What ITAM is, how to track equipment and licenses, control the asset lifecycle and cut IT costs.
In many companies, IT assets are tracked in spreadsheets, separate systems, and reports from different departments. As a result, the data does not match, equipment gets lost during transfers, and licenses keep being paid for even after employees leave. To avoid these problems, companies implement IT asset management. Let’s look at what counts as an IT asset, how to set up tracking, how to manage the equipment lifecycle, and which practices help businesses reduce IT costs.
_IT assets_ are all digital and physical resources a company uses to work with data and IT systems. These include employee laptops, servers, networking equipment, operating systems, enterprise software such as 1C, licenses, cloud resources, and SaaS services. _IT asset management (ITAM)_ is a system for tracking and controlling these resources. The company knows what equipment it has, where it is located, which software is installed, and which licenses are active.
But IT asset management is not just a list of hardware. The business controls the full lifecycle of equipment and software: _from purchase and issue to an employee through repair, replacement, and write-off._ When a company manages assets effectively, it makes decisions based on facts, not assumptions.
Why businesses need IT asset tracking In many organizations, equipment, licenses, and cloud services are tracked only partially. Some hardware sits in storage, some software is bought independently by departments, and licenses keep being paid for even after employees leave. As a result, IT spending grows, and management does not understand where the money goes.
IT asset management helps bring order and gives the business several practical benefits: Lower costs. The company can see the entire infrastructure and quickly identify unused licenses, redundant subscriptions, and equipment sitting idle in storage.
Once things are organized, the business often cuts IT spending by tens of percent simply by eliminating excess resources. Reduced legal risks. When a company does not know which software is installed on computers, it may violate license terms. This leads to fines and legal disputes. If assets are tracked, the business can see all licenses and control software use. - Faster IT service operations. When a new employee joins, the administrator does not need to search for equipment or check multiple spreadsheets.
The system immediately shows available devices, warranty status, and repair history. Preparing a workstation takes hours instead of several days. - Improved security. "Shadow" resources often appear in the infrastructure - servers, cloud services, or software that employees connect without involving the IT department. These systems remain without updates or security oversight.
Asset tracking makes it possible to quickly identify such points and eliminate vulnerabilities. Let's look at an example. A national retail chain with thousands of stores tracked cash registers, scanners, and servers in Excel for a long time: each region maintained its own spreadsheets, and the data at headquarters was updated once a quarter and quickly became outdated. When the company decided to switch to new checkout software, it turned out that the exact number of working terminals was unknown: some devices had already been retired locally, but they still remained listed in the central database.
After the asset management system was implemented, equipment _started appearing automatically in the system when connected to the network._ In the first year alone, the company saved tens of millions of rubles because it stopped buying hardware that was already sitting in warehouses and stopped paying for support on retired devices.
According to Deloitte for 2025 only 21% companies manage IT assets properly. The rest operate without a full view of the infrastructure: they buy unnecessary equipment, lose devices during transfers, and keep paying for unused licenses. The main reason is a lack of control at every stage of the asset lifecycle.
Let us look at where businesses most often lose money along the way.
The lifecycle begins with a request for equipment or licenses. If a company does not check current inventory, procurement teams often buy new hardware even though the needed devices are already in storage or underused. When assets are tracked in a system, specialists first check available resources so they can use equipment that has already been purchased and reduce unnecessary buying.
After purchase, all asset information should be recorded immediately: supplier, purchase date, warranty, support terms, and licenses. If you save only the name and serial number, it will be hard to find the contract or understand when the warranty ends after a few months. Complete records help renew support on time, control licenses, and avoid issues during audits.
After being issued to an employee, equipment works for several years. In many organizations, it is checked only after it breaks, which leads to downtime and costly emergency repairs. When IT can see device age, repair history, and warranty terms, it can plan maintenance or replacement in advance. This reduces outage risks and extends equipment life.
Equipment regularly moves between employees, offices, and warehouses. If these transfers are not recorded, the company quickly loses control over its hardware. The tracking system shows where a device is and who is responsible for it, which makes work easier for IT, accounting, and security.
When equipment becomes obsolete or breaks down, it is taken out of service. Before disposal, it is important to erase data from storage media and properly deactivate licenses so they can be used on new equipment. Controlling this stage reduces the risk data leaks and helps reuse software.
Companies often confuse IT asset management with IT service management. Sometimes they assume one of these processes is enough. In practice, they solve different tasks. ITSM (service management) helps keep IT services running, including email, CRM, and internal systems. Its goal is to let employees work without downtime. ITAM (asset management) tracks specific items: laptops, software, cloud services.
It shows how much the company spends on IT, where the equipment is located, and when it needs replacement. Put simply, ITSM monitors service performance, while ITAM tracks resources and spending. Let's compare the processes:
| Criterion | ITAM | ITSM |
|---|---|---|
| Main task | Manage hardware, licenses, and cloud resources | Keep IT services running reliably |
| What the system checks | Asset value, service life, licenses, warranty | Service availability, user requests, incidents |
| Main question | How much an asset costs and when it should be replaced | Why the service is down and how to restore it quickly |
| Who uses the system | ITAM manager, finance department, IT architects | Support teams, administrators, service owners |
| Metrics | total cost of ownership, service life, license usage | SLA, response time, recovery time |
| Tracked asset | Asset - laptop, server, license | Configuration item is part of a service |
| Practical value | Helps control spending and licenses | Helps resolve user issues faster |
What happens when the processes are separate If ITSM and ITAM work separately, the company gets an incomplete picture. For example, support sees only the technical side. If a server fails, engineers try to restore it. But they may not know that the device is already six years old and the repair costs more than new equipment.
The finance department faces another problem. It sees license purchases, but does not understand how many are actually being used. The tracking system contains only purchase data, while actual installations are recorded in other tools. As a result, the company either overpays for repairing old equipment or buys more licenses than needed. When ITAM and ITSM work together, the business gets complete and reliable data about its IT infrastructure.
When a repair is requested, the system immediately shows the device age, warranty, and failure history, so IT can decide whether repair or replacement is more cost-effective. When equipment is issued, the system checks inventory and shows available devices so nothing extra is purchased. It also controls licenses and prevents installing software beyond the purchased quantity.
Many companies postpone asset management because the task seems too large. In practice, it is better to move step by step: bring order gradually and cut unnecessary costs.
First, you need to understand which IT resources the company already has. Gather information about laptops, servers, network equipment, software, and cloud services. Some data can be obtained from purchasing documents, and some through automatic network scanning. The main goal is to collect all assets in one place. Do not try to make the data perfect right away. First, simply record the facts: the device model, serial number, where it is located, and who uses it.
After the data is collected, confusion is almost always discovered. Some devices are listed multiple times, some hardware is missing from the records, and software names differ across systems. At this stage, it is important to clean the data: remove duplicates, standardize names, and link licenses to specific devices or users. It is also worth recording warranty, supplier, and support term information right away. The more accurate the data, the more useful the reports will be.
Each asset should be assigned to a specific employee. That way, you avoid situations where equipment is listed in the system but no one knows where it is. Put simple rules in place: how an employee receives equipment, how it is handed over when they leave, and who approves new purchases. When these rules are clear to all departments, tracking becomes reliable.
An asset tracking system brings the most value when it works together with other IT processes. For example, when an employee leaves, the system can immediately return their laptop to the list of available devices. When new equipment is purchased, the information is added to the register automatically. When data moves between systems without manual entry, it stays current and the team spends less time on recordkeeping.
IT asset management does not end after the system is implemented. The infrastructure changes constantly: equipment moves between employees, licenses expire, and hardware becomes obsolete. That is why it is important to review the data regularly and analyze reports. This helps the company see which equipment is idle, which licenses are unused, and which devices need to be replaced.
Problem:about 5 million assets had accumulated in the infrastructure of PJSC Transneft.
Data about them was stored in multiple systems and spreadsheets.
Finance, procurement, and support kept separate records, so the information diverged and quickly became outdated.
The move to domestic software made the situation more difficult, because it required knowing which hardware and software were actually in use. Solution:the company implemented an enterprise IT asset management system.
At the same time set up the integration with key enterprise systems, including finance and accounting systems, procurement systems, the service desk, and infrastructure monitoring systems.
As a result, data on equipment, licenses, contracts, and payments began updating automatically. Results: -
The company consolidated all asset data into a single database. The system now tracks all 5 million infrastructure assets.
Up to 1,000 specialists work simultaneously with current data on equipment, licenses, and contracts. -
The company began controlling the asset lifecycle, from purchase requests to equipment retirement.
Preparing reports for internal departments and regulators now takes much less time. A dedicated in-house team was formed within the group of companies to develop the system and make changes without external developers.
The platform is ready to scale, and it is planned for rollout in other organizations within the Transneft group.
According to Deloitte, in 2025 global IT spending exceeded $3 trillion. Meanwhile, software vendors regularly raise prices, and license audits and security requirements are becoming stricter. Managing IT assets in spreadsheets is no longer enough. Let us look at the main ITAM trends for the coming years and what businesses should prepare now.
AI in asset tracking Artificial intelligence is gradually becoming a practical tool for IT teams. Systems begin to find new equipment on the network automatically, identify installed software, and track license usage. Algorithms analyze infrastructure data and help spot issues earlier. For example, the system may notice that licenses are idle or show that equipment is about to fail.
At the same time, companies increasingly implement AI together with clear data-handling rules - without such rules automation can lead to confusion in recordkeeping. Combining ITAM and financial management Another notable trend is combining asset management and financial control. Previously, IT teams tracked hardware and licenses while finance controlled budgets separately. Now companies connect this data.
Management sees not only the list of assets but also the real infrastructure costs: how much each service costs, which licenses are in use, and which subscriptions can be reduced. This approach helps respond faster to price increases and plan the IT budget more accurately. Stricter regulatory requirements Regulators are increasingly asking companies for precise infrastructure information. Organizations must understand which systems are running on the network, which software versions are in use, and how data is protected.
Without an up-to-date asset register, it is difficult to meet such requirements. That is why many companies implement asset tracking systems to prepare reports faster and prove compliance. Tracking equipment from purchase to retirement Organizations are also paying more attention to equipment lifespan. Asset management helps extend hardware life, perform maintenance on time, and retire obsolete devices properly.
This reduces procurement costs and helps plan infrastructure upgrades. In addition, companies begin to pay closer attention to equipment disposal and hardware reuse.
