Life on Marsland says “know your assets!”

In his latest column, former chief information officer Iain Marsland reflects that good IT managers will have a fine, if slightly obsessive, interest in assets. The tough part is getting everybody else to share it...

If I were to advertise for an IT manager again, I would certainly put as mandatory experience that the successful candidate should have been a stamp collector or a train spotter or that they should have a fascination with the periodic table.

In other words, a degree in IT or Microsoft Certified Professional qualifications aside, the core competency I would seek would be an obsession with assets.

Asset management used to be easy

When I first began in the NHS, IT assets weren’t a problem. Visual display units (not PCs) were attached by miles of copper cable into the back of the relevant computer. Theoretically, you could give the cable a yank and see if the VDU was still on the end of it.

Departmental IT budgets were some way in the future. Today, £350 PCs are domestic commodities. Worse, £50 wireless routers are almost self installing. The final straw is that everyone has become an IT engineer, too.

I recently visited a hospital where a department didn’t even talk to IT about a new system. They just bought the PCs, software and wireless routers and set it up themselves. And this was a therapy department - not even a major IT-user such as pathology or finance. The world’s gone mad.

“When I first began in the NHS, IT assets weren’t a problem. Theoretically, you could give a cable a yank and see if a VDU was still on the end of it.”

So why is it so important now?

 Firstly, there is the idea of “fit for purpose.” For a quiet life on the help desk, users need to have a warranted environment that doesn’t fall over whenever they reach for a mouse.

Secondly, to maintain this position there should be a refresh policy linked to departmental or central IT capital budgets that flags when equipment is beyond its sell-by-date.

Thirdly, there is the issue of network integrity and avoiding the nightmare prospect of LAN-killing jabber from self-installed routers or PCs.

Fourthly, there is fear of FAST - the Federation Against Software Theft - and ensuring that all software is licensed.

And finally there is the small issue of information governance and ensuring that data held on corporate PCs is registered for compliance with data protection and freedom of information legislation, while data held on corporate laptops is encrypted, accessed only with appropriate authentication, subject to timed log-outs and backed up.

“You will probably need to hire some foot soldiers to undertake a full survey; but nothing beats walking the site yourself, especially after 5pm.”

How to put asset control on the agenda – fast

I would start by reminding the chief executive that he is the accountable officer for staff using unlicensed software on his site and then send him to FAST’s website (www.fast.org.uk). While he is still worried, ask him to put IT asset integrity on the senior management team’s performance objectives.

Next, ask estates for site plans and get departmental managers to identify which rooms have IT equipment in them. It might be worth cross-checking with the electricians’ portable appliance testing (PAT) register.

Depending on the size of your site, you will probably need to hire some foot soldiers to undertake a full survey; but nothing beats walking the site yourself, especially after 5pm. Once the register is complete, use it to populate Active Directory and then use SMS to manage the assets thereafter - avoiding the need to retain the foot soldiers permanently.

Keeping control of assets under management

The next bit is the hard part. The day after the register is complete it will be out of date, unless you fix policies and procedures.

The tricky policy issue is budget. If you insist on managing the IT budget, then be sure to properly assess the last three years’ spend (this still won’t stop doctors ordering equipment from their research grant). If managers retain their IT budget, then insist that they build in a refresh capacity, and get finance to add this line to their statements.

The best policy is to have a deep and meaningful relationship with supplies, because they will police procurement for you. Keep it simple and remember that supplies folk like signatures. If your signature isn’t on a requisition that faintly resembles IT, then it should be placed in the envelope addressed to Hogwarts.

Finally, market effectively. Everyone prefers the carrot to the stick. Accentuate the positives: reduced downtime, rapid support, no more old equipment and outdated software. You could even offer them Vista. Just don’t tell them that it was free!

About the author: Iain Marsland has been in the NHS for 34 years, most recently as chief information officer for Essex Strategic Health Authority and previously as director of IM&T for acute trusts in Brighton, Sussex and Bristol. He is now an independent consultant.