Asset management: keeping mission accountable

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Sean Campbell
  • 92nd Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. --  Accountability is essential to all operations in the Air Force. Without proper accountability the entire mission can be impacted in a negative way. With the help of Information Technology Asset Management having accurate accountability is a much easier task.

Asset management provides accountability of Air Force assets throughout their technology lifecycles, it keeps track of when hardware and software needs to be purchased.

“Keeping track of IT assets for the Air Force allows for maximum cost return on equipment,” said Senior Airman Colby Eubanks, 92nd Communication Squadron ITAM technician.

Hardware asset management, software license management, remedy software installation requests and IT and asset disposition are various programs within the asset management section.

“We handle equipment from its acquisition to its end of cycle. Once equipment is at its end of cycle and past its warranty date we replace it with new equipment,” Eubanks said. “We cannot provide parts for the equipment if it has exceeded its warranty.”

Once Hardware meets the end of its life cycle, it is sent to the Defense Logistics Agency Disposition Service at Joint Base Lewis-McCord, Washington. Before sending the equipment off, all hard drives are removed and destroyed. DLADS is then contacted and trucks are sent to pick up all of the old equipment to be salvaged for scrap or re-salvaged and sent to auction where it makes money for the Air Force versus just being thrown away.

“We must maintain accountability for all of the equipment we have,” said Airman 1st Class Josiah Massari, 92nd CSS base equipment custodian. “Accountability of items located in ITAM is done by scanning numbers on the items and making sure they line up with the numbers in the Automatic Information Manager program.”

Without IT asset management, units would not have the hardware and software to complete their daily mission and function at the highest possible level. Minus the support provided by ITAM, assets would not be properly distributed across the installation and accountability for hardware and software would suffer.

“Having discrepant accountability of assets can result in lawsuits and companies no longer working alongside the Air Force, hindering the mission,” Eubanks said.

As an asset management technician, Eubanks provides support for hardware asset and software asset requests, reviews and makes decisions on unit purchase requests and researches to make decisions for software installation requests.

Asset management plays a vital role in base operations and productivity. Without them we would not be able to function at the level of excellence Fairchild strives for every day.