IAITAM has released its new product called ITAM 360. This is an interactive version of IBPL that was published a few years ago. The first look at it could have been taken on the last IAITAM conference in Las Vegas.

Getting back to my old Walmart metaphor, when I want to hang a shelf on my wall, I just go to the row with shelves. Standing there, I have immediate access also to drills, supports and anything else I need to hang my shelf. Everything in one place. This is not to be done in the real world. ITAM 360 provides it in the virtual world of information.

However , this is not everything that is available under the ITAM 360 subscription. Before the knowledgebase is used, the user is offered to fill a survey that in result will show the current state of the user’s organization. This detailed survey contains questions about the stage of implementation of the ITAM practices. Based on the answers, the radar graph is created that shows where the organization is and what is to be improved.

Another offering, that is still under development is an access to external frameworks and standards like ITIL and ISO standards. This provides an opportunity to look at the selected node in broader and deeper context

The ITAM 360 subscription is most useful for the professionals responsible for ITAM, who start their ITAM program from scratch. Having such tool available, the IT Asset Manager can quickly estimate the current status and things to do. The tool helps its user to make sure that nothing has been forgotten, by displaying available information about all related items to be checked. With the ITAM 360 it is easier to create checklists when implementing elements of general ITAM program.

The mature ITAM programs will benefit from this tool also when a change is planned. The change is something that will happen for sure, so it is good to be prepared for it. What is more, the evolution of the ITAM program is crucial to remain successful. When the change is done, the biggest question is about the impact it brings. This can be investigated by going step by step through all program elements that are related to the changed node. This is exactly what ITAM 360 facilitates.

Having said that I cannot avoid the feeling that this idea looks very familiar. That is right – the impact analysis is the core concern related to configuration management and CMDB.  When a change is done in the IT infrastructure, the CMDB is called and relationships between nodes are analysed. Similarity is obvious. CMDB relationships and impact analysis in Change Management though is an old topic and pretty well developed. ITAM 360 is still in the first release. Definitely the long path impact analysis and more advanced relationships management is something waiting to be added to this tool.

Though ITAM 360 is not the ultimate tool and is still in development it is already very valuable knowledge source for every IT Asset Manager. This is pretty handy tool and since its navigation is easy, it gives high efficiency of knowledge search. This is a big step since the IBPL was released. Good job IAITAM!