Podcast: World class ITAM at The Hershey Company

The Hershey Company, $NYSE: HSY, 13,000 employees, 80 brands, $7BN Revenue

I was invited to present at SHI’s SAM event in New Jersey back in April. During one of the interactive workshops I was fortunate to meet Rick Lacey, Global IT Asset Manager at the Hershey Company. Rick very kindly joined me on a call to share his experiences.

World Class ITAM

I consider what Rick and his team are doing at Hershey as world class ITAM, in that the ITAM team is a zero-cost expense to the company ($1M Cost avoidance in 2014), they run it as a customer-focussed business unit within Hershey, handle IT procurement and deliver a fantastic user experience for their customers (Asset request management approval to asset delivery to user – usually in less than 8 hours).

During this podcast we cover:

• hardware reclaim, off boarding, and cost recovery process.
  The ITAM team as zero-cost business unit through proactive reclaim
• Hardware retirement and re-use program for PC and Mobile

RICK LACEY, THE HERSHEY COMPANY

BIO – Richard Lacey

Mr. Lacey is the Manager of Global IT Assets for the Hershey Company. In His role, he is responsible Hershey’s global strategy for IT assets and developing policies, business processes, and systems that enable the Company to manage its IT asset portfolio.

Mr. Lacey’s Responsibilities include:

• The Management and oversight the Company’s IT asset portfolio.
• Administration of the Company’s IT Chargeback and IT Audit process.
• Management of the Company’s IT hardware & software request, acquisition, and recovery process.

Prior to joining The Hershey Company, Mr. Lacey was Management Consultant for more than 8 years,
Involved a wide range of consulting assignments covering: competitive sourcing, organizational strategy, enterprise program management, and business process improvement projects in the Public and Private sectors.

Key ITAM improvements made at The Hershey Company:

• Improved hardware Asset recovery and asset utilization by automating the recovery process (for off-boarding employees, recovering, and redeploying assets ) ($1M+ cost avoidance)
• Improved mobile device Asset recovery and asset utilization by automating the recovery process & automating the termination of data plans. ($100k in cost savings)
• Improved asset tracking & management by automating off network notifications / recovery (Saving: 200 hours annually in asset reconciliation)
• Implemented an automated process to update PC owner assignments in the ITAM System. (Saving: 100 hours annually in asset reconciliation)
• Implemented an automated in-transit notification process / SLA for assets moving from one location to another. (Saving: 100 hours annually in asset reconciliation)
• Implemented a second life program for end of Life assets – (decommissioned more than 3,000 end of life computers from more than 60 locations around the world) / Reduce Hershey’s eWaste footprint
  • last year Donated more than 800 end of Life PCs to charities and local organizations
  • Eliminated more than $85k in eWaste disposal costs
  • Recovered $150k by establishing buyback programs with vendors
• Implemented on-hand inventory levels to reduce request cycle times (reduced deployment time from 3 days to under 8hrs) + Implemented bulk purchasing of all on-hand inventory (reduced shipping cost + per unit costs).

Thanks very much to Rick for sharing his practices with us, I hope you find it useful.

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