What is Asset Management for IT Help Desk?
Asset management software is used to track and manage an organization's hardware and software assets, as well as non-PC assets. This includes identifying the location of assets, any software and hardware installations, and other key information such as warranties and maintenance schedules.
Asset management software allows IT help desk teams to log, track, and prioritize support requests, assign them to the appropriate team member to solve those requests, and provide updates to users on the status of their requests.
Importance of Help Desk Software with Asset Management
Issuetrak’s Asset Management module provides IT teams with a central database so they can easily locate and manage IT assets. Being able to report on this information is useful, helping your teams to plan for appropriate hardware refreshes or lease renewals.
Aside from increased control and tremendous stress-relief, asset management software can benefit you with:
- Reduced costs
- Reduced IT risks
- Improved customer service
- Optimized operations for companies in any industry
Top Asset Management Software Capabilities
Gathering Detailed Asset Information
An asset management system can help track certain information about your company’s assets. These could include:
- Purchase dates
- Leasing information
- warranty details
- Type of asset (e.g. PC, monitor, router)
- Location of the asset
- Who it is assigned to
Tracking Software Installation Information
An asset management system can also track software installation information via manual entry or automated system audits.
Software installation information is convenient for tracking any purchased software licenses so as to ensure compliance. After all, no one wants to discover during an audit that they accidentally use more licenses than they purchased!
Performing Remote Auditing and Auditing On-Demand
Asset Management software gives you the option to audit on-demand or remotely, so you can see detailed asset information whenever you need to. Audits show changes over time as well, showing how a system looked when first deployed compared to the present.
For instance, audits in asset management are useful for tracking a PC asset’s hard disk space, programs, services, and start-up apps, which can be placed under administrative control. It is also great for auditing non-PC assets, such as the history and issues of a piece of medical equipment.
You can let a server regularly run audits that scan every machine joined to the domain. This regular cadence gives teams constant visibility over their company’s asset histories and status. It’s possible to run automated audits locally on a single machine, or remotely via one machine to an entire network.
Every time an audit runs, it logs itself as a record, while refreshing records and keeping assets up-to-date. Issuetrak’s Asset Management module uses any information discovered by an audit to automatically create records for new assets, or update records for existing ones.
For large legacy companies that manage assets in the millions, cloud asset management is a great option for customers in need of archiving assistance.
Advanced Reporting
The ability to generate reports and analyze data helps organizations identify and resolve recurring problems on customer support requests and issues. Advanced reporting also improves processes and helps managers make data-driven decisions.
Asset management software stores tons of information. An asset record can document a ticket history of assignees, issues, the number of times an asset has been cycled, as well as reasons why the device was cycled. IT teams can add notes to the asset record to thoroughly explain any associated ticket issues, problems, and causes that ever occurred or recurred.
Asset management software then uses this data to churn out reports on a time bound basis, whether monthly, quarterly or other. In this way, the asset record streamlines answers to basic questions—like what’s going to renew or expire—giving IT teams a heads-up to prepare for the next important steps.
Success Story: How One School Never Lost Sight of A Single Computer Asset
Newport News Public Schools owns upward of 20,000 laptops. Using an Asset Management module at their IT help desk aids this district in keeping track of each one. They are able to save valuable financial and team resources with the easy location and auditing tools Asset Management has to offer.
From keeping track of hardware and software inventory to efficiently allocating resources, asset management helps ensure their schools’ IT help desks are always prepared for any arising issue.
Effective asset management enables Newport News schools to save money and time by preventing the need for hardware replacements or repairs, or any unnecessary spending of precious extra resources on new technology.
By tracking and managing the hardware and software used in their schools, asset management helps ensure that they have the resources available for their staff to provide quick, effective support. From knowing which new hardware needs to be purchased to being able to remotely troubleshoot a user's device, asset management makes running a smooth and successful IT help desk much easier.
Business Outcomes and Benefits of Using Asset Management Software For IT Help Desk
Integrating asset management at your help desk helps support teams to serve users, reduce workloads, and organize and protect company resources.
Major benefits of asset management software improve business outcomes:
Improved Support and Growing Satisfaction
Effective asset management ensures employees have access to the necessary hardware, software, or other non-PC assets needed to carry out their tasks. This can lead to faster resolution times and improved user satisfaction.
It also ensures resources are properly protected and organized, so customer service issues can be solved quickly and efficiently.
Track Everything, From Major To Minor Assets
Keep track of major expensive assets that you will loan out to employees, like UPS surge protectors, security tokens (FOBS), headsets, and cameras. You can also log minor non-PC assets, like keyboards and mice.
Tracking major asset in Asset Management includes non-IT assets in various industries, too, such as:
- Forklifts for construction jobs
- Packaging machines for manufacturers
- Fleet vehicles
- Medical device equipment tracking
- Tools and equipment for property maintenance
- And more!
Total Visibility Protects Company Resources
A help desk armed with asset management improves visibility over company resources. IT teams can gain a more complete view of an asset's history and current status, making it easier to diagnose and resolve issues.
By providing IT teams with a more complete view of an asset's history, they can provide more timely and effective support to users, such as replacing equipment that has recurring problems.
Customer Story
Every piece of equipment that belongs to Neptune Equipment—laptops, printers, firewalls, and customer products—is tracked closely in Issuetrak. Employees and customers can log into a portal to see the status of their requests, as well as assets that are assigned to them, eliminating any confusion and reducing phone calls for sales reps and the IT team. Neptune also ties assets to tickets to keep an eye on recurring problems that indicate the need for an upgrade.
Read more: Neptune Equipment Keeps Tabs on Hundreds of Assets
IT Teams Can Focus on the Bigger Issues
By automating the asset tracking process, IT teams can streamline their processes reducing the time and effort required to manage and maintain assets. This can help to improve overall efficiency and reduce costs.
More Accurate Reporting
By integrating asset management and help desk software, IT teams can generate more accurate reports on asset usage, support request volume, and other key metrics. This can help to identify trends and areas for improvement.
Insider’s Perspective from Director of Technology Noel Lucas
“In house pre-COVID, Issuetrak would log in to our own asset management system to run an audit so IT could address any break-fix issues. Post-COVID, we now employ an ESC script to fire off from any given asset’s local system. This audit recurs on a fixed day of every week. The beauty of that automated remote audit accurately and regularly tracks installation information while freeing up time for IT help desk workers to focus on bigger projects. In-office assets run a weekly script, which we call TrakAsset.
You may not always think of software subscriptions as an asset—but a recurring program is the perfect candidate for an asset auditing software like TrakAsset. Through it, you can run a report for renewals, estimate your costs, run the audit regularly (monthly, quarterly, etc.), and more.
Another nice perk is the ability to track our SSL certificates and attach the actual certificate to the asset. If integrated into Active Directory, we can attach a recovery key to the actual asset.”
Issuetrak’s Asset Management Module
Issuetrak’s Asset Management module is a convenient and straightforward way to store and manage asset information for your company—and presents little fuss with its minimal setup and configuration.
Our Help Center article has more information, but in a nutshell, here’s how Issuetrak’s Asset Management module cuts down on chaos at thousands of help desks:
- You can link asset items to specific issues, users, or non-users, making it easy to identify any equipment generating unusually high or low ticket volume. You can also clone items to speed up data entry.
- You can report and locate items to detect trends. This data provides immediate feedback via built-in reports.
- Tracking expenses creates visibility over company resources.
- You can perform inventory maintenance with automated auditing.
- Drill down to the information you need, moving from summarized to detailed information with a simple click of your mouse.
Using Asset Management at IT help desks keeps companies on top of it all. Learn more about Issuetrak’s Asset Management module with our experts.
Never lose sight of an asset again.
Topics from this blog: Asset Management
Back