Tracking is not ITAM. While asset tracking and asset management exhibit similar functions, there are significant differences between the two.
Asset tracking: Deals with the physical characteristics of hardware and software in support of planning, deployment, operation, support, service, and installation/use data.
Asset management: Deals with the fiscal (financial and/or contract) details of hardware and software as required for financial management, risk management, contract management, vendor management, and ownership data. Asset tracking is a prerequisite.
Asset tracking systems manage IT assets from a physical perspective, capturing information such as CPU type and speed, memory, installed software, components, and operating system. This allows organizations to know what they have, where is it, and how it is configured. Sophisticated tracking systems take this one step further and keep a complete history of all changes to the asset. Companies like to...