Network World Canada

January 30, 1998

DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOUR ASSETS ARE?

IS managers who worry about getting lost somewhere between computer-tech and managerial business worlds now have two new products which create trackable bread-crumb trails.

According to Toronto-based PC Imageware Corp., its Asset Minder Pro 2.0, which runs on Windows 95 or NT, tracks not only hardware acquisitions and moves, software versions and updates, but also softer information such as warranty, leasing and maintenance information.

Gaithersburg, Md.'s NetBalance Inc. also has a Windows 95/NT asset tracking product, but it's IT Ledger uses the information gathered in the tracking process to calculate total cost of ownership figures that factor downtime, human resources and disposal costs.

While different in scope and purpose, both Asset Minder Pro and IT Ledger fall into the category of asset management software - a category that Norbert Kriebel predicts will either "make earth shattering moves within the next six to eight months or go by the wayside like business re-engineering did."

Kriebel, who is a research analyst in the Santa Clara, Calif. Office of Giga Information Group, said asset management is critical for companies serious about maintaining hardware standardization and software distribution practices, but even beyond that it is required to give CEOs and business managers a picture of how IT spends its resources.

Based on the criteria, Kriebel is impressed by IT Ledger.

"It is a pioneering product," he said. "NetBalance has taken asset management one step further by capturing financial information- and not just the capital costs like how much time somebody has been spending with the help desk."

The calculation of softer costs-such as down time and help desk spending - is based on standard accounting practices for depreciation calculation, update costs and maintenance fee schedules supplied by American hardware and software manufacturers and NetBalance's own formulae, said Raj Ananthanpillai, president and CEO of NetBalance.

Companies, however, are not restricted to NetBalance's calculations. According to Ananthanpillai, complete customization is not only possible but encouraged.

"We let the customer decide how to figure those out first. We let them use their own models and their own costs, but if they know that they are incomplete or wrong, we will come in and give them a standard from which to start," Ananthanpillai said.

IT Ledger also allows companies to fill existing ODBC/JDBC-compliant databases with asset inventory inputted either specifically for the purpose or with data gathered from existing management systems by IT Ledger's Java-based configurable agents. IT Ledgers querying and reporting capabilities are based on Seagates Crystal Reports and are viewable through a browser.
Bill Smith, director of IT planning and competency management for the Baltimore Gas and Electric Company in Maryland, began Beta testing IT Ledger last spring. Along with implementing a more detailed charge-back system, the IT department is looking at moving away from purchasing equipment.

"Our goal is to move to leasing," Smith said, "but that requires a good asset management system because we have to be able to find the equipment at the end of the lease."

Smith said he first has to track inventory and assign TCO figures to each piece to prove that servicing older equipment, the utility is spending more money than it would if they had leased new equipment.

Craig Twigger, development manager at Deevan Computer Services Inc. based in Richmond Hill Ont., an asset management and year 2000 consultancy, said most corporations don't have an asset management program in place, and a "great majority of those that do, have systems that are too overblown to use."

He said he likes Asset Minder Pro as an easy-to-get-into system, even though it doesn't have TCO calculating capability. Deevan president Vince Forrestal agreed.

"At least this is a start and gets them into the corporate mindset," Forrestal said. "A lot of companies try to get into the best practices all at once, but it is best not to attempt to do that in one fell swoop. Asset Minder offers an important stepping stone and gives them a great repository."

Shipping with the FoxPro database, Asset Minder Pro allows asset information to be scanned in, transferred through OLE attachments or inputted directly. As PC Imageware president Nick Francis explained, those options provide variety in the type of information the system can store.

"You can scan in a spec sheet on a product and all the information is there. You just quickly pop up the brochure and see that you need eight 16-pin SIMM or 72-pin SIMM. Or you can pull up a full LAN diagram or even keep copies of the original invoices for warranty purposes. That way instead of having to go to accounting to find out purchase data or the original supplier, you have it all at your fingertips." Francis said.

Asset Minder Pro Server retails for $399. PC Imageware is at 1-888-462-4392.

IT Ledger starts at US $40,000 for a three user licence able to monitor 1,000 desktops.

NetBalance is at (301) 948-8506.

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