Session 11
You will learn:
• That all the IT things that have a bar-code on them and are purchased from vendors are considered as assets and usually well-managed.
• That heavily customized, software-based digital systems have a life expectancy of many years and often end-up being yours for decades. Their total cost over a decade can easily add-up to hundreds of millions of dollars.
• Why these systems are not managed as assets but rather as a collection of independent projects and yearly maintenance budgets.
• A few simple questions to assess the level of asset management applied to digital systems.
• What asset management entails and the the roles, processes and culture changes required.
Large and costly physical assets such as roads, commercial buildings, subways or electrical dams have long been the subject of a structured management practice. Asset management is a practice in good standing that covers important topics such as maintenance plans, retirement planning, total cost of ownership and more.
Corporate IT also deals with assets but their management suffers from important shortcomings. The culprit for the existence of such gaps are — again — rooted in the distribution of accountabilities and how performance is measured.
