From Excel to corporate ITAM system: the experience of digital transformation ITGLOBAL.COM

About the client

ITGLOBAL.COM is an international systems integrator and cloud provider with a 17-year history. The company is represented in 12 countries, with data centers and equipment warehouses at each site.

ITGLOBAL.COM provides extended support services for equipment that is no longer supported by its original vendors. The company stores a large number of spare components and distributes equipment - from laptops to servers, but not only to internal customers of ITG Corporation around the world - spare parts for external customers are also taken into account.

Prerequisites and objectives of the project

At the initial stage of the company's development, basic tools for asset accounting were sufficient, but as the company grew, the number of assets increased and the processes associated with them became more complex. Instead of a structured system, there was a chaos of processes that were difficult to manage.

The company kept records in Excel files. While the tool covered some asset accounting tasks, it had some limitations:

• multiple employees could not work with the file at the same time - information was lost and data relevance suffered;
• corporate management and partners requested data on issued equipment and future additions to the warehouse - it was difficult to enter and track information in Excel;
• it was difficult to monitor international purchases, movements and deliveries of equipment;
• inventory and cost analytics were impossible to obtain quickly.

The company faced standard asset management tasks:

• accounting and provisioning of equipment to internal customers;
• inventory management and distribution between sites;
• complex purchases for different companies in the corporation;
• controlling the movement of assets, taking into account international logistics;
• equipment resale and maintenance;
• equipment maintenance in data centers;
• cost control.

Basic tools for solving these tasks were not enough. A specialized solution was required.

Solution selection

ITGLOBAL.COM was already using SimpleOne's ESM platform for other processes: IT service management, HR processes, complex sales management. In 2023, ITGLOBAL.COM knew of an ITAM product coming as part of the platform, but any new product needs to prove itself, and a company needs time to grow to the point of using it.

Speaking at ITAMday-2025

At the end of 2024, ITGLOBAL.COM returned to the study of ITAM functionality from SimpleOne - the boxed solution already covered all the needs of ITGLOBAL.COM and did not need modifications and customization, all the necessary asset management processes could already be implemented in the system.

SimpleOne ITAM provides the ability to:

• automate the complete asset lifecycle - from cost planning to write-off;
• customize boxed processes for the specifics of the organization;
• integrate with other systems - accounting (ERP), ITSM, discovery and inventory tools;
• use ESM-platform tools to create your own processes with minimal code usage.

The study of the product functionality showed - no significant changes to the boxed solutions are required to cover the needs. SimpleOne ITAM covered all the main tasks of the company:

• automation of the full life cycle of assets - the product covers all stages from cost planning to write-off;
• flexible customization - the boxed processes are adapted to the specifics of the organization without development from scratch;
• ready integrations - the system works with the accounting system (ERP), ITSM, discovery and inventory tools;
• low-code capabilities - ESM-platform allows you to create your own processes with minimal code writing.

Project Stages

Implementation of the product took 6 months. During this period the ITGLOBAL.COM team:

• prepared the necessary artifacts;
• worked out the asset management processes;
• developed working instructions for specialists;
• tested the required functionality.

Implementation took six months: from process design and documentation preparation to testing and launch. During this period, the SimpleOne team released regular ITAM updates, and the customer had access to new functionality.

Implemented functionality

The new asset accounting system covers key asset management processes - from linking to organizational structures to automating management tasks.

Linking to organizational structures

The system allows linking assets to financial responsibility centers, distinguishing the owner and user companies, maintaining a directory of warehouses and locations. The company generates reports in various sections on available stocks, current situation with assets in use for each owner.

Distributed warehouse system

The system supports accounting at all warehouses of the company with indication of responsible persons. Asset movement is transparent - from the storage warehouse to the final customer. The company not only covers its own needs, but also resells equipment in integration projects.

Accounting for composite assets

Some assets, such as server hardware, have a complex composition of components, which is important to show in accounting and control the warranty expiration dates on them.

For integrators and cloud providers, working with composite assets is critical. SimpleOne ITAM provides:

• a graphical hierarchy - you can see the composite asset, with child components linked to the parent asset;
• linked lists of all child components of the composite asset - summary tables where you can work with the presentation of information, select a component requiring repair or upgrade, and immediately create a task for warehouse staff or support engineers.

Contract Management

The system provides a contract management module that allows you to create contracts of various types (purchase, maintenance, sale). Vendor contracts are linked to each asset. Employees can see the warranty period for each item or equipment as a whole and understand which supplier to contact. No more polling different department heads to find out who to call for warranty.

Communication with CMDB

ITGLOBAL.COM also utilizes the SimpleOne ITSM product, which allows you to customize linking specific asset categories to the CMDB out of the box.The linking helps:

• work with end customers on their warranty service requests;
• generate stock requirements for component purchases;
• see information on the asset form about the configuration unit and the incidents in which it is involved.

Conceptually, an asset and a configuration unit are two different entities. There can be a configuration unit without an asset or an asset without a configuration unit. But there can also be a pair. The relationship of these entities, if necessary, is parameterized at the nomenclature directory level and checks if KEs are provided for the assets of a given model.

Requirements and Procurement Management

Automating the requirements management and procurement processes helped the company address two questions:

1. How to schedule only the right assets and gather requirements quickly?

The system allows you to organize needs gathering by organization, plan replenishment sources, estimate available stock on hand, and schedule purchases as needed.

2. How to avoid buying unnecessary items?

After the need is formed, the responsible employee checks the availability of the required assets in the warehouses and reserves them. There is no need to buy extra.

The process looks like this:

• Collecting needs by organization;
• analyzing stocks and reserving them in the warehouse;
• planning and accounting for procurement costs in the asset;
• step-by-step tracking of overseas purchases;
• access to delivery notes and contracts where the purchase has been made.

Cost Accounting

Costs incurred during the period of purchase and operation of the asset can be recorded in the system automatically or manually by the responsible user. Effortlessly generate reports for the required period:

• how many assets have been issued;
• what balances are available;
• for which assets, for which contracts and for how much costs have been incurred.

Results in figures

Implementation time: 6 months of independent implementation by the ITGLOBAL.COM team

Working time in product: 3 months

Geographical coverage: 12 countries where the company is represented - automated asset accounting at all international sites

Qualitative improvements:

• transparency of inventory management - employees see real-time balances in all warehouses;
• management and partners receive reports without manual data collection;
• reduced time to generate analytics on issued assets, balances and purchasing needs;
• Now several employees can work with data at the same time - this was impossible in Excel.

Development Prospects

ITGLOBAL.COM continues to use SimpleOne ITAM and plans to introduce new functionality as it becomes available. The company is already using some of the features obtained with product updates, and plans to introduce the rest in the near future.

SimpleOne is developing the product in several directions. It plans to pay attention to the functionality of budget limits planning and management of planned and actual costs, expansion of software license accounting capabilities, optimization of existing functionality.