For the sake of this discussion, I’m going to refer to the Wikipedia definition of a performance metric.

Performance metrics measure an organization’s activities and performance. It should support a range of stakeholder needs from customers, shareholders to employees. While traditionally many metrics are finance based, inwardly focusing on the performance of the organization, metrics may also focus on the performance against customer requirements and value.

Without metrics that reflect what is happening in the environment, it is difficult to assess where there may be problems or where everything is functioning seamlessly. As a result, IT asset management programs will put in place basic hardware asset management metrics that track both spare parts/stockroom inventory and deployed hardware.

Determining which assets are within scope is the first step to creating useful hardware metrics. The scope of the metrics should not include any BYOD assets or contractor’s hardware, if it was not purchase by the organization.

SOURCE: linkedin.com