ITAM Forum gains momentum and kicks of ISO certification scheme development 

ITAM News & Analysis

ITAM Forum gains momentum and kicks of ISO certification scheme development 

It’s been a busy six months at the ITAM Forum! As a global membership organisation for the entire ITAM community, we’ve been working hard to bring new programs and activities to life that bring value to our members. We’ve also start work on creating the world’s first ISO 19770 certification scheme.

Here’s a recap of what’s been going on…

Firstly, just to remind everyone, the ITAM Forum is…

• a global membership organisation that promotes the business practice of ITAM
• end-user led by those at the rock face of ITAM
• not for profit so its purpose is to truly serve the interests of the industry

It has two main objectives:

1. To elevate ITAM by sharing knowledge and best practices that focus on business value and aid to grow the profession
2. To create – and be a caretake of – the new ISO 19770 standard certification scheme so organisations can demonstrate the quality of their ITAM practices

ISO Certification Scheme

While ISO19770 is a very useful resource for ITAM professionals, there has never been a way for organizations to measure conformity against the standard in a global, consistent and uniform way. The ITAM Forum will become the world’s first trade body to deliver this certification process to the industry.

In early July, we officially kicked off this project, and close to 100 people joined the Committee of Experts (CoE). These are ITAM professionals who are volunteering their time to help formulate the scheme and define how conformity will be measured.

45% of these volunteers indicated a willing to help write documents. The Writing Group started in September with CoE volunteers looking at general requirements, structural requirements, resource requirements, information requirements and process requirements.

NEN, the Dutch Standardization Institute, has also been appointed as the secretariat of this project and will assist with the process of its development. NEN has significant experience in developing both standards and certification schemes, managing over 31,000 standards.

Chapters

The ITAM Forum plans to launch a number of chapters to enhance the facilitation of cross-industry collaboration and networking. It recently launched its first North American chapter – U.S.A.

Led by Shannon Peterson and Ruxton Schuh, this chapter is open to all end-user ITAM professionals based within the U.S.A.

Education will be a big focus of this chapter, and the chapter leads are excited to bring in new voices and perspectives for the benefit of all chapter members.

Special Interest Groups

Based on findings from our recent membership survey, the Forum, just this fall, launch four Special Interest Groups (SIGs) based on topics of most interest to members.

• ITAM Service Models
• Next Generation ITAMers
• Optimisation
• Public Sector ITAM

These SIGs, which are open to all ITAM Forum members, have now all held their first meeting and have exciting plans in place.

Trustees

This past spring, the Forum gained six new trustees. These ITAM professionals, who are located in three countries and within three continents, work for media organisations, banks, tool and service providers and IT asset disposition partners.

• Brooks Hoffman, Iron Mountain
• Salome Hugo, FNB South Africa
• James Moy, ViacomCBS
• Jaroslaw Rickert, Schneider Electrics
• Todd Ringleman, RAY ALLEN Inc.
• Kristy Stroud, Snow Software

The ITAM Forum is overseen by a Board of Trustees who perform a governance role. The Board also helps to develop initiatives that will help to push forward the ITAM industry. Positions on the board become available every year, and the Forum aims to refresh the Board every three years.

These new Trustees join the following individuals who continue their term on the Board:

• Brett Zurbrick
• Bryant Caldwell
• Denise Lee
• Elise Cocks
• Johannes Biesing
• Martin Thompson
• Melody Ayeli (Chair)
• Rachel Ryan
• Ron Brill (Vice Chair)
• Sherry Irwin

Patrons

The Forum also gained three new patrons. These organisations share the Forum’s mission to promote and grow the business practice of ITAM.

• Iron Mountain is a global business dedicated to storing, protecting and managing, information and assets.
• RAY ALLEN INC. is a leading ITAM solutions provider for the networking industry.
• Softcorner is a leading B2B platform for the secondary software market in Europe.

These three organisations join existing Forum Patrons: Anglepoint, Elee, Gemini Six, ITS Partners, Lansweeper, Snow, Softline Group Northern Europe, SoftwareONE and USU.

ITAM Forum Team Members

The ITAM Forum team also expanded with the addition of two new colleagues.

Mark Flynn joined as Commercial Director. He has held a number of senior service and commercial roles in the SAM industry. Mark fully understands what’s required to promote the business practice of ITAM and to advance the ITAM profession. He’s particularly interested in the work being done to create the first ISO 19770 certification scheme as he knows how important this is for the industry and for all who work within it.

Hernán Fariñas Vales joined at Community Manager. He’s working to develop and manage a range of activities that enhance the ITAM Forum membership experience. This includes creating programmes and events that connect members and help members to grow and develop professionally.

Get involved

If you are curious about any of these activities or would like to learn more or get involved, please visit www.itamf.org or reach out to support@itamf.org.

It’s an exciting time for ITAM and an exciting time to be in ITAM.

Thanks, Martin

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