10 things IT leaders need to know to drive ITAM success

The demands of modern businesses continue to reshape IT asset management (ITAM) beyond traditional practices and tools.

LIKE.TG commissioned Enterprise Management Associates to survey 450 global IT leaders on the state of ITAM. Our report, “A business view of ITAM,” sheds light on the most critical aspects leaders need to focus on to deliver ITAM success.

1. ITAM has become a strategic imperative

ITAM is no longer confined to the peripheries of technology departments. It's now a dynamic force driving business success amid increasing expectations to deliver tangible value.

Our research indicates a remarkable shift in perception, with 62% of surveyed IT leaders stating the role of ITAM is gaining prominence. Businesses are requiring more. As a result, ITAM teams are expected to show value in a way that the rest of the business can understand.

2. ITAM must speak the language of the business

ITAM leaders must be able to prove value by reporting on key metrics that affect the organization as a whole. The research reveals the top five metrics organizations are using to gauge ITAM success are:

1. Minimized security risks
2. Audit performance and accuracy
3. Employee productivity
4. Optimization of cloud spend
5. Level of automated processes and efficiencies

To truly demonstrate value, ITAM leaders should align their efforts with these business-centric benchmarks. Collaborating closely with leadership to understand broader business priorities will help ITAM teams set more strategic goals.

3. Success starts with accurate asset information

The completeness and accuracy of asset information has emerged as a nonnegotiable factor for business success. However, only 33.3% of organizations consider the completeness and accuracy of their asset information to be “outstanding,” yet just 14.7% report it needs improvement.

This disparity underscores a critical challenge: ensuring the health, or quality, of asset information. This is pivotal for quick, efficient IT service delivery; cost optimization; security and risk mitigation; and automation, as data lays the foundation for automated workflows to, well, flow.

4. Security (as always) is a major priority

Security remains a paramount concern, especially in terms of asset visibility. Although 44.4% of organizations recognize the critical role of asset information in identifying and protecting attack surfaces, challenges persist.

More than half of survey respondents stated asset information isn't as useful to their cybersecurity teams as it should be. This reinforces the idea that security starts with quality asset information. You can’t protect what you don’t know you own.

5. ITAM maturity benefits from a platform approach

Organizations with high ITAM maturity are better positioned to navigate the complexities of digital transformation. Only 26% of represented organizations reported reaching an “optimized” level of ITAM maturity—with optimal costs, minimal risk, and automated processes.

What stands out is that 100% of organizations at this level are using a platform approach—managing all asset types on a centralized platform. This emphasizes the vital role of a unified platform in realizing ITAM's full potential. A platform approach will emerge as the “golden ticket” to ITAM maturity.

6. Diverse asset types are being managed together

The push to bring all asset classes and types onto a shared platform for cross-domain workflows increased from 23% in 2022 to 34% in 2023. This indicates a continued dismantling of silo mentality.

There’s no denying an overlap in the processes, teams, and tools involved in managing diverse asset estates across software, hardware, cloud, and the enterprise. More and more teams are merging technology and enterprise asset management into a single discipline, a trend that will likely continue.

7. ITAM and FinOps collaboration can be beneficial

High adoption of cloud solutions led to unbudgeted costs and caught many organizations off guard. In response, cloud financial operations (FinOps) is gaining awareness and importance as a strategic business function.

Although only 5% of survey respondents have one team responsible for both FinOps and ITAM, 55% foresee a unified organization on the horizon for managing all asset types, including cloud resources.

Nearly half (43%) of IT leaders reported proactive collaboration between their ITAM and FinOps teams, suggesting a symbiotic relationship. For example, insights into asset utilization and lifecycle can help FinOps teams make informed decisions to right-size cloud resources and help ensure optimal usage and cost-effectiveness.

8. ESG is top of mind for ITAM leaders

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives are increasingly on the agenda for IT leaders. In fact, 63% confirmed ESG is part of their organization’s long-term vision and priorities. However, they identified ESG reporting as one of the most challenging aspects of ITAM.

Despite hurdles in funding, implementing, and measuring these initiatives, sustainability is taking a prominent role. ITAM has the potential to play a crucial part in guiding and influencing sustainable approaches to asset use, asset sourcing, and asset end-of-life planning.

9. ITAM continues to expand beyond IT assets

The expansion of ITAM in managing physical business assets remains a focus area, especially as technology becomes embedded in daily operations. Enterprise asset management is an area ripe for the application of vetted IT tools and processes to assets that the business has traditionally owned and managed.

10. Automation is a necessity

Automation is no longer just strategic. It's a survival essential for IT, especially with smaller teams overseeing more assets and asset types. The integration of AI and machine learning (ML) into ITAM processes is becoming commonplace. Nearly half (43%) of IT leaders reported a high level of process automation aided by AI and ML.

Because automation is dependent on accurate, up-to-date information, the need for complete and accurate asset information is critical.

At the forefront of transformative change

Navigating this evolving ITAM landscape requires collaboration, business-aligned metrics, and a platform-driven approach. The challenges are vast, but the opportunities for ITAM to deliver unprecedented value across the organization have never been more promising.

Gain more insights in the full ITAM report and our on-demand webinar, “Business demands modern ITAM.”

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