Policy? Standards? Bah! Humbug!

[Community Alums]

Languages are some of the most complex and evolving beasts out there. Even within a single language, we cannot agree on the spelling of words. Can I kick your tires? Or is that tyres? If your behavior/behaviour is bad, you may need to apologize/apologise. I like to take in a good show at the theatre, but usually around here, I have to patronize theaters. There is a classic anonymous poem that has made its way around the internet that highlights a lot of these idiosyncrasies.

[float=right][img=300x214]http://nbaasports.org/images/j0387451.jpg[/img]
We cannot even agree on the names of sports![/float]Linguistic humor, The English lesson

We'll begin with box, and the plural is boxes;
But the plural of ox should be oxen, not oxes.
Then one fowl is goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.

You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.
If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen?

The cow in the plural may be cows or kine,
But the plural of vow is vows, not vine.
I speak of my foot and show you my feet,
If I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?

If one is a tooth, and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?
If the singular is this and the plural is these,
Why shouldn't the plural of kiss be named kese?

Then one may be that, and three may be those,
Yet the plural of hat would never be hose;
We speak of a brother, and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.

The masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine she, shis, and shim!
So our English, I think, you all will agree,
Is the craziest language you ever did see.
(see the entire poem at http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~beatrice/humor/english-lesson.html)

So what does this have to do with asset management or ServiceNow or training, any of those topics that this community is designed for?

Imagine if your asset management policies and procedures (or really any of the policies and procedures in a company) were as atypical as language. Would anyone in your organization know what to do when it comes time to dispose of an asset? Will you end up with some assets collecting dust in a closet while others are repurposed as home entertainment systems or yard sale items an others just go "missing?" From a purchasing standpoint, without standards you could end up with assets purchased from 20 different vendors. In this case, you certainly are not maximizing (or maximising!) the leverage you might be able to get by consolidating vendors. You likely end up with a cornucopia of different models of devices as assets, too, which becomes inefficient and problematic to manage. Especially if you do not know what is out there.

While language and its nuances and evolution are out of our immediate control, the policies and processes are in your control. Our new three-day Asset Management course does not just focus on the technology. The course focuses on the technology in context of process and identifies decisions you need to make. It also teaches how you can use ServiceNow to enforce the standards you define.

If you still need further assistance defining your processes, be sure to ask about the Asset Management Best Practice Workshops to leverage industry experts.

If you take the course, let me know what you think. I am always looking to improve it to meet your needs. For me, it is a labo(u)r of love.