The team here had a great conversation with Mike Vizard of IT Business Edge the other week (check out his “One PC Management Tool to Rule them All” post) and he asked a question that got me thinking. It seems obvious that IT Service Management (ITSM) and IT Asset Management (ITAM) go hand-in-hand; so why is our industry only now beginning to really integrate the two? 

It’s an important question.  While most ITSM and ITAM teams cooperate, more often than not the disciplines integrate only through shared data.  There have always been obvious benefits to converging ITSM and ITAM technologies and processes—cost savings, reduced complexity, more streamlined processes—so what current factors are triggering the convergence trend?  Why now?

Here’s a few of the things we’re seeing:

• Due to leaner budgets and increased service demands, IT help desk and service management people are being asked to take on more responsibilities.  This not only includes supporting a larger number of users with the same size service desk, but also taking a bigger role in managing hardware and software assets throughout their lifecycle.  It makes sense since the service staff has such proximity to these assets, and hardware and software performance is intrinsically linked to the demands on the service desk.  So the current economic downturn, and the resulting expansion in remaining employees’ roles, is the first factor. 
• The economic slump has also spurred a refocus on IT Asset Management (ITAM) as a whole.  Right now, IT needs to provide full visibility of their world and demonstrate that every penny is being spent effectively.  They must account for each asset, justify the contract or leasing agreements, and prove assets are being utilized efficiently.  The scrutinizing of assets has inevitably led to a more careful look at asset management process and systems, illuminating the benefits of integration with ITSM.  
• The third driver is the adoption of the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) version 3, in which asset lifecycle management and service lifecycle management are more tightly linked.  ITIL v3 focuses on the services IT provides to the business, versus its predecessor, which centered on processes.  The integration point is that ITSM requires asset attributes and information to create, execute and measure these services throughout their lifecycle.  
• Today everyone is trying to be “green” while saving “green.”  By the time you factor in weekends, lunch, vacation and meetings, most computers are used less than 20% of the time.  But many companies are hesitant to automatically shut down PCs at night for fear of interrupting service updates and maintenance.  By integrating the PC asset’s power management schedules with IT service management, IT can easily add energy spend back to the bottom line while also being environmentally conscious.
• And finally, security and compliance demands, though not new, have become even more of a hot button for IT.  Service management staff must not only “find” the problems with IT assets, but also have the ability to fix and prevent these issues from happening again, while tracking everything along the way.

Based on these factors alone, it seems obvious to us that ITSM and ITAM will continue to converge over time.  Are you integrating your service management and asset management technologies and processes?  If so, what’s the driving force behind your decision? What results are you seeing from your efforts?