How to Improve Your Organization’s ITAM Maturity

It’s time to talk about IT asset management (ITAM) maturity. Hopefully, your IT organization appreciates that ITAM is critical to optimize its IT operations – helping to prevent outdated asset records, compliance risks, and slow incident resolution. However, “there’s ITAM, and then there’s ITAM.”  What’s meant by this is that there are “basic” ITAM capabilities that allow your IT organization to put a tick in the “We do ITAM” box. Then, there are more advanced ITAM capabilities that enable your organization’s ITAM capabilities to make a far more significant positive impact on business operations and outcomes.

Your business likely wants and deserves the latter of these, and to help, this blog looks at what will improve your ITAM practice’s maturity to make it far more valuable to your business.

this blog looks at what will improve your ITAM practice’s maturity to make it far more valuable to your business. #SysAid #ITAM #ITSM Share on X

Why understanding your IT organization’s ITAM maturity is important

It’s important to appreciate that not all ITAM programs are equally effective. There can be many potential issues or omissions where an IT organization might have suboptimal ITAM capabilities or lack certain ITAM capabilities altogether. For example, they could struggle with fragmented asset tracking methods, poor asset lifecycle management, and face compliance risks due to lacking maturity in their ITAM processes.

They might also have never considered their ITAM in maturity terms. After all, how often are you asked about ITAM maturity? Instead, you might face more black-and-white questions like “Do we have ITAM capabilities?” To which the affirmative answer hides the fact that they might not be as effective as your parent organization needs them to be.

Whereas ITAM maturity allows your organization to better understand and articulate its ITAM capabilities’ current effectiveness and identify opportunities to improve the status quo to meet business needs better. It also takes a more holistic view of ITAM and your organization’s ability to manage its IT assets effectively throughout their lifecycle – from acquisition and deployment to maintenance and disposal.

Understanding your #ITAM maturity is important says @SysAid. Which of the five maturity levels does your organization fall into? Take a look here. #ITSM #ServiceDesk Share on X

The different levels of ITAM maturity

ITAM maturity can be considered using a traditional capability approach where:

• Maturity level 1 is “reactive,” with ad hoc ITAM capabilities
• Maturity level 2 is “managed,” with basic ITAM practices in place
• Maturity level 3 is “defined,” with ITAM standardization and integrations
• Maturity level 4 is “optimized,” with proactive ITAM and cost management capabilities
• Maturity level 5 is “intelligent,” with ITAM seen as a strategic business enabler.

Each of these ITAM maturity levels is explained below.

Maturity level 1 – Reactive, with ad hoc ITAM capabilities

Maturity level 1 ITAM is categorized by some or all of the following attributes:

• There are no formal ITAM policies or processes (and, therefore, little or no automation)
• There’s basic asset tracking and inventory management – IT assets might be managed in spreadsheets or not tracked at all
• Limited visibility into IT assets
• There’s reactive rather than proactive asset maintenance
• The risk of “shadow IT” is higher than for IT organizations with more mature ITAM capabilities
• There are security vulnerabilities caused by outdated (unpatched) or unknown assets
• IT budget overruns occur due to a lack of visibility into asset costs – for example, unplanned expenses due to surprise license renewals or non-compliance fines.

Maturity level 2 – Managed, with basic ITAM practices in place

Maturity level 2 ITAM is categorized by some or all of the following attributes:

• There’s partial visibility into IT assets thanks to foundational ITAM processes and tools – for example, there might be automated asset discovery and tracking capabilities
• Asset lifecycle management is defined, but there’s still limited visibility into asset lifecycle stages
• Asset procurement follows basic approval workflows
• There are basic tools for asset tracking and management; however, IT assets are often tracked manually, which usually leads to outdated asset records
• Asset management capabilities are often focused on hardware rather than software, such that IT teams reactively manage software licenses and lack compliance enforcement
• There are some integrations between ITAM and financial systems and ITSM tools
• Ensuring compliance with software licensing and audits is difficult, as is cost control.

Maturity level 3 – Defined, with ITAM standardization and integrations

• ITAM policies are documented, standardized, and enforced across the organization
• There are fit-for-purpose advanced discovery tools in place that provide automation and real-time visibility into IT assets
• ITAM is integrated with corporate IT service management (ITSM), including the configuration management database (CMDB) for better incident, problem, and change management
• Software license compliance monitoring is performed
• ITAM is integrated with corporate cybersecurity practices
• There’s a growing emphasis on data accuracy and reporting
• Asset optimization is still a work in progress, with interest in AI-driven asset management (with automated remediation) and advanced analytics for predictive maintenance and cost forecasting.

Maturity levels 4 and 5

These two levels are still aspirational for many organizations – with ITAM fully automated at maturity level 4 to optimize workflows and reduce the manual overhead. ITAM is fully integrated into the organization’s governance and operational frameworks. Assets are tracked from procurement to retirement, with real-time insights into asset performance, utilization, and compliance. There are automated alerts for renewals and end-of-life management, and ITAM data is also used for cost optimization.

Maturity level 5 increasingly involves using artificial intelligence (AI)-based capabilities to further enhance ITAM efficiency and effectiveness. For example, predictive analytics helps to optimize asset lifecycle decisions, and self-service IT asset provisioning improves employee productivity. At maturity level 5, ITAM is now a continuous, data-driven process that evolves with the organization’s needs.

How SysAid’s Advanced Discovery will help your organization

If you recognize your organization in the maturity level descriptions above, it might be that automated asset discovery is still needed to move your ITAM maturity level up a level (or perhaps two).

To improve the ITAM maturity of our customers, SysAid has partnered with Lansweeper to provide an advanced IT asset discovery solution – called SysAid Advanced Discovery –  that will enhance your organization’s ITAM capabilities, no matter its maturity level. The SysAid Advanced Discovery gives your organization the comprehensive visibility and control over its IT assets it needs – automating asset discovery, inventory management, and reporting.

Considering the opportunities of SysAid’s Advanced Discovery with the maturity levels outlined above, it will help your IT organization to:

• Automate asset discovery, benefitting from AI capabilities for granular insights into our organization’s IT environment. For example, providing the asset data for more accurate inventory management and reduced downtime across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments. Customize network scans, combine active and passive scanning, and use agent-based or agentless discovery for flexibility.
• Benefit from the integration of SysAid Advanced Discovery with your corporate ITSM tool or platform. For example, automatically sync SysAid Advanced Discovery’s asset intelligence into SysAid’s ITSM platform, for a single source of truth to resolve incidents faster, track software installations (to improve compliance), and simplify the software audit process.
• Streamline IT operations and strengthen compliance and security. For example, automatically identifying vulnerabilities, outdated software, and unauthorized devices, with vulnerability reports that highlight devices that require immediate action.
• Gain full asset visibility and access insights into asset utilization. For example, SysAid Advanced Discovery tracks asset utilization metrics, such as memory and CPU usage, to identify your organization’s underutilized devices.
• Reduce downtime and optimize IT spend. For example, identifying outdated or unsupported assets before they cause disruptions. Leveraging advanced analytics to predict equipment failures – helping your IT organization maintain critical devices and minimize service disruptions proactively.
• Use deep asset intelligence for smarter IT decisions. For example, analyzing configurations, usage patterns, and dependencies to optimize resource allocation and reduce costs. Or proactively mitigating risks with real-time insights into asset health and lifecycle status.

'Managing IT services without accurate asset data is like navigating without a map. While #ITSM helps ensure smooth service delivery, #ITAM provides visibility into the assets that power those services.' – @SysAid Share on X

Ultimately, managing IT services without accurate asset data is like navigating without a map. While ITSM helps ensure smooth service delivery, ITAM provides visibility into the assets that power those services. Without effective ITAM, your IT teams face outdated asset records, compliance risks, and inefficiencies that slow down service delivery. SysAid Advanced Discovery helps eliminate these challenges by bringing real-time asset intelligence into your ITSM workflows, such that your  IT teams have the right data at the right time to make better decisions, improve security, and enhance efficiency.

To learn more about how SysAid Advanced Discovery improve your IT organization’s ITAM maturity, take a look at this webinar recording.