Why Outsourcing Inventory Audits Speeds Up the Process
Key Points of This Article (Summary)
1. There is a structural reason why inventory audits are difficult to advance internally
2. When the department in charge is involved, decision-making tends to stall
3. Involving a third party enables objective organization
4. An external perspective leads to visualization in a short period
1. The structure that prevents internal inventory audits from progressing
In many companies, "inventory audits" are considered important tasks.
IT asset inventory
Information asset inventory
Account and permission inventory
All of these are essential for security and operational management.
However, in reality,
"Inventory audits stop halfway"
"The number of items increases too much to organize"
These situations are not uncommon.
In the background of this, there is the difficulty of conducting inventory audits solely within the company.
An inventory audit is essentially the task of organizing:
・What exists
・Who is using it
・Whether it is truly necessary
However, when conducted only internally,
the following situations inevitably occur.
a. Criteria for judgment differ by department
b. Items that are difficult to touch remain
c. The work is put on the back burner
As a result, inventory audits tend to become "tasks that start but never end."
2. Why inventory targets become "untouchable areas"
One of the reasons why inventory audits are prone to stalling is the existence of
untouchable targets.
For example, items such as the following:
Old data in shared folders
Accounts whose usage status is unknown
Cloud settings that have not been touched for years
For such items,
there are times when no one is clearly responsible.
As a result, the following judgments occur on-site.
"I don't know if it's okay to delete it"
"Another department might be using it"
Consequently,
assets that remain untouched
continue to increase.
And so, the inventory audit gradually comes to a halt.
3 Reasons why inventory audits proceed faster when a third party is involved
This is where
a third-party perspectiveproves effective.
When an external partner is involved in the inventory audit,
the following changes occur.
1. Objective organization becomes possible
2. Judgment criteria become clear
3. Coordination between departments becomes easier
When discussions are held only within the company,
"Whose responsibility is it?"
"How much can we touch?"
problems like these tend to cause delays.
However, a third party
does not belong to any specific department.
Therefore,
"Let's verify the actual usage of this asset"
"It hasn't been used for a certain period, so it's a candidate for removal"
by doing things like this,
they can proceed with organization based on objective criteria.
4 How companies that achieve visualization in a short period proceed
Companies that complete inventory audits quickly
have several things in common.
It is because the perspective for organization is determined first.
For example,
(1) IT assets (PCs, accounts, etc.)
(2) Information assets (data, folders)
(3) Settings and permissions (cloud, systems)
We organize them by classifying them into these categories.
Furthermore,
Who is managing it?
Is it actually being used?
Does it need to be kept?
By organizing based on criteria such as these,
the inventory targets are visualized all at once.
Inventory is often thought of as a time-consuming task, but
once the perspective and organization method are decided,
it becomes possible to grasp the overall picture in a short period.
For companies that want to organize inventory that isn't progressing internally
Inventory of IT assets and information assets is important, but
- There are too many targets to organize
- Not sure how much can be touched
- Coordination between departments is not progressing
There are many cases where it stops for reasons such as these.
By having a third party involved, you can proceed with:
- Objective organization
- Setting inventory criteria
- Visualization in a short period
we can advance these processes.
At our company, we provide support for the inventory and organization of IT assets and information assets according to the company's situation.
If you are considering reviewing operations or organizing assets,
please feel free to contact us.
https://www.keep-on.jp/contact/
info@keep-on.jp
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