Enterprise computing asset management: a case study

Information technology (IT) is an essential supportive tool as well as a competitive weapon. Unfortunately, the cost of deploying, using and maintaining computers has also increased dramatically. Over time, the computing architecture has moved from being mainframe‐centered towards client/server computing interconnected with mainframes. Consequently, desktop asset management becomes the top priority to such an evolving system of managerial goals, strategies, and implementation tactics. Based on a study of Boeing Company’s infrastructure, this paper first discusses issues of computing asset management as well as the technologies used to manage these assets. In addition to presenting the recommendations given to Boeing, an enterprise computing asset management framework is proposed to encompass important factors in this paper.