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I had a great discussion about Windows 7 today. Two things were immediately obvious. One is a little scary, but the other is pretty exciting (for geekettes like me, at any rate).
The scary thing is that for those XP houses that don’t have Software Assurance on their desktop Operating System licenses, options are starting to [...]

I’ve recently been working intensively with Microsoft CLARET reports, so I thought I’d outline some of the lessons I’ve learned – often the hard way!
But please don’t consider this a definitive guide.
Microsoft CLARET reports are a tool that Microsoft has designed to display an organisation’s entitlement, including software assurance. The information in CLARET Reports is [...]

I’ve just spotted a really good article about building the business case for ITAM on the ITAM Review website. It’s actually an interview with Jenny Schuchert of IAITAM.
It really struck a chord as in real life I’m in the process of building just such a business case for ITAM. I recognised many of the ‘gotchas’ [...]

Here are my suggestions for how long lifecycle policies should be set for each of the major types of equipment, along with a brief explanation of factors to consider:
Servers – 5 to 7 years
The lifespan of a server will very much depend upon its original quality as well as to the use it is being [...]

These are some exception reports / managing by exception processes that I think are particularly worth taking the time to carry out:
SAM
PO/Invoice reconciliation
Simply put, this process involves ensuring that an invoice is received for every software and maintenance purchase order raised. The reason we focus on invoices is because they are legal proof that the contract [...]

As you may have noticed, I firmly believe that managing by exception is your key to efficient, cost effective IT asset management…. not that I want to harp on the subject particularly….but….
Essentially, regular exception reporting allows us to begin managing by exception - so we can focus on correcting the small number of inaccuracies in our asset records [...]

Sorry to go all theoretical on you again, but I find it quite helpful to bear in mind the DIKW heirarchy when planning exception reporting.
We have data in abundance in IT, and exception reporting can be very powerful in moving us beyond data to create information – answering the “who”, “what”, “where” and “when” questions, and allowing [...]

I was thinking about ITAM tools today, triggered by a conversation with someone who ran an ITAM user group. She mentioned that she regularly held user-group get togethers where they would discuss ITAM related topics, and although she tried to encourage policy and process related discussions, the talk always seemed to come around to the [...]

So to finish off the topic of books of record, I thought it would be interesting to provide a real world example of how we leverage an existing book of record, as well as explore some of the issues we encountered while we set up the system.
Employee data from SAP
My company uses SAP as its [...]