5 Ways Lansweeper Helps with IT Cost Reductions

As organizations adopt new technologies and assets to support digital transformation initiatives and as technology spending increases, ITAM 2.0 solutions can offer significant and measurable IT cost reductions. With an advanced IT discovery and inventory solution as the foundation, organizations can reduce waste and identify and eliminate hidden costs, all while increasing IT performance and security.

In our previous blog post on IT Cost optimization strategies, we talked about the benefits of having a single system of record that keeps an accurate, up-to-date inventory of all of the IT assets — software, hardware, mobile devices, virtual machines, servers, and more  — that comprise the entire IT estate.

In the ITAM 2.0 approach, all the necessary data to support any IT scenario is readily available to deliver IT cost reductions for multiple business scenarios. This holistic approach to ITAM leads to substantial IT cost savings enabling IT teams to more quickly and efficiently address any problem since all IT inventory data is already there.

To put this theory into practice, we have gathered five ways Lansweeper can help optimize strategies for IT cost reductions, each time illustrated by a real-life customer case.

1. Eliminate Manual Processes

Historically, tracking IT assets has been chiefly manual, involving extensive spreadsheets with outdated network information and mapping. Manual processes lead to inaccurate reporting on device-specific hardware and unmanaged software, which complicates spend management and can be disastrous to an organization’s productivity, compliance, and, ultimately, bottom line. A dedicated ITAM 2.0 solution can eliminate costly manual processes with automatic scanning, alerting, and reporting features to increase accuracy and productivity.

Frank De Bree, Central Head of IT at Brothers of Charity, estimated that his IT staff spent half a workday, on average, manually entering asset information in proprietary tracking software. Lack of visibility and unified IT asset inventory meant the team had to do everything by hand – from inputting serial numbers, MAC addresses, device locations, and more.

2. Strengthen Cyber Security

With over 5 billion records compromised last year, data breaches cost US organizations more than $1.2 trillion in 2019 alone. Lansweeper’s credo for cyber security is: You can’t protect what you can’t see. Forgotten or missed assets may run outdated software or even malware, creating security vulnerabilities that can lead to substantial financial losses and compromised data.

To combat this risk, Herman Miller implemented Lansweeper for cyber security, which increased visibility into its complex IT environment. The IT organization benefits from more than 100 custom Lansweeper reports to keep the CIO informed. Learn how they do it.

3. Streamline Reporting

Lansweeper’s ability to easily access relevant data reduces reporting hassles and eliminates human error. Time spent compiling detailed reports for business units or regulatory bodies and retrieving data for security investigations is drastically reduced, giving IT staff more time to spend on other mission-critical activities.

Lansweeper has proved to be a very convenient source of information for the Chamber of Commerce of North Rhine-Westphalia. Our easy-to-use reporting tools simplify day-to-day tasks, such as accessing user login details or network topology information.

4. Be Prepared For Audits

Knowing exactly how many licenses you are using is essential for reporting to maximize ROI from enterprise software agreements —otherwise, you may end up paying for unused licenses. On the flip side, Lansweeper can also uncover if you’re missing licenses, help mitigate the risk of incurring fines, and predict the costs of becoming fully compliant.

What’s more, according to many industry analysts, in the wake of COVID-19, software publishers will likely increase audit activities to make up for lost revenue. Being prepared in advance by maintaining an up-to-date inventory will save time and money in the event of a surprise audit.

Lansweeper helped this Fortune 500 automotive retailer improve reporting for Microsoft License audits and other license reporting requests. They installed Lansweeper and soon saw all 26,000+ devices in their network.

5. Maximize Infrastructure Visibility

Tracking the lifecycle of IT assets provides CIOs and IT professionals with critical data for financial, inventory, contractual, and risk-management strategies. A solution with ITAM as a core functionality can automatically and accurately update IT Inventories, which, in turn, helps decision-makers understand workflows and determine which assets need to be purchased, redistributed, or discontinued. It also allows system administrators more time for high-level analysis and helps identify and reduce the impact of fraud, as ITAM tools keep track of each transaction and the networks, devices, and users involved.

Cerner Corporation uses Lansweeper to gain insight into the number of assets in the environments they manage and required patches, updates, fixes, and other necessary maintenance tasks, helping to better allocate staffing and control costs.

Done right, ITAM offers insights and strategies for improving inefficiencies and productivity across an organization. We are interested in learning what ROI an ITAM 2.0 solution like Lansweeper can deliver for your organization? Check out our ROI calculator.