ITAK Volume 3 Issue 11 Official publication of International Association of IT Asset Managers, Inc.    Download the complete magazine ITAK Volume 3 Issue 11 (10.8 MB) - Project Management   President's Letter  By: Barbara Rembiesa, President of IAITAM    This month’s ITAK theme is Project Management.  Over our lifetimes we will all be engaged in a multitude of projects whether they are at the office or for your child’s 4th grade science project.  The term “project” is part of every day vernacular in our lives.  How does Project Management differ when considering ITAM?  Does it, and what then do you have at your disposal to reference as a best practice guide for the differing needs of an IT Asset Manager?  Read More... Cover Story   ITAM Project Management - From Ad Hoc Practices to Streamlined Processes By: Dan Ingouf, Content Development Manager for IAITAM  Just as our dedicated troops are sent on missions armed with the necessary equipment and the education on how to best utilize that equipment, the global ITAM community is comprised of countless troops of business professionals who are united by the common thread of IT Asset Management education, practices and principles. These are the individuals, your brethren, who in the last 25 years have grown from operating and maintaining relatively meager, mostly isolated and non-networked computer systems, into the highly educated and resourceful professionals that you are today.  You are a new breed of highly efficient personnel with a very strong business sense and purpose.  This is exactly the reason that we at IAITAM have made it our primary mission to: “Teach the Business Side of IT Asset Management”.    Read More... In a Virtual World - Virtualization & Software License Management By:  John Emmitt, Director of Business Development for Managesoft Corporation The Virtualization Boom Datacenter server virtualization saves space, power and hardware cost for thousands of enterprises by consolidating physical machines. The reduction in the number of physical machines is achieved by increasing hardware (CPU and memory) utilization from a typical 10-15% to as much as 75-85%. In addition to the savings on hardware purchases, there are reduced cooling requirements and maintenance cost savings associated with fewer machines. Energy cost savings have been estimated to be in the range of $300 to $600 per year for each server that is eliminated by virtualization. The total savings due to virtualization can be in the millions of dollars per year for large enterprises. This is why 60% to 80% of IT departments have server consolidation projects underway, according to analyst reports.   Read More... Executive Buy-In - Who Needs It?  By: Dan Ingouf, Content Development Manager for IAITAM  If you are the sole proprietor of your own business, you are exempt from executive buy-in.  It is my firm belief that owning your own business is one of the very few occasions that executive buy-in will not be a mandatory requisite of conducting business. The importance of buy-in can not be over stressed.  Buy-in is a common and normal practice in our everyday work environments and beyond. We have all experienced the necessity of buy-in on many levels of our lives, often at work and in our personal lives as well.  Who do you need to convince to get what you need?   Read More... Calling All SAMs – Take Part in Trial of Recognized Stages of Software Asset Management By: David Phillips, ISO WG21 Subject Expert and SAMleaders Director    Organizations assessing their SAM processes against best practice are invited to trial a four-stage approach, allowing them to make improvements in more accessible and digestible steps. The four stages add up to full conformance to ISO/IEC19770 Part1 – Software asset management processes and are designed to fit with industry needs for a more natural evolutionary approach to best practice covering the full scope of process areas.   Read More... Retirement Savings Tips – How to Safeguard Your PC Investment at End of Life  By:  Robert Davie, Founder of Venderis Software   Like in today’s volatile financial markets, where concerns over retirement plans and asset value abound, so too abound concerns over the root causes and risks of complex and often costly hardware retirements or refreshes.  Core areas of concern include: Risk of data loss HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley, Gramm-Leach-Bliley compliance Environmentally sound disposal Resale value Retirement costs  Read More... The Dark Side of a Virtual World – Software License Management in the Virtual Era - Gearing up for Changes in License Models By: Dr. Christian Seeling, Software Developer for Aspera GmbH   The Future: Virtualization Year 2015 January 2015. In the early morning hours the sales manager of a large bank enters his office. After pouring a quick cup of coffee, he switches on the monitor and starts the hypervisor on a virtual machine and begins to work. He has an important meeting this morning and needs a summary of the account activities during this quarter. He’s tight on time so he chooses the highest level of processing power to generate the information. A worldwide server network distributor makes sure that the key data are on hand in just a couple of minutes. At the end of the month, the sales manager will get an invoice for services from the data center charged by the second and kilobyte. The invoice also includes the proportional costs for operation and hardware use as well as software and databank license fees used to create the account activities summary.   Read More... Column SAM on a Shoestring  By:  Jenny Schuchert, Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Communications for Animus Solutions, Inc.  Software Asset Management is expected to accomplish a number of goals including compliance, reduction of risk and reduced costs.  The impact of changing business conditions may not be immediately obvious, but SAM programs are likely to experience difficulties achieving these goals as planned.  With shrinking or flat budgets, cost considerations become paramount, with the following changes developing from that savings perspective: Software Asset Managers must increase savings while still meeting service level commitments Process and automation improvements are slowed or must be re-justified Competition for budget is significantly increased Internal cooperation to existing software policies and processes lessens Demand for asset management increases due to changes in staffing, management structures and priorities     Read More...  View ITAK Online  Subscribe to ITAK  Advertise in ITAK  Author in ITAK