Harinder Bansal，机动作战IT采购负责人（个人照片）
正如我们在最近的一篇文章中所写的那样品牌工作室article, more and more procurement teams are having to think like and understand IT if they want to have a comprehensive view of the business, especially given the array of technology on offer to them today. Aligning procurement more with IT asset management (ITAM) also offers an opportunity to drive cost savings and rethink the organization’s true technology needs versus wants.
We’ll be sharing more views on procurement/IT alignment, but today, Harinder Bansal fromMotability Operations作为IT采购主管，他与我们分享了自己的看法。
“Over the course of the last decade,” he says, “the discipline of IT Asset Management has been slowly rising out of the shadows. It was once the back-office team known for ‘counting computers,’ but has pulled itself out of the basement and up to the more senior levels of the business. In fact, according to万博体育下载appITAM评论研究2018年，37%的ITAM从业者已经直接向C-suite报告，该公司创始人马丁·汤普森（Martin Thompson）表示伊坦Forum，一个倡导ITAM行业的非营利组织，这一趋势正在持续增长。”
So what is ITAM, and what does it have to do with procurement?
“IT资产管理是旨在最大化组织内部的价值的学科。它管理它的所有方面花费，包括软件，硬件和IT服务（包含云，萨斯，托管服务等）。现在，我们可能会认为ITAM正在践踏采购的脚趾，而是在我组织的IT采购的主管，只有我负责的许多花费类别，我就可以看到这两个是相互互补的。但它确实让我奇怪：是什么让它如此特别，需要自己的部门来管理其支出;如果我们害怕ITAM，或者这是一个辉煌的伙伴关系的开始吗？“
ITAM可以帮助我们不要担心软件审计吗？
“Most companies embark on their first ITAM project in response to receiving an Audit Letter from one of their major software publishers (the likes of Microsoft,Oracle和国际商用机器公司).软件审核涉及软件发行商或其指定的第三方，以确定该组织是否有足够的许可证来使用其使用的所有软件。考虑到软件许可协议的复杂性，以及企业软件可以如此轻松地安装的方式，供应商希望在许可方面找到一个明显的不足。该组织的结果是，在审计结束时，出现了一大笔意想不到的软件账单。作为一名从事IT采购的人，“巨大而意外的账单”不是我们想要看到的。此外，46%的组织报告在大流行期间审计请求增加（根据research by The ITAM Review)现在不是放松警惕的时候。
“大多数组织永远不会选择运行未经许可的软件，但出于各种原因，他们经常发现自己使用的软件超过了他们的许可证。IT采购部门不具备了解软件许可的所有细微差别的专业知识，但ITAM有；它维护着组织软件的准确记录许可证授权和部署，以便有效管理审核，而不会导致意外的软件成本。”
Is this the beginning of a beautiful friendship?
“伊坦clearly makes a compelling business case for itself when it comes to compliance, but the cost savings it can deliver on a long-term basis further help to justify its existence and bolster its position as a friend of IT Procurement. When it comes to the purchase of IT assets, there is a natural synergy between ITAM and IT Procurement, with ITAM simply picking up where IT Procurement stopped.
“例如，我们在IT采购中的角色主要关注购买时的IT成本，而ITAM更关注的是在初始购买之后以及整个生命周期内管理IT成本。例如，在软件支出方面，ITAM可以帮助组织在购买之前重新使用现有的软件许可证重新购买新软件，或完全淘汰未使用的软件。ITAM维护组织软件许可权的最新记录（即它拥有多少份Windows、Office、Oracle等）。这有助于确保组织在购买更多许可证之前使用其现有的所有许可证（例如，重新使用离开公司的人的许可证）。如果IT采购不与ITAM合作，它可能会发现自己正在购买该公司已有的软件！
“伊坦can also recommend best-fit licensing for the organization’s needs or take advantage of different licensing schemes or vendor incentives based on a deeper understanding of how the organization uses software. When it comes to hardware, ITAM has a role to play in re-using and re-purposing assets to maximize their usable value – all of these deliver significant value to IT Procurement and the organization at large.”
ITAM论坛的创始人Martin Thompson指出，ITAM在Covid-19大流行后协助IT采购方面具有特别独特的作用。“大流行开发的大部分采购决策是与支持家庭工作（ZOOM许可，办公室365，笔记本电脑等）有关的技术相关。ITAM可以帮助它采购，以确定供应商风险可能撒谎，以及这些投资的利用率可能需要在未来返回/缩减。这可能是一个非常强大的合作伙伴关系，当时公司需要他们可以获得的所有成本节约。“
最终,它采购之间的协同效应nd ITAM can be significant. They have a strong bond in protecting the organization from unnecessary costs, albeit approaching the issue from different, but complementary, angles.
“If you don’t know who is responsible for ITAM in your organization,” says Harinder, “you should make it your priority to introduce yourself. And if you look and still can’t find them, you may just find out that it’s you!”
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