For businesses that rely on the output of their assets, having an efficient asset management system in place is essential and can provide several key benefits. It allows equipment and tools to be located in seconds, helps reduce costs, and speeds up maintenance tasks.
Although manual methods may suffice – such as using excel spreadsheets – asset-heavy operations can only truly grasp the benefits of asset management with the use of a sophisticated digital tool. Such as Asset Management Software.
Businesses Suffer Without Efficient Asset Management
- 43% of SMBs don’t track assets
- 80% of staff waste time finding equipment
- 35% of data isn’t secure
The benefits of digitised asset management are endless, especially if you’re switching from an outdated system or a pen-and-paper approach. But, seven key benefits stand out above the rest.
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1. Increase Asset Visibility
As you’re well aware, a business consists of multiple assets. Each asset serves a unique purpose. Whether that be physical assets, digital assets, IT assets such as computers and servers, software assets, facilities, or staff. As a business grows, as does its number of assets. Meaning the task of logging each one in a spreadsheet can be a time-consuming and near impossible job.
Asset management tools provide the necessary features to ensure all assets are discoverable and visible. Most notable with the use of asset tracking features. This information is stored in a centralised database, also known as an asset register.
Within an asset register, you’ll find large amounts of data regarding each physical asset. Including:
- Purchase price
- Date of purchase
- Location
- Current status
- How many units
- Unique ID number
Asset visibility is beneficial for all business types and sizes. Although a staggering 79% of organisations acknowledge an asset visibility gap, largely accelerated due to the pandemic.
2. Track Equipment, Staff, Vehicles, and Facilities in Real-Time
Fixed assets are the living organisms of a business. They can multiply, come and go, and are continuously moving around the workplace. This makes real-time asset tracking an essential benefit of asset management.
To track equipment, vehicles, and inventory in real-time, businesses can use various asset tracking tags and labels. These come in the form of RFID tags, Barcodes, QR codes, NFC tags, and GPS trackers. Each tagging option has its own benefits depending on your requirements.
Real-time asset management tools enable asset managers to ensure registers are continuously updated with accurate information. As opposed to manually editing fields in spreadsheets, which can lead to costly errors. After all, 88% of all spreadsheets contain at least one error.
3. Identify and Erase Ghost Assets
Ghost assets are assets that appear in your asset register, but can’t be physically accounted for. This could be equipment that has been lost or stolen, or even inaccurately recorded but is still in the system.
With features such as real-time tracking, an asset management system can automatically help identify and eliminate ghost assets. Meaning you’re not paying taxes or inflated insurance premiums on assets that don’t exist.
4. Access Asset Management Data From the Cloud at Any Time
Having the use of a cloud-based asset management system provides a range of capabilities for all employees. For starters, your entire asset directory can be accessed by anyone in the company, at any time, and at any location. Unlike other non-cloud-based methods, such as spreadsheets.
Accessing an asset management system on mobile is possible through the use of a mobile app or a dedicated web page. It allows users to view, update, and add to an asset register when off-site. Meaning a field operator, an asset manager, inventory managers, and maintenance engineers can all access the data they need to complete jobs.
Mobile devices that feature built-in scanners for QR codes and Barcodes, as well as cameras, can also be used to update data on the go.
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5. Eliminate Spreadsheets and Whiteboards
A key benefit of deploying an automated asset management system is being able to ditch manual approaches such as spreadsheets. There are several reasons why spreadsheets fail when it comes to management assets:
- They’re susceptible to errors
- They’re difficult to share between teams
- Spreadsheets have no historical data log
- They lack the latest features and technology
Downloading spreadsheet templates for managing and tracking assets can be a good idea, at first. But, as your business grows, so does the number of assets. This requires more data and information to be collected, making spreadsheets more vulnerable to errors.
The lack of features, the inability to track assets in real-time, and the cloud-based restrictions, all highlight one thing; a digital asset management system is more effective for the long term future of your business.
6. Improve Asset Life Cycle Management
Asset Management Software provides the capabilities for businesses to understand the life cycle of each asset. Having a detailed understanding of life cycle management ensures that assets are purchased, operated, maintained, and disposed of in the most efficient way possible. As well as having a detailed insight into asset performance data.
The asset life cycle can be broken down into four stages:
- Planning: Identifying the need to purchase an asset.
- Acquisition: Purchasing and assigning an asset.
- Operation and Maintenance: The longest stage of an asset’s life cycle as it is put to work.
- Disposal: Calculating an asset’s depreciation value and knowing when to dispose of it.
7. Accelerate Maintenance Planning
An essential part of asset life cycle management is maintenance. Building an efficient maintenance schedule is a key benefit of any asset management system. It ensures assets are kept in optimal working order for as long as possible.
Maintenance strategies can differ, with some engineers preferring a reactive approach to maintenance whereas others use preventive maintenance. Either way, a good maintenance plan helps to:
- Reduce downtime of essential equipment and machinery
- Minimise emergency repair and breakdown costs
- Increase asset uptime
- Prolong the life expectancy of assets
BONUS: 3 Extra Benefits of Asset Management Tools
As you’ll now be aware, the benefits of asset management seem endless. Beyond the seven key advantages of managing assets with automated tools, there are other areas of a business that can significantly improve.
Forecast Spending and Budgets
Having a complete history of an asset, from acquisition to end-of-life, provides the basis for an accurate assessment of obtaining future assets. It can also help with the structuring of future business spending and budgets.
Identify Trends With Reporting
Similar to operations and forecasting, an asset management system allows you to learn a lot more about your assets and to identify trends. This is useful for understanding an asset’s life cycle. By knowing this, you can schedule maintenance and repairs more efficiently. Allowing you to identify and respond before they cause major issues to operations.
Operate With More Efficiency
When an asset management system is in place, you can start to understand the role of each asset in each sector of the business. That includes their capabilities, how they can be operated in the most effective way, a detailed return on investment (ROI), and even if they should be disposed to save money.