A previous post described the journey to effective IT asset management (ITAM) using a mountain-climbing metaphor. I was inspired in part by an incredible talk given by an incredible woman at Ivanti’s Sales Kickoff in January.

The woman is Bonita Norris. She is, as her Web site puts is succinctly, the “world’s youngest person to climb Everest and reach the North Pole.” She held Sales Kickoff attendees spellbound with her tale of how she went from never climbing anything to climbing Everest—after raising the funds to do so, itself no small feat.

If you get a chance to see and hear her, in person or online, do so. You won’t be disappointed.

What she said that I found both inspiring and directly relevant to getting ITAM right was about taking small steps. Every journey is a series of small steps. The goal is not to get to the ultimate destination. The goal is to get out of one’s own way far and long enough to complete that next small step. Do that, and the journey will take care of itself, she said.

The ITAM climb: suggested steps

On July 29, 2016, the US government signed into law the MEGABYTE (“Making Electronic Government Accountable By Yielding Tangible Efficiencies”) Act of 2016. The law requires chief information officers (CIOs) of government agencies to improve software license management, and to document and report the savings achieved from those improvements.

When the law was passed, my learned colleague, Ivanti ITAM Evangelist Patricia Adams wrote this about the law’s potential effect on affected agencies. “In my professional opinion, I would expect the government could save anywhere from three to five percent by monitoring the installation and usage of software, and up to 20 percent by implementing a complete ITAM/SAM [software asset management] program.”

In further response to the new law, Patricia offered government CIOs six suggestions. I believe these recommendations are also more than appropriate for those of you attempting to get ITAM right, whatever your enterprise’s business. So here is a summary of them for your consideration.

1. Establish a comprehensive asset inventory—hardware and software and services.

2. Regularly track and maintain software licenses.

3. Analyze software usage and other data to make cost-effective decisions.

4. Provide training in software license management to all responsible and involved.

5. Establish formal goals and objectives for your enterprise’s software license management program.

6. Manage your software licenses across their entire lifecycles, from requisition and reception through deployment and maintenance to retirement and disposal.

Take those next ITAM steps with Ivanti

After you’ve been blown away by Bonita Norris, or while you’re looking for an opportunity to experience her for yourself, check out Patricia’s blog posts. If you want to see the details and recommendations behind her six suggestions, go directly to Part One and Part Two of her “mini-series” on the subject. You and your colleagues will also benefit from Patricia’s on-demand Webinar, “Ten Mistakes Not to Make When Implementing ITAM/SAM.”

Then, check out Ivanti’s ITAM solutions. Ivanti Asset Intelligence discovers hardware and software, tracks usage, and helps you to reclaim unused software licenses and improve compliance. Ivanti Asset Manager enables you to manage client and server hardware and software, physical, virtual, or cloud-based, from the cloud or your own premises. Ivanti Asset Management Suite combines the strengths of Asset Intelligence and Asset Manager. And Ivanti License Optimizer uses technology and human expertise to simplify and improve management of your most complex software licenses.

Take that next step toward getting ITAM right at your enterprise. Visit us online or contact your Ivanti representative to request a demo or a quote.

Plot your roadmap to itam success