BizTechNet.org http://www.biztechnet.org 2008-05-11T20:34:51+01:00 http://www.biztechnet.org http://www.biztechnet.org/images/M_images/rss10.gif text/html 2008-04-20T12:53:37+01:00 http://www.biztechnet.org http://www.biztechnet.org/content/view/157/116/ Steven Bandrowczak, the Nortel CIO, wants to reduce his software application portfolio from 1,100 titles down to 100 over an 18 month period. (Read Andy McCue's ZDNet/Asia article. (http://www.zdnetasia.com/insight/communications/0,39044835,62039855,00.htm?scid=nl_z_ntnw#talkback)) According to Bandrowczak, When I came we had a lot of projects not necessarily 100 per cent aligned to key initiatives.” When it comes to software asset management, we have found that a majority of companies could benefit from some serious licensing, support, and maintenance house-cleaning. Unfortunately, it isn't going to happen until we take a good look at changing the status quo. If you could reduce the costs of IT assets while continuing to deliver the same-or even better-services, would you take action? Read on to discover some of the key reasons technology asset management and portfolio management initiatives fail--or, even better, succeed. text/html 2008-04-07T10:39:05+01:00 http://www.biztechnet.org http://www.biztechnet.org/content/view/151/116/ Jack Wallen at TechRepublic (http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/opensource/?p=190) has written an interesting commentary on Gartner's recent prediction that by 2012 90% of all businesses will be using open source. THAT is one easy prediction to make. Check out the ZDNet Asia article. (http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/software/0,39044164,62039870,00.htm?scid=rss_z_nw) Here's why and here's how you can begin a drastic reduction in the money you currently invest in operating systems, software, implementation, support, and maintenance--today--while maintaining, and even improving, existing services--No need to wait until 2012. Read on for more common sense solutions to software asset management and IT cost reduction problems. text/html 2007-02-11T12:44:42+01:00 http://www.biztechnet.org http://www.biztechnet.org/content/view/60/108/ Does your company have a formal process for identifying, sourcing, testing, negotiating, and evaluating the functionality of a new software package? Do you blindly purchase any product that the software industry dubs “standard”? Do you purchase hardware that the hardware builder has arbitrarily loaded up with software? Do you carefully control and monitor the entire acquisition process to ensure a good investment and positive business value return? Here is a checklist that an effective asset manager might follow to maximize the quality of a given IT purchase. text/html 2008-03-29T14:51:27+01:00 http://www.biztechnet.org http://www.biztechnet.org/content/view/147/111/ And the resultant lawsuit is starting out at $100 million? Is this a simple (?!?) question of a failed software implementation, or is it an indication that the disconnect between suppliers and business technology consumer continues to widen? More importantly, what lesson could you learn—for your business—in the latest software implementation failure? Does anyone remember the article several years ago about Goodyear's ERP program difficulties (http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/erp/story/0,10801,86744,00.html)? To the tune of +$100Million? Is there a pattern emerging? According to the initial filing: “Unknown to Waste Management, this ‘United States’ version of the Waste and Recycling Software was undeveloped, untested, and defective.” See Andy Moon's Tech Republic blog materials HERE (http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/tech-news/?p=2133). When it comes to software asset management or technology asset management, the pre-purchase work you perform as a responsible business technology consumer is absolutely vital to the ongoing relationship—or the lack there-of. Judging even by the minimal information supplied in the related articles, Waste Management swallowed the vendor hype, hook, line, and sinker. Who's at fault? Could there be an entire industry out there that tends to sacrifice long term customer value in favor of short term profits? (Picture the Goose and the Golden Egg Story.) Read on for 7.65 Guaranteed Ways of Smoothing the Technology Acquisition and Utilization Waters—before the tsunami of product or implementation failure crashes over your collective corporate craniums. text/html 2008-03-20T11:05:01+01:00 http://www.biztechnet.org http://www.biztechnet.org/content/view/146/116/ Bottom Line: If you could cut corporate IT costs by as much as 25% while retaining the same quality of services, would you? You don't need to spend more money to save money; no new hardware or software; no new consultants wandering around the office. The solution is this simple: Business owners and executives need to change the way the enterprise acquires, uses, and manages the entire technology portfolio—from a business perspective—not merely a tech perspective. The only truly effective way to reduce tech costs and risks is to change the way you monitor tech life cycles. Buying more software, more manuals, more stuff isn't going to help if your business processes aren't effective. And changing those processes won't cost you a penny! Alan L. Plastow We have all made enormous investments in the technologies that we expect will help our companies operate more efficiently. Those investments cover desktop and notebook computers, servers, printers, PDAs, cell phones, copiers, even voice mail systems. Other considerable IT costs include operating systems, software, graphics, fonts—sometimes even video and audio content. And let's not forget Internet connectivity, tech support and consulting. Unfortunately, and statistically, we frequently realize less than $1 in business value for every $12+ dollars we spend on tech. text/html 2007-08-29T23:07:26+01:00 http://www.biztechnet.org http://www.biztechnet.org/content/view/91/107/ Go Ahead and Declare Technology Interdependence from your Shadow IT Environment: But, if you don’t do it carefully, you are in for a world of software piracy audit hurt. I’ve been following the series of CIO Magazine (http://www.cio.com/search?cx=005964914320811651291%3Axkqet_zlicy q=shadow+it sa.x=0 sa.y=0 cof=FORID%3A09) articles (http://www.cio.com/article/122459/_Shadow_IT_Culture_on_the_Rise_for_Businesses_) addressing the realities of Shadow IT (http://www.cio.com/article/28821/User_Management_Users_Who_Know_Too_Much_and_the_CIOs_Who_Fear_Them_/1) and, until, “The Declaration of Interdependence” appeared in the July issue, the logic was pretty solid. However, as I read this article, I could easily visualize the collective drooling of the well-funded and incredibly powerful copyright enforcement industry players across the country. If ever there was a commentary that literally guaranteed a punitive software piracy audit, this would be it. “If I were an employee of one of the enforcement groups I would frame this material and hang it proudly in my office as a reminder of how secure my profession is and how very wealthy I will become.” Here is why I am extremely concerned with the underlying message this article conveys: IT professionals, as a whole, do not have any idea how easily they expose their company—and their own professional futures—when they “…secure the network and (do) not worry about client devices…” or “...so I protect the institution, not the individual…” “Sorry, Dave, but here be some serious legal dragons!” text/html 2007-12-28T14:09:35+01:00 http://www.biztechnet.org http://www.biztechnet.org/content/view/114/111/ When you implement a well-considered technology asset management program--a SAM, TAM, or ITAM--your company will begin discovering an enormous range of tech-related cost reductions. Your key to serious technology cost reductions will be based in how well you plan out the technology processes and infrastructure of the initiative. According to industry research, as many as 75% of companies over-spend on technology acquisitions. These unnecessary acquisitions include everything from buying too many software licenses to purchasing hardware that exceeds the technical needs or capabilities of the enterprise. Read on for a some basic ideas on reversing the trends! text/html 2007-11-30T12:00:45+01:00 http://www.biztechnet.org http://www.biztechnet.org/content/view/111/107/ The copyright anti-piracy squads have struck once again with a new/old version of gotcha! . Interestingly enough, this instance is one that could very easily land right on your personal as well as corporate doorstep. No matter who you are, or what you are doing--be it personal or business--NOW you also have to be paranoid that someone is always listening. That's right, Virginia, the copyright audio police are right there--hovering nearby---and listening over your shoulder to everything you do. Want to know how you can be hammered? Read on... text/html 2007-10-17T22:19:51+01:00 http://www.biztechnet.org http://www.biztechnet.org/content/view/107/116/ One of the key reasons we hear so much about software piracy or music piracy is that virtually any use an average person or company makes of these copyright protected products can be easily interpreted as illegal. In reality, the vast majority of so-called software piracy events are nothing more than license violations. Of equal importance is that the so-called anti-piracy industry, in reality, invests significantly more time and effort in copyright enforcement than in violations prevention (We’ll discuss this side of the scam in another Briefing). Our First Bottom Line: There is an enormous and highly lucrative global copyright enforcement industry that feeds on consumer lethargy and it will continue to feed on our individual bottom lines until we all wake up and take action. Read on for more... text/html 2007-10-15T17:39:11+01:00 http://www.biztechnet.org http://www.biztechnet.org/content/view/105/116/ In September, 2007, the Business Software Alliance (BSA (http://www.bsa.org)) announced a record anti piracy settlement of over $3,467,000. The claim involved an undisclosed international media company we’ll call Target IMC. Realistically, the underlying costs of this single punitive copyright compliance audit event—the costs you never see published—easily exceeded $10M-$15M. Read on to discover how your company can be exposed to this type of software piracy audit. More importantly, we also discuss how Target IMC could have prevented, or at very least minimized, the financial impact of their ineffective software asset management techniques. Do you honestly think that the software police and copyright cops aren't aggressively hunting your company for software piracy, license non compliance, and copyright infringement violations? Think again... Read on. text/html 2007-10-01T23:51:42+01:00 http://www.biztechnet.org http://www.biztechnet.org/content/view/101/108/ A. You asked about the software asset management (SAM) tool that provides the best bang for your IT buck. Most of the software asset managers that I encounter will recommend the configuration discovery tool. This product is designed to automatically conduct a review of your precise hardware and software configurations. The goal of the more effective tools is to conduct a rapid and highly accurate audit of your systems, scrub the resulting reams of information, and insert those results into pre-planned reports that provide your software asset managers and technology asset managers with an accurate snapshot of your technology environment. Be careful, however, with the definition of configuration. Technicians have an entirely different meaning for this concept than software asset managers or technology asset managers. Unfortunately, companies VERY frequently purchase this incredibly useful tool without conducting effective due diligence on its potentials beforehand. Read on for more details. text/html 2007-08-30T19:59:13+01:00 http://www.biztechnet.org http://www.biztechnet.org/content/view/94/116/ Has your company been hammered by a man-made or natural disaster? If you do not rebuild your technology infrastructure very carefully, you will be re-visited by yet another disaster: This one of legal origin. Your next headaches will be caused by counterfeit or incorrectly licensed copyright protected products loaded on your new systems--and you will not know of their existence until the auditing teams come calling. Even if you are not victim of a disaster--as in simply starting up a new business, you will gain serious cost savings for building a technology infrastructure for your budding company. In these Briefings we give you proven methods for saving money on your new or post-disaster tech purchases while significantly reducing audit risks--both now and in the future. The software police and copyright cops just can't wait to audit your company for software piracy and/or license non compliance. In this Knowledge Briefing Series, Alan Plastow, the founder of The Business Technology Consumer Network, provides you with critical - and very frequently invisible - tips and strategies for reducing costs while protecting your company from software piracy punitive audits and threatened license non compliance litigation. The so-called software police and copyright cops can -- and do -- offer whistle-blower rewards ranging from (up to) $10,000 to a whopping $1,000,000 in their efforts to locate you. Without the critical software asset management information in this Knowledge Briefing Series, both you and your company are easy audit targets. After the financial and personal impact of a disaster, precisely how many people do you suppose will be more than happy to report you or your company in return for a dangled whistle-blower reward? The first Knowledge Briefing in the Six Part Series, Natural Disaster Help I, can be found HERE (http://samsrv.com/The%20Network/Natural%20Disaster%20Help%20I.pdf). More to come. text/html 2007-08-29T17:35:51+01:00 http://www.biztechnet.org http://www.biztechnet.org/content/view/89/111/ I’m Alan Plastow and there are perfectly logical reasons why I recommend technical personnel shouldn’t manage software asset management (SAM), copyright compliance (SCCA), software piracy or information technology portfolio management (ITPM) initiatives. Simply put: It isn’t their job. Don’t come all over paranoid on me—Here is why I make the statement: In discussions with hundreds of asset managers companies from around the globe, I have found that technical personnel most frequently have their hands—and schedules—completely full just bringing mission critical technologies up to speed and keeping IT systems functional. So? What can you do to improve the value of existing technology investments or optimize new tech investments? Here are some cost-effective ideas for increasing value while reducing costs and minimizing risks. text/html 2007-06-21T19:24:05+01:00 http://www.biztechnet.org http://www.biztechnet.org/content/view/83/99/ When it comes to your job; your family; even your life, you must be present to win. I know what you're thinking, Is this guy nuts, or what? Actually, I couldn't be more serious. Think about what you are doing professionally, or in any other area of your life. Are you actively managing your career, your knowledge, your prospects--in other words, your future? Or are you sitting back and coasting like so many people tend to do? Do you go out and aggressively search for learning opportunities and professional development programs on your own, or are you waiting for your employer to provide everything for you? So many people tend to sit back and wait to be taught when, instead, they should be taking active control over their own professional growth. This Knowledge Briefing is all about being there--really being present--in other words: Stepping up to the plate and maximizing your own future. If you aren't present--if you aren't actively taking responsibility for yourself--your family--your career, the world is going to zip by and you WILL miss it. Want to be more successful? Take control! Get present! Read the Knowledge Briefing: You Must Be Present to Win! (index.php?option=com_docman task=doc_download gid=10) This document is limited to signed in members. You'll have to log in, but it's free. By the way, we aren't selling you a thing on this site. We're here to help you become more successful--but YOU gotta take the opportunity and read, then use, the materials. I'm Alan Plastow and we are here to assist you. Did you find personal or professional benefit from this material? If so, please forward it to two of your friends. text/html 2007-06-20T13:09:53+01:00 http://www.biztechnet.org http://www.biztechnet.org/content/view/79/107/ I don’t know about you but I sincerely try not to become too paranoid about the collective antics of the anti-piracy enforcement industry players. Unfortunately for the business technology consumer, these big money “not for profits” are oozing their way into our lives like an on screen killer blob. In what ways are these activities important to you? The activities I discuss here could easily cost you more and more technology money while absolutely ensuring the continued industry strangle-hold on your company. Here are a few reasons why your company is in for some serious trouble.