IT asset and license review

Purpose

Create a defensible view of who or what uses each asset and license, whether usage matches contractual entitlement, and where cost, security, or ownership action is needed.

Scope

Asset and license registers, people status, usage, contracts, renewal dates, and approved-tool lists. Excluded: uninstalling software, reallocating assets, cancelling contracts, or changing procurement records.

Data basis

• Asset and license tables with identifiers, owners, status, quantity, and usage.
• People table and approved software catalogue.
• Contracts, entitlements, pricing, renewal terms, and prior review.

Result

A findings sheet and cost-optimization memo with reconciled quantities, ownership exceptions, duplicate capabilities, and renewal priorities.

Quality criteria

• Every asset and license is classified as assigned, unassigned, inactive, over-entitled, under-entitled, or unresolved.
• Contract quantities and renewal dates are cited.
• Savings estimates show their calculation basis.
• Departed users and unknown owners are separate from inactive usage.

Instructions

Preserve vendor, product, contract, and asset identifiers. Do not equate no usage data with no usage. Separate compliance exposure from a cost opportunity. Deduplicate products by capability only when evidence supports the grouping. Use the company renewal and materiality rules; otherwise state the assumptions.

The review should make the population, calculation basis, and exception treatment understandable to a second operator. Preserve source identifiers in every working table, and state the effect of missing evidence on the decision. A reviewer must be able to reproduce each material result from the cited rows, clauses, dates, or policy rules. Where two sources disagree, show both values and explain which source was treated as authoritative.

Adapt before use

• Map source columns and identifiers across asset, license, people, and contract tables.
• Define inactive-use period, entitlement rules, and cost-savings treatment.
• Add the approved-tool catalogue and renewal calendar.