3 Essential Steps to Getting What You Need from SCCM

You were never meant to go it alone. As the saying goes, it takes a village.

Whether you’re sticking to a weight-loss resolution, raising children, or running an organization, you need a plan and a community to help reach your goals. And with the fast-moving, ever-changing nature of technology, it's always true when you're trying to manage IT assets.

It’s time to review and evaluate your ITAM plan and make it truly work for your business, and there's no reason to try to accomplish this feat as a solo endeavor. Help is available, and if you aren't sure where to start, keep reading.

Step One: Invest

You know the organization runs on data. You’ve established a culture that recognizes the importance of data and has developed an approach to manage your IT infrastructure and its resident data.

Now, you must also commit and invest in a full life cycle tool and database to make it happen: Microsoft’s SCCM is the tool you need, and here’s why: SCCM surveys and discovers networked devices, including servers, client PCs and smartphones, connected to your system through Active Directory. SCCM installs client software on each node and compiles an inventory database with records on each asset and the software installed on each device along with the details about the hardware configurations.

If you’ve already invested in SCCM, you know it’s a helpful tool. However, you may also be aware of its capability gaps: inability to discover devices not on your network; difficulty combining disparate data sources; fixed (non-customizable) asset reporting; and the inability to achieve holistic assessments of your total environment.

Most SCCM users know they need additional software to get the complete picture. The question becomes: What is the best, reasonably priced full life cycle tool and database to complement SCCM?

The answer will take your IT infrastructure to the next level.

Step Two: Synergize

With SCCM, you have part of the solution. Now, you need a complementary tool to complete and leverage it. xAssets software works in conjunction with SCCM to yield full lifecycle capabilities for IT asset management. These tools provide discovery for items SCCM alone cannot address.

For example, the xAssets IT Asset Management/SCCM Connector™ product integrates SCCM into your ITAM environment and provides customizable reports and easy deployments. Further, our agentless discovery tool discovers and analyzes information not available through SCCM. The xAssets ITAM tool enhances SCCM and creates a more holistic view of everything on your network.

xAssets provides ITAM and SCCM functionalities, integrations, and configurations to meet each customer’s specific goals in a cost-effective way. Now that you’ve invested in SCCM and supplemented the software with xAssets, there’s only one more step to go.

Step Three: Extend

With the SCCM and xAssets tools to guide you, stick to your plan and deploy all the available tools at your disposal. Extend your data enterprise benefits with xAssets to reap even more benefits.

The application facilitates integration to other IT systems including Active Directory, Help Desks, and other discovery tools, enabling a holistic view of the IT infrastructure in one easy-to-use, browser-based application.

Components of xAssets Network Discovery needed to discover non-domain Windows nodes, ESX, Linux, Unix and MAC, network equipment, IP phones and printers are included in the product so, the SCCM domain-based Windows Endpoint Inventory can easily be extended to cover all IP-based IT Assets.

Software Asset Management is included and an optional Service Management application supporting advanced help desk and service management is also included in this solution.

Visit our website and obtain a free trial of our software asset management solution. Or, feel free to contact me with any questions at ussales@xassets.com or 800-691-9120 ext. 304.