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ITAK Volume 3 Issue 1
Official publication of the
International Association of IT Asset Managers, Inc.
- President's Letter - Barbara Rembiesa, IAITAM President
My daughter came home from 5th grade this week to inform me that electronic waste was going to kill us all. She stated that third world countries receive all of our trash and the people work for many hours to strip the copper & gold out of the units only to get a dollar or two in return. Then the other parts are burned and the smoke causes many children to die every day. I had a two hour lecture on the dangers of electronic waste from my child.
- Strategic Software Asset Acquisition in Hard Times and All Times - Ellen Stein Esq., Vice President and General Counsel, IAITAM
Budget cuts. A looming recession. The rising price of oil. Heated primary races and what is sure to be an even hotter contested presidential race. In today’s ever-changing environment of budget cuts and shifting priorities, the strategic management of your company’s IT assets is more important than ever.
- ITAM Crystal Ball - Eight Predictions for 2008 - Robert J. Scott, Managing Partner of Scott & Scott, LLP
2007 was an exciting and dynamic year for the software asset management industry. As we enter a new year, the software industry will continue to evolve. Here are my predictions for what will happen in 2008.
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Embracing Change - The Mainstreaming of IT Asset Management in Corporate America - Ed Cartier, Partner, Sage Technology Resources
Change is widely embraced in technology circles. Innovative products have changed the way business is done and how work is performed. Some technologies spur new industries, just to be eclipsed or absorbed into another. For example, dedicated word processors gave way to the PC, only after establishing the value of electronic data creation. In retrospect, it is easy to identify a wealth of technologies that were once innovations (and often regarded skeptically as effective business tools) which eventually became integrated into everyday business operations. Examples include, automated teller machines, client-server computing and even TC/IP networking. These were all novel at one time, and adoption required extensive study to justify the investment. (In my banking days, one Senior VP asked the ATM Committee “Why should I buy a ATM for $25,000 when I can hire a live teller for $5,000 a year?”) Today no bank would open a branch without installing an ATM and no company would consider operating without a distributed network connecting all of its operations and providing its employees with the ability to create, store and share electronically created documents and files.
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Relationship Management - A Golden Opportunity for ITAM Professionals - Larry Shoup, Founder and CEO, Silver Tree Solutions, Inc.
IT Asset Management (ITAM) is often a highly satisfying pursuit and, at the same time, a frustrating career path for the professionals who engage in it. It produces tangible benefits to organizations that are committed to it as a core competency. The significant hard dollar savings and risk reduction it generates can earn ITAM professionals credit for direct bottom-line improvements.
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Focused Musings - David Keith, Director of Strategic Development & Government Practices, IAITAM
It seems strange to me to write about acquisition whether it be a type of asset or another company while there is so much press being given right now about the possibility of an up-coming recession. If you are working in many of the areas of the financial industry not only is there a possibility but you may already be right in the middle of a serious downturn.
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Are You Ready for a Change - Acquisition: A Category of Change for IT Business Managers - Jenny Schuchert, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Animus Solutions, Inc.
What do you think is meant by the word acquisition? For the IT business professional, acquisition is both a daily activity and an atypical job-changing event. As an ordinary business practice, acquisition describes obtaining the resources for internal users performing the business of the company as well as for those managing the company. Atypical acquisition events include acquiring a new division or company, being acquired by another company, or acquiring more responsibilities within a global organization. All of these definitions of acquisitions have implications for the management of IT resources.
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Software Licensing - The Forgotten Feature of Software Publishing - John Tomeny, Director of Marketing, Sassafras Software Inc.
This month, ITAK magazine introduces a new monthly column on software licensing. I have often thought of licensing as the forgotten feature in software publishing. This will be a common theme of the column as we examine software licensing models that work - or not - and explore ways that different licensing models can be improved both for the benefit of customers and publishers.
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Process Demystified - Deima Elnatour is an IT Asset Manager
While this seems to be the case with a number of topics in IT, process certainly ranks high on the list. Process is like the elephant in the room that no one really wants to talk about. If anyone dares to discuss process, we are likely to hear the following words: bureaucratic, rigid, old, does not work, and de-humanizes human tasks. While processes are often miss-understood and underrated; when done right, they certainly make all the difference. This column has been dedicated to this very topic, PROCESS. I will take you on a journey to demystify process and teach you all that you need to know about it to be successful at what you do with asset management programs within your respective organization.
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Prescription for Business - Compliance, Continuity and Crisis Management: Three Reasons to Protect the Applications that Run Your Business - David Strouse, Manager, Iron Mountain Intellectual Property Management
What if...? What do a lighting storm, an act of terrorism, and your software vendor going out of business have in common?
All are disruptions to your business in one form or another, and each can wreak havoc with your daily operations, resulting in lost revenue, lost productivity, and in extreme cases, loss of life.
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