into results.
Want a deeper look into optimizing your hardware asset management? Read our Ultimate Guide here.
