Sidebar: Regulatory Demands Put Spotlight On Asset Management Practices

Computerworld - Bresler & Reiner Inc. has found itself placing a lot more emphasis on IT asset management practices as a result of pressing regulatory compliance demands.
Earlier this year, the Rockville, Md.-based real estate investment trust installed an industry-specific accounting software package that's used by its various property management companies. The package was supplied by Beaverton, Ore.-based Timberline Software Corp., said Eric Clarke, Bresler & Reiner's internal audit director.
To help meet regulatory requirements such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, "we want to make sure financial information on our software and servers is adequately safeguarded and that we have an adequate disaster recovery plan in place for each site," Clarke said.
Indeed, regulatory requirements are forcing IT managers to track their IT assets more closely, said Jane Disbrow, an analyst at Gartner Inc. "If you don't know where all your laptops and software are located, how can you tell regulatory bodies that customer information is being kept private?" she said.
IT asset management concerns are just making their way onto Zebra Technologies Corp.'s regulatory radar screen. IT asset management "is something that is on our Sarb-Ox list a month or so into the future," said Todd Naughton, vice president and controller at the print components supplier in Vernon Hills, Ill.
Sarbanes-Oxley is having a two-pronged affect on IT asset management practices. Under Section 404 of the act, companies are required to attest to the internal controls that are used for financial reporting. These include IT-related controls that firms have in place to effectively track and monitor hardware, plus software used to support financial reporting. Companies are also required under Sarbanes-Oxley to disclose to regulators all material financial exposures they have, including IT equipment leases and licensing agreements, which have to be tracked closely.
A soon-to-be-published survey of 220 IT decision-makers by Boston-based AMR Research Inc. found that companies that consider regulatory compliance the top business issue affecting their security spending cite the need to invest in auditing and asset-tracking tools as their No. 1 security budget priority.