Anyone at the executive level deals with a plethora of questions and concerns that would make any normal person's head swim. However, those at the C-level cannot afford that, and so they seek answers as a means of ensuring that all is well within the organization. This tactic works until they look at IT. Getting a good, solid answer to the question, "Are we getting a good return on our investment in IT?" is never easy, direct, or straightforward even for many IT managers. Trust us: this situation is commonplace in every industry. Given that a company's IT spend is, next to salary and benefits, the biggest item in the budget, it's almost mindboggling that accountability in this mission critical is so hard to come by. Executives care about the value IT components represent. They long to understand in a concrete manner how IT provides value through cost reductions, new revenue streams, growth opportunities, and compliance.
The credibility of your IT department is at stake if your CIO cannot answer the following seven essential questions:
- What assets are in place?
- What return are our assets providing to the business?
- How are you improving our assets' return?
- How are our asset investments performing?
- How are our asset investments performing relative to our competition?
- Do our assets put our business at risk in any way? Software? Cyber?
- If so, how are we managing that risk?
In most modern organizations, responsibility for providing these crucial answers falls to the CIO. Still, although ownership of this task is clearly defined, questions still abound:
- How can the performance of IT assets be quantified?
- How can CIOs demonstrate the effective management of IT assets?
- How do CIOs demonstrate that IT provides a solid ROI?
- How do CIOs convey the message that this return is greater than what competitors generate?
The good news is this: there is a way to get the rock-solid answers and evidence every organization must have. ITAM is that way! In this book, I will illustrate exactly how ITAM enables the CIO and their team to answer these important questions. ITAM, which comprises processes, tools, data, and people, manages the entire life cycle of an IT asset (hardware and software). ITAM and SAM best practices allow executives to operate in a predictive manner in terms of what assets the enterprise expects to acquire, as well as what assets it must release.
ITAM not only tracks the costs of every IT asset; it also maps IT assets to business services in a truly meaningful manner. ITAM conveys asset cost information essential to determining the return generated by any given business service. ITAM and SAM help increase those returns through effective vendor and contract management. Lastly, risks associated with IT assets are managed effectively because ITAM and SAM provide insight into vendor warranties and support commitments, software vulnerabilities, entitlements, and asset disposal.
As a C-level executive and IT and Software Asset Management specialist, I advise and help organizations trying to solve the toughest enterprise issues and reach their peak performance through the most innovative techniques and technology. The purpose of this book is to address the burning challenges and questions that all levels in an organization have, such as struggling to implement business practices to manage IT hard and soft assets that result in control, risk reduction, improved compliance, and savings. This book provides specific best practice advice, tools, and examples that can be used to create new or enhance existing programs, and not provide you with just generic market fluff. You will be introduced to a variety of approaches that can be used immediately to manage IT Asset Management, Software Asset Management, and Software License Compliance within your organization and work with other programs/processes within your organization, that is, service management, risk, and change.
If you are taking a half-hearted attempt at asset management, you will receive only half the answers you require. ITAM is serious business. This book outlines ITAM and SAM best practices and answers fundamental questions about the ITAM and SAM processes and policies. I know you will find this information helpful in formulating your own ITAM and SAM strategies.
IT and Software Asset Management saves you money by:
- Avoiding penalties for non-compliance
- Keeping projects in house
- Having accurate inventory management
- Accessing a system for reharvest-able software
- Utilizing human capital appropriately
- Minimizing cybersecurity risk
IT and Software Asset Management makes you money by:
- Allowing you to focus on your business
- Running operations efficiently
- Increasing productivity where applied
- Focusing on the future versus the past
- Keeping you ahead of the competition
IT and Software Asset Management keeps you in compliance by:
- Ensuring compliance
- Avoiding penalties for non-compliance
- Understanding liabilities
- Putting processes in place for coverage
- Reducing security risk from unauthorized software within the environment
This book is intended for CIOs, CTOs, VPs, and asset managers of mid- to large-sized enterprises, organizations, universities, and public sector agencies (government, city, and state agencies). In addition, for individuals responsible for the management of assets within their respective organizations and all users of the organizations IT assets (hardware and software).
If you are dealing with changes such as mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, new products or services, cyber security, mandated regulations, expansion, and much more, this book will help you too.
Chapter 1 , ITAM – It's Not Just IT's Problem or Function, helps you learn how ITAM affects all aspects of the organization: from profits to legal obligations to operational effectiveness. We will cover how managing IT assets is not just about managing hardware and software within the enterprise, but it's also about how it affects risk exposure, operational inefficiencies, legal obligations, compliance standards, and costs.
Chapter 2, ITAM Strategy and Plan, shows how to develop a sound foundation for your ITAM program and explains what ITAM is and isn't. We will also cover the fundamentals and the standard positions of assets at a point in time during the IMACD stages (Install/Move/Add or Change/Disposal), and where in the life cycle process the asset is: control, procure, deploy, manage, or retire.
Chapter 3, The New Risk Management, teaches how to govern your ITAM program through policies, processes, and procedures, as well as details and examples of the various types of ITAM policies that you could have and what types of regulations and standards can affect your ITAM and SAM programs, policies, processes, and procedures.
Chapter 4, What is SAM?, goes over another key component for ITAM success, Software Asset Management (SAM). You will learn what SAM is, what SAM standards are, how to manage your software assets, and gain an understanding of software contracts. We will also cover license types, usage, contract coverage, and contract reconciliation, and reporting.
Chapter 5, Understanding and Surviving Software License Compliance Audits, explains how to survive a software audit and the various steps to take after the traded audit demand letter, email, or phone call arrives.
Chapter 6, ITAM Tools - What Should You Look For?, focuses on IT Asset Management tools, ITAM tools strategy, what you should look for in an ITAM tool, and how to determine what your requirements should be. You will also learn what key questions to ask vendors about the tools they are trying to sell.
Chapter 7, Increasing ITAM Program and Project Success Rates Using Change Management, covers how change management increases ITAM program and project success. We cover the factors that influence why some projects are successful while others fail, and look for common reasons. The chapter also introduces a way of thinking about projects that is still result oriented, but is equally focused on the people aspect of projects and describes how taking a change management approach to ITAM project success "brings the project to life" for many people and moves them from understanding what is happening to being an active participant in the success of the ITAM project.
Chapter 8, Now What?, explains how to approach your ITAM/SAM program responsibilities, what those responsibilities are exactly, and how to figure out what those responsibilities could be, now that you have implemented and deployed your ITAM/SAM program, policies, and tool.
This entire book was written as a "how-to" guidebook with specific action-based steps you can take while reading. Keep an open mind. ITAM is dynamic and new regulations, new technologies, and new standards are always being introduced. It is ever changing, which is why you must always be proactive and continuously managing your ITAM/SAM program. As you read through this book, take notes, use the examples, and make them into your own.
We also provide a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots/diagrams used in this book. You can download it here: https://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/downloads/PocketCIOTheGuidetoSuccessfulITAssetManagement_ColorImages.pdf.
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