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CPTTM CIO newsletter issue #27, Kent Tong, Editor in Chief

Dear CIO/IT managers,

This CPTTM CIO newsletter is to bring useful news to you, CIO/IT managers in Macau, for references without obligations, so that you can do your jobs easier and better! Hope you like it. if you'd like to unsubscribe or recommend your friends to subscribe, just email me at kent@cpttm.org.mo. Old issues are available here.

Topics in this issue:

Case study 2 on software asset management at CPTTM

In a previous issue I told you that we had started a software asset management program and created an organization-wide policy. The next step is auditing. In order to perform audit, there are three simple steps:

  1. Get the inventory record from the department managing the licenses to see what licenses have been obtained and where they are used.
  2. Check the inventory record to see if more licenses are used than obtained.
  3. Check the inventory record against the reality. That is, pick a random computer and if the inventory record says that it has software A and B only, check if it really only has A and B. If it has C and C requires a commercial license, then it is a license violation. If it only has A but not B, then we obtained more licenses than required.
It turns out that this is not that simple. The problem is that the auditors often quickly find that the inventory record is inaccurate (e.g., obtained licenses not recorded). The only way to really fix it is to conduct a complete inventory (not a random check like audit) but this requires a lot of work. So, currently the process is kind of stuck as the inventory record is being modified back and forth between the auditing department and the license managing department. How to break out of it? I don't know yet, but I feel that perhaps the auditors should go ahead and treat the inventory record as accurate and present any extra software found as violations in the audit report to the client (the management). This may be a good alternative to a complete inventory.

Laser printers cause risks in human health

As reported by this story, a study by Australian scientists confirms that some laser printers can emit small particles. If they are inhaled by human, they could cause heart or lung diseases. Unfortunately, there is no mentioning of what we can do about it, e.g., how far away to say from the printer or what kind of ventiluation or filtering can mitigate the problem.

Microsoft Office Open XML failed to become ISO standard

Despite many Microsoft partners suddenly joining the many national standardization bodies and many countries suddenly joining ISO to become voting members, Microsoft still failed in the ISO voting to get its Office Open XML format (used in MS Office 2007) become an ISO standard. It will have a second chance of voting in February 2008.

Upcoming courses for CIO/IT manager

There is no course for CIO/IT managers for the moment, but there are some courses your kids may enjoy:

Course code Title Start date Duration (hours) Fee (MOP) Remarks
CM263-10-2007-C Learning Computer Science by Games (physical games for groups, not computer games) 2007/10/6 18 780 Enjoy up to 75% course fee reimbursement
CM275-11-2007-C Computer games DIY for the youth 2007/11/04 32 980 Enjoy up to 75% course fee reimbursement

Feedbacks

Any questions, ideas or experiences to share? Contact me at 28781313 or kent@cpttm.org.mo. We also have two other newsletters: Network administrator newsletter and Software developer newsletter, your staff may like to subscribe.

Until next time, 

Kent Tong

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