ITAK Volume 3 Issue 4

Official publication of International Association of IT Asset Managers, Inc. 

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President's Letter  By: Barbara Rembiesa, President of IAITAM Compliance and Legislation: two words that strike fear into the hearts of business entities around the globe.  IAITAM established itself preaching to the world that compliance was achievable and should be managed as a key and ongoing process of your ITAM program.  Now the world is waking up to the fact that by adhering to the goals of compliance and legislative mandates, they can reap other advantages for the organization.  What advantages you say?  Let me start by pointing out three typical areas within the Asset Management Program where you can save budget dollars and avoid non-budgeted costs.

Cover Story Gramm-Leach-Bliley and You - Complying with the GLBA Privacy and Software Rules  By: Robert J. Scott, Managing Partner of Scott & Scott, LLP An estimated 9 million American adults were the victims of identity fraud in 2006, and the fraud totaled $56.6 billion. There are a number of legislative efforts designed to protect the privacy, security, and confidentiality of customer data. One such law, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (the "GBLA"), also known as the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999, was passed in 1999 and effectively repealed the Banking Act of 1933 and amended the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956.

Feature Article ITAM = Savings - Bracing a Business for Recession  By: Marcus Scholes, Vice President of U. S. Operations for Real Asset Management International Economic indicators are pointing toward difficult times for businesses, but effective asset management can help strengthen a business quickly. Economic forecasts are increasingly pointing toward recession, a prospect not missed by executive management teams and the boards of many private and public entities who are exploring ways to proactively strengthen their financial positions so that their businesses may ride out the economic downturn.  Software Gets Tagged - Why Do We Need Software Tags  By: Krzysztof Baczkiewicz, IT Standards Support Department Manager for Eracent, Inc. Although Asset Tags are commonly used, Software Tag (ST) is a relatively new term.  Asset Tag is an identification code of a physical item.  It is usually stored on a label and in an Asset Management system.  Since Software is not a physical item it is more difficult to define what a Software Tag is.  It is not possible to put a physical label on software.  A solution to this problem had to be found. Calculate This - Creating a Total Cost of Ownership for Printers By: Taylor Herschleb, IT Analyst II for Consumers Energy Making changes to a printer fleet can be a costly venture. Understanding the costs involved, requires a “total cost of ownership” (TCO) process that looks at all of the costs the company has incurred in procuring the devices and providing ongoing support. No standard way of calculating the TCO of printers exists today in the industry.  This is largely due to the vastness of the industry itself.  Many vendors offer different financing solutions based upon customers’ needs. Vendor A, for instance, may offer a printer that can be purchased outright, leaving consumables, support and maintenance for the customer to deal with.  Or the device could be leased with a monthly minimum and a “per click” charge that covers the cost of the device, consumables, support and maintenance throughout the life of the device.  The vendor may also offer hybrid solutions, such as allowing the customer to purchase the device outright with consumables, support or maintenance provided by the vendor.  Whatever the arrangement, the costs of procurement, installation and ongoing operations of the device must be tracked from the outset.

This Months Columns

Process Demystified - ITAM Program - Ready or Not? By: Deima Elnatour, Founder and President of Elnatour Consulting Group LLC "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit" - Aristotle We know by now that ITAM programs are large in size and complex in scope and implementation. Communication in these types of programs is a key success factor. Simply because it takes the organization an extended period of time to reach the end goal and it is critical to take the time to communicate and celebrate the small wins that ultimately lead to the finish line. Also the fact that organizations are dynamic in nature where players and people change, makes it important to constantly communicate and reiterate overall goals, past achievements and next steps. It takes organizations a period of 10 years to reach a level 4 or 5 maturity in ITAM programs. Some organizations say that 10 years is too long and simply not acceptable. Maybe so, but if this is the reality, we should not be wasting time arguing about timeframes and how long it should take to fully mature an ITAM program. Enterprise-wide Consolidation on the CIO's Menu: Preparing Ingredients By: Jenny Schuchert, VP of Sales and Marketing for Animus Solutions, Inc. When executives are weighing their options for savings and cost-cutting, one of the choices is to consolidate resources. This year, the usual round of re-organizations just might include an executive directive to reduce the number of data centers over the next 18-24 months.  Data center consolidation removes the ties to regions or business units in favor of centralized and homogenized IT assets to reduce duplication.   The expected results are savings from reduced energy consumption and lower costs for maintenance and support.   Balanced against these savings are the anticipated costs of the consolidation project which include moving equipment, HR costs, upgrading infrastructure at the chosen site and renegotiating some contracts. The Strategic Relationship Model By: Larry Shoup, Founder and CEO of Silver Tree Solutions, Inc.  In my previous articles, I discussed the ROI from Strategic Relationship Optimization™ (SRO) and the exciting new career opportunity for ITAM professionals to manage external relationships as corporate assets.  We now turn our attention to defining what it means to manage external relationship as corporate assets.  We will start by examining the Strategic Relationship Model™ shown below.