Lifecycle management - no more disappearing IT devices
During my twenty-year career, I have watched how organizations spend hundreds of thousands or millions of euros on the development and system of IT service management, which also includes IT equipment life cycle and/or asset management as one part. This is because IT devices are offered support and management services as part of basic IT services.
In the beginning, a lot of time and money is typically spent on defining processes and workflows from the perspective of service management. In terms of IT equipment, only a few types of equipment to be managed are initially included, for which support or continuous services are offered. Workstations and mobile devices are grateful because they receive technical information about configuration management or monitoring systems through integration. As for other devices, we only focus on the more valuable in terms of purchase price, such as network devices, large network printers and servers. New operating models and service promises are presented to IT service production experts and customer organizations.
When the main user of the system is asked a couple of years after going into production why the device register has deteriorated despite everything and the original quality goals have not been reached, the answer is almost without exception that when people do not follow the processes, they make human errors and forget to update the changes. After this, I often ask why the processes are not technically controlled in the system, so that the non-compliance, mistakes and forgetfulness of the processes of these unruly people would appear as deviations that could be reacted to. The second question is that how do you ensure in general, taking into account the previous one, that the information stored now is up-to-date and correct. The answer is silence because the questioner doesn't seem to understand best practices.
The entire life cycle under control
In order to better manage the life cycle and prevent equipment from suddenly disappearing, you must at least have the following things in hand:
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Processes related to equipment acquisition and reception management
- Verify what has been received and whether the corresponding order/procurement information can be found.
- Make sure that the devices on the invoice have actually been received.
- Remember that the delivered device model is not always the same as the one ordered.
- Identify delivery deviations and define what actions they trigger
- Record sufficient information about the entire procurement process.
- Management of changes during use. For example:
- Site changes, user changes, organizational changes.
- How can the information be updated without manual changes made by humans?
- Interim storage
- Where is the device physically and what is the status of the device in other management systems?
- Management of device changes
- What are the criteria for replacing the device and is this emphasized if the organization uses some of the devices around the clock, some during office hours and some occasionally?
- What really needs to be replaced (leasing devices that can be returned) and do mass replacements also include devices that would have had a good life cycle left?
- Monitoring stock turnover
- Do not fill warehouses with devices, but make sure that the device has a maximum storage time, after which it must be recycled.
- Identification of unused devices based on measured data and recycling
- Site changes, user changes, organizational changes.
- Decommissioning and recycling management
- Returns of used equipment from employees (often this point leaks)
- Make sure that the used device has actually been delivered to the secondary market or to the recycling of electrical and electronic waste and has not been lost on the way, and serial number level information is obtained about these devices.
- Management of temporary storage of decommissioned equipment. This is where devices sometimes get lost
Automate
As you can already see from this list, the lifecycle management of IT devices inevitably involves many different stages, where devices can disappear from the device register and management. The more devices there are and the more these steps involve manual updating of the device register, the faster the device register starts to corrode and then the devices start to disappear technically and physically. The larger the number of devices, the more important it is to automate the data management related to device lifecycle management.
People, processes and technology
As in all development projects, the right balance must be found between people, processes and technologies in IT equipment lifecycle management.
People. The right and committed people (team, stakeholders, experts, management) are needed in order to achieve a sufficient level and scope of management and leadership. The nature of what people do depends a lot on the level of the next two areas. If the processes and systems are not in order, the job is constantly putting out fires and managing chaos. The key is to think about what kind of team can achieve sufficient operational maturity.
Processes. Let's identify the current situation and build the processes for how IT assets are acquired, used and returned, as well as how the aforementioned life cycle stages are measured. The key is to try to automate most of the manual work and build sufficient controls and alarms to monitor deviations.
Technology.Makes it possible to store data related to IT assets and automate processes whenever possible. In this case, an accurate snapshot of the IT assets can be created. High-quality and up-to-date information about IT assets helps the business to make the right decisions. It shifts the focus of work from reactive firefighting to knowledge-based management and deviation management.
When life cycle management has been brought to the level where devices are no longer lost, we can start to take better control of life cycle costs. If the starting situation is that a lot of devices are lost, then the life cycle cost saving potential is also usually significant.
