Building the Business Case for IT Asset Management
Very nice blog post by Jenny Schuchert of the International Association of IT Asset Managers (IAITAM) concerning how to build the business case for IT asset management (ITAM). In particular, I agree with her philosophy regarding the two general approaches to selling ITAM most likely to succeed.
The first approach is to link ITAM to a particular event or known issue, and build the business case around resolving the issue or preventing such an event from happening again in the future. Schuchert remarks that while this approach may not necessarily target areas where the most significant savings may be obtained, it may be the most politically savvy—and therefore practical—approach for obtaining buy-in from skeptics. Plus, once a successful program is in place, the additional savings generally speak for themselves and will likely lead to subsequent reprioritization of program goals and emphasis.
The second approach Schuchert mentions is to focus the business case on the multitude of ways a well-structured ITAM program can lead to cost savings, presented in terms of potential return on investment. This approach, if presented as a strategic initiative, is more likely to succeed among executive stakeholders that have demonstrated a commitment to exploring ways of uncovering long-term organizational savings.
Somewhat coincidentally, I was asked to present on this very topic at the IAITAM annual conference a few years back; below I’ve provided a link to my slide deck (with the same title, no less!) elaborating on how to build the business case for ITAM through savings and ROI analysis. There are also some tips within the presentation regarding how to overcome common organizational barriers to ITAM adoption and pitfalls associated with program implementation. Enjoy!
Building the Case for IT Asset Management (Microsoft Powerpoint presentation)
Asset management has always been known to be close to people who belong to the finance domain. The recent event of sub-prime crisis and its ensuing effects has resulted in people being extremely cautious about their assets and investment of their assets. Safeguarding the assets then became an important point of thinking.