Information Technology asset management programmes used to help IT
managers keep track of technology investments has fallen into
diprepair.
One of the problems chief information officers and other IT
executives encounter is that they often place too much emphasis on
using asset management software to track their technology
inventories, said Pat Cicala, president and chief executive officer
of Cicala & Associates, an asset management services and
research firm.
IT managers do not pay enough attention to the people and processes
needed to manage such efforts, Cicala added.
"I'd say that more than 80% of IT asset management programmes
either stall or become problematic, even if they've got a few years
under their belts."
Steve Hammond, vice-president of information services at
Plasti-Line, recommends that an asset management programme be
simplified as much as possible.
"Don't overcomplicate it with a software solution, where you become
a slave to the software," he said.
Plasti-Line, which makes signs, menu boards and other corporate
branding products, implemented an asset management programme four
years ago when it standardised on Dell Computer's PCs and servers.
Dell slaps an asset tag on every piece of hardware that Plasti-Line
buys or leases, and Plasti-Line uses an Excel spreadsheet to track
the equipment.
Many asset management programmes run into trouble because IT
departments tend to conduct quarterly sweeps of IT inventories and
"end up missing what's going on out there" between the sweeps, said
Howard Rubin, executive vice-president at Meta Group. Such
programmes fail because companies use procedures that "don't give
them timeliness and accuracy".
IT departments struggling to get funding for asset management
programmes should start small with a project such as tracking
distributed software licences to show the value of the concept to
senior management, suggested Frances O'Brien, an analyst at
Gartner.