As 2025 draws to a close, one word dominates every IT conversation: visibility. Enterprises are embracing AI, tightening cybersecurity, and preparing for new ESG and CSRD reporting duties, yet most still lack a reliable picture of what assets they actually own, use, and pay for. When Flexera released its 2025 State of IT Asset Management Report (June 2025), the message was clear:
Only 51 percent of organisations fully trust their asset data, and 6 in 10 cite “visibility gaps” as their top management concern.
Four months later, that insight has only grown more relevant. This paper explores why visibility remains the defining ITAM priority for 2026, and how a data-driven, well-governed ITAM practice can deliver it. ITAM solutions helps organisations achieve that visibility by combining governance frameworks, tooling expertise, and managed services that keep asset data accurate, current, and decision-ready.
The Visibility Gap That Won’t Go Away
Hybrid IT, SaaS sprawl, and remote work have made asset tracking exponentially harder. Multiple discovery tools create overlapping datasets; SaaS contracts renew invisibly; virtual machines multiply in hours. According to Flexera 2025, 43 percent of enterprises now maintain five or more discovery sources, and a third admit their inventories conflict. That lack of coherence leads to:
- Financial waste – Unused licences and duplicate subscriptions.
- Compliance exposure – Audit surprises due to missing or mis-classified assets.
- Security risk – Untracked devices and unpatched software.
- ESG blind spots – Incomplete lifecycle and disposal records.
For Dutch organisations preparing 2026 budgets and sustainability reports, closing this gap is urgent.
Visibility as a Business Outcome, Not a Tool Feature
Buying another discovery product rarely fixes visibility problems. True visibility is an outcome of four ingredients working together:
- Reliable discovery tools – integrated across on-prem, cloud, and SaaS.
- Data quality management – normalisation, deduplication, and enrichment.
- Governance processes – clear ownership, validation routines, KPIs.
- Ongoing operations – people and managed services maintaining integrity over time.
This holistic approach is where ITAM solutions operates: ensuring tools, processes, and people align so that data becomes trustworthy information, not just another database.
Why Visibility Matters More Than Ever in 2026
- AI Readiness
Every ITAM vendor now touts AI-driven analytics, but AI is only as smart as the data beneath it. Clean, contextualised asset data enables predictive lifecycle planning, anomaly detection, and spend forecasting.
- Cyber Resilience
With NIS2 enforcement expanding in 2026, visibility is a security requirement. You can’t patch or protect what you can’t see. Accurate inventories bridge ITAM and Security, powering vulnerability management and incident response.
- ESG and CSRD Compliance
Lifecycle transparency underpins sustainability metrics, from device reuse to carbon impact. Without accurate asset histories, CSRD reporting becomes unreliable. Visibility connects ITAM to corporate responsibility.
The ITAM solutions Approach to Sustainable Visibility
Step 1 – Assessment & Benchmarking
Evaluate data accuracy, tool integration, and process maturity. Our assessments align with ISO 19770 and leading frameworks.
Step 2 – Data Governance Design
Define ownership, validation frequency, and KPIs for each asset domain.
Step 3 – Tooling Optimisation
Implement or fine-tune platforms to ensure discovery coverage and automated reconciliation.
Step 4 – Managed Services & Continuous Improvement
Our consultants monitor data quality, normalise records, and deliver actionable insights so internal teams can focus on value, not maintenance.
Step 5 – Reporting & Enablement
Dashboards and training translate visibility into executive-level value: cost savings, risk reduction, sustainability progress.
Building a Culture of Visibility
Sustainable visibility depends on people as much as technology. ITAM solutions helps clients cultivate:
- Shared accountability across IT, Security, Procurement, and Finance.
- Data stewardship – every record owned, validated, and trusted.
- Transparency – regular communication of metrics and wins to leadership.
- Upskilling – training ITAM professionals to interpret and act on data trends.
Visibility becomes part of the organisation’s DNA rather than a project milestone.
Preparing for 2026 and Beyond
The year of 2026 will test every IT organization’s data foundation: AI initiatives will demand trustworthy input; NIS2 audits will scrutinize inventory accuracy; CSRD reports will require evidence of lifecycle management. The good news? The same disciplined ITAM practice that drives license compliance and cost control also delivers the visibility those initiatives depend on.
Conclusion
We saw that the Flexera 2025 report warned that visibility gaps were widening just as cost and risk pressures intensified. Now, Dutch organisations are acting, not by buying more tools, but by maturing their ITAM processes.
ITAM solutions enables that maturity: aligning people, processes, and technology so asset data becomes a strategic, trusted resource. Visibility isn’t a product you purchase; it’s a capability you build, and maintain.
Is your ITAM data ready for 2026? Contact ITAM solutions to schedule a Data Maturity Assessment or explore how our managed SAM services can help your organisation achieve sustainable visibility across hardware, software, SaaS, and cloud.
