How to Use an Asset Management App

An asset management app takes the benefits associated with fixed asset management and adds the convenience of mobility and anytime access. Asset management is the “process of tracking and maintaining an organization’s physical assets and equipment.” Keeping up with fixed assets is important not only from the standpoint of knowing the respective locations of each of your assets, from acquisition to disposal and replacement.

ITAM

Although companies should be tracking and properly maintaining all of their fixed assets, IT asset management, or ITAM as it’s often called, receives the lion’s share of attention due to the volume of IT assets within organizations and growing concerns over cybersecurity. Breaches represent a very real and increasing problem. In a report entitled “IT Asset Management,” The National Institute of Standards and Technology for the U.S. Department of Commerce, in partnership with the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence asserts that effective ITAM solutions should have several characteristics, including but not limited to: 

•       It should complement existing asset management, security and network systems.
•       It should know and control which assets, both virtual and physical, are connected to the enterprise network.
•       It should automatically detect and alert when unauthorized devices attempt to access the network, also known as asset discovery.
•       It should enable administrators to define and control the hardware and software that can be connected to the corporate environment.
•       It should audit and monitor changes in an asset’s state and connection.

The report adds that the ITAM solution “must also be secure and not introduce new vulnerabilities into an organization.”

Why use an asset management app?

Businesses employ asset management practices to manage the entire lifecycle of each of their fixed assets. That includes their complete maintenance histories, preventive maintenance schedules, depreciation, check-in/check-out status, usage history and much more. An asset management app tracks all of that information in real time, so users have assurance that the data they’re viewing is accurate and up to date. Therefore, they’re able to make informed decisions about their asset needs – decisions which have a direct effect on their bottom line – and eliminate guesswork and errors.

Save in the short and long term

Fixed assets can include everything from office furniture and office space to company vehicles, office supplies, warehouse equipment and IT assets – smartphones and tablets, desktop computers and monitors, servers and more. Collectively, these fixed assets represent an enormous investment, and making a concerted effort to maximize the lifespan of those items can stave off big-ticket repairs and replacements. Keeping your fingers on the pulse of the fixed assets you have at any given moment also pays off at tax time, when companies have to report depreciation for tax and accounting purposes. Making an educated guess can result in costly mistakes and penalties.

Streamline communication

Businesses have many moving parts to manage. Unfortunately, that environment creates the perfect storm for asset mismanagement and loss – especially when they don’t use any sort of formal system for asset management, or if they rely on a manual system like an Excel spreadsheet. Manual tracking almost always becomes outdated because spreadsheets are difficult to keep up with and communication may be lacking among stakeholders. Employees who enter barcodes and other information into spreadsheets are likely to enter typos. Items may be lost or stolen and never reported as such, seemingly falling through the cracks. In the worst-case scenario, companies may discover months down the line that they’ve been continuing to pay insurance on ghost assets, or fixed assets that aren’t even in their inventory anymore. 

An asset management system provides companies with a 20,000-foot-view, so to speak, of their assets and asset use across the board. They can quickly determine if they have available fixed assets at one location to serve the needs of another location. In the past, making that determination often required getting on the phone to search for available assets, or simply ordering more assets, which could be an unnecessary expenditure.

Simplify data management

The asset management app provides users with a single, centralized location for all of a company’s asset data that lives on the mobile devices employees already carry, effectively eliminating the need to spend time searching for records on your fixed assets – for example, the warranty associated with a printer or maintenance records for the vending equipment in your breakroom. Depending on the app you choose, you may be able to add as many users as you’d like, versus paying a fee for exceeding an established user limit. Some apps include built-in barcode scanners, while some still require a separate handheld barcode scanner.

Using Asset Panda 

Asset Panda’s mobile asset management app is IoT ready and offers best-in-class features, ease of use, complete customization and flexibility that lets companies track their fixed assets and equipment any way they want.

Configuration

Asset Panda’s intuitive interface, including unlimited fields and configurations, provides a straightforward approach to asset and inventory tracking that employees of all skill levels can quickly master without extensive training. The setup process is simple; Asset Panda quickly integrates with legacy systems, and users can import their data from existing spreadsheets seamlessly.

Permissions

Additionally, Asset Panda’s asset management app, compatible with iOS and Android devices, provides templates that enable users to define role-based activity, so their engagement with the app is relevant to their respective responsibilities. The ability to define roles and assign access not only helps employees work more efficiently; it also protects sensitive data and promotes accountability.

Track assets

Some asset management software systems provide both web and mobile access. The mobile app is an extra convenience that gives users access to their real-time asset data 24 hours a day, seven days a week without having to wait until they’re back in the office to locate a fixed asset in the system, create a work order, conduct a mobile audit of their fixed assets, request an asset transfer or look up the check-in/check-out status of an in-demand asset, to name just a few possibilities. Those mobile apps that include a built-in barcode scanner also let users scan items from their mobile phones from wherever they happen to be.

Features

It’s often hard to determine at the outset which features you need when you’re shopping for an asset management app. Finding an app that provides robust yet flexible features offers you the flexibility to use what you want, when you want, and make changes as your company’s needs continue to evolve. Asset Panda’s robust features offering includes a GPS pin-drop, which enables users to record GPS coordinates from their mobile devices each time an asset is scanned via the mobile app. Once fixed assets have been scanned and added to the platform, users can add documents, photos, videos or voice notes to their asset records. They can also create custom reports, sort columns, add electronic signatures in their workflows to enforce accountability, bundle fixed assets through asset kitting, create work orders and set up custom notifications and alerts to remind them of important software updates, preventive maintenance schedules and other critical action items.

Asset Panda’s easy to use asset management app makes it easy to track and manage your IT and other fixed assets. Because the app syncs with the cloud, users not only gain access to real-time data, but better security. Additionally, Asset Panda integrates with legacy apps to keep data up to date and unified across systems. And it’s all offered at a competitive price point. To learn more, visit assetpanda.com