In short, ITAM is the inventory and financial management of all types of IT assets. Historically, this mission has emphasized the management of hardware systems and sometimes components, along with close attention to software asset management (SAM). The scope has evolved and now covers all types of IT assets including network and cloud assets, consumables, and perhaps most importantly, security assets.

The Return on ITAM Investment

For most IT shops, the return on an investment in an ITAM practice is significant. Some buyers approach ITAM simply as a process control mechanism to assign and track assets through their lifecycle. However, those that embrace ITAM and its financial components will realize additional value for IT and for the enterprise overall. Benefits include:

• Reduced IT spending: IT will save measurable dollars when implementing an ITAM solution. Understanding which employees are using what licenses for any assets offers the ability to move those assets around, predict when additional licensing is needed, and moderate the purchase of assets and the license to use them. More recent developments in ITAM available in a wide range of vendor offerings also allow proactive monitoring of actual usage. Some users will anticipate a need that may not be realized. This creates another cost saving opportunity.
• Improved control and security: The ability to discover and monitor IT assets is at the heart of automating any ITAM solution. However, in addition to understanding what you have and where it is being used, organizations need to know how those assets impact security. Vulnerabilities can arise from location as well as lack of control outside of the enterprise firewall. As such, ITAM solutions should provide robust inventory management capabilities as well as financial and process controls. Additionally, security assets require management in the same way as other hardware and software components. This is a growth area for ITAM. Approximately 30% of the vendors in the ITAM space are currently adding security devices to their portfolios and another 20% have plans to do so. At the same time, security asset management is available from some security focused solutions.
• Risk avoidance: Avoiding licensing audits continues to be a factor for large enterprises investing in solutions from vendors such as SAP, Microsoft, and Oracle. This has been an important consideration for more than a decade. Some shifting has occurred with SaaS-based solutions, and this will likely have a long-term impact on this need to avoid audits because solution providers have much more control over license use. For 2024, it remains a decision-factor for adopting ITAM. Security is another dimension to risk avoidance that can be achieved in deploying or upgrading an ITAM solution. The risk here is more about negative media coverage of security failures that may occur due to licensing challenges.
• Management beyond IT assets: ITAM vendors are also demonstrating that traditional hardware and software asset management is simply the tip of the iceberg. Visionary vendors show how ITAM solutions have value for managing corporate assets as well. Many solution providers have case studies and proof points revealing the broad utilitarian nature of their ITAM deployments. While the solutions are designed for the management of desktops, laptops, and mobile devices, they are equally helpful in tracking other corporate assets and for overall EAM. The question is how this more diverse inventory is incorporated and managed in a similar way. It is the case that most corporate assets either need to be uploaded or tracked from an external system. Some vendors have success in using RFID tracking mechanisms for non-IT assets. Many have plans to use internet of things (IoT) network systems in the not-too-distant future. Examples of the application of ITAM to corporate assets include: manufacturing equipment and consumables, high-value artwork owned by the corporation, facilities and the equipment needed for operations, and farming applications including tracking growing fields and livestock. The expansion beyond IT assets is fascinating and exponentially changes the value of an ITAM investment to IT teams and to the C-suite.

Beyond the Business Case

ITAM’s business case is easily justified with robust features that support the above cost savings, control, and security value in today’s solutions. This value can also be realized in mid-market solutions, so it’s not reserved only for large enterprises. Small-to-medium businesses (SMBs) will require the manpower to design and implement a program that supports and sustains an ITAM implementation that is augmented with process and best practice.

Our research into the ITAM market revealed that while a large percentage of vendors are focused on ITIL best practices and position ITAM closely with IT service management (ITSM), not all are relying on IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL). One vendor is now adhering to the International Association of Information Technology Asset Managers, Inc. (IAITAM) guidelines, and other vendors are not linking ITAM to ITSM but instead embracing it as an independent discipline.

Going forward, investment in emerging technologies will drive future innovation and value for ITAM, and this discipline is advancing. Vendors are investing in many related technologies from the types of assets managed to the connection points with IT financial management, corporate financial management, the ability for ITAM to provide insight and opportunity to impact environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting and investment decisions. Consolidation is also underway as we’ve seen with the ITSM market. Flexera’s acquisition of Snow Software is the most recent evidence. Clearly, there is more to come on the ITAM front.

Next Steps

To learn more, take a look at GigaOm’s ITAM Key Criteria and Radar reports. These reports provide a comprehensive overview of the market, outline the criteria you’ll want to consider in a purchase decision, and evaluate how a number of vendors perform against those decision criteria.

• GigaOm Key Criteria for Evaluating ITAM Solutions
• GigaOm Radar for ITAM

If you’re not yet a GigaOm subscriber, you can access the research using a free trial.

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Demand for ITAM is becoming increasingly important as the need to better manage assets expands for economic and control reasons. ITAM solutions offer visibility and actionable insight that can reduce the costs required to purchase IT assets and maintain them for the life of the asset. Other cost factors come into play when considering the millions of dollars spent on IT assets and the potential fines that may occur upon being audited for any asset use that is not in compliance with applicable government regulations. ITAM technology applies across all vertical industry segments and business models. It is crucial to helping IT remain compliant and minimizing asset costs.

ITAM provides inventory and data collection, oversight and compliance, financial management, risk control, and vendor and contract management for all IT assets via the following: hardware asset management (HAM), software asset management (SAM), network infrastructure devices, and cloud asset modules (CAM). It is closely aligned with FinOps in that it offers finance and risk capabilities while also aligning with information technology service management (ITSM), especially for organizations that have adopted the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) ITIL 4 process standards.

Implementing an ITAM practice and toolset is crucial to many audiences both inside and outside of the IT domain. C-suite executives and legal professionals are likely to be the most focused on managing risk and reducing spending. Yet, technologists will also want to implement an ITAM practice to better track, manage, and plan for IT assets and their deployment.

Organizations are investing in ITAM solutions for several reasons, including:

• Avoiding the possibility of compliance breaches, primarily for software assets, which occur when software is being used in some places around the corporate environment without legal rights to do so. This typically happens inadvertently in large, enterprise environments where operational and system controls are inadequate to ensure that compliance is in alignment with purchase agreements and distribution of any type of asset.
• Management and control of IT assets that support technology staff and all employees across the enterprise. The rollout of an ITAM program and associated toolset empowers asset managers to track detailed data, plan for purchases, automate lifecycle triggers and policies, and ensure that assets purchased are in active use.
• Serving C-level executives’ interest in the bottom-line and top-line usage of their investments. Understanding the need for IT asset spending and oversight of prudent management of all investments is important to this group. Additionally, they will appreciate controls that are in place to avoid the possibility of unwanted press or other hits to reputation related to contract non-compliance.

This is our first year evaluating the ITAM space in the context of our Key Criteria and Radar reports. This GigaOm Radar report examines 18 of the top ITAM solutions and compares offerings against the capabilities (table stakes, key features, and emerging features) and nonfunctional requirements (business criteria) outlined in the companion Key Criteria report. Together, these reports provide an overview of the market, identify leading ITAM offerings, and help decision-makers evaluate these solutions so they can make a more informed investment decision.

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At its core, ITAM offers inventory of assets and data collection, oversight and compliance, financial management, risk control, and vendor management through contract functionality for all IT assets: hardware asset management (HAM), software asset management (SAM), network infrastructure devices, and cloud asset modules (CAM). ITAM is closely aligned with FinOps because it offers finance and risk capabilities while also aligning with information technology service management (ITSM), especially for organizations that have adopted Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL 4) certification and training.

Business Imperative
ITAM matters to a wide-ranging audience, including IT technical staff and management responsible for tracking assets, C-suite executives, and legal professionals focused on corporate compliance. From a risk management perspective, ITAM monitors asset deployment and usage for contractual compliance. Assets can be reallocated as needed to remain compliant and avoid additional spending. C-suite executives will appreciate avoiding the risk of potential fines because ITAM provides insight and analytics for all IT assets. Finally, distribution, discovery, and control functionality support “feet on the ground” asset management and ITAM staff.

While ITAM solutions have been available for decades, the expansion of their feature set to address cost and risk management in recent inflationary times has once again raised the visibility of the need for and desirability of ITAM solutions. Economic pressures along with increasing labor costs are driving corporations to focus on reducing costs and improving efficiency. ITAM provides a means to automate processes and identify unused or limited usage resources that can be reclaimed to avoid ever-expanding acquisition creep.

Sector Adoption Score
To help executives and decision-makers assess the potential impact and value of an ITAM solution deployment to the business, this GigaOm Key Criteria report provides a structured assessment of the sector across five factors: benefit, maturity, urgency, impact, and effort. By scoring each factor based on how strongly it compels or deters adoption of an ITAM solution, we provide an overall Sector Adoption Score (Figure 1) of 4 out of 5, with 5 indicating the strongest possible recommendation to adopt. This indicates that an ITAM solution is a credible candidate for deployment and worthy of thoughtful consideration.

The factors contributing to the Sector Adoption Score for ITAM are explained in more detail in the Sector Brief section that follows.