Assets come in all different forms, but tracking them should be in one centralized system. Keeping up with your assets no longer needs to be a nightmare. We are here to give you some tips of the trade to easy fixed IT asset management. First, let's get down to the basics of asset tracking.
What is fixed IT asset tracking?
Asset tracking is the process of tracking the location, condition, and status of physical assets.
What industries use asset tracking?
- Manufacturing: To keep track of equipment and machines for maintenance.
- Transportation, supply chain, and logistics: To provide a real-time view of fleets, deliveries, and unforeseen delays.
- Construction: All of the above, plus to prevent both small and large, expensive equipment on construction sites from theft.
- School Districts: To keep track of computers, projectors, calculators, any technology equipment that is considered an asset.
What kind of information gets tracked?
- Standard information about the asset (asset description, model)
- Usage history (to identify where, when and who used the asset)
- Asset location
- Asset identification items (serial numbers, RFID/barcode, etc.)
- Date of purchase and years in operation
- Maintenance history
- Asset depreciation
All of this information can be stored using an asset tracking software solution that streamlines data collection and analysis. Here are some of those tips we promised at the beginning.
Identify what you need to track.
Integrating an fixed asset management into the warehouse or company's daily routine can increase the availability of production equipment and reduce overall cost. Without knowing the depreciation of your company’s assets, which assets are no longer suitable for use, then finding out the causes, you may not know that there are several items that are outdated but still used by your employees. Having these outdated or unserviced items certainly slows their work down. Therefore, regular depreciation tracking is very necessary. This activity can identify which items shouldn’t be used anymore and figure out the best time to make purchases.
Consider the full project management life cycle.
You need to know the life cycle of each of your assets, from the purchase to the disposal. Forecast how long you can use each of your assets. Knowing which assets are near the end of their useful life and which ones need routine maintenance helps lower the number of unplanned breakdowns and associated costs. It is much easier to have the “repair or replace” debate when you have an up-to-date overview of all of your assets and their condition. By estimating the life cycle of your assets, you can also make purchases more wisely in the long run. For example, you can opt for computers that are more durable or have a longer usage periods than the ones you currently have in your office.
Visibility with reporting and analytics functionality.
Executives should be able to access important information on demand to help them make data-driven decisions. A fixed asset tracking system can help them keep an eye on the most important metrics, including equipment tracking, KPIs, asset lifecycle and availability, bottlenecks, employee productivity, expenses, additional costs, and more. You can’t manage what you can’t measure and you can’t measure what you can’t see.
Eliminate ghost assets.
A ‘ghost’ asset is property that is lost, stolen, or unusable, but is still listed as an active fixed asset in the system. Getting these out of the system by deactivating them, helps your company budget for new assets that will improve work and efficiency.
Determine responsibility for assets.
You may have a lot of things in your business to think about. You can’t control every single element of your business, particularly the management of your fixed IT assets. Therefore, you should determine a person that you can trust and rely on to be responsible for the company’s assets. If your business is rather small, then one or two persons are enough to be responsible for managing your business assets. However, if you have a large company, then you should have a team that is focused on managing and maintaining your company’s assets.
Another option is for your company to track those assets that are of importance to the institution. An asset’s importance can be based on a number of factors, including its sensitivity, criticality, value, or the compliance requirements placed upon it. Important assets should have an assigned owner responsible for establishing and maintaining appropriate safeguards to protect those assets.
Track your assets routinely
Without regular asset tracking, your company can suffer financial losses. You could be charged with paying taxes, insurance, purchases, and maintaining assets that are unnecessary. Other than that, you could end up paying taxes for assets that already have depreciated or (or the ones you no longer have). You could also be overwhelmed when your assets are inadequate to meet the demands of your customers or clients. Therefore, it is very important to keep track of the amount of assets you actually have as well as the number of assets recorded in your books.
Reduced costs and increased accountability
If you don’t have a centralized system to track your assets, there is a high possibility of improper asset use and poor handling. By tracking your assets carefully, you always know where each asset is, the condition it’s in, and the employee or department that is currently responsible for it. This accountability ultimately reduces costs and gives you peace of mind that your assets are working efficiently. AdminRemix has given a quick tool to calculate that cost.
Implement an automated asset management solution
Managing assets manually takes a lot of time, effort, and costs without getting the equivalent results. To optimize your asset management, consider using an automated asset management solution. This software automates your asset management processes, such as asset value and depreciation tracking, asset maintenance, contract management, cost analysis, and in-depth report generation. By automating complex asset management tasks, you will be able to improve the efficiency, effectiveness and productivity of your business.
Improved ability to plan for growth
As you make plans to scale your business, you must understand how you are using the assets you currently have.
Having an asset tracking system in place can boost the growth of your business as it helps you:
- void theft or misplacement of your assets
- eliminate asset downtime
- improve asset management in complex supply chains
As you gain a clearer understanding of how your assets are being handled, it gives you valuable insights on how to improve the performance of your assets and increase your revenue. You can also use the data from a fixed IT asset tracking system to recognize trends in use, and then plan for growth accordingly.
Customer service improvements
When you improve your ability to track assets, you put yourself in a position to better serve your customers. Better asset tracking leads to improvements in inventory availability, efficient operations, and employees who can provide correct answers to questions about asset status. For example, a large construction company can provide more accurate project start times if they know when all the required equipment will be available. Knowing your required ‘sustainable’ level of service will help you implement an asset management program and communicate to stakeholders what you are doing. Quality, quantity, reliability, and environmental standards are elements that can define level of service and associated system performance goals, both short- and long-term.
Track assets as they come into the company.
Your number 1 priority is making sure that that new asset gets into the system first and foremost. Adding a new fixed asset’s information to a tracking system before the asset leaves the purchaser’s hands is recommended. This ensures that an asset doesn’t disappear before its presence has even been acknowledged. Use unique asset tracking numbers rather than the asset’s serial number once it has been put in to your system. It’s possible that an asset’s serial number will be identical to that of another asset. If the serial number is used as the tracking number, the duplicate numbers will cause confusion because there is no way to tell the two assets apart. This can compromise data integrity and lead to inaccurate customer balances and inventory, reduce your rental income and impact customer satisfaction. Using a unique tracking number different from the serial number eliminates these problems.
Your business holds assets of value and by implementing a flexible asset tracking system, you can streamline operations, ensure assets retain value, improve customer experiences, and make informed business decisions. Tracking your assets is one of the best things you can do for your company. AdminRemix would love to be a part of making your business' asset management flourish with our AssetRemix system.
Rather watch over reading? Here are the highlights.