Don’t Let Human Error Confound Your IT Asset Management Strategy
Even after they go offline, IT assets like hard drives still contain valuable information. Because of this stored data, these drives are worth stealing and could cause serious consequences for your business if they are mishandled. Unfortunately, without a specific process set into place, your IT assets will almost certainly be mishandled.
According to Government Technology, a survey performed by the Ponemon Institute revealed that 48 percent of respondents listed human error as the leading cause of unplanned downtime for their data centers. Likewise, data collected by IBM pointed the finger at human error for 95 percent of IT security breaches in 2014, said TechRepublic. Human error in the IT world is not only likely, it’s a legitimate threat to business operations.
Even if most instances of human error only generate minor setbacks, it only takes second of carelessness to do serious damage to a company’s future. That’s why it makes sense to find ways to minimize human error where you can, such as automating the IT asset management.
An asset disposition process is absolutely necessary
One of the reasons that human error is such a threat to IT asset management is because disposition is typically one of the last things on your IT team’s to-do list. Your offline assets rarely come into play for your IT team on a day-to-day basis, so it’s easy for them to take management of hard drives and backup tapes for granted. Unfortunately, this relaxed attitude toward disposition is exactly why human error is such a big threat to your company. When these assets are taken for granted, they are more likely to get misplaced, damaged or stolen.
The best way to remedy this lack of organization is to introduce a proven system into the workflow. Installing software remedies like AssetAware, for instance, instantly updates your company’s asset management strategy from a freewheeling afterthought to a comprehensive system of checks and precautions. The software’s tools make it easy for your IT team to identify specific disposition pathways, register assets and their locations, track assets via barcode scans and collect this data into reports for supervisors or auditors. Chances are your IT team will be far more motivated to complete these tasks if they have a software tool to perform most of the busywork.
Misplaced data leads to fines and litigation
Putting IT asset management on the backburner is risky business. Auditors can make a visit at any time and there’s no way to predict when a client could demand rapid access to their private data. In cases like these, your company is almost guaranteed to see a problem unless the IT team can quickly and confidently retrieve this data from a known location. Failure to perform could result in a loss of customer trust, expensive compliance fees from auditors and long-term damage to your company’s reputation as a reliable resource.
Accountability encourages IT to take greater care
Employees always perform better if they know their results are being measured. It’s just a fact of human nature. A reliable IT asset management solution like AssetAware come with built-in commands for establishing a chain of custody. Documenting the handling of offline assets will make each member of the custody chain more aware of his or her place in the chain and motivate them to take greater care of moving along the asset to next step of the disposition process. Tracking this process is a breeze when your company has a software solution automatically updates itself as assets move from one link in the chain to the next.