"If you think nobody cares about you, try missing a couple of payments." - Steven Wright
So we talked about saving money in our last blog post and one area in particular we discussed was cost avoidance. Another easy way to avoid spending extra money is to be proactive with contracts.
If equipment is leased, the leasing company expects that at the end of the lease contract, the equipment will either be returned, or more money will be coming their way. In other words, before a lease expires, the equipment needs to be rounded up and prepared for return. This will take some time to accomplish, especially if there is a significant amount of equipment that needs to be returned at one time. Having some advance notice of that end date becomes very important.
A mature ITAM program manages contracts. And part of managing the contracts is knowing when they end. Not all contacts require equipment to be returned, but the end date of the contract does signify the end of something. It might be the end of maintenance or a warranty on a particular piece of equipment. Maybe it’s a subscription for SaaS (Software as a Service) where the end user will no longer be able to access that software. No matter what is covered by the contract, it’s important to know when it ends.
Contracts may not be a “Phase 1” addition to an ITAM program, but keep them on the radar!
