ITAK Volume 2 Issue 2

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

Download the complete magazine Volume 2 Issue 2  (7MB file)

Download individual articles:

 

1. President's Letter - Barbara Rembiesa, IAITAM President 

           Now that it's been a fair amount of time since the release of ISO/IEC 19770-1, I wanted to ask a question of all who have reviewed it.  Is it any more than what has been turned out in the trades, industry white papers, IAITAM certification materials, research and seminars given by Gartner and Forrester and a wide range of other easily-accessed information from people in the industry?  Is there any new information, or am I missing something?
   

2. Ship or Not to Ship - Lowering the Logistics Costs of Electronics Recycling
           Logistics costs in the supply chain have inescapable implications for the recycling of end-of-life technology assets. Organizations either pay directly for pick-up and delivery to recycling plants, or incur hidden, internal costs of moving materials in the form of higher recycling charges. Depending upon the location and types of equipment involved, logistics can represent upwards of 75% of the total cost of electronics recycling. This percentage has increased in recent years and exerted upward pressure on recycling costs.  The recent trend is attributable to three main factors: 1) rising fuel costs, 2) labor shortages in the transportation industry, and 3) a corresponding increase in labor costs as a result of the labor shortage. In this article, we examine each of these underlying factors and offer a potential strategy for mitigating the impact of rising logistics costs.
    
3. Looking Under the Covers - Establishing IT Accountbility After Mergers & Acquisitions: 5 Steps to Ease the Transition and Reduce License Exposure

          Corporate consolidations tend to have several things in common:  Large collections of new desktops, software, and devices needing to be integrated into previously standardized infrastructure; storage closets stacked to the hilt with PCs – and not much clarity as to what’s on them, or when their leases are up; and, countless help desk phone calls with questions from confused employees.
   

4. Getting Outside Help - Billions at Stake in Software Licensing Knowledge Gaps

          Most IT professionals – especially CIOs – wouldn’t bet their next paycheck on their company’s software licensing compliance today.  Sadly, this is not a surprise.  It is now common practice to set aside additional dollars in excess of the existing IT budget to pay for annual licensing and maintenance support fees.  This year alone, companies will spend more than $100 billion on enterprise software maintenance costs (including licensing fees) in addition to the nearly $160 billion on software purchases.  According to the IDS, that number will grow to $137 billion by 2010, representing nearly half of software vendors’ revenue.   
   

5. Cover Story: Time to Dig In - Managing Software License Disputes: Cooperation or Litigation

          When company executives are approached by software publishers who claim that the companies are violating the terms of their software licenses, they often wonder whether they should cooperate or dig in and prepare for litigation.  In my experience, the best strategy depends on a variety of legal and business factors.  This article discusses common software dispute resolution frameworks and concludes that a combined approach of cooperation and preparation for litigation usually leads to the most favorable outcome for clients.
   

6. Work with Accounting: Why Are Some of My Assets Fixed?  
        One of the on-going points of confusion in the ITAM world, especially if you are not an accountant and are new to ITAM, is the overlap between Fixed Assets (F/A) and IT assets.  In general, as IT asset managers, some of the assets that we are concerned with are fixed (in the accounting definition) and some of our company’s fixed assets are of interest to IT asset management.  This article is a primer for the non-accountant on what is considered a fixed asset and what we, as IT asset managers, need to be concerned about.
   
7. Data Security - The Role of ITAM in Regulatory Security Compliance

          Finding a business that doesn’t have some regulatory compliance challenge is rare these days. From Sarbanes-Oxley to Gramm-Leach-Bliley to HIPAA, regulatory compliance is a major ongoing issue for corporate America. In most regulatory scenarios, IT asset management plays a strategic role in compliance, and that role is expanding as organizations more closely align ITAM with security initiatives driven by compliance requirements.
   

8. Team Building - Raytheon Teams with Customers to Improve Property Management

         Teaming with your customers to improve your processes and your property control system, for most of us, is frightening. The thought of helping your customer discover flaws in your system seems risky, not to mention the thought of losing a customer system certification.
   

9. Server Consolidation - The Impact of Virtualization to IT Asset Management
        Virtualization is most likely either part of your IT infrastructure today or on the project list for this year.  While virtualization is a relatively new addition to the tools organizations use to manage servers, the flexibility and increase in ROI that can be gained is stirring a great deal of interest.  Over the last few years, server farms have become large and chaotic, partly due to the tendency to purchase a new server for every new application or processing requirement.  The influx of new servers most likely occurred due to the declining cost of servers and the cumbersome implementation procedures arising from security and compliance (SOX, HIPAA) requirements.  Capacity utilization and ROI were not the top criteria in the last few years and a return to these criteria offer opportunities for increased savings and manageability.