How to Optimize Your IT Budget with ITAM: Real-World Case Studies on Savings
Updated at: 30 July 2025
A lack of centralized IT asset management can cost companies dearly, leading to budget overruns from unnecessary procurement, fines for non-compliance with licenses, and costly system downtime. This article explores key ways to organize a complex IT infrastructure and cut costs using ITAM best practices. By examining the processes of automating asset tracking, resource planning, and financial oversight, you can uncover significant savings opportunities in your own organization.
Imagine the chaos in the IT department of a big company: employees are scattered across different offices, and their computers are a messy mix of different hardware and software. No one really knows what’s been bought, what's installed, or where anything is.
Sound familiar? This kind of situation can turn into serious problems – from system crashes and lost data to legal trouble, especially if a company isn't taking IT asset management seriously.
IT assets are all the tech components of a modern company's landscape that hold specific value for the business.
When there's no central system for tracking these assets throughout their entire life — from procurement to disposal — you end up with no up-to-date information. You don't know what equipment you have, what condition it's in, or when contracts are about to expire. This makes planning your budget a guessing game and often leads to financial losses, work stoppages, and wasteful spending. The good news is, you can get this under control with specialized IT Asset Management (ITAM) systems.
In this article, we'll walk you through organizing your IT asset processes and cutting related costs using smart automation, analytics, and comprehensive oversight.
Automating Asset Accounting and Tracking
Picture this: it’s time for your company's yearly IT inventory check. Usually, this means weeks, maybe even months, of mind-numbing manual work. You're walking through offices, asking employees what they have, digging through emails, and trying to match everything up with old documents and a bunch of different Excel spreadsheets. It's a slow, unreliable process, especially for companies with offices in different locations and a lot of equipment. Some estimates show that up to 65% of records in company asset lists are incomplete or wrong, and that 10% to 30% of the assets you think you have are actually nowhere to be found.
This problem of "ghost" assets causes a lot of headaches:
- It messes up your financial reports;
- You end up budgeting for the upkeep of equipment that doesn't even exist;
- Your team's productivity drops because they don't actually have the equipment they need.
This level of automation makes sure your data is always up-to-date and gets rid of the mistakes that come with manual tracking. According to some vendors, using ITAM solutions can save up to 70% of the time your staff would normally spend on manual inventory counts and spreadsheet work. That's time they can use for more productive tasks.
Luiz Telles.
This level of automation makes sure your data is always up-to-date and gets rid of the mistakes that come with manual tracking. According to some vendors, using ITAM solutions can save up to 70% of the time your staff would normally spend on manual inventory counts and spreadsheet work. That's time they can use for more productive tasks.
A large retail chain was losing track of cash registers as they were moved between stores because they didn't have a centralized equipment tracking system. During a check, they found that dozens of registers, worth about $100,000, were on their books but physically gone. After they started using an ITAM solution, things changed. Now, every register is tracked with its serial number and location. When a register is moved, a task is created that requires someone to officially sign off on the transfer. It’s estimated that in the first year alone, just by tracking these registers, the ITAM system would have saved the company around $120,000, fully covering the implementation costs.
Optimizing Procurement and Resource Allocation
Excessive and irrational equipment purchases are a common problem leading to budget overruns. Companies often buy too many devices, many of which just sit on a shelf for a long time or are never used at all.
The root cause is a lack of reliable data on actual needs and the current equipment inventory. IT departments often buy things based on old or incomplete spreadsheets and documents, without any way to see how much the current IT assets are actually being used.
Wasted funds are not the only issue. Extra purchases lead to extra support costs. Unused equipment gets old, but the company keeps paying for its maintenance and storage.
ITAM processes help you make smarter purchasing decisions and use your resources better through:
- Detailed analysis of how your current hardware and software are being used, to see what your company really needs;
- Tracking the lifecycle of your assets and planning ahead for when equipment needs to be upgraded;
- Gathering requests from all departments in one central request catalog.
- Making sure that both your existing and newly purchased assets are allocated based on identified needs.
One industrial company that implemented an ITAM solution saved up to $260 per workstation just by identifying unused equipment. For a company with 1,000 workstations, that’s a savings of $260,000 right from the first round of cost-cutting.
Having solid processes for tracking, analyzing needs, and distributing resources in an ITAM system ensures you get the most out of your IT asset budget.
Lifecycle and Financial Flow Transparency
Managing IT assets effectively means keeping an eye on them at every stage of their life.
An ITAM system gives you a clear view of what’s happening with your assets at each of these stages:
- Registering new hardware and software purchases;
- Keeping inventory, tracking location and who is responsible for what (custodians);
- Monitoring of asset movements between departments;
- Repairing and upgrading older components instead of replacing the whole thing.
- Getting rid of or transferring assets in a controlled way after their service life is over.
This process transparency helps you make the right decisions at the right time – like upgrading devices when you need to, and optimizing maintenance and procurement processes.
On top of that, ITAM approaches help with the financial side of things by:
- Tracking what you spend on IT assets;
- Tracking the costs of maintenance, repairs, and disposal.
Having the day-to-day data for each asset gives you the full picture of its lifecycle and all the costs associated with it. This helps reduce financial risks, accurately calculate budgets, and promptly optimize costs.
After one manufacturing company implemented an ITAM solution, its finance department gained access to complete data on every asset and all related transactions. As a result, their IT budget was reduced by 12% through more organized accounting, better procurement planning, and optimized operational costs.
How SimpleOne ITAM Helps Optimize Costs
There are a limited number of solutions on the market that can truly handle all the challenges of IT asset management. A great example is the SimpleOne ITAM system — a solution designed for tracking and managing assets that helps large companies use their IT resources better and get a clear view of their infrastructure.
SimpleOne ITAM includes:
Full IT Asset Lifecycle Management
From registration, inventory, and issuance to transfers, repairs, upgrades, and disposal.
Contract Management
Approving and keeping an eye on expiration dates for maintenance, warranty, purchasing, and disposal contracts for your assets.
A Single Hub for All Your IT Assets
A visual and consolidated place to see all information and tasks related to your IT assets — from inventory to service requests.
ITSM Integration
If you also have the SimpleOne ITSM system, you can seamlessly connect your ITAM and ITSM solutions. This lets you link assets to their related configuration items (CIs) in service requests, incidents, and change requests.
Integrations with Financial Accounting Systems
SimpleOne ITAM can connect with any business application that supports a REST API, including discovery tools and financial systems. It has everything you need for asset accounting — from initial registration to final disposal.
The power of ITAM is boosted by all the features of the SimpleOne platform, with flexible no-code, low-code customization, integration options, analytical tools, and data directories. Future updates to SimpleOne ITAM are planned to add new features for planning and tracking costs for IT assets. Users will get tools for budgeting, demand planning, purchasing, and controlling costs throughout the entire asset lifecycle.
Conclusion
With ITAM solutions, your organization gets complete control over the entire lifecycle of its assets — from purchase to disposal. You get the ability to scale your IT resources based on what you really need, update your equipment in a timely way, and use your existing hardware and software more effectively.
Ultimately, ITAM makes your IT resource management more agile, helping your company adapt more quickly to changes, cut costs along the way, and get the most out of your infrastructure investments. Leading analysts agree that ITAM systems should be a key part of the digitalization strategy for any modern organization.
When choosing an ITAM system, it’s important to look at how comprehensive it is, what it can do to automate processes, how well it integrates with your other corporate systems, and if it meets industry standards. A reliable vendor is also crucial — that’s your guarantee of regular product updates and access to expert support. A well-designed ITAM system will not only help you save money today but will also guide you toward a leaner, more efficient way of managing your company's assets. After all, people and technology are the most important assets of every 21st-century business. Managing them wisely opens up new doors for growth.
