Improve Your Business Productivity with Asset Management

You might have heard of the term “asset management” being thrown around at times in the business world. Well in a nutshell, asset management is the practice of having a system which maintains and monitors a database of valuable or expensive items that belong to a business or some other kind of organisation, such as a charity or non-profit concern. To make this an easier process, businesses may use asset management software to help them streamline this operation.

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It doesn’t matter whether you have one or 1,000 employees in your business, any firm can take advantage of the benefits of having an asset management system implemented.

The principle functions of asset management

As you may have gathered from reading the first couple of paragraphs above, asset management is a term used to broadly describe a system which helps to keep a record of and monitor anything of value in a business.

What is defined as being “valuable” in a business can refer to physical or virtual items. Here are some of the most common types of asset management:

• Physical asset management – the management and maintenance of physical items such as computers and computer equipment, smartphones, machinery and office equipment;

• Digital asset management – virtual items such as digital format music and videos, and other electronic media;

• Fixed asset management – used primarily by people in the financial sector to manage fixed assets for accounting purposes;

• Infrastructure asset management – this deals with things like buildings, transport (cars, vans, lorries, buses and trains), and pretty much anything related to public sector services.

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Why asset management is good for business

Asset management can be likened to an individual having a bank account. Anyone that has a bank account needs to know how much money they have got.

Rather than having a rough idea or just guess, that person can use their telephone or online banking service (or even pop to a cash machine) to find out exactly how much cash they’ve got in their account. They can also find out the value of payments that have been received and made from their account.

In business, asset management tells key stakeholders at any given time exactly what they’ve got in the way of assets, how much they paid for them and how much they are worth.

Asset management can save you money

Because an asset management system can tell you exactly what you have got in your inventory, it is a great way to help your business save money. Businesses often waste money by purchasing equipment, consumables and other items that they already have (but didn’t actually know they have in the first place).

For IT companies, asset management is a godsend. Valuable computer equipment can be logged and tracked, and it also ensures compliance with software licensing; any IT firm will know that software companies don’t take kindly to commercial entities using copies of unlicensed (and effectively illegal) software.

There are many firms that offer bespoke asset management and maintenance management solutions for businesses, so it’s worth getting in touch with one soon to see just how much time (and money) you could save with such a solution in place for your business!