Any good IT Service Management (ITSM) strategy should include both asset management and change management. Here’s why:
Asset management is all about keeping track of your organization’s IT assets, from hardware and software to licenses and contracts. This information is essential for making informed decisions about how to allocate resources and plan for future needs. Change management, on the other hand, is about ensuring that changes to your IT infrastructure are made in a controlled and safe manner. This includes assessing the risks of proposed changes, implementing safeguards to minimize the potential for disruptions and communicating changes to stakeholders in a clear and transparent way.
Together, these two processes help to ensure that your IT infrastructure is well-managed and able to support your business goals. When asset information is properly collected and maintained, you can better manage resources. And when change management is integrated into your ITSM strategy, it can help you avoid disruptive and costly disruptions. Ultimately, asset management and change management are two essential pieces of a successful ITSM strategy.
Asset Management becomes especially important when working on tickets. If an asset is associated with a change, then a workflow with a web service call can be leveraged to automatically update the asset based on information in the change. ITSM software should include the ability to create a parent problem, change or release ticket while the underlying incidents can maintain their autonomy. This allows for rapid and efficient customer service as well as an automatic cascading of status updates to child tickets if desired.
For example, if you had an asset associated with an incident, and created a parent problem ticket from the incident, then the asset will carry over and display in the problem. If you take this a step further and create a change parent ticket from that problem parent ticket, then the asset will carry over and display on the change ticket. More assets can be added or removed at any time. You can also associate knowledge articles to tickets automatically (via a form) or manually. Additionally, any update to a ticket can be used to create a knowledge article. This is just one more example of why change management and asset management are so integral to a complete ITSM solution.
CMDB/CI Relationships
TeamDynamix offers asset discovery services for automatic detection and input across Windows, MAC, Linux, Chrome and networked devices (WMI, SSH, SNMP, UPnP). You can also upload or connect via an API and seamlessly integrate with discovery tools such as SCCM, Casper, or any SQL, MYSQL, Kaseya or Oracle-based discovery and monitoring solution via the asset importer integration tool.
In addition, the mapping file for Microsoft SCCM is already built-in and included with TeamDynamix – giving you one platform to manage the full ITSM life cycle. CMDB functionality is part of the TeamDynamix platform. Assets and CIs can be directly associated with an incident. Once associated, technicians can click on the asset or CI and view the details. From within the details, they have the option to view all related assets or CIs in a view and in a visual relationship map.
Help desk software with asset management makes gathering and maintaining asset and CI data easy through asset discovery services. With flexible import tools and integrations including SCCM, JAMF, Kaseya or other discovery solutions means your techs have everything they need in one place. If problems arise, your platform is there to help and build content as it’s resolved.
Asset Management Requirements
IT asset management (ITAM) should be comprehensive – providing full-scope asset tracking, as well as the ability to manage status, relationships and ownership of assets. Each asset type can track all data necessary to manage the asset and the asset’s lifecycle. Assets can be created in the system via the out-of-the-box discovery solution; you can use the upload tool with data from another platform; you can use an API, or manually input the asset – with TDX you get the flexibility you need to manage assets in multiple ways.
Enterprise-Wide Asset Management
To work effectively across the enterprise, system administrators need to be able to create multiple asset applications that allow for the management of different assets by different departments or organizations. Each application has its own administrators, configurations and set of assets. A technician with appropriate access can interact with assets from all asset applications while providing service. Additionally, assets should be able to have multiple departments, groups and users associated with them. Multiple asset applications can also be created if different departments or groups want to manage their own assets.
Smart Asset Discovery & Import
Asset Discovery Services are also needed for automatic detection and input across Windows, MAC, Linux, Chrome, and networked devices (WMI, SSH, SNMP, UPnP). Technicians should also be able to upload or connect via an API and seamlessly integrate with discovery tools such as SCCM, Casper or any SQL, MYSQL, Kaseya or Oracle-based discovery and monitoring solution via the asset importer integration tool. In addition, being able to work directly with the mapping file for Microsoft SCCM will allow you to have one platform to manage the full ITSM life cycle.
Integrated Asset Management Helps Reduce Wasted Time
At Volunteer State Community College, the IT department uses TeamDynamix for ITSM in addition to asset management, and the platform has been instrumental in loaning laptops, webcams, headsets, and other technologies to students so they could learn remotely during the pandemic.
When Les Norwood became manager of client services for the IT department at Volunteer State Community College in 2012, the department operated as a small “mom-and-pop shop,” in his words. Despite supporting more than 11,000 students and about 1,000 faculty and staff at this public community college in Tennessee, the client services team did not have the systems in place to deliver high-quality IT service. Its ticketing system was little more than a note-taking application, and the team had no organized way to triage service requests.
“We have 500 pieces of equipment that we’ve loaned to students,” Norwood says. “With TeamDynamix, we can easily see who’s got what and be efficient at distributing and tracking all of those devices. I don’t have a clue how we would have done that before without this software.” Keeping track of all computers, servers, switches and other IT infrastructure within TeamDynamix also allows IT staff to troubleshoot problems more effectively.
With the implementation of TeamDynamix, a lot has changed. The college’s client services team has adopted IT Service Management (ITSM) best practices to improve its delivery of service. “It’s been a paradigm shift for us,” Norwood says.
Norwood’s next goal is to take advantage of the platform’s project portfolio management (PPM) features to manage IT projects more efficiently.
“In the beginning, we wanted a ticketing system that wasn’t as much of a headache. But with TeamDynamix, we found a system that lets us look to the future,” he concludes. “It allows us to do so many things. We’re just scratching the surface of its capabilities.”