Total Control

Every sports fan knows you can’t score if you don’t have control of the ball. Now, imagine a game with thousands of balls in play, and you only win if you get all the balls through a single goal. More and more balls continue to enter the field. Some balls start to fall apart after a while and get kicked aside, but you still have to get them through the goal if you’re going to win. There is no time-out. In fact, there are very few rules at all. Balls come onto the field from all directions at any time. You have to get them all through the goal.

I’m describing, of course, IT assets at play in an enterprise without very tight controls in place. Sound far-fetched? Unfortunately, it’s all too common. Here are some of the organizational behaviors that lead to this kind of situation:

• Procurement of IT assets not connected with the end-of-life of IT assets.
• No strong IT asset management in place that actually tracks all assets from procurement through end-of-life.
• No explicit end-of-life process in place – we’ve heard, “Oh, we just let our employees keep their old stuff.”
• Autonomous purchasing of IT assets by disparate groups without tight asset control and end-of-life policies in place – no one really holds the whole picture.
• Failure to implement or enforce compliance with asset management policy – we’ve heard, “Our folks like to keep their old equipment as backup.”

The problems that result from these behaviors can quite literally put you out of business. Data-bearing assets that fall into the wrong hands are just another form of data breach – one that you hear of less frequently, but that is no less deadly. Without a concrete plan in place, unwanted assets diminish in value while the cost to process them safely and responsibly climbs.

Arrow’s Value Recovery business has been taking a full life cycle, managed services approach to asset management for some of our customers for many years. We think now’s a good time to let our other customers know, so we can help get your organization’s assets under control. We know you have a lot of balls in the air, and we think our managed services offering can provide the structure and support you need to protect your business.

Carol Baroudi works for Arrow’s Value Recovery business, promoting sustainability awareness and action. She is the lead author of Green IT For Dummies. Her particular focus is on electronics at the IT asset disposition stage, e-waste and everything connected. Follow her on Twitter @carol_baroudi and connect with her on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/carolbaroudi.