Find the best asset management system for your needs.

The right system depends entirely on your organization’s needs and long-term goals. A small business, for example, may not need all of the features – or expenses – of a system designed for a large enterprise.
 

Create a centralized database that is updated in real time.
 

Any modern asset management tracking system should do this as a matter of course. Users should be able to interact with the central database through a variety of devices, including smartphones and tablets, without worrying about creating duplicate or conflicting information.
 

Barcode your assets and create location labels.
 

Barcode technology enables organizations to correctly identify and track an asset or inventory throughout the full life cycle, while reducing the opportunities for human error.
 

Check – don’t loan – fixed assets out to employees and others.
 

If employees took fixed assets without some kind of centralized tracking system in place, assets can be lost or damaged without the next person knowing that the asset requires repair or replacement. By creating alerts for checked-out assets and maintenance events, there won’t be any question as to who had the asset last, what condition it’s in or where it can be found.
 

Track users to ensure accountability.
 

On a similar note, maximizing ROI means tracking more than just the assets themselves: you also need to track the people using or interacting with the assets, and your system needs to be able to produce an accurate report of user activity. That is the only way to ensure the organization can hold people accountable for their mistakes or for fraudulent activity.


 

References
 

i-Deloitte. (2015). Asset management: A risk-based approach, energy and resources benchmark survey.
Retrieved March 2016 from https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Documents/Energy-and-Resources/gx-er-risk-based-approach-benchmark-survey.pdf

ii-Deloitte. (2015). Asset management: A risk-based approach, energy and resources benchmark survey. Retrieved March 2016 from https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Documents/Energy-and-Resources/gx-er-risk-based-approach-benchmark-survey.pdf

iii-Panko, R. (2015, Jul 9). What we don’t know about spreadsheet errors today: the facts, why we don’t believe them, and what we need to do. EuSpRIG 2015. Retrieved March 2016 from http://www.eusprig.org/presentations/Presented%20EuSpRIG%202015%20What%20We%20Don’t%20Know%20About%20Spreadsheet%20Errors.pdf

iv-IT Business Edge. (2014, Jun 27). Calculating the ROI of IT asset management. Retrieved December 2015 from http://www.itbusinessedge.com/slideshows/calculating-the-roi-of-it-asset-management-04.html