In today's era, every business, regardless of type and size, possesses IT assets to speed up and streamline their processes. These IT assets include infrastructure hardware, software & applications, agreements & licenses, devices, and digital data. Monitoring and keeping track of these assets is a highly significant task that can help the business organizations in utilizing their assets efficiently, minimizing waste of time and resources.
As technology grows, the threats to the security of the digital environment in the organization also increase. Now, IT asset management is not limited to keeping track of servers, desktops, and peripherals. It also includes ensuring that IT assets within the organization are secure and protected from unauthorized access.
There are several questions that you may come across while managing your IT assets like -
You can get accurate answers to the above questions, only if the IT assets in your business organization are appropriately managed. For that purpose, the use of the best IT asset management software is necessary. Using manual methods for managing IT assets can be a big mistake as those methods can give you wrong information about your IT assets, which can cause a significant financial loss to your business.
Here, we have come up with the list of the best 7 free and open source IT asset management software that you can consider for managing your business organization's IT assets. But, before we go through this list of IT asset management software, let's look at what IT asset management software is, what the benefits of using it, and features to look for while selecting one.
What is IT Asset Management Software?
An IT asset management software is a tool that can automate a set of business practices enabling you to streamline the financial, contractual, and inventory functions about each IT asset possessed by a business organization. It provides visibility, clarity, and awareness about the usage and maintenance of the IT assets enabling strategic decision making for the smooth working of an IT environment.
For example, maintaining an IT asset that is obsolete can be a liability to the business organization. The IT asset management solution notifies you about this situation before, so you can decide to dispose of that IT asset and save your business from financial loss.
What Does an IT Asset Management Software Do?
As per a recent report, the IT asset management market was valued at USD 1091 million in 2019 and is predicted to rise upto USD 2086.59 billion by 2025. The increase in implementation of advanced technology and interconnected infrastructure has arisen the need of IT asset management software that can manage the IT assets within a business organization in the most effective and secure manner by following the process as given below -
In What Way IT Asset Management Software Is Effective In Comparison To The Manual Method?
After going through the basic concept of IT asset management solution and its functionality, the question that may arise in your mind is in what terms it is better than managing IT assets using excel spreadsheets or any other manual method. Below comparison table can answer this question -
The below benefits can further clarify why using IT asset management tools is better than managing IT assets manually.
Real-Time Asset Tracking
The IT assets move around the organization for different reasons like purchase, sale, repairs, and maintenance. To have real-time figures about the number of assets available, in use, or obsolete, it is important to ensure their optimum utilization.
Centralized Information
Regardless of the type of IT assets, whether tangible or intangible, you have access to their information from a centralized location. That means everyone in the organization has the same information about the IT assets making the processes and decision making easy.
Accurate Processes
Using an IT asset management solution, you can schedule the maintenance of the assets, identify the lost/stolen assets, and have a complete historical record of the assets on your fingertips, helping you to carry out accurate processes within your business organization.
Smart Budget Planning
Having complete information about the IT assets throughout their entire lifecycle helps in planning the acquisition of new assets and disposing of the obsolete ones. It enables you to plan the budget required to buy new assets and spending on the maintenance of the current assets.
Better Decision Making
The IT asset management software provides clear visibility about which assets are working as per the expectations and which ones are not. This helps you to make better decisions in terms of disposing of the assets that are obsolete or causing high maintenance costs.
Identifying Thefts & Frauds
Many times in a business organization, the existence of IT assets, in reality, is different from the records on papers or spreadsheets. Thefts and frauds are going on in the company, which can be identified if a systematic IT asset management system is in place.
Reduced Security & Compliance Risks
There are certain laws that every company needs to follow pertaining to owning the IT assets. The IT asset management tool streamlines the audit process, saving you from licensing and non-compliance fines, and lease penalties.
Precisely, IT asset management software can help you in efficiently tracking and maintaining the IT assets your company owns. But, not all IT asset management systems are created equally in terms of the features they possess. You need to look for an IT asset management solution that includes these must-have features benefitting the operations and financial health of your business.
Must-Have Features of IT Asset Management Software
Below are some capabilities that you need to look for in your IT asset management software -
Check-in/Check-out
The easy to use check-in/check-out feature allows you to record the incoming and outgoing details of your IT assets. The organizations with a large number of assets require this feature to keep track of the IT assets like desktops, printers, and other computer peripherals purchased, sold, or sent for repairs/maintenance. It includes a search feature that allows you to search the database of IT assets based on make, model, vendor, user, etc. It is difficult to memorize the whereabouts of the IT assets, and so this feature of the software can keep track of that easily.
Auditing Options
Regularly, auditing the IT assets information is significant to verify the IT assets your company owns and their location. This helps in adding the unrecorded assets and identifying the assets that are physically missing but present in the system. The IT asset management software helps in scheduling the audit process and ensures that the IT asset information available in the system is accurate.
Disposing/Recovering IT Assets
In case you find that some of your IT assets are physically missing but are present in the system without the information about their whereabouts, you can delete them from the system. This helps in aligning the information in the IT asset management system with real information about the assets. Similarly, the assets recovery option allows you to reactivate the old assets information without having to add them manually as new assets in the organization.
Customizable Data Fields
The IT asset management software may come with pre-named data fields that are not applicable to your business type. Many times changing the field name is not possible or is difficult to do without technical support. In that case, you need to look for an IT asset management software in which you can rename the field names as per your business requirements easily.
Creating Asset Tag
The multiple quantities of the same type of asset can be difficult to manage. You can create individual asset tags for these identical assets. But, that task can become quite cumbersome if there are more number of identical assets. In that case, your IT asset management software should allow you to create asset tags and print them, helping you to track individual assets easily.
Notifications
The IT asset management software you select should be able to send you notifications about the audit checklist, maintenance due date, service & repairs required, or any other situation relevant to your IT assets requiring your immediate attention. This would help you in taking prompt action and save your company from the permanent loss of your IT assets.
Reports
IT asset management software should have the ability to generate reports that ease your decision-making task. From the reports, you get the information about which assets are useful to your organization, which ones require more maintenance, which ones are not being used at all, and many more answers to such questions. It should also allow you to schedule the reports and set up the permissions for the users accessing these reports.
User Access
You would not want every user to access all the modules of the management of your assets system. To keep the information secure; your IT asset management software should allow you to provide secure access to the users based on the role they play in your business organization.
Mobile-Friendly
In this era, when smartphones and mobile devices are used for accomplishing almost all the tasks, the IT asset management process should not be left behind. You need to select an IT asset management software that allows you to update the information or receive notifications and reminders about your IT assets from anywhere. For that, you need to select an IT asset management software that is mobile-friendly.
These were the must-have features of an IT asset management software that you need to consider while selecting one for your business organization.
Before going through the list of top free and open source IT asset management software, take a look at SuperOps, a popularly used asset management tool to efficiently manage IT infrastructure and related assets.
SuperOps
SuperOps is a premium IT asset management software system that helps businesses acquire real time data into the health and functioning of the IT assets. It comes with robust automation capabilities, an intuitive user interface and easy to manage asset monitoring for complete visibility and control over business apps, policies, IT documentation, tickets, etc. By using the simple, intuitive terminal text editor, registry editor, and file explorer, SuperOps can remotely access files and operate them. It is also beneficial for businesses to easily troubleshoot issues, track the asset activity and quickly view the health of assets. This IT asset management software supports additional endpoints and network monitoring capabilities to meet the scalability needs of its users.
(Source: SuperOps)
Key Features:
- AI-powered intelligent alerts
- Remote background tools
- Automatically respond to issues upon identification
- Download and deploy agents on multiple devices
- Set custom field to store unique asset information
- Filters and columns to easily organize data
- Bird's eye view of metrics
- Automated scripting and patching
- Software management
- AV/backup at scale
- Multiple integrations for remote access
Now, let's have a look at the best 7 free and open source IT asset management software as that would help you in deploying the one that can work as per your business logic at a low cost.
The Best 7 Free and Open Source IT Asset Management Software
#1 Snipe-IT
Snipe-IT is a free and open source IT asset management software that runs on any Linux, Windows, or Mac web server. It can be translated into several languages for easy localization. It includes an admin dashboard that allows you to view the recent activities and overall view of the assets, accessories, consumables, and components you possess at a glance. It comes with built-in email templates that can be customized to create emails to be sent to users and administrators notifying them about check-ins/check-outs, low inventory, and everything about the IT assets owned by the company.
Key Features
- Can provide information about the assigned assets to the users and their physical location
- Allows one-click check-in
- Ability to integrate with barcode scanners and QR code reader apps
- Allows quick and easy asset auditing
- Enables you to import and export assets in the system easily
- Allows generating QR code labels for easy mobile access
- Can retain complete history about the check-ins, check-outs, and maintenance of the assets
#2 SysAid
SysAid IT Asset Management is a free asset management software that can help you in viewing, securing, controlling, and managing your assets from a centralized location. You can efficiently manage your IT environment using this IT asset management tool that is fully integrated with SysAid Help Desk. It provides you the accurate data at the right time, helping you to make informed decisions pertaining to the assets owned by your company.
Key Features
- Helps in discovering the software products and hardware components in your network with complete information about their users and location
- Integrates with the help desk software allowing you to open an incident in case of any issue arising relating to company-owned assets
- Allows deploying and managing patches assigned to different computers and peripherals
- Enables you to track and monitor each asset of the company on a real-time basis
- Sends notifications and alerts in case of any changes occurring in the network or memory usage
- Allows importing data from other applications or spreadsheets and get a clear view about the IT assets available in your network
#3 GLPI
GLPI is an open source IT assets management software that can keep track of the entire lifecycle of your IT assets, gain real-time status about the whereabouts of your software and expiry of their licenses. Using this software, you can even manage the obsolescence of your IT assets helping you to make better decisions that can benefit your business in the long run. It is an incredible IT asset management tool that enables you to gain legitimate control over your company's IT budget and expenses.
Key Features
- Allows you to monitor and manage asset inventory including computers, screens, printers, devices, phones, and network equipment
- Provides a detailed view of assets with the connections and network ports
- Provides information about the history of the modification of each IT asset owned by the company
- Can manage installed software details & licenses, and other internal components
- Manages entire asset lifecycle from supplier delivery & maintenance to disposal
- Allows you to manage assets reservation enabling users to make optimum use of those assets
#4 Spiceworks
Spiceworks is a simple and free IT asset management software that helps you manage all your network resources. It can integrate with your help desk and network monitoring tools to provide additional functionality helping you to manage your IT assets seamlessly. Using this IT asset management tool, you can manage your inventory, monitor your licensed products, and generate reports helping you to make profitable decisions for your business.
(Key Features
- Includes an easy to use dashboard that helps you in accessing complete information about your IT assets at a glance.
- Allows you to manage and track inventory accurately so that you can dispose of obsolete devices and reduce maintenance costs
- Keeps track of all your software licenses helping you to stay compliant and manage your audits in a stress-free environment
- Helps in determining the hardware and software components in your network being used by the users and their physical location
- Allows you to generate customized reports that can include a complete itemized list of your IT assets or time spent by the employees on particular support tickets
#5 ERPNext
ERPNext is a free and open source IT asset management software that can make your asset management tasks easier, starting from purchasing to perishment. It can cover every aspect of your IT assets helping you to manage everything relating to your hardware components and software licenses from a centralized system. It is multilingual software and so can be localized easily as per your requirements. Moreover, it is available in the form of user-friendly mobile applications, so that you can manage your IT assets from anywhere and everywhere.
Key Features
- Provides transparent and crystal clear information about the IT assets, including their location, warranty, and insurance, depreciation schedule, ownership transfer, scraping, purchasing and selling dates, etc.
- Allows you to scan barcodes on the asset inventory with your device camera, helping you quickly acquire information about the inventory quantity, and location
- Streamlines the entire process of asset procurement by generating purchase invoices, insurance details, depreciation methods and more
- Maintains the records of the usage of the data based on the information provided by the users of the assets
- Makes the process of selling the assets easier as it can automate the task of creating journal entries by integrating with the accounting software
- Allows you to configure depreciation schedules enabling auto calculation of the depreciation amount and creating accounting entries for the same
- Makes the process of scrapping assets smooth when you no longer need them
#6 Open-AudIT
OpenAudIT is an open source asset management software for windows that can give you the exact information about the assets in your network, how they are configured, and when were the changes made. It can tell you about the location of your IT assets quickly. This IT asset management software can intelligently scan the network devices and store their configurations. It gives you immediate access to the software licenses, non-authorized devices, hardware warranty status, configuration changes, and capacity utilization, that can help you make informed decisions beneficial to your business.
(opmantek.com) Key Features
- Helps in discovering devices over a network with a single click
- Compares software configuration with required standard to ensure compliance with the industry regulations
- Detects the configuration changes in the IT devices automatically
- Provides detailed information about the inventory, and allows grouping, collating, and translating data in a chart format that is easy to understand and consume
- Allows you to provide role-based access to the users to ensure the security of the data
- Ability to schedule customized reports, automating repetitive tasks and get details emailed directly saving time and money both
#7 CMDBuild
CMD Build is an open source asset management software that can be customized according to your organization's needs. This enterprise system is built using Java, Ajax, and SOA architecture on database PostgreSQL. Using this software, you can configure your workflows, customize dashboard & reports, scheduled operations, and other daily routine tasks, manage documents, and track your IT assets based on their location and other details.
Key Features
- Allows exporting/importing data through files
- Can print barcodes and QR codes to scan and identify your assets easily
- Facilitates documents archiving and storing the history information about the IT assets
- Allows scheduling emails notifying you about the maintenance and other issues relevant to your IT assets
- Integrates with the task manager helping in streamlining the entire workflow
- Helps in visualizing the relation of one IT asset with other IT assets in a graphical form
- Enables you to generate custom reports allowing you to make smart and informed decisions for your business
If you have already used CMDBuild, please feel free to share your reviews here.
So, now when you are aware of the details of these free and open source IT asset management software, let's go through the below chart to help you quickly compare their features.
The Best 7 Free and Open Source IT Asset Management Software Comparison Chart
After going through the details about these free IT asset management software, we would also like to suggest you go through one of the most popular IT asset management software. If budget is not a constraint, you can consider this option as it requires a considerable amount of investment, but includes versatile functionality benefitting your business in terms of achieving efficiency in tracking and monitoring your IT assets.
Asset Panda
Asset Panda is a highly flexible software that can help in managing your IT assets. It includes an intuitive interface providing quick and easy access to complete information about your IT assets starting from its procurement to disposal. This cloud-based IT asset management system also allows you to customize the fields and configure its functionality to make it work as per your business requirements. The software allows an unlimited number of users, making it a favorable choice for most business organizations to manage their IT assets.
Key Features
- The flexible and simple user interface on web and mobile app
- Includes easy search feature allowing you to track assets based on various parameters like make, model, quality, users, etc
- Allows scheduling maintenance and track repairs of the IT assets
- Includes the ability to customize the assets list view
- Allows access to multiple users and setting role-based permissions
- Ability to calculate depreciation of the IT assets automatically
- Compatible with iOS and Android devices and platforms
- Can integrate with custom APIs allowing importing and exporting of the data
- Ability to generate customized reports
Conclusion
Whether it is about managing hardware, software, licenses, or any kind of computer peripherals, managing them efficiently would benefit the overall productivity of an organization. Thus, it is quite imperative to deploy a well-featured IT asset management software to ensure running a profitable business.
We hope this article has helped you select the IT asset management software as per your business requirements. Are you still looking for more options with advanced features not included in these free IT asset management solutions? You can go through freemium and paid IT management software like ERPNext, Remedy Asset Management, Lansweeper, and many more in this complete list of IT asset management software.
Please leave your valuable feedback if you have used any of the above-mentioned IT asset management software.
Also, browse all software categories if you are looking for applications and solutions used in other business sectors.
