Digital transformation is taking hold in organizations across every industry. Spurred on by the Covid-19 pandemic, the trend has led to companies spending a lot more on technology.
According to Gartner, global IT spending will reach $3.9 trillion this year, increasing by 6.2% in 2021. Gartner also projects that enterprise software spending will grow by 8.8% as remote work environments expand, and spending on IT devices will increase by 8%, reaching $705.4 billion. That’s a lot of IT to manage!
As organizations add a variety of devices to their IT estate — from servers and desktops to laptops and mobile devices, to operational technology (OT) and IoT — IT teams are feeling the pressure. Not only do they need to know what they have, but they also need to know where devices are and who’s using them, in order to effectively allocate resources. Effective IT asset management (ITAM) in the age of accelerated digital transformation calls for real-time asset discovery along with efficient ways to visualize and manage a growing (and sprawling) collection of IT assets.
From Spreadsheets to Automated Scanning & Discovery
A recent survey conducted for Fujitsu by Freeform Dynamics found that 76% of IT professionals believe the complexity of the IT landscape is the biggest barrier to productivity among IT operations teams. With so many diverse and dispersed assets to track and monitor, it’s essential to have a complete, up-to-date inventory of all assets across the IT estate. That’s the first step to effective ITAM.
In most cases, creating this inventory involves manually building a catalog that includes product numbers, quantities, users, location, and more. Historically, organizations have used spreadsheets, which are cumbersome and take considerable time and effort to maintain. Populating spreadsheets is a long, often frustrating process that’s not only inefficient and costly, but prone to human error. As soon as the list is compiled, it’s likely out of date.
Lansweeper solves this fundamental problem by creating a complete and accurate inventory of all the IT assets in no time. It automatically scans the network, discovering every connected device — whether IT, OT, or IoT — and reports back extensive and granular data. Network scans can be scheduled at regular intervals so that any changes are detected and logged automatically. This eliminates hours or even days of work spent manually logging everything on a spreadsheet and ensures the list is always up-to-date and accurate.
However, even a comprehensive and accurate IT asset inventory leaves some important operational questions unanswered:
- How are the assets distributed across the organization?
- Where are the assets located — onsite or in remote locations?
- Which departments and teams are using what assets?
- Are there teams that are using more devices than allowed for in the budget?
- Can assets be reallocated more efficiently to meet the changing needs of the business?
These and other business questions can only be answered when operational visibility is layered on top of inventory data, making it easier to understand how a business is using the IT assets it has.
Especially with many employees continuing to work remotely, it’s critical to be able to pinpoint where business assets are at any given time — not just the devices but peripherals such as mice, cables, monitors, and keyboards. Only then can you effectively allocate and manage your organization’s resources and make informed decisions about optimizing and managing the IT estate.
Operational Visibility, Simplified
That’s where Cyberstockroom comes in — and why it’s the latest in Lansweeper’s expanding ecosystem of partner integrations.
“Cyberstockroom is a visualization tool that helps IT teams know exactly what they have in stock and where it’s located,” said Emad Hanna, Founder of Cyberstockroom. “Once Lansweeper completes its scan and creates an IT asset inventory, Cyberstockroom uses the data to build an easy-to-read map, so you have a bird’s eye view of your IT estate. The map provides instant insights into what resources are where, who’s using them, and how you can better allocate them to serve the needs of the business, without having to sort through and analyze the data.”
CyberStockroom
With this added layer of essential visibility, you can pinpoint a device’s exact location in real-time at-a-glance — whether it’s in an office building, a remote location, or a vehicle — and see all the location details on a visual layout of your business. If you want to move assets around, you can simply drag-and-drop items on the map from one location to another, for instance from room to room or building to building. What’s more, you can manually add items that are not discoverable by Lansweeper — such as cables, headphones, or keyboards — and track them alongside all of your IT asset data.
“The seamless integration between Lansweeper and Cyberstockroom enables unprecedented operational visibility and insight, so you can more effectively understand how to manage your assets to best meet the operational needs of the business,” Hanna said.
A Leap Forward on the Path to ITAM 2.0
Cyberstockroom’s integration with Lansweeper supports Lansweeper’s ITAM 2.0 vision, the next evolution of ITAM. In ITAM 2.0, IT asset management becomes a scenario-independent endeavor, with the goal of creating a single source of truth that everyone across the organization can leverage for their needs. Rather than various teams or groups collecting IT asset data to meet the criteria of specific IT scenarios, everyone has access to a central repository of IT asset data for the full range of use cases — cybersecurity, cloud migration, helpdesk, compliance, and more. This model eliminates silos and ensures everyone is using the most accurate, up-to-date data.
Lansweeper is paving the way for ITAM 2.0 with its revolutionary platform. Its integration with Cyberstockroom takes us further down that path, by providing our customers a way to visualize essential IT asset data in a clear and accessible way that supports business decision-making and operational excellence.
This integration is one of many in Lansweeper’s partner ecosystem that supports our ITAM 2.0 vision, making it easier and more cost-effective to know and optimize your IT.