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The ITAM Forum launches the world’s first ISO/IEC 19770-1 certification scheme

Mike Varney — Fri, 24 Feb 2023 09:23:40 +0000

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Softline Group Northern Europe and HDI Group become the first two organisations certified under the new scheme.

Published on 24th February 2023

The ITAM Forum today announced the launch of the world’s first ISO/IEC 19770-1 certification scheme for IT asset management and celebrates the first two organizations to ever receive certification – Softline Group Northern Europe and HDI Group.

As a management system – similar to ISO 27001 and 9001 – ISO/IEC 19770-1 specifies the requirements for an IT asset management system – the people, processes and technology necessary to manage IT assets throughout the lifecycle. Until today, organizations could not demonstrate the quality of their ITAM practices in a consistent, uniform and globally-accepted way. Now, ITAM teams can receive unrivaled recognition for their work.

Goal achieved: Global ITAM certification is here

The ITAM Forum launched in May 2020 with the aims to promote the business benefits of ITAM and to create the world’s first, globally-recognized and accepted certification scheme for ISO/IEC 19770-1.

Speaking during its launch, Martin Thompson, founder of the ITAM Forum, commented, “ITAM is rapidly ascending in significance. By benchmarking an ITAM department or team against a globally-recognized ISO standard, internal and external stakeholders, including the Board, will be assured of the highest-quality processes.”

Speaking today, Thompson remarks; “Today marks a major milestone for the global ITAM industry and for the ITAM Forum. We have achieved one of our key objectives with help from the world-wide ITAM community. This wouldn’t have been possible without the continued work of several ITAM leaders, such as David Bickett, who have championed ITAM for decades, long before the ITAM Forum came into existence.”

First two organizations to be certified

Ash Dharas, Managing Consultant and Practice Manager ITAM at Softline Group Northern Europe commented, “We’re thrilled to be the first organization to achieve certification. This was an important milestone for us, and I’m incredibly proud of this achievement. We’re also now well prepared to help our clients with their certification journeys, and hopefully, many will follow in our footsteps.”

Patrick Milas, License Manager for HDI Group commented, “Today is great day for HDI. We are the first end-user organization to gain ISO ITAM certification, a fantastic achievement. I would like to thank all of my colleagues who helped make this happen and TIMETOACT Group for its support and guidance. I encourage all companies that engage in ITAM to explore the business benefits of ISO certification.”

Closing remarks

Martin Thompson, founder of the ITAM Forum comments, “I would like to personally thank Softline Group Northern Europe and HDI for their leadership and vision and for helping to bring this certification scheme to life. Without their hard work in going through the extensive certification process, we wouldn’t be able to share this great news today. More companies are undergoing the certification process right now, so we hope to soon announce more certifications.”

Source

https://www.realwire.com/releases/itam-forum-launches-the-worlds-first-isoiec-19770-1-certification-scheme

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Tara Winstead via Pexels

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How a new ISO standard helps you take control of your IT assets

Mike Varney — Thu, 03 May 2018 11:45:00 +0000

ISO

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The updated ISO standard 19770-1:2017 offers IT managers a way to bring their hardware and software assets under a single management standard

Published on 3rd May 2018

You must have control over your software and hardware. Not just because you should – but because it makes perfect sense and it is good for your business.

The updated ISO standard 19770-1:2017 promises to help you do just that. ISO 19770-1:2017 is really not a new standard, but an update from ISO 19770-1:2012.

But it is not a minor update. It feels more like an overhaul in that it now meets the requirements of a “real” management systems standard, such as ISO 27001. In relation to IT asset management (ITAM), the standard helps to address some significant problems when it comes to reducing risk and establishing a best practice for managing your IT assets.

The 19770-x family covers all the essential areas, such as lifecycle processes and best practices, software tagging and usage rights (entitlements). Until this latest new release, the standard was a software asset management (SAM) standard, but it has become more and more obvious that looking at software and SAM as an island makes little sense.

Over the years, efforts have been made to build bridges to related areas, such as IT service management. But you cannot talk about managing software assets without also accounting for the hardware on which the software operates. So, SAM and hardware asset management (HAM) need to be tied closely together. This is reflected in the new ISO standard.

The main difference in this release is that it has been designed as a “management system standard”. This means that you share the approach towards risk management with ISO 27001. It also means that the 19770 standard is compatible with other management systems standards. For instance, the ISO 20000-1 for IT service management is currently being rewritten in the same manner.

As these standards evolve with comparable approaches and methodologies, it becomes easier to set in place governance structures across disciplines and specialist areas. But the trade-off is that the guidance and the “how to” becomes much more vague and it becomes a task for the individual organisation to figure out a plan on how to comply with the standard.

More challenges

It will, of course, introduce more challenges – but there is also reason to believe that the challenges in managing IT assets in a global bank are somewhat different than for a regional manufacturing company.

Some people may question whether adhering to such standards is worthwhile. In the end, it is really up to each organisation to decide at what level it wishes to apply certain standards and whether this then brings value and supports the organisation’s strategic goals.

Most organisations expect that there is a certain level of control over the IT assets they own, and that these assets are properly managed, but this is very far from the truth. The complexity of taking control, the growing demand from the lines of business to acquire technology when they need to, and the internet of thkngs (IoT) revolution increase the effort required to keep on top of IT assets.

And if you find you can’t manage what you don’t know, the new standard can help. It allows the organisation to decide on the level of control that is required or desired. The 19770 family also sets a standard for:

For most organisations, the main driver for taking control of their software assets is the desire to avoid issues of software non-compliance during a licence audit. Sound management of IT assets can also improve an organisation’s security stance on cyber threats. New vulnerabilities are discovered every day and, on average, three out of every four attacks is aimed at web applications.

Both the WannaCry and the Equifax attacks took advantage of poor patch management, and therefore a lack of proper processes safeguarding IT assets. Good processes would have helped mitigate this.

Be demanding

As an organisation, you should be able to take advantage of the international standards laid out from ISO with regard to software tagging and entitlement tagging. You should insist software providers (Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, for example) and tools providers (such as Snow and Flexera) should support your ITAM activities by adhering to the ISO standards.

But IT asset management starts internally. Look at your own organisation: do you have the right resources in place and are people aware of their roles and responsibilities? Look into your processes. Do you have a set of policies and procedures in place to support effective ITAM? Are you aware of the threats from cyber attacks and are you ready to take cautious action?

Adherence to the new ISO 19770 standard boils down to having proper processes in place. These will help to avoid licence non-compliance, which is a financial risk to the organisation. Also, ISO 19770 enables you to optimise your software licence and secure operational processes, thus reducing IT security risks.

Source

https://www.computerweekly.com/opinion/How-a-new-ISO-standard-helps-you-take-control-of-your-IT-assets

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Mohamma Danish via Pexels

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