ITAK Volume 3 Issue 3

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

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President's Letter  By: Barbara Rembiesa, President of IAITAM How important is Communication and Education to an effective Asset Management Program?  There are those times when I, like everyone else out there, sometimes thinks “am I just talking to a brick wall?” Or, “I must be speaking in a foreign language because no one seems to truly understand what I am trying to say.”  What happens when the same situation occurs in the business world?  What are the consequences to the organization when the knowledge you have to convey to your key stakeholders, your executive committee, subordinates and co-workers is misinterpreted or worse, completely ignored?  Cover Story Asset Tags Get Smart - IT Hardware and Privacy Data Losses Remain Epidemic  By: Allan Griebenow, President & CEO of Axcess International Inc. News reports on the loss of intellectual property and personal privacy information are now so commonplace that they are buried deep in newspapers and no longer covered on TV newscasts.  But missing IT hardware, particularly laptops, continues to increase at epidemic rates.  Consider there were already more than 750,000 lost records* in only the first two months of 2008.   Feature Article Active RFID - Energizing Asset Management in the Data Center  By: Mitch Medford, CEO of RF Code Most large companies have embraced IT asset management as a valuable pursuit with a quantifiable set of contributions to the bottom line.  As companies recognize the value of a unified ITAM program, attention is being devoted more equally among hardware and software assets.    As this happens, a hierarchy of hardware assets soon becomes apparent.  At the top of any company’s infrastructure pyramid are the servers that power its most critical processes and the storage devices that maintain its most sensitive data.  These servers drive modern financial institutions, government agencies, communications networks and electronic commerce services. They are arguably the most valuable and most guarded IT assets in any organization. Are You Ready? - IT Asset Management (ITAM) Helps Assess Windows Vista Readiness and Prepare for Deployment  By: David Yashar, Founder & CEO of Soft-aid, Inc. Over a year has passed since the general release of Microsoft’s Windows Vista Operating System (OS). Sales for Vista licenses exceeded 88 million through October 2007, but demand remains strong for its predecessor, Windows XP. In November 2007, analyst firm Forrester Research reported that 84 percent of enterprise PCs in the U.S. and Europe still run on Windows XP, which translates to over 400 million copies. Demand for the older operating system has been strong enough that Microsoft and other vendors have had to adjust.  Microsoft recently extended direct OEM and retail Windows XP license availability from January 31 to June 30, 2008; and systems builder (i.e. smaller OEM) Windows XP license availability does not end until January 31, 2009.  The company is also working on a third service pack (SP3) of hotfixes for Windows XP, slated for release in the first half of 2008. And in April 2007, Dell backtracked and resumed offering XP as an option on select new models.  Tagging in 7 Steps - Practical Guide for Tagging Your IT Assets By: Nasrin Azari, President of Mobile Reach Best-practice IT Asset Management (ITAM) stresses the importance of maintaining a complete and accurate Configuration Management Database (CMDB), or Asset Repository, that is kept up-to-date in a timely fashion.  As the heart of ITIL Service Management, the quality of your CMDB determines the quality of your IT Service Management processes.  i.e. better information about the assets in your environment ensures quicker turnaround on Incidents and Problems, shortens the cycle time to implement Changes, reduces the risk of introducing errors during environment changes, aids in capacity planning, etc, etc.  Having the processes in place to maintain a complete, accurate, and up-to-date asset repository is the foundation of a well-functioning IT organization.  This Months Columns Improving Project Communication By: Jenny Schuchert, VP of Sales and Marketing for Animus Solutions, Inc. and Barbara Rigney, Senior Consultant for Animus Solutions, Inc. “You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can't get them across, your ideas won't get you anywhere” - Lee Iacocca 1924- , former CEO of Chrysler Even in the age of cell phones, email and PDAs, poor communication remains one of the key reasons that projects fail.  Just about any project failure list includes “lack of communication.”  This statement doesn’t really explain the problem.   In most cases, the communication events failed in some way to build the cooperative environment necessary to make the project successful.   How can we improve the results of communication during a project?  Expectations are high and the pressure is on.  In order to do a better job, let’s examine the role of communication, how to plan for it and review suggestions on successfully delivering on the plan.  Maximizing Relationship ROI By: Larry Shoup, Founder and CEO of Silver Tree Solutions, Inc. In my previous article, I discussed how managing external relationships as corporate assets provides a new career opportunity for ITAM professionals.  As you explore this opportunity with your management, some of their early questions will center on the payback from this new initiative.  This article discusses the ROI gained by applying the discipline of Strategic Relationship Optimization™ (SRO) to inter-organizational relationships.  Process Demystified - ITAM Process - The Big Picture By: Deima Elnatour, Founder and President of Elnatour Consulting Group LLC ITAM processes are critical to the success of the overall ITAM program. So now we must face the question: what processes do we really need in order to build a solid ITAM program? And how do these processes interact with one another? To answer these questions let us first address the scope of ITAM programs. Scope definition is an important first step. We need to think about the activities that should be included in ITAM programs and why. This will provide us with a foundation to design related processes for each perspective area within the scope of our asset management practice. The asset’s journey from Cradle to Grave is usually used to describe the scope of ITAM programs. The problem is this could mean a number of different things to different people. I like to think of the cradle as the point that the asset becomes a liability for my organization. In other words, when the asset shows up at my loading duck, the ITAM program processes kick in to ensure proper handling and tracking of the asset. So if the asset gets lost in the shipment and delivery process and never make it to my site, then ITAM processes are not invoked and there is nothing for me to worry about from an ITAM perspective. I am not saying that we should not care about the processes that track the asset during the ordering and delivery phases. What I am suggesting however, is that such details need to be addressed by my procurement system. Most companies have fully functioning and strong procurement processes and tools. Since this area is not an issue, we will not worry about it. What is missing however, are the processes that manage the assets once they show up at the destination site where they would be deployed to serve a particular purpose. Therefore, it is critical that we design ITAM processes that can address such gaps and provide accurate tracking and management of the received asset throughout its lifecycle.