IT asset management (ITAM) has become a critical function for organizations to optimize their significant investments in technology infrastructure and services. But what exactly does an ITAM career entail? What skills, experience, and education are required to get started and advance in the field? This in-depth guide explores all aspects of building a rewarding ITAM career path.
What is IT Asset Management?
IT asset management involves tracking and managing the full lifecycle of all hardware, software, services, contracts, and other IT assets across an organization. The core goals of ITAM are to:
- Maintain a comprehensive centralized inventory of all IT assets including ownership and configuration details.
- Manage the end-to-end procurement, deployment, maintenance, upgrading, and retirement processes for each asset.
- Ensure license compliance for all software through rigorous audits and controls.
- Identify underutilized, outdated, or redundant IT assets to harvest value by eliminating or redeploying them.
- Provide detailed analytics and reporting on IT asset inventories, usage, costs, and performance trends.
- Develop and enforce ITAM policies, procedures, and governance frameworks to manage assets.
Effective ITAM minimizes risks and costs associated with IT asset ownership while maximizing the business value derived from technology investments.
Why is IT Asset Management Important?
ITAM has become essential for companies to effectively manage large, complex technology environments comprising thousands of hardware devices, software titles, cloud services, and contracts.
Some key reasons why ITAM is a business-critical function include:
- Cost Optimization: ITAM allows better decision making to reduce redundancies, manage vendor relationships, renegotiate contracts, and retire unused assets. This optimizes the IT spend.
- Compliance: Rigorous ITAM processes ensure software licenses and hardware is procured, used and maintained compliantly. This avoids costly true-up fees or audits.
- Security: Maintaining updated inventory records of all devices, software, and services allows faster remediation of vulnerabilities and improves resilience.
- Agility: Understanding usage and ownership details for IT assets through ITAM makes mergers, divestitures, and other transactions smoother.
- Informed Decision Making: ITAM data and analytics enhance visibility for technology investment planning and shaping strategic roadmaps.
As technology environments grow more complex with trends like cloud, mobility, and SaaS, having mature ITAM controls becomes imperative.
IT Asset Manager Role and Responsibilities
The day-to-day responsibilities of an IT asset manager include:
- Building and maintaining a comprehensive centralized inventory of IT assets including hardware, installed software, SaaS apps, licenses, maintenance contracts, warranties, end–of–life details, etc.
- Tracking lease, warranty, and licensing expiry dates to proactively manage renewals, returns, and end-of-term options.
- Developing and executing lifecycle processes for procuring, deploying, maintaining, upgrading, and retiring IT assets.
- Performing regular audits and reconciling inventory lists with actual software/hardware deployment to ensure license compliance.
- Identifying opportunities to optimize costs by eliminating redundant, underutilized, or outdated IT assets.
- Evaluating new IT procurement requests, performing TCO analysis, and managing vendor relationships.
- Developing ITAM budgets, strategy, and roadmaps in collaboration with IT leadership and procurement.
- Creating and distributing inventory reports, license position summaries, asset performance analytics, etc. to business stakeholders.
- Defining and implementing ITAM policies, controls, and processes across the organization.
- Leading software license true-up processes and renewals.
- Overseeing the configuration, uptake, and enhancement of ITAM tools.
IT asset managers need to partner closely with IT, procurement, finance, and business teams in their daily work.
Essential Skills for an IT Asset Manager
Here are some of the must-have technical and soft skills to excel as an IT asset manager:
Technical Skills
- In-depth understanding of IT asset management best practices and frameworks like ITIL.
- Expertise with ITAM software tools like ServiceNow, Flexera, BMC, etc.
- Proficiency in MS Office tools, database management, and data analysis.
- Familiarity with software licensing models and contract negotiation basics.
- Knowledge of IT infrastructure like networks, servers, clients, etc., and support systems.
Soft Skills
- Strong analytical thinking and problem-solving skills.
- High attention to detail for managing asset inventory records and license data.
- Excellent organizational skills and process orientation.
- Superior communication skills for liaising between IT, procurement, legal, finance, etc.
- Collaborative teamwork skills.
IT asset managers also need to stay updated on the latest trends and solutions in hardware, software, and services to understand assets they are managing.
Career Path for IT Asset Managers
A typical career progression path for IT asset management professionals includes:
IT Asset/Inventory Analyst
The entry-level role focused on the day-to-day management of asset inventory records, tracking licenses, audits, etc. This establishes core ITAM skills.
IT Asset Coordinator
Lateral move from analyst to take on additional ITAM process coordination responsibilities across teams like IT, finance, procurement, etc.
IT Asset Manager
Mid-level management role overlooking all ITAM activities for an organization. Requires 3-5 years of experience to reach this level.
Senior IT Asset Manager
Leads strategic ITAM initiatives, program implementations, high-risk audits, and multiple teams. Needs 5+ years of ITAM experience.
IT Asset Management Director
Oversees all ITAM strategy, governance, roadmaps, budgets, etc. for large global enterprises – an experienced leadership role.
Chief IT Asset Manager / VP of ITAM
Heads the ITAM function at the executive level, and reports to CIO. Requires 8-10+ years of diverse ITAM experience and leadership abilities.
ITAM Consultant
An alternative career path is to become an ITAM consultant helping clients optimize their tech environments as an independent contractor or working for an IT consulting firm.
Continuous learning and diversifying your skills are key to progressing in your ITAM career.
Education and Certifications
A bachelor’s degree in information technology, computer science, or business administration establishes the right foundations for an ITAM career.
Specific certifications like CSAM (Certified Software Asset Manager), CHAMP (Certified Hardware Asset Management Professional), and ITIL are very helpful when starting out.
Some other valuable certifications to earn as you advance include:
- Certified Asset Management Professional (CAMP)
- IAITAM Certified Asset Manager (IAM)
- Cisco Certified Asset Manager (CCAM)
- ISO 55000 Asset Management
- ITIL Master certification
- Project Management Professional (PMP)
- Certified Licensing Professional (CLP)
Many top ITAM vendors like ServiceNow also offer product-specific certifications.
Ongoing education is a must for IT asset managers given the dynamic nature of technology and the learning curve when new solutions emerge.
Salary and Job Outlook
IT asset management offers rewarding salary levels and job security. Here are some key statistics for the profession in the United States:
- Average base salary for IT Asset Managers is approximately $80,000 to $90,000
- Total compensation for Senior IT Asset Managers averages $110,000 – $120,000
- Top salaries exceed $150,000 for leadership roles like Chief IT Asset Managers at large enterprises
- Strong job growth projected, with a 14% increase forecast in ITAM roles from 2020 to 2030.
- Industries like technology, finance, healthcare, and government offer the most ITAM career opportunities and the highest salaries.
Location, specific certifications, and company size influence salaries significantly. But overall, ITAM provides above average compensation thanks to high demand.
Pros and Cons of an IT Asset Management Career
Pros
- Strong business value of ITAM ensures abundant jobs and job stability.
- Well-compensated specialty field, especially for certified professionals.
- Diverse responsibilities like contract negotiation, process optimization, analytics etc.
- Opportunity to gain business acumen while remaining on the technology side.
Cons
- Very process-focused which can become monotonous with repetitive tasks.
- Limited creativity as role centers on driving standards, discipline and control.
- Stressful audit periods require diligence and rigor.
- Must continuously update domain knowledge as technology evolves rapidly.
If you enjoy bringing structure and optimization to complex environments, have strong analytical skills, and don’t mind meticulous systems work, a career in ITAM can be very rewarding and stable.
Switching into an IT Asset Management Career
For technology professionals looking to transition into ITAM, the ideal path is to gain some experience in related IT domains first.
Help desk, desktop support, IT operations, system administration, or networking roles allow you to build foundational infrastructure knowledge.
Some other areas like IT procurement, vendor management, software development, or project management also provide good bridges into ITAM.
Pursuing relevant ITAM certifications and education in your free time helps align your skills. Volunteering to shadow or assist with ITAM activities at work allows you to gain some hands-on exposure to complement your experience.
With 1-2 years of experience in supporting roles, you can competitively apply for entry-level ITAM openings. The CSAM and ITIL certifications are great to get before making the transition.
Conclusion and Summary
IT asset management offers a promising technology career path with strong business value. The systematic, process-driven approach required for effective ITAM suits professionals who enjoy structure, analytics and optimization.
With technology environments becoming more complex, competent IT asset managers are in high demand with competitive salaries. Combining IT, business, and interpersonal skills with continuous learning sets you up for success. If you are interested in ITAM, strive to get some experience in related IT domains, pursue relevant certifications, and express interest in ITAM activities internally. This will position you to switch into a formal ITAM role and build a stable, rewarding career delivering substantial value.