Our buying guide to the best ITAM tools

Maintaining an accurate and up-to-date inventory of your company's IT assets is essential to maximize their value, reduce costs, and ensure smooth operations. 

Keeping track of IT assets manually, mainly if you're relying on spreadsheet software, can be a time-consuming and repetitive process. Implementing an IT Asset Management (ITAM) tool can be highly beneficial when you need to streamline your asset management. 

ITAM tools automate the process of tracking, managing, and reporting your IT assets, providing you with real-time visibility into your inventory. By utilizing an ITAM tool, you'll be able to streamline your IT asset management process and make informed decisions based on accurate data.

What is an IT asset management tool?

An IT asset management (ITAM) tool is software that helps you manage your company’s IT assets.

These assets include software, hardware, networks, and other types of business technology.

The ITAM tool helps you store IT asset data such as:

• Financial data includes purchase prices, maintenance and repair costs, and other supplier information.
• Inventory data, including the assets’ location, ownership, and condition.
• Contractual data like warranties, licenses, support contracts, and Terms and Conditions

When you have all this data in one place, you can easily understand how efficiently you’re using your IT assets and how you can optimize their value and save on extra costs.

Using an ITAM tool will enable you to:

• Have a top-down view of your IT assets, including your total cost of ownership
• Have better control over the assets’ usage and service management
• Track and maintain software license and SOC2 compliance
• Easily prepare for an audit
• See overused and underused IT assets

But to achieve these results, you need the right ITAM tool.

Ten best IT asset management tools

#1. Vendr

Vendr is a top IT asset management tool due to its comprehensive features and functionality. With Vendr, you get the following key IT management benefits:

Inventory management

Vendr provides a centralized repository to store and manage all your IT assets, including software, licenses, and contracts. Vendr contracts make tracking your assets' entire lifecycle easy, from procurement to retirement.

Asset tracking

With Vendr, you can track your IT assets' location, status, and ownership in real time, reducing the risk of loss or theft.

License management

Vendr enables you to keep track of software licenses and ensure compliance with vendor agreements. In addition, our license and contract management functionality helps you avoid costly non-compliance fines.

Automated workflows

Vendr automates routine IT asset management tasks, freeing your time for more strategic initiatives. It also supports customizable workflows, allowing you to tailor the tool to your specific needs.

Reporting and analytics

Vendr provides a range of reports and analytics capabilities, giving you valuable insights into your IT asset data. For example, with insight into your company’s spend and data from our hundreds of thousands of software purchase transactions, you can make informed decisions and plan for the future.

Integration with other tools

Vendr integrates with tools and systems like BambooHR, Expensify, Google, Okta, Oracle NetSuite, Plaid, QuickBooks, Sage, and more. 

Vendr is a high-quality IT asset management tool that provides a complete and integrated solution for managing your IT assets. With its advanced features and functionality, it helps you optimize your IT assets, reduce costs, and improve overall efficiency.

Pricing

Vendr’s pricing model offers a starting price based on a company's annual SaaS budget. The three pricing tiers: Starter, Growth, and Enterprise, have different starting prices and savings guarantees.

The Starter plan starts at $36,000 for companies with an annual SaaS spend of $400,000 to $1 million, with a savings guarantee of $36,000 or more. The Growth plan starts at $78,000 for companies with an annual SaaS spend of $1 million to $5 million, with a savings guarantee of $156,000 or more. Finally, the Enterprise plan starts at $120,000 for companies with an annual SaaS spend of $5 million or more, with a savings guarantee of $360,000 or more. 

If the company fails to save more than the cost of Vendr, Vendr cuts a check to make up the cost difference.

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#2. ManageEngine Asset Explorer

Asset Explorer is a web-based IT asset management software that supports your IT assets throughout their lifecycle.

You can easily track your software usage in real-time and ensure you’re compliant at all times, which will help you to pass any upcoming license audits successfully.

Notable Features:

• View and manage all of your IT assets from a single dashboard
• Have a detailed audit history record
• Ensure software license compliance at all times

Pricing Plans:

• Free – up to 25 nodes, all features included
• Trial – up to 250 assets, expires in 30 days
• Professional – includes all features and 24/5 tech support

Contact the vendor for further details on pricing.

#3. Snipe-IT

Snipe-IT is an open-source ITAM tool that helps you track your inventory and all asset-related activities. The tool also has audit and supplier management features which enable you to prepare efficiently for an audit.

Notable Features:

• Effective cost-tracking system
• Asset maintenance and inventory management
• Email alerts when a license is about to expire

Pricing Plans:

• Self-hosted – free
• Hosted – $39.99 per month

#4. Cherwell IT Asset Management

Cherwell ITAM is a tool that will help you optimize your software license spending and minimize audit compliance risks. In addition, you can easily track your assets’ lifecycle from procurement to retirement and get a top-down view of all assets’ usage.

Notable Features:

• Easy integration with third-party software.
• Customizable interface, which allows you to add different functions.
• Incident alerts and incident management system.

Pricing Plans: The pricing starts at $150 monthly, and a free version is also available.

#5. AssetCloud

With AssetCloud, you can manage both physical and digital assets. Its various features allow you to generate reports and get notifications for scheduled maintenance, warranty, and license expirations.

You can access AssetCloud on the web and install it on Windows, Android, and iOS devices.

Notable Features:

• Plan and schedule equipment maintenance
• Track and manage IT orders
• Track IT assets’ depreciation

Pricing Plans: Ask the vendor for a quote.

#6. InvGate Assets

InvGate Assets is an ITAM tool that will help you organize, control, and manage all IT asset information from one place.

To optimize your IT spending, you can easily track your financial data, such as license purchases and maintenance costs.

Notable Features:

• Powerful software asset management
• Automated discovery of new IT assets
• Monitor and control any changes.

Pricing Plans: Ask the vendor for a quote.

#7. Freshservice

Freshservice is an ITAM tool that will help you track and manage your hardware, software, networks, and other assets.

You can see the asset lifecycle timeline and track the phases, like procurement and maintenance. Or you can sort the assets by their creation date or location.

Notable Features:

• Generate customizable reports
• Manage your assets, licenses, and contracts with ease
• Track your compliance

Pricing Plans:

• Small teams – $29/user per month
• Growing teams – $59/user per month
• Large teams – $99/user per month
• Enterprise – $99/ user per month billed yearly (annual commitment only)

#8. Lansweeper

Lansweeper is an ITAM tool that can quickly scan all your company’s networks. It also gives you a complete inventory of your hardware, network devices, and workstations.

The tool also tracks your compliance and helps you manage all audit-related documentation.

Notable Features:

• Get a top-down view of your IT asset expenditure
• An advanced report editor through which you can generate reports
• Reliable tech support

Pricing Plans:

• Free – up to 100 assets
• Paid – $1/asset per year

#9. EZOfficeInventory

EZOfficeInventory is a cloud-based tool that helps you track your IT assets. The software has a barcode asset tracking feature that helps you quickly discover physical IT assets.

You can also manage your license compliance and contracts and find all audit information in the system.

Notable Features:

• Auto-discovery of IT assets
• Management of software and hardware assets
• Tracking of purchase orders

Pricing Plans:

• Essential – $40 a month
• Advanced – $52 a month
• Premium – $60 a month
• Enterprise – Custom pricing

These plans have a minimum of 250 assets and unlimited users.

#10. ServiceNow Asset Management

ServiceNow is an ITAM tool that helps optimize your IT asset usage, costs, and lifecycle.

The tool provides information on licenses and lifecycle phases which help you minimize costs and security risks and optimize the usage of the assets.

Notable Features:

• Compliance and cost tracking
• SaaS license management
• Maintenance management and planning

Pricing Plans: Contact the vendor for a quote.

Five essential ITAM tool features

Still unsure how to choose the ITAM tool that will fit your company’s needs?

A company should evaluate the feature suite of an ITAM tool before purchasing because it determines the tool's effectiveness in meeting the company's specific IT asset management needs. 

The feature suite includes inventory management, license management, hardware tracking, and asset lifecycle management. 

 A comprehensive feature suite ensures the tool provides necessary visibility, control, and optimization of IT assets, allowing the company to make informed decisions, reduce costs, minimize compliance risks, and improve overall IT asset management operations.

Here are some of the top ITAM features we recommend assessing during your procurement process.

#1. Ease-of-use

IT asset management tools should be easy to use and navigate through.

After all, everyone will use the tool across the entire organization, from employees to senior management. That’s why you don’t want overly complicated ITAM software that only your IT department will understand.

If the ITAM tool is hard to use, it will cause extra delays, mistakes, and inefficiencies (which will contradict the purpose of getting an ITAM tool in the first place!).

Before settling down on an ITAM tool, request a free demo and see if you or your staff experience difficulties working with the solution.

Remember, you want a tool that has an intuitive interface that won’t take long to explore and learn.

#2. Feature-rich

The best ITAM feature is all of them. If you’re getting an ITAM tool, you want it to have all features needed to support all your IT asset-related processes. These include:

• Automated asset discovery
• Asset usage tracking
• Compliance management
• Cost tracking
• Generation of reports, insights, and alerts
• Warranty, contract, and license management

At the same time, keep in mind the nature of your business and what YOU need from your ITAM initiatives. Then, ensure the ITAM tool has all the must-have features.

#3. End-to-end lifecycle management

You need a tool to support all IT assets throughout their lifecycle. End-to-end management includes procurement, maintenance, support, repairs, and retirement.

Otherwise, only part of the lifecycle will be in the system, and you might miss essential updates and data.

#4. Integration with other systems

Ensure that the ITAM tool you choose can integrate with the software you’re already using.

These integrations will allow all systems to sync in, and you’ll have immediate access to all critical information instead of searching for and transferring it manually from one system to another.

#5. After-sales support

Research the after-sales support services provided by the ITAM tool providers.

You have to know how to reach the ITAM support team and how long it will take them to get back to you. That’s crucial, especially if you’re dealing with an emergency.

So, ask them whether you can contact them via email, phone, or live chat and their working hours. This way, you’ll know whether you can count on them when you need tech support, have questions, or need troubleshooting.

How Vendr can help you manage your IT assets

Vendr helps companies manage their IT assets by providing a centralized platform to track and control their spending on SaaS. 

You partner with Vendr to consolidate your software records by streamlining contracts and integrating data into a secure source of truth. Vendr provides access to historical information and enables you to track upcoming renewals proactively. Vendr also helps you upgrade their overall spend visibility by providing a high-level view of SaaS spending across the organization and the ability to dive deep into any supplier to understand specific usage.

Don't let software licenses and renewals slip through the cracks – explore Vendr today and take the first step towards maximizing your IT asset management.