The International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) defines Asset Management as “coordinated activity of an organisation to realise value from the asset.” An asset can be any thing or entity that is potentially or actually valuable to a company or organisation, and its management is a powerful tool to be used in achieving financial goals. Asset Management follows financial and physical assets through their acquisition, deployment, and disposal. It’s an organisational paradigm and discipline, through which a business manages the associated performance, risks and expenditures of its assets.
What Does Asset Management Do?
Asset Management makes it possible for an organisation to balance out the costs, benefits, and risks of their assets to achieve their business objectives. It enables a business to evaluate the need for certain assets and determine if it is benefiting the organisational goals. Assets deployed successfully need to be disposed of when their accomplishment is complete, rather than stored somewhere and kept in inventory. Asset Management comes down to making the right decisions and optimising the value of all assets. You may have an executive who is an asset. If the executive’s value is not optimised, he or she will not be able to perform to their ability. Usually, assets are inanimate objects, but never forget your valuable employees fall into that category too.
Tracking Assets
The creation of a database is the simplest method of keeping track of assets and knowing what is currently in your inventory. Assets the business owns can include computers, office equipment, machinery, vehicles, electronic devices, and inventory. Your inventory is an asset, but not all of your assets are inventory. It’s important to know the difference. The database tracks assets and lets you know where they are, and it also lets you know in whose possession loaned assets reside. It will also keep track of asset depreciation when it applies. A database also helps to eliminate ghost assets, which are those that no longer function, have been stolen, or are lost. When ghost assets are listed in inventory, all of the records and totals will be wrong. You have less inventory and value than is shown. Without accurate inventory tracking, management will be impossible. Important technology advances have created a demand for IT Asset Management programs to optimise your IT performance. Everything that contributes to the financial success is an asset. Some are visible and some, such as technology assets, work behind the scenes.
Tracking Inventory
It’s essential to have an effective inventory tracking system that keeps you apprised of the status of all materials and supplies. Knowledge of where materials are, what has left inventory and what has been returned, is critical to reordering and replacing. When businesses run out of required inventory for a project and must wait for an order to arrive, it is costing money every hour materials are not available. The opposite occurs when there are overstocks. Keeping too much inventory on hand is costly and requires storage space. Inventory control allows for stock to be purchased when needed, where it goes after it is procured, and who is in control of it. This detailed information keeps track of assets at all times and assists with their maintenance.
Media Asset Management
Every type of organisation needs practical solutions when it comes to the management of media assets. These assets may include computers, cell phones, tablets, other electronic hardware, storage devices, and software. If devices are provided to employees, it is imperative their locations are known at all times, and that the maintenance is kept up. There is always the threat of viruses and malware being introduced into the system. All downloaded programs and software installations should be handled by the IT department to reduce the risk of virus introduction. Some software is owned, and some is leased. If there are eight software licenses for a program but only five are being used, it is a financial drain. Companies may discover they are paying for software that is no longer used. Utilising cloud services is helping many organisations to reduce leasing and storage expenses, as well as have easy access to inventory and cost analysis.
Asset Lifetime
Asset Management keeps you informed on the purchase, maintenance, and benefits of each asset. It helps you know when assets need to be updated or retired. Assets that are no longer useful are expensive to store, and take up needed space. No organisation can afford to become a warehouse for old and unused inventory. Asset management informs you when inventory becomes outdated must be disposed of.
Your organisation will function better and reduce wasteful spending with an Asset Management department.
About the author
Riley Bull is a professional IT support worker by day, and an article writing, gaming playing, geeky guy by night! Read his articles about the latest tech and gadgets as well as how to use IT support in your business.
