IAITAM Conference Review - IAITAM Introduce ITAM Masters Degree

ITAM News & Analysis

IAITAM Conference Review - IAITAM Introduce ITAM Masters Degree

Lots to report from the IAITAM Conference last week:

Dr Barb

First of all, big congratulations to Barb for her honorary doctorate.

“William Howard Taft University honors founder and CEO of IAITAM,  Barbara Rembiesa, with an Honorary Doctorate of Letters for her contributions to the field of I.T. Asset Management (ITAM) and her extensive philanthropic contributions to the community.”
Well done Dr. Barb!

ITAM Master Degree

IAITAM have raised the game in training and certification in our industry with the introduction of an ITAM Masters Degree (MS ITAM).

Summary: 

• Offered by William Howard Taft University
• Online Master of Science in IT with concentration in Asset Management
• “The requirements may be completed in as little as twelve months, and must be completed within five years from the date of initial enrollment.”
• Estimated cost from $8,100 ($225 x 36 units) – assuming no credits
• Prerequisite: Bachelor or first professional degree
• Credits available towards the course units e.g. IAITAM Accreditations, Professional Experience etc.
• “Taft University’s MSITAM program will prepare students to be key contributors in defining the strategies for aligning information technology with the organizational business drivers that promote ROI, reduce risk, and increase productivity. The skills learned will expose students to the capabilities necessary to advance their careers into management positions in areas both within and outside of IT.”
• Further details: https://www.taft.edu/msitam.htm
• More details to follow over the coming months

Sessions: 

I thought Scott Lemm’s idea of ‘Service Chunking’ was very good; where ITAM, ITSM and ITFM meet. I hope to persuade Scott to share some of his wisdom in this area soon. The IAITAM led workshop “Building a Business Case for ITAM” was very good – exploring some of the soft skills required of an IT Asset Manager such as networking and selling skills. I also enjoyed the interactive end user sessions with Keith and Dyson from The Federal Aviation Administration and Robin Trebec from Chevron.

ISO/IEC 19770-2

The software tagging standard continues to build momentum. When I met Microsoft in 2009 they stated they were “watching with interest”, this has progressed significantly and Microsoft are considering adding SWID tag management into their four key inventory tools sets (SCCM, MAP, Intune and AIS). Microsoft have always led the way in SAM from a vendor perspective and their support will do much to increase adoption; Heather Young should be congratulated for her efforts here.

Also on the topic of ISO/IEC 19770-2 – Assetlabs join Flexera Software in offering tag generation into their offering (press release).

Conference Value

In a nutshell: Overall great event, great location.

I had previously heard that the IAITAM Conference is for team members and ‘down in the weeds’ of ITAM, whilst the Gartner ITFPA Summit is aimed at senior management with more visionary content. In my opinion, having attended both events this year, this is wrong on both counts.

Both events include a mixture of senior management and hands-on practitioners, and both events include visionary best practice and hands-on pragmatic advice. The key difference between the Gartner summit and IAITAM conference is community. At ACE there is a real buzz about the place with genuine networking and knowledge sharing.

My Only Negative

I didn’t win an iPad! One of the key competitive differentiators to sort the men from the boys in the IT Asset Disposal market is the facilities of your disposal partner. US Micro were keen to show-off their all new landfill-free facility in Las Vegas.

Of all the things you could possibly do in an evening in Las Vegas – a tour of a PC recycling facility was not top of my list. However US Micro tempted us out with food, drink and the chance to win one of 50 iPads.

Statistically, 50 iPads across two coach loads of people is not bad odds in comparison to spending a night at the tables in the casino – but alas Martin and I came away empty handed! However we were left with a good impression of the mind-bogglingly impressive US Micro ITAD facility – more to follow over the coming weeks.

IAITAM Global Expansion 

• Great to meet Takeshi-san from IAITAM in Japan, who is already delivering courses in Asia including China.
• John Lovelock, formerly of FAST, is off to a great start with IAITAM EMEA with a CSAM course being held on the 22nd-23rd November in London. This is just after the FAST Conference – for which IAITAM are main sponsor.
• IAITAM course availability planned for the Nordics, South Africa, India, Canada, Australia and Russia.

See also write up from Charles Betz

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