IT Asset Lifecycle Management: Stages, Strategies, and Tools

Getting the most from IT asset performance goes far beyond simply buying cutting-edge tech. You need to strategize the entire asset life cycle, from planning to asset usage to maintenance to retirement. 

Here’s how to approach IT asset lifecycle management from start to finish.  

What is IT Asset Lifecycle Management?

It’s a structured asset management process that involves overseeing IT assets throughout every stage of the lifecycle. 

From your very initial research into hardware like monitors, laptops, and mobile devices, as well as software and licenses, to when IT equipment is disposed of or replaced, IT asset lifecycle management puts you in the driver’s seat.

At the end of the day, there are three main goals behind IT asset lifecycle management. 

One is to gain full visibility of what the entire lifecycle looks like for your company, so you have transparency to ensure you’re able to: 

• Comfortably meet your team’s IT needs
• Properly utilize assets for operational efficiency
• Track existing assets 
• Save money by eliminating underutilized assets

Another goal of effective asset management is to extend the life of your physical assets and maximize asset reliability. By tracking asset maintenance, for example, and ensuring regular maintenance is performed, you should get the most from your asset utilization. 

In turn, this should result in a longer asset lifespan and cost savings, as well as help you meet sustainability goals. 

Also, IT asset lifecycle management plays a key role in data security and compliance. 

For instance, by securely disposing of or replacing outdated assets and protecting sensitive asset information, you should be able to drastically reduce the chances of security threats arising during the ITAM lifecycle. 

Stages of the IT Asset Lifecycle

The key to having success with the asset management lifecycle is to develop a systematic, streamlined, and repeatable set of stages that allow you to navigate through the entire asset lifecycle with minimal friction. 

So even if team members change or your company gets a new asset manager, you still have a fully fleshed-out system to follow every step of the way. 

While there will be some degree of variation from company to company, here’s a general overview of what a typical asset lifecycle looks like.

Planning and Budgeting

Before any hardware asset, software, or license is ever purchased through asset acquisition, it’s critical to give careful consideration to planning and budgeting. 

With planning, you’ll need to determine: 

• Your company’s exact needs for asset management
• Your short-term and long-term goals for leveraging IT assets
• What specific types of IT assets you need
• Maintenance requirements
• Potential vendors
• The future forecast of your IT asset needs

For budgeting, you’ll want to: 

• Determine how much you’re able to spend on each type of asset
• Ensure that your spending aligns with your short-term and long-term business goals
• Ensure that your organization will remain financially viable with your IT asset purchases

Additionally, your budget should also account for factors such as hardware maintenance, renewing subscriptions, and upgrades that are part of the asset lifecycle management process. 

Getting your ducks in a row before moving forward should help avoid unnecessary setbacks and allow you to procure and deploy tech with greater efficiency. 

Procurement

Once everyone is on the same page, it’s time for procurement, where you select a vendor, negotiate a contract, choose the exact equipment you need (monitors, laptops, mobile devices, etc.), and acquire the IT assets.

Ideally, you’ll only get the equipment you need to stay in line with your budget without overspending on extraneous items. 

Note that you can always add more IT assets later. But when you’re just getting your feet wet with procurement, it’s usually best to keep it lean initially and scale up from there. 

There are two routes you can take with procurement. 

You can do it yourself, which can work well if you have the time, expertise, and manpower. 

However, if you don’t have the time or simply don’t feel comfortable navigating the logistical challenges of this asset management stage, you can opt for IT procurement services and/or asset management software like allwhere. 

Many organizations prefer this method because we offer seamless global procurement, where we assemble only the equipment you need and handle end-to-end logistics, communication, and maintenance for a truly hands-off procurement experience. 

And because we don’t rely on a single vendor, we can tap into our extensive network to find the perfect IT equipment for your company that meets your specifications, so you never have to worry about a particular item being out of stock.

Utilization and Optimization

After IT assets have been procured and deployed, this stage of asset lifecycle management focuses on A) consistently tracking asset performance and B) using the insights gained through IT inventory tracking software to refine workflows to achieve the absolute best performance. 

This starts with asset discovery, where you use lifecycle management software to see where each IT asset is located, who has it, when it’s in transit, or when it’s in storage. 

By using asset tracking, you get a centralized overview of your entire asset inventory from a single dashboard, you’ll never lose track of your assets, and you’ll always know the status of each device at all times. 

If, for example, you use IT asset management services like allwhere, you can conveniently manage every asset in your inventory, filter through devices, and stay in complete control with just a few clicks. 

That way, you can: 

• Ensure each device is being utilized correctly in the asset management lifecycle
• Spot performance or maintenance issues
• Stay on top of preventative maintenance and change management
• Ensure security standards are being upheld throughout the entire asset life cycle to protect asset data
• Keep software licenses up-to-date throughout each lifecycle stage
• Minimize downtime
• Extend the useful life of each asset through proactive maintenance

Decommissioning

At some point in the asset management lifecycle, an IT asset will need to be retired. 

In some cases, this happens because equipment becomes outdated. Other times, it may be because the cost of maintaining a device doesn’t justify continuing to use it. 

Or, it may be due to security risks, where something like consistent hardware issues is putting your data security at risk. 

Whatever the reason, decommissioning involves retiring an IT asset by securely and responsibly removing it from your inventory. 

A big part of this asset management stage is using techniques like data wiping to remove sensitive information in order to prevent data from winding up in the wrong hands.

And because there are compliance regulations like the GDPR in place, you must comply with these to avoid penalties and fines. 

Note that even during this stage, keeping detailed maintenance logs is important so there’s a paper trail in the event of compliance issues. 

Because of the challenges involved with decommissioning, many organizations prefer to use IT asset management services because of the ease and peace of mind they offer. 

Disposal and Replacement

This is the final assets life cycle management stage, where assets are either properly disposed of or replaced. 

If an asset is at the point where it’s reached the end of its life and it doesn’t make sense to be used by another employee or resold to a secondary market, asset disposition is in order. 

In this case, you’ll need to responsibly recycle, donate, or destroy the device in accordance with e-waste regulations. 

Again, data security is a big priority here, as any time old equipment is out of your company’s control, there’s always the potential for security threats. 

And if you go the replacement route, there are a few different options. You can

• Go through a trade-in program to get vendor credits to boost your overall IT asset ROI
• Perform an asset refresh/replacement where you invest in newer versions of certain IT equipment
• Perform bulk swap-outs

By having a clear-cut game plan for disposal and replacement and continually iterating on it, you should be able to maintain business continuity and make your IT investments go further. 

Effortlessly Manage and Secure IT Assets with allwhere

To recap, there are several stages involved with IT asset lifecycle management, including planning and budgeting, procurement, utilization and optimization, decommissioning, and asset disposal and replacement. 

This means that handling asset management from beginning to end is incredibly complex. But you can dramatically simplify it by partnering with an IT asset lifecycle management provider like allwhere. 

At allwhere, our goal is to take the simplest possible approach to asset management. To do this, we handle all aspects of IT asset lifecycle management so you don’t have to. 

From finding quality assets at an affordable price from top vendors to handling the logistical complexities of inventory management to laptop, mobile device, peripheral, and laptop retrieval service, allwhere is a true one-stop shop. 

And because we offer a pay-as-you-go model with no platform fees, allwhere is designed for right-sized pricing, where you get exactly what you need without overspending. 

If you’re looking for hands-off IT asset lifecycle management to save time, reduce your workload, and eliminate headaches, allwhere is an excellent choice. 

Learn more about how allwhere works and get started here.