I recently heard that someone asked the question if they knew of where they could obtain a good guide on SAM processes. The response offered was to consider the ITAM Accelerate Process Kit – to which they replied: “we have that, but it’s too general….” SAM Charter is happy to announce that we are bringing out the “Silver Bullets” edition, where the reader has to do no work whatsoever, and vendor audits can be dialed in from the comfort of your own bed.
Sounds too good to be true?! That’s because it is!!
I refer to this paragraph in the Process Kit:
“The first thing I want to say about the process maps on offer is that they are templates – I cannot stress this enough; they are not live working models to be dropped into an organization and considered as “job done”. If you are to use these process maps, use them as a kick-start to any business and systems analysis that needs to take place – offer them up as guidelines that stakeholders should engage with and offer input on for customization.”
The nice thing about the kit is that regardless of where you are in your SAM/ ITAM journey, it will save you time. Even if you are at “ground zero” you can “parachute down” from best-practice, rather than break your company in getting it to snap to grid. The additional joy of taking such an approach, is that you have a ready path established for you to ascend in the future. If you need to dip your toe in the water, then head over to our whitepapers page and download our five process giveaway. IMHO, this is as close to the Silver Bullets analogy as you will get in the industry!
Next week: Learning how to swim without getting wet…..
Hi Rory,
It was a good chance that I ran across this BLOG post (although a year old when I now am first reading this, timeless nonetheless, and you had me rolling right from the start.
Today’s IT and non-IT employees and colleagues are always lamenting:
“I want it now and I want it done for me in a format I can see on my phone on my way to something else.”
Unfortunately, as we both know from voluminous experience and personal teeth gnashing (not to mention the I wish I could punch that exec in the face when in a room full of subordinates they blurt out in a grand sweeping sort of fashion: “SAM, easy peezey”; although they personally never had to sit in an audit defense negotiation due to a lack of system controls in the first place.
Justifying in their self-effacing conscience clearing manner that the real hard work required and engaged in by the SAM professionals of the world creates the necessary data, processes, controls & metrics to avoid the unpleasantness of over-utilizing and under buying. Mind you that in most cases it is the other way around (but vendors will never admit that it is true 90% of the time) that companies buy more than they need but are silly 3rd grader’s when put to the test to count it all up and reconcile it to avoid the scary panic that comes with an audit.
What I wanted really to convey to (mostly your readers searching for Godspell) is that silver bullets are fine to search for. Far more importantly they should be architecting and shortly thereafter constructing their goal-specific “Platinum Vest” with gold, silver, bronze and copper bullets ready to go as you will always not have the exact same historical challenge facing in front of you but a similar patina of the experience when confronting any or all SAM issues and their concomitant interwoven processes within the modern corporate form, known as the organization.
Hey Philip, great to hear from you and thanks for your post. Aspiring to greatness is a good thing, but since I wrote that post I came across another quote attributed to Thomas Edison: “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” I think this is SAM/ITAM in a nutshell – the plug and play brigade need to put a shift in!