Management

Strategies to Keep Track of Mobile Assets

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By: Tom Bunzel (7/23/2010)

No matter what hardware or software solutions are implemented for mobile workers, the dispersal of equipment and the variety of components can be a real challenge for IT managers. Three areas of concern need to be addressed in order to hold the right people accountable for organizational assets used away from the office: True Asset Management of the organization’s inventory of mobile and other devices and related equipment must be kept in a comprehensive system, recording who is responsible for the equipment and where it is physically located. License and Warranty Compliance to ensure normal operations and adherence to legal and organizational policies. Intellectual Property/Data Storage and Protection involves even more attention to detail when workers are in remote locations and using various devices. IT needs a strategy to track and synchronize all kinds of files and data, from documents to email to contact and financial information — and make sure that it is backed up and kept secure from outside breaches. IT Asset Management solution providers like SAManage note that the real challenge in this field is not just knowing which assets you have and their location, but also: Auditing the entire infrastructure and deploying the proper hardware [and software] management processes Tracking changes to your assets, such as new mobile computers and software installations Planning IT migrations and new IT projects Correlating IT assets against financial records such as contracts and licenses. The company concludes that these steps empower IT administration to easily track and manage assets and other changes, and detect unauthorized and illegal software by noticing deviations from an organizational usage policy. This effort isn’t merely to create yet another database for somebody to ignore. A savvy CIO aligns IT assets to financial assets by calculating the ROI of hardware and software expenditures against profits and loss. With assets properly catalogued and connected, management can make strategic decisions about whom to hold responsible for breaches in policy with a clear record of accountability. In other words: You can know whose feet to hold to the fire. Craig Settles, writing in Mobile Enterprise, describes how Blain Hartkopp, Manager of PC Support Services for utility company Aquila in Kansas City, MO has 1,000 mobile workers and executives equipped with a combination of Itronix rugged GoBooks, Dell™ laptops and various smartphones. Hartkopp has managers set times for when workers get their trucks and attend meetings so that IT can implement device management activities, like upgrades, around these meetings. At Atlanta-based Piedmont Hospital, where 275 Motorola Symbol devices were issued to nurses to improve monitoring of medication, “IT, the nursing staff and pharmacy managers together determined how well the devices would meet HIPAA compliance, created security policies and procedures, and even established maximum distances the wireless signals would broadcast from the network to the devices,” says Clinical Systems Coordinator Trudy Collett, RN. Key questions that every deployment checklist should include are: Is there a natural time and place to distribute devices to mobile workers? Should people be brought into the office in waves, so as not to dramatically disrupt business operations? How will software get loaded onto laptops and rugged handhelds? Who is going to design, develop and test training materials? According to Settles, issues come up when devices are physically distributed. Organizations that support multiple types of devices require an strategy that may use SharePoint or RIM Blackberry servers on the enterprise or a simpler spreadsheet-driven inventory control process. Settles concludes with six Tips for Effective Mobile Device Management: Include business and IT managers on the team that develops guidelines for managing devices Identify a natural time and place to distribute mobile devices Set policies for how software will get loaded onto handhelds and laptops For device provisioning, opt for automation or hosted applications whenever possible Plan ahead for the logistics of device repair Keep at least 5% of your device inventory in reserve to use as spares These are some of the policies that can ensure that devices and software are properly accounted for. Settles also notes in another article for Mobile Enterprise that challenges specific to mobile purchasing need to be addressed by IT and HR, regarding setting policies and holding workers accountable for failure to comply. These factors include: Employees who purchase handheld devices directly, often circumventing corporate procedures Devices that make it easy for individuals to add software, with potentially costly consequences for the enterprise Corporate departments that may require unique mobile applications that work only for their specific needs and don’t apply to the rest of the organization And, of course, carrier service fees for voice and data communication In the event of security lapses, you – the manager – can be held accountable along with your subordinates, along with anyone from IT connected with distribution and policy for lost equipment or data. Responsibility starts at the top on a chain of responsibility. The Boeing Company fired an employee whose stolen laptop resulted in the potential dissemination of personal information of about 400,000 retired and current employees. Jim McNerney, Boeing’s chairman, president and chief executive, said action would be taken against some Boeing managers. “Management must be held accountable when repeated failures like this occur, so the employee’s management chain will be reprimanded… To ensure that all Boeing-sensitive information is safe — even in the event of theft — each and every one of us must actually follow the policies and procedures and use the tools available to protect information.” This isn’t an employee management issue. It’s a manager’s responsibility. Be vigilant with regard to everything mobile, from laptops to flash drives with data, to maintain security for the organization. Using Technology Effectively With the human factors of managing mobile workers in proper focus you can implement technical solutions that track results from where workers are physically located (GPS) to what they produce in terms of work product. Managers can also implement a dedicated solution like Cbeyond’s Mobile Workforce Manager that provides comprehensive metrics about what is going on while workers are away on assignment. Among its many productivity features, says the company, the program also “Delivers a snapshot and tracks where your workers are and what they are doing [and] helps you make workers more accountable for their time.” How a system like this impacts trust on the part of remote workers is open to debate, but it certainly has the effect of tracking road warriors’ activities in a way that provides documentary evidence for accountability. A viable system for managing workers might also generate video or photographic information on performance, best practices, training and job reports, which your company can include in a social strategy that shares the information with the rest of the organization. Related Information From Dell.com: A Success Blueprint for the Efficient Enterprise.

No matter what hardware or software solutions are implemented for mobile workers, the dispersal of equipment and the variety of components can be a real challenge for IT managers.

Three areas of concern need to be addressed in order to hold the right people accountable for organizational assets used away from the office:

True Asset Management of the organization’s inventory of mobile and other devices and related equipment must be kept in a comprehensive system, recording who is responsible for the equipment and where it is physically located. License and Warranty Compliance to ensure normal operations and adherence to legal and organizational policies.

Intellectual Property/Data Storage and Protection involves even more attention to detail when workers are in remote locations and using various devices. IT needs a strategy to track and synchronize all kinds of files and data, from documents to email to contact and financial information — and make sure that it is backed up and kept secure from outside breaches.

IT Asset Management solution providers like SAManage note that the real challenge in this field is not just knowing which assets you have and their location, but also:

Auditing the entire infrastructure and deploying the proper hardware [and software] management processes
Tracking changes to your assets, such as new mobile computers and software installations
Planning IT migrations and new IT projects
Correlating IT assets against financial records such as contracts and licenses.

The company concludes that these steps empower IT administration to easily track and manage assets and other changes, and detect unauthorized and illegal software by noticing deviations from an organizational usage policy.

This effort isn’t merely to create yet another database for somebody to ignore. A savvy CIO aligns IT assets to financial assets by calculating the ROI of hardware and software expenditures against profits and loss. With assets properly catalogued and connected, management can make strategic decisions about whom to hold responsible for breaches in policy with a clear record of accountability. In other words: You can know whose feet to hold to the fire.

Craig Settles, writing in Mobile Enterprise, describes how Blain Hartkopp, Manager of PC Support Services for utility company Aquila in Kansas City, MO has 1,000 mobile workers and executives equipped with a combination of Itronix rugged GoBooks, Dell™ laptops and various smartphones. Hartkopp has managers set times for when workers get their trucks and attend meetings so that IT can implement device management activities, like upgrades, around these meetings.

At Atlanta-based Piedmont Hospital, where 275 Motorola Symbol devices were issued to nurses to improve monitoring of medication, “IT, the nursing staff and pharmacy managers together determined how well the devices would meet HIPAA compliance, created security policies and procedures, and even established maximum distances the wireless signals would broadcast from the network to the devices,” says Clinical Systems Coordinator Trudy Collett, RN.

Key questions that every deployment checklist should include are:

Is there a natural time and place to distribute devices to mobile workers?
Should people be brought into the office in waves, so as not to dramatically disrupt business operations?
How will software get loaded onto laptops and rugged handhelds?
Who is going to design, develop and test training materials?

According to Settles, issues come up when devices are physically distributed. Organizations that support multiple types of devices require an strategy that may use SharePoint or RIM Blackberry servers on the enterprise or a simpler spreadsheet-driven inventory control process.

Settles concludes with six Tips for Effective Mobile Device Management:

Include business and IT managers on the team that develops guidelines for managing devices
Identify a natural time and place to distribute mobile devices
Set policies for how software will get loaded onto handhelds and laptops
For device provisioning, opt for automation or hosted applications whenever possible
Plan ahead for the logistics of device repair
Keep at least 5% of your device inventory in reserve to use as spares

These are some of the policies that can ensure that devices and software are properly accounted for.

Settles also notes in another article for Mobile Enterprise that challenges specific to mobile purchasing need to be addressed by IT and HR, regarding setting policies and holding workers accountable for failure to comply. These factors include:

Employees who purchase handheld devices directly, often circumventing corporate procedures
Devices that make it easy for individuals to add software, with potentially costly consequences for the enterprise
Corporate departments that may require unique mobile applications that work only for their specific needs and don’t apply to the rest of the organization
And, of course, carrier service fees for voice and data communication

In the event of security lapses, you – the manager – can be held accountable along with your subordinates, along with anyone from IT connected with distribution and policy for lost equipment or data. Responsibility starts at the top on a chain of responsibility.

The Boeing Company fired an employee whose stolen laptop resulted in the potential dissemination of personal information of about 400,000 retired and current employees. Jim McNerney, Boeing’s chairman, president and chief executive, said action would be taken against some Boeing managers. “Management must be held accountable when repeated failures like this occur, so the employee’s management chain will be reprimanded… To ensure that all Boeing-sensitive information is safe — even in the event of theft — each and every one of us must actually follow the policies and procedures and use the tools available to protect information.”

This isn’t an employee management issue. It’s a manager’s responsibility. Be vigilant with regard to everything mobile, from laptops to flash drives with data, to maintain security for the organization.

Using Technology Effectively

With the human factors of managing mobile workers in proper focus you can implement technical solutions that track results from where workers are physically located (GPS) to what they produce in terms of work product. Managers can also implement a dedicated solution like Cbeyond’s Mobile Workforce Manager that provides comprehensive metrics about what is going on while workers are away on assignment. Among its many productivity features, says the company, the program also “Delivers a snapshot and tracks where your workers are and what they are doing [and] helps you make workers more accountable for their time.”

How a system like this impacts trust on the part of remote workers is open to debate, but it certainly has the effect of tracking road warriors’ activities in a way that provides documentary evidence for accountability.

A viable system for managing workers might also generate video or photographic information on performance, best practices, training and job reports, which your company can include in a social strategy that shares the information with the rest of the organization.

Related Information From Dell.com: A Success Blueprint for the Efficient Enterprise.