Configuration and Asset Management is not a subject to attract immediate enthusiasm from executives. Why is this? Probably because they have other business critical issues on their agenda. Or is it because – plainly stated – Configuration and Asset Management is all about collecting and storing data in a database?

This subject is often perceived as boring – an inevitable cost without any very obvious benefits. But that perception is quite simply wrong. There is tremendous business value to be realised from this data (and severe consequences if it is not kept).

The key to achieving that value is focus – to ensure that every piece of data is required for a clearly understood business reason. Data is then not a passive burden – it is an active business value driver. And failure to keep accurate and up-to-date data is easily associated with business consequences. This data must be accurately maintained in an increasingly dynamic environment and to succeed it must be backed by a new generation of sophisticated tools.

This paper reviews the business drivers behind Configuration and Asset Management, how they are evolving in importance and sophistication and the issues they generate. It then goes on to define Best Practice and look at the emerging solutions and the practical steps that can be taken to achieve it.