Yes, there's a term to cover software and hardware and peripherals, and gadgets and doodads; it's Technology Assets. It includes printers, PDAs, anything with a memory that your company owns. Starting with Software Asset Management, this field has expanded to include anything "technical" and the processes involved in their residency in your company.

A call from a large international consulting firm came through today, looking for consultants for Technical Asset Management. There's more going on in this field than we generally hear about. There is a need for Technical Asset Managers.

Many courses have come into being since the early 1990s when the Software Publishers Association first offered its Certified Software Managers (CSM) course. One had to travel and stay in hotels unless the course came within your commutable range. This course was sponsored by a software enforcement agency. Other courses came into being, sponsored by software publishers and the growing number of enforcement industry members. None of them were vendor neutral. One organization developed vendor neutral courses for a time but seems to have lost its independence.

The source for vendor neutral, cost effective, no-travel excellent courses is the Business Technology Consumer Network, Inc.. The Network, for short, is genuinely "all about helping you".

The ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) and IEC (the International Electrotechnical Commission) have developed international Software Asset Management (SAM) standards for meeting corporate governance requirements and reaping benefits as outlined in the Introduction. ISO/IEC 19770-1:2006 Part 1 is said to describe the processes. The book, ISO/IEC 19007-1:2006, Information technology – Software asset management – Part 1: processes is available on Amazon for $72.15.

I don't find this to be a startling revelation. The areas covered, such as media, licenses, installations, proof of purchase, etc., are already standards for knowledgeable SAMs and ITAMs. If a company can become "certified", is this just a way of forcing them to have a SAM program?

English changes, and it's difficult to keep up with acceptable changes. What we learned in school isn't always in common use today, although still correct. It’s important to sharpen your grammar for writings you must do in a Software and IT Asset Management position.

Migon Fogarty, the Grammar Girl, explains the traditional use of words and common current usages. She appeared on the Oprah Show on Monday, March 26, 2007 to settle a confusing possessive debate. Mignon clearly explained the "compound possession" I won’t soon forget. Her new book, titled Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips to Clean Up Your Writing, is available at Amazon.com and BarnsandNoble.com

Do visit the Grammar Girl site.

Reading, and listening to, some marketing literature is sometimes like reading software licenses and agreements. We often go away shaking our head, wondering what was really being said...are we stupid or incapacitated in some way we weren't formerly aware of?

In Search of Stupidity, by Merrill R. Chapman, is a refreshing read to restore confidence, that it isn't us. Much of what we read now days really doesn't make sense. SAMs and ITAMs can benefit from this information.

"In Search of Stupidity: Over Twenty Years of High Tech Marketing Disasters is a most valuable book and is a wonderful read for anyone in the software industry. For those in sales and marketing, it is clearly required reading, and in fact, should be reread periodically. While In Search of Excellence turned out to be a fraud, In Search of Stupidity is genuine, and no names have been changed to protect the guilty."

Other Reviews

Is having a tidy desk a part of your performance evaluation? People have different tolerances and comfort zones when it comes to "tidy". At the extremes, some people can’t work with any clutter around them while others are more comfortable with a lot of clutter.

In the Reuters article, Have a Messy Desk? Congrats, You’re More Productive, the tidiness/clutter issue is addressed from both sides, although a study showed that a cluttered desk equates to greater productivity. Perhaps the particular group studied happened to have more people who work best with a cluttered desk, or on average most people are more comfortable with clutter.

Assuming that the provided workspace is adequate for what the person is expected to accomplish, the tidiness/clutter issue relating to productivity is a matter of innate personal preference. We all know that inadequate workspace can hinder a person’s productivity. Software Asset Management cannot function in a cubical space only. The tidiness/clutter principle can be seen in any environment. Do all of your family members operate on the same tidy/clutter level? I think not.

If you are debating whether or not to use SaaS (Software as a Service), CIO Update discusses the financial, legal and negotiation issues of SaaS. SaaS may be good for some organizations, but not for others. There are serious precautions to consider...

There are many factors evolved in the purchase of IT assets and services such as increasingly complex license agreements, different purchasing options and plans, maintenance agreements, usage agreements, distribution methods, services. The list goes on. Vendor management has become an important aspect of IT asset management. What is vendor management? How does one manage vendors?

A survey conducted by the BSA showed that 86% of hiring managers and supervisors "consider unethical and illegal downloading, file-sharing, and uploading attitudes and behaviors of their job candidates when making hiring decisions."

The BSA news release states that a BusinessWeek Research Services study showed that 29% of hiring managers in the study probably or definitely would not hire a candidate with lax attitudes toward illegal file sharing. And, 34% of these hiring managers would probably or definitely not hire a candidate with a known history of past improper file sharing. Over half of these managers said that an employee would be disciplined or reprimanded for such actions.

The BSA has an awareness program called Define the Line addressing legal use of commercial software. Although this program is designed for college students, it is a good starting point for companies to use during orientation of new hires. It isn’t enough for new employees to simply sign a paper stating that they won’t break copyright law. An informed HR representative or the Software Manager must also give a brief slide show presentation, followed by a question and answer period, to new hires, educating them to copyright law and the consequences set forth by the company for breaking this law.

It has been mentioned several times in previous blog entries that complicated, convoluted software licensing is driving people away from expensive, confusing mainstream software sources. Marcel Gagne’s new book, Moving to Free Software 1st edition (December 1, 2006), may be just the source you’ve been wishing for.

From the Back Cover

Stop paying for Windows software! There are free alternatives that are just as good . . . even better!
In Moving to Free Software, world-renowned open source software expert Marcel Gagne tours the little-known world of free Windows software, uncovering today's best packages for everything you'll ever want to do with your PC! You'll discover amazing tools for everything from Web browsing to instant messaging, office productivity to gaming, and even Windows security. You won't see this software advertised in fancy magazines, or on TV . . . it's the best kept secret in computing!

· Surf the Web safer, faster, and smarter with Firefox
· Get free Spam filtering and advanced email.

Understanding Open Source and Free Software Licensing by Andrew M. St Laurent is a good companion to Moving to Free Software.

According to PC Today, "GoToMyPC has been scooping up awards like a cat after goldfish."

The conclusion of Citrix GoToMyPC Problems is that, "GoToMyPC is amazingly easy to use, making it a perfect fit for beginner or intermediate PC users. With Citrix’s reputation and global networking and data storage power behind it (making downtime virtually impossible), it’s an attractive solution for any company. Make sure you lay the groundwork on the front end (including obtaining access authorization appropriate to your tasks), and you should enjoy many hours of hassle-free remote connectivity."

Another opinion from Tech Republic...

Ever changing software needs and licensing is an ongoing challenge. IT Conversations offers an interesting audio discussion of CIOs at the Software 2006 Conference. Topics include how they are dealing with software, users, budgets and vendor relations to "get the best bang for the buck".

An important part of IT Asset Management is knowing what hardware and software actually resides in a company's environment. There are a number of discovery tools available to keep track of these assets without spending a ridiculous amount of time and wearing out your shoes.

Knowing where your hardware is is important for the inventory count. One company I heard of couldn't find 25% of their leased computers. Countless hours were spent trying to find them sneekernet style; not all of them were ever found. Upgrades were a shot in the dark. A good discovery tool would have cut the hunt time and lead the technical staff to the treasures they sought.

Knowing what software resides on each computing device is important for copyright compliance, upgrade decisions, and choosing the right applications to save countless thousands of dollars. For example, each person doesn't need a full Visio application. Most simply need the viewer. Not everyone needs a full office suite, or the most powerful variety. Usually only 5% of those powerful applications are ever used. Can you hear the dollars rustling? But how do you know who really has what and who needs what?

Despite outsourcing fears, IT organizations are actually growing, particularly at small and mid-size companies—and CIOs expect them to keep growing.

On the eWEEK.com weblog, Allan E. Alter gives insights into More Reasons for Unprecedented Change, answering the question, "Why do 57 percent of IT executives believe their IT departments are going through more change than they have ever experienced in their careers?"

From IT BusinessEdge, HP offers a white paper for more efficient server utilization.

Conventional IT architecture assumes a one-to-one mapping between a server and an application: "This is our database server. Over there is our data warehouse, and that one is our CRM server." Each environment is sized for a peak load that may be a single end-of-month run. Not surprisingly, IT studies have shown that the average server utilization rate is an incredibly low 20–35%. Wouldn’t it be an interesting approach to break down the physical barriers, pool the resources, and share any excess capacity between applications as they need it? That is exactly what HP does with virtualization.

Free White Paper