How and when should you audit your IT asset inventory?
IT asset audits are often overlooked, but they play an important role in keeping your whole asset inventory efficient and secure. Without a clear understanding of what hardware and software your organization has, it's quite difficult to stay compliant and make smart procurement decisions.
What the heck is an IT asset audit?
In short, an IT asset audit is a simple process where you review all IT assets your organization owns or leases. This can include devices like laptops, mobile phones, and monitors, as well as software licenses.
After the audit is done, you should know what’s in use, where it’s located, who’s responsible for it, and whether it aligns with your company policies. It often also helps uncover devices and tools that are outdated or unused.
Why does an IT asset audit matter?
The number of devices and different tools is growing quickly in almost all kinds of modern organizations. When the number grows enough, it becomes easy to lose track of what’s active and what isn’t. For example, if each employee has three devices, a company with 100 employees could already be managing 300 devices. This number only includes personal devices, not software licenses or shared devices.
Audits are not only about staying informed. Studies show that companies can also reduce IT costs by up to 20% by eliminating unnecessary software licenses and optimizing device usage. Security is also something to keep in mind. If you lose track of your devices, you can face security issues that can become very costly for the company.
How to conduct an IT asset audit?
The normal audit process starts with defining what you want to review. Some organizations begin with a specific category, while others want to review everything they have. After you know what you want to audit, you should start gathering and verifying data. If you are starting completely from scratch, a good first step is to review the procurement history and for example your UEM data.
During the data gathering process, it is important to prepare proper documentation. This documentation should include at least the basic device/software details, user, and location information. Doing this documentation manually in Excel is a bad idea. This is where dedicated ITAM tools come in. If you don’t have a proper IT asset management system in place, the audit process can be a good starting point for implementing one.
How can an ITAM tool simplify the audit process?
Managing audits manually is quite overkill, as mentioned before, especially as your organization scales. IT asset management tools like IDR are designed to make the process easier and faster.
With IDR, you can:
- Automatically enroll and detect changes in devices, software, and cloud assets
- Monitor usage and track assignments in real time
- Keep all asset data in one centralized platform
- Generate accurate reports without extra effort
- Set alerts for license expirations, missing devices, or compliance risks
Use your assets smarter with better audits
When done right, IT asset audits provide your organization with more than a list of devices. It reduces overspending and ensures your assets are used to their full potential.
With an ITAM tool, audits become part of your regular operations, not something you do once a year. After that, you will also be able to make better decisions with real data and avoid unnecessary work for your team. No more searching for missing tools or paying for licenses nobody is using.
If you are looking for a powerful yet simple ITAM tool, you can book a short demo with us.
