What is the main purpose of an asset management system? Is it to track your assets? Know who has your assets? Or store as much data about your assets as possible?
Well, the answer is all three, but the most beneficial of all three could be the ability to accumulate as much information about your assets as possible. There are a few different ways that this can be accomplished, such as data specific to the asset, linking the helpdesk to asset management, and storing additional information and documents with your assets. Let's take a look at how being able to access and store documents with your assets can benefit the people who are managing your assets.
The availability of information is always key when it comes time to make decisions. This is especially true in the asset management world. When managing your assets, the more data you can keep in one place to help make your decisions will have great benefits when it comes time to present what you need. One way that you can increase the amount of information that is being kept with your assets in your asset management system is to be able to store documents. There are many reasons as to why this will help you and your team.
Quick access to warranty information.
Anytime that people use a device, something happens that impairs the capabilities of that device. This can be caused by part of the device malfunctions, the user physically damaging the device, software becoming corrupted, and many other things. When these things happen, quickly accessing the warranty information that was sent with the device will help your team avoid scrambling to find the information while putting in a claim, and decrease the amount of time that the device is down.
Know what purchase order was used.
Similar to the previous reason, being able to find the purchase order information of an asset will also help with quicker turnaround times. This can be caused by knowing what year the device was purchased, the cost of the individual device, and more. This will also give you the ability to forecast a replacement schedule for your assets. If you try to cycle through assets every five years, you can use this information to help set that plan in motion and access it to create reports to have the data on hand. This also allows IT departments to track the warranty for their assets. By knowing what year the device was purchased in and the time frame of the warranty provided, it is easier to know if an asset still has time left on its warranty.
Improve tracking of repair information.
When performing tasks that are associated with help desk options, the more information that you can gather and have access to can help the technicians who are repairing the assets better diagnose what is happening. Having the option to attach documents to help desk tickets allows the technicians to know what parts have been replaced, if there is a warranty on those specific parts, the cost of the repairs that have been performed, and if done, images of any damage that has occurred.
Increase your reporting capabilities.
Another major benefit of having the ability to attach documents to your assets and help desk ticket is that you can increase the ability to improve your report functions for your asset management and help desk options. As is the case with gathering information for reports, the more information you have, the more informed the decisions that you make based on your information will be. This will allow you to present exactly what is needed to maintain and improve your IT fleet to the decision-makers in your organization. In my own experience with presenting solutions to issues, the more information you have to back up the solutions that you are presenting, the more likely you will have successful outcomes.
For more information to help manage your IT fleet, check out our blog.