Asset Lifecycle Management

The cradle to grave management of IT Assets is commonly referred to as Asset Lifecycle Management. In recent years, and largely as a result of increased scrutiny of IT costs, Asset Lifecycle Management as a discipline has extended its financial management to include return on investment analysis. Asset Lifecycle Management is an organizational discipline that requires joined up thinking. In large, diverse organizations this can be a big problem and competing agenda ad poor communication prevent practical reuse of assets that maximize the returns.  Good Asset Lifecycle Management starts well before IT Assets are deployed inside and organization. It starts with a IT framework, which specifies tool and architectural options, that support the diverse needs of the business and can adapt rapidly to changes in business needs. When IT assets are required, this framework is referred to in order to determine the scope to extract synergy during the lifecycle of the asset. For example it may be possible if someone requires an engineering application, for that requirement to be satisfied by extending the functionality inside an existing too thereby reducing the procurement costs an enable the system to be support more efficiently.  Clearly these are very important Asset Lifecycle Management decisions that occur long before item are procured.

From Deployment to Decommissioning

Once decisions on whether to purchase new or reuse existing asset is made the more traditional lifecycle management challenges of deployment and financial management take over. An organization with good Asset Lifecycle Management disciplines will be able to get hardware and software asset deploymed accurately and cost effectively with minimal disruption; and in line with good change control. Once deployed measuring adoption is critical. If assets have been procured and are not being effectively used then the lifecycle question of ‘why’ must be asked. Is training required, are performance issues in play or has the business requirement changed. Proactive analysis will enable steps to be taken to restore the return on investment. This stage in lifecycle management runs on a continuous loop until the asset can be shown to be no longer required. The decommissioning step follows and, if managed well can yield significant savings for an organization. It may be possible to repurpose the asset for a total different business requirement. Or use elements of the asset, specifically software, as value for future software upgrade purchases. Such decommissioning steps link back to the original lifecycle management development of a framework.

Summary

Solid Asset Lifecycle Management is all about getting the maximum value from IT investment, but it requires organizations to fully embrace the idea that the utilization of asset is as critical as their initial purchase and specification. Only by maintaining a continuous analysis of how software and hardware is being adopted and deployed can IT costs be controlled and ultimately reduced