Touchpaper Releases New Version of IT Business Management Suite

ITAM News & Analysis

Touchpaper Releases New Version of IT Business Management Suite

IT Business Management (ITBM) Suite now includes Asset Management Process Pack, delivering total lifecycle IT asset management from procurement to disposal in accordance with green initiatives and data privacy regulations.

Touchpaper has today announced the latest release of its IT Business Management (ITBM) suite, now featuring the Asset Management Process Pack. The Asset Management Process Pack is a total lifecycle approach to asset management that allows IT directors to keep track of an organization’s computing assets through the entire lifecycle; from procurement, ongoing management and change of IT assets, to their eventual disposal. The latest development of the ITBM suite underscores Touchpaper’s commitment to support the service lifecycle principles of the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) Version 3. It also facilitates IT compliance with hardware disposal standards, such as the EU’s Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive, as well as data protection and information privacy legislation such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and Sarbanes-Oxley requirements for IT management.

About the Asset Management Process Pack

The Touchpaper Asset Management Process Pack manages the procurement process from the moment a request for new equipment is received and facilitates department authorization from the relevant budget holders. Upon approval, a purchase requisition is automatically generated within the Touchpaper system and routed to the finance department for processing. The software manages the delivery process and finally monitors the process for the installation and configuration of the new equipment, where required.

Once a new IT asset is installed, Touchpaper’s solution provides the IT department with total control over the complete lifecycle of that asset, including everything from planned and unplanned changes, to who is using and how, to whether or not it should be re-configured to meet the changing needs of the organization. Each asset becomes a Configuration Item (CI) that is part of the Touchpaper Configuration Management Database (CMDB), further underpinning the increasing requirement in today’s business environment to track and manage IT changes in support of overall business or organizational objectives.

Support for Change Management and ITIL Version 3 Processes

Targeted at those personnel who are responsible for the purchase, tracking and disposal of IT assets across an organization, the Touchpaper Asset Management Process Pack builds upon the strong process-driven nature of the ITBM suite and further underlines Touchpaper’s commitment to support the service lifecycle principles of the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) Version 3. The new solution contains a set of pre-defined processes which ensure that the right people, at the right time, are able to manage changes to IT assets and their subsequent impact on the overall business. This ultimately helps the IT department play a fundamental role in managing and controlling risk across the entire organization, for example, during times of significant hardware or software upgrades or organizational change activities such as new services or acquisitions.

Compliance with E-Waste Disposal Mandates

The Asset Management Process Pack provides IT asset management support for ‘end-of-life’ computer disposal. Responsible disposal of unwanted IT assets, or “green e-waste management”, is an especially important issue for international companies that will implement ITBM on a global scale. Touchpaper’s IT Asset Management Process Pack monitors and supports mandatory environmental regulations such as the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive which requires that European producers of new equipment pay for the recycling and/or safe treatment and disposal of the products they put on the market when they eventually come to be replaced. In the United States, e-waste management is currently subject to individual state regulations. American organizations are already equipping themselves with the proper tools to monitor IT asset disposal in anticipation of looming federal e-waste disposal directives and to comply with their company’s green initiatives.

“Growing concern for the environment means that IT directors are also responsible for how they dispose of their IT equipment as defined by mandatory regulations such as the European WEEE directive and any future regulations that may take place in the United States or worldwide,” said Touchpaper CEO Graham Ridgway. “We believe that the latest functionality of the ITBM suite will support the IT department in its quest to align services more closely with the overall eco-friendly goals of an organization.”

Ridgway continued, “In the United States, e-waste management is currently subject to individual state regulations; however, this may change in the near future. Federal initiatives are in the works to regulate e-waste disposal. Organizations should equip themselves with the ability to monitor how they dispose of their IT assets in anticipation of imminent Federal e-waste disposal directives.”

Protection against Asset Drift and Data Breach Hazards

In addition to providing a responsible solution for how computer assets are disposed, the Asset Management Process Pack offers robust support for tracking and maintaining the security of an organization’s computers and data. The Asset Management Process Pack is fully compatible with endpoint tracking and security service providers’ solutions, allowing clients to enjoy visibility into the lifecycle management of their assets within the Touchpaper dashboard. In doing so, the Asset Management Process Pack provides IT administrators another tool to help secure IT governance within the organization. Often times, large organizations have little knowledge of their computer assets and the information on them. It should be a priority to monitor those assets and keeping them from landing in the wrong hands, an event that often results in a data breaches and identity theft.

Few organizations have ‘nightmare scenario’ policies in place should a data breach occur. In the event of a data breach, IT directors should know which computers were stolen and what information was contained on those computers. There are 38 states with data breach laws that hold businesses financially responsible for identity theft. In addition, American IT departments must meet the stringent data protection and disposal guidelines set forth in HIPAA and Sarbanes-Oxley legislation. The Asset Management Process Pack complements IT administrators’ existing efforts to stay on top of computing assets and the data they contain. Touchpaper’s Assest Management Process Pack allows IT administrators to keep tabs on an entire organization’s assets by monitoring where a computer is located, who is using it and what information is on each and every device.

For more information on The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) regulations, please visit: https://www.netregs.gov.uk/netregs/275207/1631119/

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