At the 2025 TASCC Annual Conference, Ian Cahall, Associate Director and Principal Architect at Ondaro, joined industry peers to discuss the evolving landscape of IT Asset Management (ITAM) and the forces shaping its future. With more than a decade of experience helping organizations mature their ServiceNow environments across ITSM, ITOM, and ITAM, Ian brought a pragmatic and forward-looking perspective to the discussion.
As budgets tighten and organizations re-evaluate how they manage technology spend, asset management has moved from the sidelines to the center of strategic operations.
“The biggest shift we’re seeing,” Ian noted, “is that asset management is now a priority instead of a nice-to-have.”
This shift reflects both economic pressures and an increased awareness of how consolidating asset management workstreams can drive efficiency. Organizations are seeking to do more with fewer resources — integrating visibility, automation, and governance into a single, unified approach.
While many conversations about AI focus on automation potential, Ian emphasized a different, more immediate challenge: managing AI itself.
“It’s not so much about AI performing asset management,” he explained, “but managing AI as an asset.”
As companies rush to invest in AI tools and platforms, they often lack clarity on ROI and governance. With industry data suggesting that up to 70% of AI implementations are failing, visibility into AI spend has become essential. By applying ITAM principles — tracking, optimizing, and rationalizing — organizations can bring the same discipline to AI investments that they’ve long applied to traditional software and hardware assets.
For organizations embarking on ITAM initiatives, Ian underscored that successful partnerships start with honesty. Knowing where you are on the maturity curve and being transparent about capacity and readiness for change helps both sides create a roadmap that’s realistic and scalable.
“Partnerships work best when customers are honest about where they are,” Ian said. “That’s what allows us to align solutions to real needs and deliver measurable outcomes.”
When asked where organizations should start, Ian pointed to Software Asset Management (SAM) as one of the most efficient entry points. Deploying SAM Pro’s SaaS license management capabilities and targeting a few high-value publishers can quickly demonstrate ROI and set the stage for broader transformation. This “bang-for-buck” approach aligns with Ondaro’s philosophy of helping clients realize tangible results early, then expanding impact over time.
For Ian, ITAM doesn’t live in isolation but a foundation that supports every aspect of digital transformation. Whether it’s feeding data to security for risk management, enabling HR for onboarding and offboarding, or providing the visibility enterprise architecture teams need, asset management serves as connective tissue across the organization.
“The more we refine our assets,” Ian concluded, “the more we can automate and improve experiences for everyone.”