Effective Desktop Management begins with knowing what you have to manage. Complete and accurate asset and license management is key. Knowing how many machines of what type, their location, memory, hard drive, processor speed, etc, is a big step forward for many small and medium sized businesses. Tools available today have automatic discovery capabilities and excellent management reporting which can assist IT staff in establishing and maintaining good processes for asset management. With an accurate picture of the installed hardware base, it becomes much easier to assess operating system and business suite software upgrades.