Case Studies

Optimize Power, Cooling, and Space

An international insurance company utilized Asset Point to optimize the power, space & cooling in a new 50,000 sq. ft. data center they were constructing. They were looking to leverage the most advanced tools and applications to deliver a minimum 5% reduction in power consumption, with a further goal of enabling proactive modeling for future IT asset change events. Using Asset Point and our technology partner Future Facilities, our client was able to utilize hot & cold aisles more effectively during the data center move-in, while maximizing the rack and cabinet space. They exceeded their power savings goal in the first month of operation and are using Asset Point to model and predict the impact of Move, Add and Change (MAC) events.

Recovering Lost Physical Capacity

A prominent international bank saved $500,000 in six months by redeploying idle assets. After the client eliminated its Equity Trading business, assets from 500 positions were placed into a Central Staging Area (CSA). As new requests for assets were received, the Purchasing department queried Asset Point to find an appropriate piece of equipment in the CSA. For the next six months, no new hardware had to be purchased, enabling the client to avoid spending over $500,000.

Warehouse Inventory & Consolidation Saves $150,000

Over several years, a major global banking firm sent excess equipment into six separate warehouse storage areas. Unfortunately, with no process to track this equipment, assets could not be accounted for or located. Asset Point was used to inventory over 5000 assets stored in 600 crates. During the inventory process we discarded obsolete equipment, separated leased assets and identified working hardware for redeployment. As a result, assets were consolidated into a central staging area (CSA). This enabled the client to reduce storage costs by $10,000 per month, return unused leased assets and provided a base for future redeployment of assets.

Reducing IT Operating Costs

A financial services client had a company-wide base of 25,000 assets, of which 4,000 were leased. Due to impending lease expirations, the client needed to either locate and return the leased assets, or pay a premium to buy them out. The problem, however, was that they had no idea where within the company the leased assets were located. Asset Point was used to conduct a full inventory. By comparing serial numbers to lease contracts, nearly all of the leased equipment was located. Armed with this information, the client was able to negotiate a lease buyout at a favorable rate; the estimated savings were over $500,000.

$150,000 in Maintenance Contract Savings

An established brokerage house was paying unnecessary maintenance costs for assets in storage. Asset Point was implemented and a full inventory performed to identify all assets and their locations. As a result, inactive and spare equipment was removed from the maintenance contracts, resulting in cost reduction. These efforts also enabled them to track hardware still covered under warranty and add these assets to the maintenance contract only upon warranty expiration. Using Asset Point and our process to efficiently manage their maintenance contracts saved the client $150,000 in the first year alone.

Automating a Physical Audit

In preparation for the sale of one of its businesses, a client estimated the value of their IT assets at $10 million. Asset Point was employed to verify the physical inventory to be transferred and link Asset Point to the IT Fixed Asset Registry, determining the net book value. During the inventory and valuation of the business, over $13 million of assets were identified - adding 30% to the initial sale value.

Insurance Claim Validation

In late August 2001, Asset Point completed a full inventory of 3200 user positions and 400 Data Center cabinets for a leading North American financial institution located in the World Financial Center (WFC). The events of September 11th forced the client to abandon this office space. The Asset Point system was restored in the backup Data Center within a week, allowing the client to furnish the insurance company with full reports on all assets lost and file their claim without delay. The availability of accurate reports significantly decreased the claim processing time. Moreover, knowing the individual departmental needs and exact types and quantities of equipment to be ordered, allowed the client to quickly resume business operations.

Validation of $15 Million in Asset Transfer

A major investment bank needed office space quickly and was negotiating the purchase of a new 40-story furnished building from a competitor. Asset Point inventoried the 4,000+ assets over a period of five days. Management reports were generated and the inventory was reconciled to the PO's, verifying the value of a $15 million asset transfer and validating the purchase price.

A 1,000 Server move

In normal operational mode, a leading financial services organization performed over 1000 Move, Add and Change (MAC) events each month. A dedicated team of 15 people was required to manually perform pre-move inventories. As there was no centralized asset management database, these inventories were not maintained post-move. When Asset Point was implemented by our MAC specialists, significant efficiencies were achieved, reducing the inventory process time by 75%. Consequently, half of the team was redeployed to focus on core business tasks.

Automating IT Transformation

A major pharmaceutical client empowered its Business Continuity Planning (BCP) team with the Move Planning capabilities of Asset Point. The BCP team created and managed move plans for each business group, addressing potential outage scenarios. Floor plans populated with employee and equipment information were generated as a blueprint for the Disaster Recovery sites. These reports, move plans and floor plans were compiled into "playbooks" and kept up-to-date with Asset Point information.

GL Reconciliation & Integration

A global financial services company needed to determine the net book value of their technology assets in order to reconcile their General Ledger. Asset Point performed a complete inventory of their IT assets, and researched the net book value of each asset model and populated this information into the Asset Point Finance Module. This exercise also enabled the client to support and justify the financial write-down of unused assets. Finally, Asset Point automated the transfer of data from Asset Point to their General Ledger, eliminating the need for future reconciliation efforts.

Inventory & Document 200,000 Sq Ft New Data Center

An international insurance company requested Asset Point's services to implement an Information Technology Asset Management system to support their newly constructed Data Center. Asset Point was implemented to support these requirements, and to become a repository for the technology and user information within their facilities. Asset Point performed a complete inventory of the new Data Center, developed cabinet elevation diagrams and created and maintained the patching schedules.

During the initial phase Asset Point assisted the company with a review of their current Move, Add and Change (MAC) process, and provided process recommendations to be implemented for the new Data Center. This review included the initial receipt of equipment, asset tagging, installation planning and day-two asset management (including the MAC process). Training plans and documentation were developed for their operational groups. The Asset Point Graphics link was used to automatically generate approximately 300 cabinet elevation diagrams.