What is the main source of information for IT Asset Management?

ITAM is a new discipline and is not so much standardized and described. The first fully ITAM framework is IAITAM Best Practice Library (IBPL) released last year. There are however many other places where this matter is considered. Examples include ITIL, Cobit, Togaf and of course the ISO/IEC stadnards.

ITAM as a functional discipline dates back to the mid-1990s, but it began to gain a true identity in the late '90s when "IT Asset Manager" became a true dedicated position and a job title in itself. In many pioneering companies it started as (and remains) a corporate Finance function, and began with simple baselines, often driven by the financial penalities of losing track of leased desktop equipment (PC leasing was hitting its stride) and with the pending Y2K initiatives on the operational side.

Although IT asset managers began to meet and share knowledge through analyst-sponsored conferences dedicated to ITAM as well as the formation of IAITAM in ~2001, I agree that the IBPL guidelines are the first comprehensive "go-to" documentation set that covers all of the major processes from a true ITAM business perspective, as opposed to looking at assets primarily as a component of operationally-driven service management.