Many businesses struggle with outdated technology. Such technology hampers productivity, increases costs, and exposes businesses to security risks. These common problems may occur when information technology (IT) assets are not managed well. Consequently, it can cause businesses to waste time and money.
IT lifecycle management offers a comprehensive solution to these challenges. Throughout the IT lifecycle, proper management helps businesses stay agile, compliant, and profitable. There are some well-measured steps of this management. When a business makes proper use of them, benefits start brimming.
In this article, we will discuss all the steps and their benefits of IT life cycle management. We will also look into the dangers a business can fall into without strong management of its IT lifecycle. Continue reading to learn more.
What Is IT Lifecycle Management?
IT life cycle management involves handling hardware and software assets as well as infrastructure. It helps a business owner plan, assess business needs, budget effectively, and adopt new technology on time. There are some key aspects of IT life cycle management, including
- Creating systems reliably and efficiently
- Ensuring consistency throughout the asset’s life
- Tracking all systems and purchases
- Decommissioning resources when they’re no longer needed
The 5 Steps of IT Life Cycle Management
A management team’s role in the IT lifecycle includes tracking changes in technology assets, their setup, and where they are stored. Throughout its lifecycle, every technology, no matter how big or small, goes through five important stages:
Step 1: Procurement
The first step in lifecycle management of IT is procurement and provisioning of technology assets. Companies must choose the right tech assets and buy them from the best supplier at the right time and in the right amount. Besides, businesses should only purchase new assets that meet their specific needs.
After finding the right assets, this step will include making and keeping track of business documents. This includes purchase orders, as well as other documents like inventory sheets and accounting records. Moreover, assigning budgets for IT assets must be in line with overall business plans.
Step 2: Deployment
Once companies know what IT assets they need and get hold of those, they need to put them where they belong. This allows those assets to carry out their jobs within the infrastructure. Making the best routes for assets from a company’s asset inventory to where they will be used is part of this process. Even the most stable assets can fail if they are not assigned correctly.
During this step, assets are put in place and checked to make sure they are set up correctly. They need to be set up swiftly and effectively. After moving and resetting assets, companies need to make the necessary changes and upgrades to their databases. A big part of this step is also visualizing and mapping the dependencies between assets.
Step 3: Implementation
This is where most IT assets spend most of their time. Implementation is the main reason they were bought in the first place.
In this stage, an IT asset is utilized. The asset is judged on how well it can do different tasks, affect business objectives and profit margins, and run without any problems or complications.
But that’s not it. During the implementation phase, businesses need to think about and keep an eye on a lot of things. As an example, regulatory compliance is very important during this step. If compliance mistakes are made and security risks and rules are not generally followed, all success could be lost. It does not matter how well an asset is being put to use.
Step 4: Monitoring and Maintenance
IT assets work best when they are in good health. This is why maintenance and monitoring are so important in IT management. IT assets will get old over time, and as they do, problems will arise. Strong maintenance and monitoring methods can mitigate these problems.
An important thing to remember is that prices for IT equipment are high. Hence, businesses usually use advanced maintenance and management tools to fill in the gaps, fix bugs, and make sure that assets do not break down before they should.
For better planning of maintenance and monitoring, IT teams need to know where each asset is in its lifespan. Another essential part of this step is keeping software licenses up to date.
Step 5: Decommissioning
The last step in IT management is to turn off assets that have reached their end of life. Before an asset is used up, IT teams should know and plan how to remove it and get rid of it in a way that does not cause any problems.
When an asset is being taken apart, it needs to be done carefully, and any sensitive data that is connected to it needs to be kept safe and backed up. Companies need to make sure that getting rid of old hardware does not hurt or disturb the environment. Afterward, the last thing to do is to mark assets as “decommissioned.”
6 Key Benefits of IT Lifecycle Management Process
When a business has good IT infrastructure lifecycle management, everything runs without great risks of trouble. When things are smooth, asset lifecycle management is almost invisible. This means that most of the work is done behind the scenes, and the business only reaps benefits from it. Let’s look at six of those benefits:
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Operational Speed
Businesses have to be very quick and flexible in order to survive in today’s tough market. Modernity and speed go hand in hand. Folks who can not work very quickly will be left behind in the future. Thankfully, technology lifecycle management brings revolution in this regard. Asset lifecycle management that is well thought out makes businesses stronger and gives them the power of speed. Rapid business operations become a key differentiator.
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Fewer Service Disruptions
Customers today do not tolerate IT problems or extended periods of service downtime. They will just leave and switch to a different service or provider. The good news is that if the IT lifecycle is effectively managed, a company’s IT infrastructure becomes unbreakable. Consequently, customers, clients, and other users and stakeholders don’t face much trouble using a company’s service.
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Visibility
If IT teams can not see all of an IT architecture’s features, it will never reach its full potential. Hence, systems that give you full visibility are part of a good lifecycle management plan. This is especially important because every day, IT architecture changes quickly, gets more complicated, and is spread out.
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Compliance
Regulatory compliance can be difficult to achieve without technology lifecycle management frameworks. As little as one mistake in regulatory compliance can cost a small business a lot of money and time in legal fees and other problems. However, efficient asset management can avoid problems like these.
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Profitability
Turning a profit is the main benefit of IT life cycle management. IT infrastructure that is well taken care of will make every part of a business better. It will help companies cut costs, make more money, and get to the top of their industries.
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Sustainability
The last benefit on this list might be even more important than making money. That’s because nothing will be useful if basic steps are not taken to safeguard our environment. With a robust IT lifecycle management system, businesses can be more environmentally friendly. Effective lifecycle management allows companies to keep important resources from going to waste. It also allows used assets from being disposed of without thinking.
Challenges of Not Having Top IT Lifecycle Management
In contrast to the advantages, a company runs the danger of encountering a number of problems when its IT assets are underperforming and poorly managed. Let’s look at them:
- Higher Costs of Old Assets Maintenance: It may be more expensive to maintain outdated IT assets than to replace them.
- Security Breaches: It is possible for hackers to get into a system if a business does not keep its IT infrastructure up to date.
- Poor Morale and Low Productivity: Staff morale, productivity, and retention are all affected by latency and bad technology performance. These two are byproducts of poor IT life cycle management programs.
Conclusion
IT life cycle management involves managing hardware, software, and infrastructure assets. It helps businesses plan, assess needs, budget, and adopt new technology in a timely manner. Key aspects of this management include reliable system creation, consistency, tracking, and decommissioning resources.
The management of the IT lifecycle has five stages: procurement, deployment, implementation, monitoring, and decommissioning. Properly implementing these steps can bring many benefits to a business, including operational speed, fewer service disruptions, visibility, compliance, profitability, and sustainability.
Without a good asset management lifecycle, businesses face higher costs, security breaches, and poor morale. Help from a professionally managed IT service provider can guarantee the best management of IT assets. We at Crown Computers pride ourselves on being this helping hand for small businesses in San Diego. Contact us today to learn more about our services.