ITAM Starting Points

#1

Fun questions in the ITAM world:

When did you first get into the ITAM industry? - Year started
Please summarize your first ITAM task/job
What was the most amusing thing you have done in the world of ITAM?
When did you realize that ITAM is not just counting widgets?

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#2

I’ll bite!

  1. I started in 2014
  2. My primary ITAM role was managing our copier lease program, including vendor management and internal service to end users.
  3. Ooooh… I’ll have to dwell on this one a bit. I did recently get flagged for trying to buy data card printers for our recreation program because the vendor was concerned I might be a counterfeit artist.
  4. Pretty early on - seeing the impact we can make through efficiencies, continued cost-saving measures, standardized practices, and even accurate widget management was eye-opening.
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#3

Hi/Hello :smiley:
I take up the challenge and send my answers

  1. I started my first adventure with ITAM in 2017
  2. Planning an ITAM implementation for one of my clients
  3. Recording a podcast (I’m afraid of public speaking and evaluation) which turned out to be great fun
  4. When with one of the clients we decided that ITAM would be “the only and correct source of knowledge”
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#4

I should probably jump in

When? – I started doing ITAM related work in 2001
Summary - As part of my promotion to a Network Engineer type role at a small ISP, I was asked to figure out where all our routers and customer provided equipment for the DSL service we sold was at - both our locations but also what customers had what items. This was to figure out what we needed to try to renew for SmartNet with Cisco, as well as a similar concept with the DSL manufacturer. That helped us start planning the warranty renewal, and work on some forecasting for buying the next batch of hardware to install for customers.
Most amusing - When I proved to a manager from a different division at one place that I could actually accurately tell him what was where. He was agitating that we were a waste of $, and by being able to use the asset system we had, we were able to prove our accuracy was 100%, and use it to actually respond to a theft. We got the gear back because we were able to prove to the cops it was ours, including all the purchase info and a physical audit showing it’d been at that location about 6 weeks before the theft, something in the $30k range we saved ourselves. That other manager left us alone mostly after that.
Not just the widgets - I figured it out actually at what was my 2nd “professional” job, where I got tasked with building an asset tracking system for a bunch of non-traditional IT gear, and using that for tracking the spend and forecasting and I realized somewhere in there how big this work really could be - probably 2004/2005… been too long to remember for sure :slight_smile:

James

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#5

My experience with ITAM:
When did you first get into the ITAM industry? - Year 2011, while working for an Oil & Gas organization’s IT team, I was managing their Engineering CAD applications portfolio.

Please summarize your first ITAM task/job
One of the first task was to set up the monthly software utilization reports for critical apps and validating the software asset inventory.

What was the most amusing thing you have done in the world of ITAM?
Optimization of software licenses using different automation methods.

When did you realize that ITAM is not just counting widgets?
I was leading a project where there was merger of 2 organizations and my team was responsible to have everything in place from SAM perspective. This was a critical and exciting project where I learned lot of things related to SAM, software compliance, etc.

Thanks,
Abhijeet

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