Real Asset Management Blog

UK firms unprepared for disaster, IDC warns. Does your business have a DR plan?

BT-commissioned research reveals the UK’s largest firms are still lacking when it comes to business continuity provision (article written by Sara Yirrell, CRN, 4th March 08)

Growing risk awareness and an increasingly dangerous business environment may have prompted more companies to invest in disaster recovery (DR) as part of the business continuity programme - but how safe is that investment?

Just what, indeed, is being recovered? Few organisations have any real insight into the true extent of their IT assets. Not only does this challenge the validity of the DR solution but it also raises huge questions in the event of an insurance claim.

For most companies, one of the major issues is the complete lack of co-ordination between the asset register recorded within finance and the inventory lists used within the IT department to determine system maintenance and support.

Any inconsistency between the asset register held within finance and other inventory records in the business will raise significant doubt for insurance companies, delaying payment at best. At worst an organisation could lose any chance of an insurance pay-out, even face charges of claiming for non existent items.

However, there are simple processes that can be followed to ensure greater information consistency. A central repository that records the serial number and asset location, as well as the value of each item, will meet the needs of all departments from finance to IT.

Critically, this ensures that reliable, accurate information is available for both insurance and DR planning, reducing business risk whilst also giving companies more confidence in their business continuity investments.

Small businesses ignorant on WEEE - is yours one of them?

A year after the laws came into force, most businesses still don’t know they exist (article by Tom Young, Computing, 12 Feb 08)

The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive may be touted as a cost for suppliers, but unless organisations get their asset registers in order, it will also create a significant cost for UK business.

Such policies as WEEE assume a level of asset management far beyond that achieved by the majority of UK business. Unless supplying a like for like replacement, suppliers will only remove and dispose of equipment they have delivered initially. How many UK businesses can accurately identify the location of their WEEE equipment within the organisation and confirm when it was purchased and from whom? Without such information, just which company do they expect to handle the free disposal?

Organisations need to implement sound asset disposal procedures. Linking the asset register to a document management system will ensure a scanned WEEE certificate is linked to a disposed asset, providing the required audit trail. Each asset can be recorded alongside the supplier’s name and email address, enabling swift supplier contact when disposal is due.

UK business is already complaining about excessive red tape, perhaps why the WEEE Directive introduction in July 2007 was so downplayed. But a belief that the onus of WEEE is firmly on equipment suppliers could be an expensive mistake.