Manage Remote IT Equipment with Asset Tagging

Asset tagging is a vital function in any busy office. However, that’s especially true now because company-owned assets – most notably, technology assets – have left the building, so to speak, and have gone home with employees as they work remotely during the global pandemic. This arrangement may not just be a temporary one – not only because nobody knows how long it will take for companies to feel secure in sending their employees back into the office, but also because remote work has proven advantageous to employees and companies alike.

Nearly Half of U.S. Workers are at Home

In April 2020, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology released the findings of a survey of 25,000 American workers. The survey found that nearly half of the U.S. workforce may now be working remotely. While there are undeniable benefits associated with in-person work – including camaraderie and in-person exchanges – “once businesses and individuals invest in the fixed costs of remote work, they may decide to stay with the new methods,” the MIT report states. This flexible work environment may also prove to be a competitive advantage for those companies seeking to attract the best and brightest talent.

This shift in working styles has made asset tagging an even more urgent priority for any company seeking to control its costs and simply keep track of where its fixed assets are. IT fixed assets are likely to be among any company’s single largest investments. At any given time, IT managers must know the exact location of each asset, what condition the asset is in, and who currently has the asset in his/her possession. An integral part of any asset management program is the audit; the organization must ensure on a regular basis that its real inventory matches its records. This exercise helps the organization identify ghost assets as well as any other gaps in recordkeeping, and allows for better project management, as managers know what they have and what they need.

Asset Tagging Maximizes Lifespan of IT Equipment

Asset tagging involves the assignment of unique identifiers to each fixed asset. Often, those asset tags are adhesive labels affixed to each item for quick identification. Each label contains a series of numbers that, when scanned, produce rich data on that item – from its assigned department and complete maintenance history to its depreciation. Asset tagging delivers several benefits, but the most significant may be time savings. A quick label scan is all that’s needed to pull up the entire lifecycle of the asset at hand. Using company-issued IT assets as an example, consider the potential for theft and loss when these assets leave the company premises. Without a record of the asset's relocation, the organization has little recourse when loss or theft occurs. A manual tracking system, which often consists of an Excel spreadsheet, can't provide the history of an item's status and location. And, because employees have to manually key barcodes into the spreadsheet, mistakes are common.

When assets are out of sight, it’s also easy for updates to fall out of mind. Used in conjunction with a tracking platform, asset tagging enables IT managers to establish custom notifications and alerts so they can remind employees to perform updates and notify them when an end-of-life upgrade is due. With a tracking platform and asset tagging, employees can also quickly create work orders when an issue occurs and check the maintenance history of the asset to determine if the problem is a reoccurring one.

Asset Panda offers a built-in barcode generator for clients who want to print their own labels, plus the ability to order durable asset tags through buyassettags.com. Asset Panda’s mobile app includes a barcode scanner, so all customers need to track and manage their IT assets is a smartphone or tablet with a camera. Completely customizable, Asset Panda tracks your IT assets exactly how you want.