What is Hardware Asset Management (HAM)? Definition and Guide

Hardware Asset Management (HAM) is the process of monitoring and managing the entire lifecycle of physical IT elements (laptops, desktops, servers, etc.) in a business environment. While managing IT assets, you can also provide an overview of the asset lifecycle and real-time information about the use of your inventory of these hardware assets in your business. If you invest in the right Hardware Asset Management (HAM), you can control costs, limit excessive purchases and also lighten your burden during the audit period. A reliable Hardware Asset Management (HAM) offers full visibility into your IT inventory.

Step by Step Hardware Asset Management Processes

• Leverage real-time information: Get information about your assets, including their location, use case and lifetime, etc. Get real-time information about and leverage this information to optimize your IT infrastructure.

• Reduce overall costs: A unified solution helps you reduce costs by avoiding incompatibility, IT overspending, and optimizing asset management processes.

• Connect with vendors: Make effective purchasing decisions, purchase orders and invoices, etc. Submit and connect directly with your vendors through hardware asset management (HAM).

• Asset Usage: Knowing what hardware assets you own and how they are used and analyzed saves you the risk of being vulnerable during an audit.

• Increased Lifecycle: Regular service and maintenance scheduling through an ITAM solution automates this iterative process and helps you get the most out of your IT assets.

Advantages of Hardware Asset Management

Prevents Asset Loss and Theft

Hardware Asset Management tracks the entire lifecycle of a company's assets, from procurement to retirement. The process includes asset tagging, assignment and revocation of ownership, location tracking, and regular maintenance and service. It allows organizations to easily know about an asset's operational status, physical location, and condition.

You can also accurately monitor and record hardware warranty information, maintenance status, contract agreements, and license compliance and renewal. Monitoring all this information reduces the risks caused by lack of asset information and prevents asset theft. It lets IT teams know what's available and how it's being used, so they know which assets are understaffed or idle, and make proactive purchasing decisions when existing assets are close to obsolete.

Optimizes Asset Utilization and Supply

Hardware Asset Management (HAM) focuses on making the most of an organization's assets by using idle or underutilized assets. Use the software to keep track of your inventory accurately so you don't overspend. Conversely, get timely alerts when inventory reaches the low order threshold. Creating standards using this type of information ensures that companies buy only what is necessary and avoid shelving hardware assets.

According to the Information Services Group, 70% of organizations experience billing "surprises" with asset bills. On the other hand, having complete visibility into inventory and knowing what's available allows teams to pull inventory from existing stores instead of making big overbuy and impacting the budget.

Increases Productivity

Adopting Hardware Asset Management (HAM) process frees up resources so they can focus on their core responsibilities. When the administrative burden on employees is less, they can do more as manual or inefficient processes are automated. HAM also helps predict asset issues before they happen.

Improves Security and Compliance

With effective Hardware Asset Management, security teams have an accurate and complete list of hardware assets with version information. They can easily prioritize and implement strict security measures to ensure full coverage of threats to company assets. They can also identify assets that need maintenance or are close to deprecation so they can be fixed before they become a security vulnerability to the organization. Keeping a record of your IT inventory also allows you to identify if any unapproved assets have been used. These features not only improve security and compliance but also assist during compliance auditing.

Better Control Over IT Inventory

Gaining deeper visibility into your hardware assets leads to greater control over IT inventory. Tracking your assets in your IT environment will give your IT teams better control and accountability to ensure compliance. Using features like asset discovery and claims validation allows you to view hardware inventory details and make sure they are in the right place.

Hardware Lifecycle Management

With Hardware Asset Management (HAM), you can track when an asset was purchased, details about the vendor, how long it has been used, what version it is, and how long your end users can use the asset.

This actionable data can then be used to make decisions about new purchases, replacements, services or upgrades. Vendor agreements can be uploaded to the system so you can know when to renew a contract with your vendor allowing you to easily create and submit purchase orders.

An effective Hardware Asset Management (HAM) can deliver significant benefits through IT cost management, increased operational efficiency and minimized risks. Therefore, a centralized and automated Hardware Asset Management (HAM) is the key and best practice way to improve your organization's overall IT infrastructure.

Hardware Asset Management Software

Hardware Asset Management Software is the business solution that enables businesses to digitally manage their hardware inventories from a single platform. It is very important that the asset management process is carried out correctly and systematically for all assets. Hardware Asset Management Tool provides an effective Hardware Asset Management process by eliminating the risk of errors in the management processes of physical assets.

MDP Group brand Loggle offers Hardware Asset Management Software that makes it easy for businesses to manage their hardware inventories. Experience end-to-end IT Asset Management with Loggle.