If you’ve ever worked in IT, you may have heard the term “ITAM” tossed around a few too many times and is often confused with inventory management. One of the most important things to remember about IT Asset Management (ITAM) is that it isn’t just a fancy term for inventory management. It’s not just inventory management either!
Let’s look at some ways that ITAM can help with your current asset tracking methods and why those methods are so important when it comes to tracking assets and reporting on them accurately.
Is ITAM is just another term for inventory management?
ITAM is a broader concept that includes more than just inventory management. It is about managing the entire lifecycle of your technology assets. As such, it includes activities like asset discovery, business impact analysis and risk assessment (BIA), disposal planning and more.
In short: ITAM isn’t just about keeping track of your stuff; it’s also an approach that helps you understand its role within an organization as well as its value in terms of cost savings or increased productivity
You can’t track your inventory if you don’t have an inventory
Inventory management is a process that starts with knowing what you have. If you don’t know what’s in your warehouse, how can you possibly track it? And if you can’t track it, then what good does it do to have an inventory at all?
Inventory management is an ongoing process. Once an item has been purchased or produced and entered into your system, how often should you update that entry? Do you need to update your database every time a customer places an order for one of your products? Or only when they place multiple orders within a short period of time?
The answers to these questions depend on the nature of the product being sold–and even then there are no hard-and-fast rules. But they’re important nonetheless. Understanding what your inventory is worth can help you determine how much money to spend on new technology and software purchases.
Inventory is a crucial part of business management. It’s also one of the most important aspects of any ITAM solution. If you don’t know what you have, how can you be sure it’s working properly? And if something goes wrong with an asset that no one knows about, who will repair or replace it?
Inventory helps companies determine how much money to spend on new technology and software purchases by providing an accurate picture of their current assets and therefore, their future needs.
Read: Inventory management vs ITAM: What should you choose?
Inventory management software can help you track assets, but it isn’t the only way to go about it
Inventory management is the process of monitoring a company’s stock and making sure it is properly stored, packed, and shipped. Inventory management gathers data on these activities to improve inventory turnover and fulfill orders more efficiently.
If you’re a business owner, inventory management is likely one of the most important aspects of your job.
It’s easy to get distracted by other tasks and forget about your inventory: how many items or assets you have in stock, what they cost, whether or not they’re selling/used well. But if you don’t keep track of this information, it can be difficult to plan ahead and determine what needs to be ordered next. This could result in lost revenue or even damage your reputation with customers who are upset about not being able to find the products they want.
But with a good inventory management software, it’s easy to keep track of all this data without having to do any calculations yourself. Your software will automatically calculate sales based on how often an item has been purchased and how much profit you’ve made off of each sale. It can also tell you when an item needs restocking
When you’re managing inventory, you want to make sure that your company isn’t overstocked or understocked. You also want to avoid having obsolete stock. This can be a challenge because it takes time to determine what items are selling well and which ones aren’t—and it’s especially difficult if your inventory is spread out across a number of different locations.
A good way to address this issue is by having an organized warehouse layout. That way, you know where everything is located at all times and can easily identify any areas that need restocking or replenishment. It’s also important that you dedicate time for regular stock checks and counts so that you have accurate data about what’s being sold.
To put it simply, inventory management helps you keep track of your inventory and make sure you have enough on hand to meet consumer demand. It’s used in many different industries, from manufacturing to retail.
Asset management is similar to inventory management in some ways, but it focuses more on internal assets like computers or office equipment. Asset management keeps track of what you have and how much it’s worth so that you can make sure your company doesn’t lose money by selling something that has depreciated too much.
And while they might seem to work similarly, you cannot substitute one for the other.
Read: ITAM is key to your organization’s cybersecurity
ITAM can help with inventory management, but they aren’t exactly the same thing
ITAM is not just another term for inventory management. While it does encompass inventory management, ITAM is also a broader concept that includes other tools and processes.
ITAM is an ongoing process, not something you do once and then forget about.
Inventory management and asset management are both about ensuring a company can meet customer demand, avoid shortages, and ensure it has the equipment and supplies it needs to sustain operations.
Asset management works in much the same way—it ensures that you have enough equipment and supplies to meet your needs, without having excess or lacking anything important.
Both inventory management and asset management use technology to help them achieve these goals: computers automatically track inventory levels and manage orders; software helps companies identify their assets and keep track of where they are so they know where everything is at any given time.
If you’re looking for a way to improve your inventory management, ITAM may be the answer. But it’s important not to confuse these two terms. They are related in many ways and can work together towards a common goal, but they are not exactly the same thing.
The two main categories of inventory management are purchasing, sales and consumption. Purchasing is the process of acquiring a part or product for use in the manufacturing process. Sales are the processes that occur when a product is sold to a customer. Consumption is the process of using a part or product in the manufacturing process.
Asset management tracks non-production assets such as equipment and real estate. An asset may be used more than once during its lifetime, but it will eventually be retired from use. Asset management analyzes how long each asset will last, what condition it should be maintained in and how much it will cost to use.
The inventory management process has traditionally been a manual one. It involves tracking your inventory, ordering new stock when you run out, and counting it all again at the end of each day. This method is inefficient, time consuming, and prone to errors.
It’s also not a very cost-effective way to keep stock. Inventory management without ITAM means that you’re paying for more than you need. Inventory management with ITAM solves this problem in two ways:
1) By making sure that your inventory levels are accurate at all times through automated tracking software
2) By ensuring that there’s no excess stock sitting around costing money every day it sits unused
Explore Virima ITAM solution for all your inventory and asset management needs
Modern businesses need to keep up with a lot. You’re probably juggling a bunch of issues at once, from managing inventory and ensuring you have the right assets in place to making sure your network is secure and using the right tools to do it.
And let’s not forget about costs: You need to make sure that every dollar spent is being used wisely, and you don’t want to waste money on things that aren’t necessary.
That’s where Virima ITAM comes in. We help you go beyond simple inventory management tools and offer you a set of tools and solutions to address IT’s most critical management challenges. Whether your organization is looking to maximize the value of business processes, or simply wants to streamline service management and organizational efficiency, Virima’s IT Discovery, Asset Management (ITAM), and ViVID Service Mapping solutions can help you achieve your goals.
Virima’s software has been developed with a focus on providing organizations with the tools they need to optimize their IT infrastructure and ensure that it’s properly utilized. This allows companies to make the most out of their technology investments—whether they’re new or old.
The Virima suite features automated discovery and mapping capabilities that allow for quick and accurate data collection. This means you can get a complete picture of all of your critical IT resources—from servers, databases, and storage systems to virtual machines—as well as the interconnections between them. It also allows you to see how each resource is connected to applications, services, users, and other systems within your organization.
Once you’ve collected this information, Virima lets you use it to map out your entire IT ecosystem in order to identify areas where improvements can be made.
Find out more about what else you can do with Virima ITAM, Discovery and Service Mapping by scheduling a demo today!
