(re) blog: dialogue with Redemtech

Honky-Tonk ITAM

Redemtech has been a leading sponsor of the Gartner IT and Software Asset Management Summit for years. The conference was always busy, but our most meaningful customer contact has often occurred at relaxed moments, i.e. parties—adult beverage in hand—when conversation could easily turn to the important stuff like kids, vacations, and critical business issues. This year we decided to forego paid participation at the ITAM conference, and invite a few customers to a genuine Nashville honky-tonk to share some quality time.

The Art of Speaking Too Soon

I readily admit that I blogged too soon last week when I heaped praise on the State of Ohio’s handling of the unfathomable loss of a computer back-up tape. In the public revelation that a 22-year-old intern was entrusted with personal information on tens of thousands of state employees and dependents, and that this was standard policy for the Ohio Administrative Knowledge System, I was a little too hopeful.

Customer Service or Lip Service?

Customer Service is in the process. If organizations do not have processes that support the ultimate expectations of the customer, while maintaining profitability and environmental sustainability, they must implement those processes to support strategic goals. The desire to deliver and the capability to do so are separated by the processes and the measurements used to gauge satisfaction. Without support processes, the result is Lip Service.

Everything I Needed to Know about Good Stewardship I Learned from My Grandparents

Good asset management doesn’t cost, it pays. This truth is often missed by corporate leaders who think that asset management is something business has to afford. The hard lessons my grandparents practiced on the land are a model for everyone who needs to do more with less.

Ohio's Data Breach Response Represents Trend Toward Responsibility

While I routinely track and report offline data thefts and other security breaches as part of my job (see news bureau), I have to admit that the recent disappearance of a backup computer storage device with the names of more than 64,000 Ohio state employees, as well as names and Social Security numbers of about 75,500 dependents, caught me by surprise.

How Green Are Their Motives?

Every time I go online to find out more on the topic of Green IT, I keep coming up with recipes for green tea.

“IT” apparently is read by search engines as “it,” which is too common a word to deliver fewer than 30 billion search results. So Google, Yahoo and Ask.com focus on the word “green” and inevitably, some green tea splashes up on my laptop screen.

Airlines Need Down-to-Earth E-waste Solution

The other day on a cross-country flight, I witnessed something that I found to be a bit disturbing. The airline, like many others today, has limited amenities. No meals, pillows, blankets, or first class seating. They did have, however, in-flight movies. In order to watch those movies, passengers either use their own headphones or they are provided headphones once onboard. 

So far, so good ... until it was time for our final descent.

Innovation Needs Six Sigma...Eventually

Business Week's cover story last week was about how Six Sigma nearly killed innovation at 3M. The implication is that innovation is somehow compromised by rigorous, data-driven management, which I think is a false choice.

Relax...We Have a Policy for That

It’s good news that concern for data privacy has become a public priority for so many companies. Trouble is, if policy is crafted at the executive level and passed down to management for execution without a mandate for inspection and measurement of outcomes, a charade often results.

Let the Software Police Own the Magic Decoder Ring

After my recent trip to the Gartner IT and Software Asset Management Summit, and my discussions with asset managers struggling with software discovery and translation, I started thinking about the process and effort required to translate discovered data. The Six Sigma analyst in me had me asking myself, what could be done to improve this process, not just for a single organization, but for every asset manager out there who has struggled to justify a program to manage this effort - a daunting, if not impossible task...