. When I was little I had a piggy bank whole with a requisite combination lock (needed to keep my younger brother from pilfering). Each week, on Friday night once I got my 50 cent allowance, I would lock myself in my bedroom, twist and turn the mixture until I got it right and then I counted my prized stash of money. I always knew just how much it would amount to, but I counted it still. My buddy, on the flip side, never used his piggy bank; he put his quarters in his pockets and usually lost them within a few days.

Over time, I began to bring in more money through babysitting and odd jobs, but the rite never changed - lock the door, open the safe and re-count my money. As I reflect, I feel about the time I wasted re counting my cash but I also recall the delight I experienced each time as I dreamed and planned the way to spend my bread! It could have been great to push a button and have a “piggy bank statement” printed at any time confirming that my money was where it should be and just how much I had available. It would have been better still to earn “piggy interest” on my quarters! That might be actual optimization!

These memories came flooding back to me once I was pondering the issue of IT eam solutions and how ineffectively some businesses track and manage PCs and other IT equipment. Demands for increased staff productivity and greater return on IT investments have shoved the need for greater asset management and critical alternatives.

Some IT managers consider that software licensing concerns are simplest to address using a standard corporate image (a COMPUTER configured with standard software applications deployed to all consumers within the corporation). While it may seem simpler, you must inquire “what happens to standardization once that PC has been sent to the end consumer?” I will inform you, in several businesses the end user immediately begins to alter the conventional picture to the stage there's not any homogeny within the business assets.

I truly like dwelling in the new millennium, the whole exercise of gathering data on IT assets has been revolutionized. Now, in a matter of a few clicks of the mouse, a great eam solutions application can provide up to the minute information needed to arrange for an upgrade. Not only can these tools provide information on hardware, but also software versions, patches, etc. Having accurate data available in a dynamic system proves to become a tremendous forecasting timesaver and can also be used, among other things, to reduce virus incidents by identifying systems that are at risk. Besides planning for upgrades, only keeping track of assets that seem to eternally grow legs and leave on their own can be considered an intimidating task.

Another bright spot for IT administrators using asset management tools effectively is improved efficiency in the help desk. IDC reported that downtime can be decreased by 10% and person hours on recovery can be reduced by 22% for businesses that practice good asset management. I read another figure that touted a 25% reduction in typical help desk call time. This enables the closure of more trouble tickets each day and gets end users back to work quicker.

I surely recall the days when a help desk call started out with questions such as “What sort of PC do you have? What version of Windows are you running? Did you install anything new recently?” And if you're laughing now, it is because you know the answer is always “NO! I have not installed anything!” End users never confess to installing or doing something that could have possibly caused their system to misbehave!

With today's tools, support staff can readily see hardware and software configurations with no end user interaction thus saving time on each and every support call. Having this INFORMATION technology “x-ray vision” debunks the myth that standard images are simpler to support because a general image generally fails to remain standard after deployment. Having the ability to understand what has happened to morph that PC really does make support easier and faster Website!