This is the second in a series of articles to help you improve your inventory management system. Read the first installment in the series IT Asset Management - Part 1 Catalog of Assets.
Usage Tracking
Usage data is a key part of an inventory management system. The data provide from usage tracking will help you:
- Determine the minimum on-hand inventory you need to maintain
- Help you set minimum inventory levels to trigger ordering
- Spot trends in usage that indicate the need for root cause analysis
- Give you snapshots in time of inventory usage
What Do You Need to Track?
Everything. Whatever you use, internal or external needs to be tracked. If you have it in inventory you should track it. If you order it you should track it. If you must maintain on-hand inventory you should track it. I also like to break down the data between our different internal and external customers. This shows what is going where and provides data that can be used in other reports such as for a particular customer.
The itSMF USA Fusion 08 Conference will be held September 7-13 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA. The conference and exposition brings together the best minds in the Service Management industry. During the event, industry experts will present key insights on ITSM best practices, innovative new strategies, and real world results. itSMF USA is the US chapter of a worldwide IT Service Management professional forum.
Attendees will have the opportunity to choose from ten different tracks containing 80 one-hour presentations and 10 two-hour workshops. With content available for all levels from novice to mature organizations, you will find answers and strategies that unite your organization in support of your IT service management program.
The IT help desk was once seen as a low level entry position that offered very little skill development. With the evolution of the modern help desk and implementation of best practices such as ITIL this has changed. The IT help desk is now seen as an IT career launching platform.
By working on a modern IT help desk you interact with all of IT and most of the company you work for. This opens doors to building relationships with managers and others who can have an influence in and help you with your career.
The skills required and taught to modern IT help desk workers transition well to other positions. Some of the skills developed on the help desk include:
- Analytical skills
- Incident management skills
- Trouble-shooting skills
- Communications skills
- Knowledge management skills
- Customer management skills
- Crisis management skills
- Technical knowledge of software and hardware
- A greater overview of how IT and the company works
Do often feel overwhelmed by the amount of work you have to do? Do you sometimes forget to do something important? If so you are not alone. Most of us work in an environment of information overload. One of the most useful tools to tackle this problem are To-Do lists.
To-Do lists are organized and prioritized lists of everything you have to do. You can have as many to-do lists as you need. It is better if you separate your work, home and personal lists. While you may not want to become a full-time getting things done (GTD) type person, starting to keep a to-do list is a good first step in time management.
There are many options for to-do lists. First let’s look at electronic options.
From the Japanese word Seiton we get the next step in the 5S System, straighten. Now that you have completed the first step sort, the workspace should be free from clutter and unnecessary items.
Key parts of the straighten step include:
- Everything has a place and everything goes in its place
- Limits are set on the about of work in progress and parts kept in the workspace
- Improve the workflow to reduce waste and improve efficiency
- Work to be done, parts and supplies needed should be near the workspace
- All areas of the work place should be sectioned off and clearly labeled
- All storage areas should be clearly labeled or marked off
- An electronic version map or log that can be printed and distributed or posted should indicate the location of everything for easy reference
- Straighten is about improving organization, workflow, productivity and morale
Your day is starting good. You feel energetic and you are getting work done. Then an email comes in that you must deal with that involves researching months of paperwork. Your phone rings with a low priority call that ties you up for 10 minutes. On the way to a meeting six people stop you to chatter or ask you to do something. So much for your good day!
Interruptions are a part of a normal work day. When they become overwhelming to the point you find it difficult to get your work done it is time to take control your interruptions instead of them controlling you.
Gartner listed unified communications (UC) as 2nd in their top ten technology areas of 2008. Driven by voice over IP (VoIP), call centers and phone services are leading the way, but other areas of IT such as storage networks, video from security cameras and sensors will soon follow.
Unified communications refers to a group of technologies, many of which are already used in the business world today. Instant messaging allows workers to chat with each other in real-time. This is a useful tool for team members that are separated by feet or miles and need to collaborate. Jabber offers a real-time communications solution with its Jabber XCP package.
Project managers face problems with every project. By building problem-solving into your project and problem collaboration into your project team you will ensure that problems are dealt with promptly. You will also establish a track record of being able to identify and deal with problems. This is a useful notch on your project manager’s belt.
Your goal is to identify problems early before they have an impact on the project. It is far easier to deal with a problem before it becomes a crisis. Here are some tips on problem- solving methods your project.
IT managers are being challenged to develop a strategy to handle the increasing demands for data storage. Applications are becoming more complex and storage needs typically double every 18-24 months.
You may want to look at the new HP StorageWorks 9100 Extreme Data Storage System.
Extreme is just what it offers.
- The platform consists of an HP BladeSystem chassis with room for 16 blade servers.
- The rack that also accommodates storage controllers and high-density “storage blocks” with as many as 82 hard drives.
- An out-of-the-box base configuration consists of four blade servers and three storage blocks, with 246T bytes of storage.
- Customers will be able to add either type of capacity independently of the other. One rack will hold as much as 820T bytes, but an extra rack of storage can be added for a total of 1.64 petabytes.
- The performance block can easily be scaled up to a maximum configuration of 16 blades with up to 12.8 cores per unit – for astounding raw performance of 3.2 GB per second.
As IT systems and services grow so does the need for an expanded IT Help Desk to support them. If you find you are outgrowing your present call support system one solution is a virtual call center software suite such as the one by Five9. It allows you to operate a best-in-class call center without the expense of in-house equipment.
USCB a medical and financial receivables company recently implemented Five9’s hosted virtual call center software. “Flexibility is key,” said IT Manager, Pedro Guijarro. “At any given time, we run multiple campaigns in several departments. Patients contact our call centers for account inquiries and invoice questions. We broadcast payment alerts and account status. Five9 is very effective and reliable for our operations. With management reporting tools, we measure our productivity each day. By analyzing call volume data, we re-direct agent queues to follow-up on the most critical collections. Delivering positive cash flow early in the account cycle impacts our clients’ bottom-lines.”
