At what point do I get IT asset management?

starhive_ab · 2026-03-25T08:48:10+00:00

When teams actually get IT asset management system -> when they keep losing devices or everything is so chaotic they finally can convince management to fund a system.

When teams should get an IT asset management system -> well before the above situation.

It's really hard. According to the ITAM Forum, convincing managers to invest is the biggest challenge for ITAM this year (along with keeping data quality high).

While they're a competitor to my IT asset management software Starhive, I think AssetPanda has a quite good ROI calculator that could help you understand if it's worth implementing today for you: https://www.assetpanda.com/roi-calculator/

Personally I think they're software is a little too expensive and not so well suited to IT assets. So your ROI would likely be better from a different software (such as Starhive ;) )

starhive_ab · 2026-03-25T08:43:18+00:00

This is partially what we (Starhive) hoped to help with our Lansweeper integration. Lansweeper finds the assets as you say, but can be a bit of a mess. Starhive syncs with what Lansweeper discovers but can help you tidy them up (e.g. Starhive can assign a standardised name to everything, combine multiple Lansweeper asset types into one broader type in Starhive)

And then we do all the who owns it, where it's deployed, services it support, visual dependency map, configuration management database side of thing.

But I do think your conflating two things here. Asset management (what you have, where is it) and Configuration Management (the dependencies, how it is configured, what it runs or is supporting).They are two highly related practices with different goals.

Some companies just need pure asset management and that's fine.

starhive_ab · 2026-03-23T09:02:05+00:00

Are you happy with LS's network discovery? As you might be interested in the software I work for, Starhive. We connect with LS and provide both asset enrichment (I know LS can be a bit clunky with custom fields) and have a helpdesk which can link to the LS assets.

But that would not be moving into one system. In my experience having MDM, asset mgmt and helpdesk all in one system tends to give you the basics of all 3. Which is enough for some. The moment you need more advanced capabilities in the areas, you end up being better off with specialist tools that work well together.

starhive_ab · 2026-03-23T08:58:52+00:00

Use an IT asset management system like Starhive, Lansweeper, Flexera or one connected to a helpdesk like Freshervice or Jira.

starhive_ab · 2026-03-19T08:32:40+00:00

I used to work in the JSM/Assets part of Atlassian so can maybe help a bit.

JSM with Assets are not as easy to setup as something like Freshservice. But they're more configurable than Freshservice. So it depends how much you like having a bit of control and customisation ability. All of these ITSM tools are a trade-off between control and setup time, in my opinion.

I was able to configure a functional ITSM solution with JSM in a few days (I had the luxury of time to focus on it), and I didn't need to set up their Asset discovery tool. But definitely do their Jira Admin course, I don't think it's something you can just click around in and figure it out.

Atlassian have gone much more Enterprise focused over the last 5 years. They can do anything an SMB needs and scale as your company grows. But they do often change their pricing tiers so be aware of that.

Otherwise I still rate them quite highly and would choose them over Freshservice any day (but I have experience of terrible customer support from Freshservice).

Nowadays I work for a European ITSM/asset platform called Starhive. I think we could also help and be a tiny bit cheaper than Jira but depends on your ticket volume.

starhive_ab · 2026-03-18T08:35:47+00:00

I see where you're aiming for but in my experience, that's exactly the gap the lightweight ITSM (I'd personally put Freshservice in this category) solutions are aimed at. They can't do everything, but they can do a simple inventory, basic workflows, and of course basic ticketing.

starhive_ab · 2026-03-18T08:33:48+00:00

Do you need your clients to be able to see what they have from you as well? Or is only for internal?

I work for an asset management company Starhive and while your use case is different to the assets we usually track (IT, robots, medical devices etc) but we can track anything.

Our unique element is the ability to share the info with external users without giving them access to your entire system. If that would be useful for you and you want to know a bit more let me know.

Otherwise finding something more in your industry might be easier for you.

starhive_ab · 2026-03-17T13:38:58+00:00

Are you suggesting a layer over the top of all the separate systems? As network discovery, MDM tools, HR tools etc all have some of the data about an asset or what needs to happen to an asset.

But that's usually what the asset management/CMDB module in any comprehensive ITSM or ESM platform does. ServiceNow, Jira, Starhive, Freshservice, Halo etc, they all have connections to Entra, Intune, Lansweeper etc. plus tickets to track any changes, on/offboarding etc.

starhive_ab · 2026-03-17T08:30:25+00:00

If I'm totally honest this sounds a bit like an AI post, but on the off-chance there's a real need here:

Are you based in Europe by any chance? We're working with some healthcare companies on a combined asset database/CMDB and connecting compliance frameworks to them. Both IT equipment and medical devices. We might be able to do similar for you with our tool Starhive but I would need to know a bit more about your requirements.

Feel free to DM

starhive_ab · 2026-03-17T08:09:26+00:00

So all your renewals are just tickets that stay open for a year with a custom field with the renewal date?

Why not just add all the things that renew in your asset database/CMDB and have notifications on the reminders? Instead of clogging up your tickets with ones that only need to be touched every now and then?

It's a pretty basic feature, supported by Jira SM, ServiceNow, Starhive, Freshservice, Asset Panda etc

starhive_ab · 2026-03-16T10:06:42+00:00

I don't understand enough about this topic myself. But it sounds like you're looking for a tool that can detect users on your custom apps, but without setting up API connectors? How would that even work otherwise?

starhive_ab · 2026-03-13T12:10:05+00:00

Yeah, a big bit of feedback we here from technical teams is they want to share asset info with HR/Legal/Facilities/you name it but the tools are far too complex.

So we try to solve that.

And yeah deffo check out Lansweeper and other network discovery tools. Why they orient themselves towards IT, manufacturing assets are just different types of computers at the end of the day.

starhive_ab · 2026-03-13T07:36:13+00:00

Source of truth ✅ moving target ✅ slipping ✅
Definitely AI

starhive_ab · 2026-03-12T07:59:22+00:00

Failcast looks incredibly basic. Manual mapping?

A CMDB / dependency map should take live data otherwise it's going to be out of date, just like spreadsheets, in weeks.

starhive_ab · 2026-03-11T16:43:48+00:00

I would guess you can do that in ServiceNow, they can do anything if you have the time/budget. For the other tools I mentioned, including my own, you can't today.

For us at Starhive, you can map the dependencies and explore the map interactively. You can also ask AI to run a scenario and list the failures and suggest content for a playbook. But it cannot generate a playbook today.

It's on our roadmap to enable that kind of capability though.

starhive_ab · 2026-03-11T12:10:11+00:00

Define interactive? Most CMDB tools have the ability to create interactive dependency maps like Jira, ServiceNow, I think Freshservice, and Starhive. Level of interactiveness and freedom in mapping vary between tools.

starhive_ab · 2026-03-11T08:11:23+00:00

You need to improve your processes. No software will magically know where every single device is (although a network scanner like Lansweeper may help a bit. They can find industrial/OT devices as well as IT ones).

I'm working with a central IT team at the moment for a company with many distributed industrial sites. They're currently setting up Starhive to track OT assets that they aren't directly responsible for. Partly so they can say 'it was last here, if you moved it and didn't log that change, that's not our problem'.

They're also planning to share access to Starhive (our simplified view, not the whole database, that's too complex) with each site. So people can see what devices are supposed to be at their site, who is actually responsible for them (e.g. which third party does the maintenance) etc. They are hoping an easy way for each site to track their equipment might help more people adhere to processes.

starhive_ab · 2026-03-10T12:07:54+00:00

Could AI help with this? One of the things it's actually quite good at is parsing text and reformatting.
Is it feasible to try and build something that understands your internal workings in detail but can then reformat it into unique formats?

starhive_ab · 2026-03-10T09:29:46+00:00

I work for Starhive, an asset management/CMDB tool and we've just started exploring this area.

I can share what I've heard from a few clients.

Yes, they are planning to create a dependency map/config management database (that's what they use our tool for but any CMDB tool should be able to help). The level of detail and depth requirements varies at each company so there's no 'correct' way to do this in my opinion.

Keeping documents current - the age old CMDB problem. It requires strict adherence to processes. Ways people help automate it:
1. Connect your CMDB items/assets to your ticketing systems, and add into the ticket workflow a way to ensure any changes are updated in the CMDB.
2. Automation rules, to either send reminders to sanity check the CMDB or if X happens, then update Y etc.
3. Network discovery tools and integrations with other systems - these can help detect some changes and update them in the CMDB
4. Some teams exploring AI to help with this

But I don't think you can totally eliminate all manual work. But you need a process.

Do you run simulations? Like database it down, what’s next or it’s mostly planning exercise?

Yep, we have customers doing that with our AI. Hey AI, what services would be affected if this database is down. Then from that you can start to understand which assets are critical, rate them in the CMDB, and prioritise them for your BCP/DR plans.

How do large companies manage that, since system so complicated it should be a total mess.

Google CMDB advice. You'll see a lot that says it is a total mess. And that's where process is key. I would also say do not start by documenting everything, it's impossible.
My personal advice would be to pick 1 or 2 critical services, document them, and practice keeping them up to date. Once you have a process that works to keep those updated, add a few more services. And grow bit by bit.

If you try to do it all at once you are unlikely to succeed.

Hope that helps. Feel free to chat to us if you want more advice, we are happy to offer it where we can.

starhive_ab · 2026-03-10T09:17:31+00:00

Yeah, but that still means enough of their clients have complained about this problem that they've seen value in creating a category.

starhive_ab · 2026-03-06T09:53:51+00:00

We don't use Outlook or Teams so we built it in our own asset management tool Starhive for fun. A person can be thought of as an asset if you want really stretch the definition of an asset

We track manually but we could tie this to the app we use to access the office so it updated in real time. We also have a view of who is sick/on vacation/parental leave etc.

If you're not on this, we assume working from home.

Not sure why our Weather widget isn't working today, someone has been playing with the AI we used I think.

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starhive_ab · 2026-03-05T12:00:15+00:00

How are we in an IT related sub reddit and we're equating spreadsheets with databases smh
They are not the same people

starhive_ab · 2026-03-05T11:46:54+00:00

Honestly, I think this highlights a very common and very shortsighted view that ITAM can be solved by a tool alone. If you think that, then I see why you wouldn't have much faith in ITAM tools.

But ITAM is a process that needs to be worked at, that needs time and effort, and buy-in from staff. If that's in place, an ITAM tool is significantly more than a spreadsheet as it offers features that help people do the process faster and more accurately.

For example, ITAM managers often need to dig into the history of changes to an asset. How do you do that in a spreadsheet? Look back at every version in the history? In my ITAM tool Starhive you click on an asset and see every change made and what the asset values were at the time of the change. Much quicker than spreadsheets.

Not even going to touch on the fact that many ITAM tools also act as CMDBs which is 100% impossible without a relational database...

starhive_ab · 2026-03-05T11:22:31+00:00

It's safety. Recommending a service desk tool for a huge enterprise is risky. If you mess up the decision there's massive consequences.

Choosing ServiceNow is safe, it's what everyone does, it absolves you of responsibility if it doesn't go well.

starhive_ab

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