Asset Manager Software and Personnel Management

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Asset manager software may not be a tool you’d consider beneficial to a photography business. However, when it comes to personnel management and many other aspects of business ownership, asset manager software can play a significant role in the ultimate success of a photography business.

Benefits of Outsourcing

Some photographers, like many small business owners, initially resist the idea of hiring employees or contract workers, assuming they can do everything solo. With time comes the realization that outsourcing tasks gives business owners the opportunity to scope out new work and ultimately grow the business. Personnel management then comes into play. Business owners need to establish processes and procedures for their hires. Why? Even the most loyal of employees may someday leave. Having formal policies on the books will make the transition much smoother for future employees – and save you the time and hassle of recreating the wheel. You may also ask your tenured leaders to document specific task lists or processes in order to answer any questions in the event they’re absent or leave the company. Asset manager software provides a centralized database where personnel information may be stored and organized for easy access.

Asset Manager Software Delivers Additional Benefits

Personnel management is only the beginning of the benefits asset manager software delivers to photography business owners. Photographers need a means to track and organize their images for quick access. In some cases, they need to retrieve a client’s file, for example. Asset manager software gives business owners the convenience of a centralized location where they can locate that file quickly and subsequently maintain high customer satisfaction.

Camera equipment and technology also must be tracked and managed, especially as a photography business grows, expands, and routinely executes multiple projects simultaneously. Business owners should know how many assets they own, where those items are located, the identity of the employee who has them, and the condition those items are in. When new projects come down the pike, managers need a way to assess the equipment they have and assign it to each project based on particular specifications. Asset manager software can help them determine the availability of their equipment, whether service is needed on that equipment, and/or whether new or additional equipment may be needed to complete the job. Most equipment requires periodic service and maintenance. Attempting to track those routine service dates through a spreadsheet is an unreliable system. Software, however, enables business owners to automate that task by setting up customized notifications and alerts.

The Issue of Equipment Theft

Theft is an all-too-common occurrence for photographers, who rely on extremely expensive equipment to do their jobs. Without a reliable tracking system, those fixed assets may never be located or may simply fall through the cracks. The objective of asset manager software is to give business owners a means to track their investments – sometimes even down to their exact GPS coordinates -- through unique barcodes. Photographers may use the software to check in and check out equipment, which helps increase accuracy and accountability among employees and saves managers the time and frustration associated with hunting down lost items.

The photography industry is big business; by the end of 2019, it’s expected to have grown an annualized 0.3 percent to reach $10.5 billion since 2014.

While the vast majority of the nation’s 199,500 photography businesses are “non-employers,” or companies with no paid employees, demand for photography services is likely to continue to increase, making it potentially more likely that owners will need to outsource at some of their functions in order to accommodate that growth.

Asset Panda’s asset manager software is an intuitive, completely customized platform where photographers can store the comprehensive lifecycle of their equipment and fixed assets, including personnel. Powered by a free mobile app that syncs with the cloud, Asset Panda delivers your data in real time and gives you the power to track your assets any way you want – and without additional hardware or extensive training.

By:

Courtney Roush

Courtney Roush is a freelance writer, editor, and communications strategist with 25 years of experience. Her favorite discipline is crisis communications – and it’s a highly relevant one in our present times.

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