Caring For Your Tech Assets While Working From Home

Every single business relies on tech assets to provide products and services. Those assets are either in the form of hardware, like desktops, networking equipment, and servers, or any of thousands of software licenses available. That doesn’t change in the face of a pandemic.

While some states are initiating a partial resume of the economy, many workers are still doing business from home. Those who can stay home are doing their part to reduce the spread of the virus.

Moving everyone home to continue running companies has come with a transition period. Zoom usage has skyrocketed as businesses have needed to host virtual meetings, which has introduced thousands of technical difficulties as well. The shortcomings introduced in these virtual meetings have highlighted the need to take care of technical assets just as much when you’re working in a different location.

Tech That Can Travel

Your employees most likely took things like computers, mice, and headsets when they transitioned to working from home. Other things that may have traveled with them include webcams, speakers, keyboards, and other things that don’t weigh more than about 10 pounds.

Because this technology has gone home with your employees, you’ll have to rely on them to tell you when things are working and when they need help. Because they likely already have the tech at home, you can’t require them to sign off on care procedures before taking it home.

However, you can host virtual meetings to update your employees on changes in asset monitoring while using assets at home. Let them know what you expect from them as far as equipment care, and what condition items need to be in when they return.

Tech Assets That Stay at the Office

There are other items that simply have to stay at the office. These can include things like a company server, desktops, phone systems, Intranet, and many others. Some things can’t be moved. While you won’t be using all of these assets, you’ll still need access to company files, which are stored on servers. Therefore, server health and network security need to be maintained even more than before, since your employees are working remotely.

These assets can often be monitored from afar using IoT and cloud-based systems. Many tech companies already have a way to remote into customer computers as well as check their own systems.

If you don’t already have something like this in place, there are several options available for you.

Monitoring Stationary Tech

Ideally, you’ll already have a system in place to help you monitor where your tech assets are currently being used. However, it’s not too late if you don’t.

You will need to have a couple of people in-house to help you set up the system. What you’ll need to do is create a system where you can monitor current tech status and pinpoint problems before they become big deals.

Asset Panda is a great way for you to monitor all of your technologies, no matter how many locations they are spread across. Cloud capabilities mean your employees can log into your system from anywhere and update asset records, should anything change while they’re using company equipment. Keeping your asset records all in one place like on our database will help employees know where to go when they need information about the tools they’re using. That way, there’s no confusion about what to do.