Turning Assets Into AssetsTurning Assets Into Assets

Before many companies were forced to trim IT spending in the sagging economy, Motorola Inc. last year put the brakes on new system purchases. And to get approval for new IT equipment, the telco equipment manufacturer's IT team had to prove that current systems were being used efficiently. So Sri Donthi, director for worldwide operations at Motorola's Global Infrastructure Solutions IT arm in Schaumburg, Ill., installed asset-management software that gives Motorola execs details on IT equipment, how it's used, and how much it costs.

"Before we got into asset management [last] year, the CFO had no visibility of IT spending," Donthi says, "so any justifications for new infrastructure were difficult because we couldn't prove all the infrastructure was being used efficiently." Motorola is using Argis software from Intraware Inc. to validate the efficiencies of some 7,000 servers spread across every continent in more than 150 data centers.

Asset-management tools are designed to help companies track IT hardware and software assets, as well as associated costs. Many of the tools available today can automatically collect and then create an inventory of IT assets. That data can be augmented with leasing and contractual information and service-level agreements, which are manually input into the system. Reports can then be generated to make sure, for example, that all desktops have enough processing power to handle a new software upgrade.

Asset management has been around for several years, but the tough economy has put a new emphasis on the technology. Gartner industry analyst Patricia Adams says the number of inquiries she's gotten related to asset management has doubled since September. "It's do-more-with-what-you-have time," she says. "A lot more companies will have asset management as a strict discipline in 2002."

Audrey Rasmussen, an Enterprise Management Associates industry analyst, says asset management is particularly important during economic hardships. "Many companies end up paying much more than they need on software licenses," she says. "With layoffs, companies could cut back on Microsoft licenses and save substantial money."

Intraware, according to Adams, is one of four vendors--along with Main Control, Peregrine Systems, and Tangram Enterprise Solutions--that strictly focus on asset management. But the top enterprise management vendors, including Computer Associates and IBM's Tivoli, either offer asset-management tools as part of their infrastructure or partner with asset-management vendors.

Six months ago, asset management wasn't on the radar at Ikon Office Solutions Inc., an office systems and services provider in Columbia, S.C. But that changed when a number of clients began asking for help to deal with their expanding IT infrastructure and diminishing IT staff. "Most of our clients used to do it themselves," says Ben Wilson, remote management services manager at Ikon. "But their growing networks and lack of IT resources have brought us to the forefront to conduct asset management for them." Ikon has just purchased the PReView suite of software from startup Tavve Software Co. and installed it in time for the new year. With it, Ikon could be better equipped to service its customers. Wilson says the software may help Ikon's customers better utilize networks and systems. For example, Wilson says, "A lot of our clients have remote offices without somebody to go out to them, so they don't know what WAN resources they have. Nobody's got time to look for excess capacity." With PReView, Ikon will be able to show clients where there's underutilized network capacity, saving those clients from costly networking purchases that aren't necessary.

Fordham University in New York hopes its recently purchased asset-management software will help ease the burden of its 10-person IT team and five consultants. Jason Benedict, director of computer services at Fordham, says the university is installing CA's enterprise management software, Unicenter, which includes asset management, to automatically upgrade software across the network, rather than via manual installations. Unicenter and its asset-management tool may also help Benedict and his team remotely fix system problems that users encounter. Though Benedict says Unicenter should save money in the long term, such capability isn't cheap: Fordham paid $2 million for Unicenter and pays an annual licensing fee of $172,000.

The price, however, is a moot point. With limited IT resources to support 15,000 students and 4,000 faculty members, Fordham needs the automation. Says Benedict, "We have to do more with less."