Hardware Asset Management

  • Increased cost savings and efficiency
  • Better allocation of resources and reduced downtime
  • Enhanced security and data protection
  • Compliance with industry regulations and standards
  • Improved decision-making and strategic planning

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    Hardware Asset Management (HAM) is an essential part of any business. No matter how large or small your organisation is, you’ll have an IT estate of hardware and software assets that require regular maintenance.

    This highly specialised job is essential to your daily operations, and you want to ensure it’s completed by experts who know what they’re doing. That way you can trust your IT estate is being maintained correctly, and efficiently.

    Our team of IT auditing specialists understand more than anyone how important this vital task is, and outsourcing your Hardware Asset Management to the experts is a cost-effective way to ensure you get accurate auditing and maintenance of your IT estate.

    Speak To Us About Hardware Asset Management

    What is a Hardware Asset?

    A hardware asset is a term to describe any piece of IT equipment you use as part of your business. This includes equipment that is currently being used or sitting in storage. They can be grouped into four categories:

    • End-user Devices
      Equipment used by staff members as part of their daily role like laptops, computers, smartphones, and tablets.
    • Network/Telecom Hardware
      Support equipment to keep the network at peak performance like routers, video-conference systems, switches, telephones, and load balancers.
    • Data Centre Equipment
      All IT hardware found in the data centre to keep your systems online, like servers, towers, storage systems, application delivery controllers, and security hardware.
    • Peripherals
      IT accessories found throughout the office like keyboards, mouses, headsets, printers, scanners, monitors, projectors, and cables.

    Completing extensive IT hardware audits regularly is essential to your organisation. It’s not something that should be forgotten and put to the side. Capital can support you in ensuring you have regular IT hardware audits, and will help save your company time and money.

    Speak To Us About Hardware Asset Management

    What is Hardware Asset Management?

    Hardware Asset Management (HAM) is managing and maintaining your IT estate. People working in HAM need to be comfortable communicating with teams at every level of the company, and have a deep understanding about every aspect of the hardware asset, and the HAM life cycle.

    It seems like a lot to be tracking every single piece of IT hardware that your company owns, right down to the keyboards, mouses, cables, and adaptors. But it’s important to understand exactly what you have so you can monitor capital expenditure requirements and prevent yourself from purchasing equipment you already own.

    During covid this became prevalent as employees took their IT equipment home to work from there, and many organisations lost thousands of pounds worth of hardware because they didn’t keep track of it all. Have a robust method for tracking their assets.

    The Hardware Asset Management Life Cycle

    Every piece of hardware has a certain life cycle that can be broken up into six parts to describe how hardware asset management plays into every aspect of managing IT equipment.

    • Request
      Whenever new hardware needs to be purchased, it comes down to operational requirements and needs. Every big purchase needs to consider customer and business needs, priorities, urgency, compliance, and ensure it’s within budget. At the first stage of HAM, these questions all must be addressed and any solutions for the business identified. Only then should an IT hardware request get submitted.
    • Fulfil
      Once the request is submitted, it will take time to fulfil the hardware request. This involves looking at IT hardware suppliers, researching the technical requirements and ongoing warranty or customer service support they offer, and ensuring the hardware is compatible with the rest of the company’s IT estate.
    • Deploy
      After the orders have been fulfilled, and the equipment has arrived it’s essential to prepare the hardware for deployment within the company. This means it needs to be configured and all the relevant software installed on the equipment to ensure it can be used appropriately by the end-user. It should also involve installing any firewalls for security. As part of deployment, the hardware must also be transported from a storage facility to its work area, this could be an office, or a remote location, and set up in that environment, ensuring it can access the network and functions as it should.
    • Monitor
      After successful deployment, regular monitoring should be conducted to minimise risk and ensure the hardware is performing. This lets managers see which devices may need replacing, and keep track of where the entire IT estate is. Regular monitoring is necessary to ensure no software goes out of date.
    • Service
      To ensure the hardware asset remains at peak performance, it will require regular maintenance. This involves any scheduled maintenance to install upgrades, but also includes emergency repair work that may appear. As part of this step, asset managers can monitor equipment to decide whether it needs to be retired, or replaced.
    • Retire
      The last step of the HAM life cycle is when the asset is no longer performing well or may be technologically out of date. If it hits a point where it can no longer be repaired, it needs to be decommissioned. This involves wiping it of any sensitive date, and restoring it to factory settings. It can be returned, sold, recycled, or binned and replaced with a new one.

    These steps all require regular maintenance with an asset manager, which makes HAM a vital part of any business function. It’s important to have a dedicated team who are experts with Hardware Asset Management.

    How Capital Can Help

    At Capital, we work throughout the UK to provide physical IT hardware auditing to clients with individual requirements. We can provide bespoke Hardware Asset Management solutions using our comprehensive IT hardware auditing tool Audit Aid.

    Using Audit Aid, Capital can provide you with a cost-effective and efficient solution to managing your IT estate, ensuring you can save both time and money while keeping on top of all your IT equipment maintenance. It provides you with a user-friendly interface and puts you back in control by showing you exactly where all your IT equipment is and who is using it. The program works with you to maximise the HAM life cycle and maintenance, minimising theft and asset loss.

    Capital can also support you in verifying existing data in your IT estate, saving you money on hardware renewals and operational costs. You can be reassured that the information is accurate.

    Contact Capital Today

    Contact Capital now to discuss your Hardware Asset Management needs. Our teams can work flexibly with you and provide a bespoke service based on your requirements no matter how large or small your IT hardware estate is.

    Our team will treat you professionally, and tailor our services to ensure you achieve your IT hardware goals. We will go above and beyond at every step of the way to support you with Hardware Asset Management. Contact us now.

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