For any effective IT asset management program in an organization, the procurement and IT management departments must work together to comprehensively manage and distribute IT assets. IT asset management involves various stages, from request and purchasing to deployment and retirement, and IT asset managers must be involved from the very beginning, which means collaborating with procurement on purchasing. Conversely, procurement must commit to being involved in the IT asset management process, as they are a key ingredient in the success of an ITAM program.

When a hardware or software request comes in, procurement and ITAM are responsible for the approval process around the request. IT asset managers have the information regarding who needs which licenses and these requests pass through their ITAM system, where procurement then come in to review. They ensure that those involved in the multi-layered approval, such as line managers, resource owners and department directors, have given the go-ahead on the IT asset before purchasing.

Once the request has been approved, procurement plays a vital role alongside the ITAM department in determining whether this asset is a useful spend of budget. IT managers must ensure that duplicate licenses are not lying around before procurement goes through with a purchase. Additionally, the right type of asset should be purchased for the right person – for instance, a C-level executive may need a more comprehensive software license or advanced piece of hardware. IT asset managers can make these decisions easily using the role-based provisioning function of Vizor. During this step, it is critical for procurement to connect their existing purchasing system with the IT department’s management system. Procurement must manage supplier and maintenance contracts, purchasing information and invoices, which should be brought into the ITAM system without data duplication. By connecting their existing purchasing system with the ITAM tool, they can create and track purchase orders, maintain inventory and handle financial aspects from existing data, all with the visibility of the full software and IT asset estate.

IT asset management and procurement decide the best contractual terms for license entitlements, as both parties must agree on sticking to contract terms. In negotiating these agreements and renewals, procurement must have full visibility on software usage in the organization. The IT asset management team tracks how software is used over time, providing a solid analysis and creating reports and predictions for the future based on past trends. When passed over to procurement, this information is crucial for determining how to invest in software purchases. When both departments have full visibility of software entitlements and usage patterns, it ultimately allows the firm to save money and optimize the value received from their software.

A great IT asset management program should have procurement involved in the purchasing process, license distribution, contract negotiation and software usage tracking. Evidently, the procurement department needs to have a clear and complete view of the IT and software asset estate and license ownership in the organization to fulfill these tasks, which they achieve by working with IT asset managers. Vizor bridges the gap between procurement and IT asset management, providing a place where all IT data can be stored alongside contracts, stock and purchasing information. This connection provides full visibility and allows both departments to make informed decisions with the bottom-line goals in mind: cost and risk reduction, compliance and an optimized IT asset management strategy.

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