The new year is a great time to take inventory before moving on with the year. Knowing where you are at in terms of IT and technologies is an important step before proceeding with new projects and next steps.
And 2023 is bringing the change.
This year will bring an ongoing threat of recession leading to possible and extreme changes in customer demand, increases in the price of goods brought and sold, increased prices, logistical issues for export and import, current and ongoing low unemployment rates making people hard to find and expensive... the 2023 dance card is looking full for all companies across all industries.
Best way to be prepared?
Start with an audit of where your organisation is at.
An audit is a starter for overall IT governance that should feed other assets such as the IT roadmap, Risk Management and Cyber Security activities.
Ways to begin?
An audit starts with an inventory
The starting activity for any audit is performing inventory. This can create problems for small and large enterprises alike. Most organisations struggle with this first step across key technology assets. Knowing your software, hardware and contracts is critical in ensuring the business is situated in the best place to take on planned and unforeseen but inevitable change.
Scope the inventory
Most organisations technology ecosystems tend to be an accumulation of new and legacy systems and hardware, with documentation in various places. Before undertaking an IT asset inventory, consider outlining the scope of what will be included.
Some typical areas for IT asset inventory include:
Network
A security review of network and connected devices.
Infrastructure
Details may include: name, operating system, if the server is in use, deployment model (e.g. virtualised, on-prem), installed technologies, if it is replicated, asset specifics (if hardware for depreciation), and location.
Software
Details may include: what it is, what it is used for, vendor details, product name, version ,associated infrastructure environments (e.g. test, dev, prod), business/technology/process ownership, and what data it masters.
Hardware
Hardware is wide ranging - from end user devices through to tape libraries for backup
Contracts
Details may include: the vendor, product, purpose (e.g. subscription, asset establishment, professional services support), whcih technology it is aligned with, business or technology or process ownership, if the agreement is in force or due to renew or due to end.
Documentation
Does the organisation have 'as-built' documentation for key assets? What about policies and procedures?
How can STATE3 Enterprise help with your audit and IT asset inventory?
STATE3 Enterprise is your ongoing technology and business ecosystem. It supports technology inventories through ensuring a live catalogue of systems from infrastructure, software and applications, vendor contracts and more.
Our software acts as a knowledge management repository for not only key technology assets but their owner, lifecycles and more. This supports risk management, helping your organisation identify risk across both technology and business domains which is the outcome of inventories
In short, STATE3 Enterprise offers a continual live audit so that next year's new year inventory taking could be done with the click of a button!