Digging Into The Importance of Asset Management

There is no organization that can’t benefit from a streamlined asset management strategy. The importance of asset management comes from the simple fact that every company relies on equipment known as assets. Every company can benefit from tracking that equipment, and that’s why asset management is important.

Companies that don’t track their assets have a lot to lose—literally. From hospitals to higher education, organizations need to know where their assets are, who is using them and how, and when they are due to be replenished or replaced. Armed with this knowledge, companies can avoid costly problems and instances of duplicate purchases or last-minute maintenance needs. 

The two-pronged strategy of tagging assets and tracking those tags in a centralized software solution can help companies stay ahead of the curve and make informed business decisions.

Why is Asset Management Important?

Aside from the ability to accurately track your inventory, why is asset management important? From an accounting standpoint, asset management allows companies to quickly and transparently achieve IRS compliance. Organizations are required to track their fixed assets for auditing purposes and to ensure they are paying the correct amount of taxes. 

However, meeting IRS guidelines is only the baseline payoff. When organizations manage their assets effectively, the benefits begin immediately and extend far into the long-term. Here are just a few of the critical advantages companies can gain that prove the importance of asset management. 

1. Extend asset lifecycles

From an asset’s initial purchase details to its expected useful life and repair history, maintaining in-depth records about each of your items helps you better understand their asset lifecycle. By tracking an asset’s utilization and its recommended maintenance routine, you can optimize asset usage and proactively maintain inventory items to extend their lifespan.

2. Increase reliability 

By streamlining preventive maintenance and providing real-time visibility into assets, comprehensive asset management helps companies maintain consistent operations and reduce unexpected costs and downtime. 

3. Avoid unexpected costs

When an organization properly tags and tracks its assets, it is less likely to misplace those assets and need replacements in a hurry. Regularly tracked and maintained assets are less likely to break down unexpectedly and require rush repair jobs. Fewer surprises mean more money in your pocket. 

4. Improve workflow and productivity

Proper asset management enables more efficient planning and organization within your company, empowering employees to be more accountable and responsible. With crucial asset data in hand, they can make smarter business purchasing decisions and waste less time tracking down lost assets. 

5. Spot disasters before they happen

Asset management helps identify potential risks that could arise from the ownership or use of certain assets. Maybe an item isn’t performing as expected, isn’t used, or is constantly breaking down and going in for repairs. Tracking an asset over its lifecycle can help make important financial decisions on whether an asset is a benefit or causing more financial harm to a company.

6. Eliminate ghost and zombie assets

Companies that don’t track assets are at risk of harboring ghost assets (items which are thought to be available but are actually lost or broken) and zombie assets (items which are thought to be lost or broken but are actually available and left unused). An efficient asset management system combined with regular asset audits can keep both ghosts and zombies away.

Read More: What Are Ghost and Zombie Assets?

Asset Management Best Practices

These above benefits all illustrate the clear importance of asset management. But not all asset management strategies are created equal. When adopting or improving an asset management system for your organization, it’s important to make sure you are following best practices. In order to take full advantage of asset tracking, the following are the most important features that your solution should provide. 

Modern software

In the past, companies only had the options to use handwritten ledgers or Excel spreadsheets with which to track their assets. Today, best practices include secure, cutting-edge software that can integrate with other solutions your organization uses, and which your employees can access either online or via mobile apps.

Centralized tools

Additionally, your asset tracking software solution should be structured around a central hub. A centralized asset management solution allows you to keep all your assets, workflows, and locations in one convenient location. Unifying your asset data ensures seamless collaboration within your team as well as easily accessible audit trails for reporting and compliance purposes.

Automated processes

When it’s left to people to manage assets through tedious data entry, the risk of costly human error increases. Your modern asset tracking solution should include automated tools that can generate multiple asset tags at once, set regular maintenance reminders on a schedule, and generate reports about assets’ use and location in a click. 

Durable asset tagging

There are numerous ways to tag your assets, but barcoding is a cost-effective and heavy-duty solution that can withstand plenty of wear and tear to last as long as the useful life of the asset. Gone are the times you’d require a barcode scanner to read them; now any modern smartphone camera has everything it needs to glean full lifecycle data from an asset in a single scan. 

Easy check-in and checkout

Asset tracking best practices call for software that can streamline the check-in/checkout process for assets. You can hold employees (or customers, patients, or students) accountable when they use an asset, and the likelihood of them returning the asset on time and to the correct place increases.

Flexible user management

Ensure your solution allows your organization’s employees to access only the assets they need and use with customizable user permissions. A flexible system will work with your team to build customized workflows that match the processes they already follow. 

How Asset Panda Streamlines Asset Management

Now that you understand the importance of asset management, the next step is to adopt a strategy and solution that fits your organization’s needs. There is no shortage of asset management software available, but how do you know which one will be best for your company? The clear answer is to choose a highly customizable software platform that can partner with the technology solutions your organization already uses. To find one, look no further than Asset Panda. 

From independent small businesses to organizations with tens of thousands of employees, companies all around the world have customized Asset Panda to track and audit their unique assets and provide the data that is most essential to their workflows. Asset Panda can be easily tailored to work with organizations from all fields—technology, construction, education, and healthcare are just a few. Asset Panda’s mobile-compatible software and app give companies real-time insights into their entire asset fleet, when and where they want it, using the smartphones their employees already carry. 

See for yourself why Asset Panda is one of the highest-rated asset management software solutions available when you request your personalized demo today.