Boerger Consulting
Strengthening The Itam Posture With A Pragmatic Approach

IT asset management (ITAM) is fundamental to helping organizations track and manage software and hardware assets across all departments. With the right ITAM solution at their disposal, modern IT directors and ITAM leaders can curb their software spending by making informed decisions about their IT inventory, licenses and subscription renewal, and software updates. Efficiently managing IT and software calls for a reliable partner who can educate companies on the best practices to permanently address and resolve flaws in ITAM.

Boerger Consulting has mastered this feat with The Pragmatic ITAM Method.

“While the market is replete with consultants who just sell ITAM programs, we train our clients’ existing ITAM teams on valuable skills so they can take over and solve issues independently,” says Jeremy Boerger, owner and founder of Boerger Consulting.

An ITAM coaching and consulting organization, Boerger Consulting is one of the few companies equipped with the knowledge and expertise to design, strategize, and implement the right solutions using the tools clients have at their disposal, for effective asset management.

“While The Market Is Replete With Consultants Who Just Sell Itam Programs, We Train Our Clients’ Existing Itam Teams On Valuable Skills So They Can Take Over And Solve Issues Independently”

Using The Pragmatic ITAM Method—its proprietary methodology—Boerger Consulting helps large healthcare providers, banks, service organizations, and manufacturers contain out-of-control IT budgets caused by hefty audit penalties and unlicensed software, and reduce ITAM spending without laying off staff or reducing software purchases. The Pragmatic ITAM provides an inarguable defence against software audits, enabling clients to manage software assets securely.

The Pragmatic ITAM Method coaching model was born of the need to provide asset management education to help clients ace their software asset management game. Boerger realized that most companies lacked qualified inhouse ITAM professionals to handle the growing demand for asset management. He wanted to help clients bridge the gap by implementing robust solutions and coaching their teams to avoid common mistakes and ensure positive results.

Handholding Clients Throughout their ITAM Journey

In the Pragmatic ITAM Method, Boerger Consulting delegates a dedicated subject matter expert (SME) who works shoulderto- shoulder with clients’ existing teams and imparts the wisdom, experience, and knowledge they have garnered over the years. This is a more effective way for companies to educate their employees on efficient asset management compared to classroom training or testing.

Based on ISO/IEC best practices, The Pragmatic ITAM method is a series of activities and metrics that clients can use to measure their performance at each of the three tiers of the ISO 19770-1:2017.

The first tier is trustworthy data about the usage of hardware and software applications, while the second is asset lifecycle integration which uncovers opportunities to reduce IT costs. The third tier is optimization. Using the asset lifecycle and trustworthy data, clients can realize cost savings and tap into cost avoidance opportunities, push back on vendors, and drive better terms and conditions with a merger and acquisition or a divestiture.

Boerger Consulting focuses on discovering unmanaged devices— obtaining trustworthy data from clients’ configuration management database (CMDB), asset management database (AMDB), or other databases that keep track of deployed hardware and software products. With reliable data, the company brings shadow IT into the light, tracks undocumented hardware and software changes, and prevents the much-dreaded unexpected audits and crippling penalties that can damage an organization’s ITAM health.

“We cannot make good decisions from bad data. Knowledge of the problem inherently changes the nature of the problem; so, we go above and beyond to ensure the source of data, the database, is trustworthy,” says Boerger.

As Boerger Consulting is tool agnostic, it builds a list of KPIs and metrics that measure the performance of any CMDB tool that clients use. With the metrics, the company verifies that the database has accurate and updated information necessary to advance the ITAM process.

In the next step - asset lifecycle integration - Boerger Consulting uses trustworthy data to help clients keep a tab on their IT assets, including procurement, inventory, installation, recovery, and disposal. They can identify active assets on the network and track application users. Over time, clients can self-check critical success factors.

We Cannot Make Good Decisions From Bad Data. Knowledge Of The Problem Inherently Changes The Nature Of The Problem; So, We Go Above And Beyond To Ensure The Source Of Data, The Database, Is Trustworthy

Through its framework, Boerger Consulting allows clients to leverage software audit defence strategies to adhere to their software license agreements. If companies are not cautious about their edge, SaaS, and cloud computing applications’ licenses, they run the risk of unbudgeted penalties or over-purchasing. By knowing their baseline and understanding their actual IT needs, companies can mitigate this risk to a vast extent.

Boerger Consulting also performs data normalization and checks for contracts and data entry backlogs. Once the coaching is done, clients’ teams have the necessary knowledge to manage, measure, and track their hardware and software assets.

Finally, Boerger Consulting uses simple, powerful data visualization and analysis tools like MS Excel to coach clients on creating easy-to-interpret ITAM reports and determining their accuracy and reliability. With the reporting capability, clients can discover critical insights into their hardware and software assets. The leadership teams can use the KPIs and metrics handed to them to manage the effectiveness of ITAM. If any indicator goes red, clients can reach out to the coach and reengage them to right the ship.

From gathering trustworthy data to instilling all the ITAM skills through coaching, Boerger Consulting builds and strengthens clients’ trust throughout the engagement and maintains it afterward.

Propelling Clients toward Lasting Success

The Pragmatic ITAM methodology has helped numerous clients navigate the ITAM challenges and achieve success. In one instance, Boerger Consulting worked with a large hospital group that was faced with a software audit for Microsoft Office. They were being forced into an Office 365 online migration faster than they expected and ended up spending more than anticipated.

The Boerger Consulting team stepped in, reorganized the data, and used the Pragmatic ITAM to ensure that the data generated from System Center Configuration Manager, active directory, Azure, and Office 365 login accounts was trustworthy. In the process, Boerger Consulting discovered a group of doctors and nurses who were never issued a corporate laptop or desktop for their own use, leveraging the Office 365 license on corporate computers designed for medical records. After presenting this information to Microsoft, the healthcare conglomerate recovered $1.5m from a three-year MS Office 365 contract.

The goal of trustworthy data is at the core of Boerger Consulting’s excellence. Without trustworthy data, companies end up spending significant time striving to confirm whether or not the data is anchoring.

As Boerger Consulting takes this concept to heart, clients can trust its coaches and methodology and build enduring relationships with them. With the Pragmatic ITAM Method accomplishments are not only certain for clients but also verifiable; they can confirm their findings through the KPIs and build upon trust.

“Asset management is all about outcomes. So, our tagline goes, ‘we can cut your software spending without buying less software,’” says Boerger.

Strengthening his attempts to help clients make strategic IT decisions, Boerger has authored a book named “Rethinking Information Technology Asset Management.” It features The Pragmatic ITAM method that empowers leadership teams to speak the same language as ITAM to maximize the ROI of their IT investments.

Boerger Consulting is exploring growth opportunities and possibilities that are new chapters to be written. The company is adding more coaches and subject matter experts to its team. Empowering clients to overcome future ITAM crises independently, Boerger Consulting continues to impart all the knowledge needed to ensure positive, permanent results.