Evaluation service aims to optimise IT asset management

The majority of production facilities operating today are a mix of modern technologies with equipment operating well past its expected life cycle. Many companies are not entirely sure what equipment they have, or the specific risks that are associated with aging equipment. 

Manufacturers are now looking to converge information technology (IT) and operations technology (OT) systems, to create a unified enterprise. The new Software Inventory Evaluation service provides organisations with analysis of plant-floor IT assets – including servers, PCs, laptops and mobile devices – and of the various software installed on those assets. This can help identify potential compatibility risks between specific firmware and software versions as more systems are connected and devices are updated. It can also help close knowledge gaps among support staff regarding which software versions are used across a myriad of equipment, how many licenses are used or unused, and whether software is being properly supported.

“More than a software audit, the Software Inventory Evaluation service includes valuable analytics-based reporting that details areas of risk and provides insights for taking action,” said Andrew Wilber, Installed Base Evaluation service manager at Rockwell Automation. “It can also deliver significant cost savings. For example, it might identify opportunities to eliminate unused software and to migrate to concurrent licenses.”

The Enterprise Installed Base Evaluation service can include a multisite Software Inventory Evaluation service or Installed Base Evaluation service, which is used to analyse critical plant assets to provide a full accounting and analysis of an organisation’s IT and OT assets across the enterprise.  

Organisations can use the service to support specific corporate-wide initiatives, such as identifying the most critical assets, reducing obsolescence risks, managing corporate storeroom and spare parts initiatives, and ensuring all assets have up-to-date bills of material. 

“Organisations attempting to do comprehensive evaluations in-house often spend a year or longer collecting hardware data from a single facility,” said Wilber. “That can be a strain on resources, especially when expanded across multiple facilities. It also presents challenges in ensuring a standard methodology is used for collection. With the Enterprise Installed Base Evaluation service, we can collect this data and begin delivering actionable, insights-based reports in weeks.”