Asset Management Software: What Does It Do? Asset management seeks to enhance the value of an organization’s assets, in terms of the benefits they provide compared to their installation and maintenance costs. These days, asset management also involves complying with legal requirements regarding health, safety and environment. For example, computers need to be disposed off in ways allowed by the law. Asset management software helps businesses to achieve the objectives mentioned above. In a large enterprise, for example, the software can ensure that legal requirements are highlighted so that compliance is facilitated all across the enterprise. We look at asset management issues in a little detail before proceeding to look at the software offerings. Asset Management Issues Traditionally, asset management involved accounting for all the assets, and maintaining them in good condition. Assets are acquired by businesses to help earn revenues. For example, fixed assets like plant & machinery help in producing products that are sold at a price above production costs in the market. The production costs and quality can be improved by managing the asset, plant & machinery, properly. Managing involves not only regular maintenance to keep the equipment in excellent working condition but also extends to the original design. It is design that determines production performance and running and maintenance costs. Managing the asset also involves replacing it when it becomes obsolete or too costly to operate and maintain. Asset management is thus much more than just accounting and maintenance. Businesses have to develop maintenance schedules, monitor asset-operating costs, look at new technologies, comply with health & safety regulations and attend to other aspects. The overall objective is to maximize Return on Assets. Return on Assets is improved through: ¾ ¾ ¾ ¾
Appropriate design and installation of the assets to ensure reliability and productivity Ensuring optimal availability through preventive maintenance and timely repairs Attending to health and safety requirements to avoid disruptions caused by accidents Complying with environmental and other regulations to ensure that operations are not disrupted owing to government action ¾ Training of personnel in best operating practices
Organizations rely heavily on IT for their operations, and protecting and managing IT assets takes special importance in this context. IT asset management involves not only managing the existing hardware and other physical assets but also protecting high value data assets and coping with the fast changes in technology. Asset Management Software Asset management software might be just for asset inventory management or for full lifecycle management. In the case of lifecycle management, particular software might focus on just one or a few tasks, such as servicing management. The special significance of computer software based asset management is that it makes the management function more effective through such devices as alerting managers about due dates and highlighting variations from standards and estimates. Track Asset Inventory: The software will help you find where a particular asset is presently located. This becomes a critically important task in the case of mobile assets like laptops that might be entrusted with employees, or which might be checked out and checked in again. Asset Lifecycle Management: As we saw in the last section, asset management involves managing an asset’s lifecycle from design and installation to final retirement. In between, you have to manage operations, maintenance, repairs, legal issues and anything related to the use of the asset. In all these areas, there could be scope for cost savings - long-term and short-term. A full suite of asset management software will help you handle the entire lifecycle of your assets. For example, it could help maintenance scheduling, service contracts, legally acceptable retirement practices and so on. Such software will have facilities for maintaining the history of each asset, scheduling different things related to the asset and accounting for depreciation, keeping track of costs and productivity and such specific tasks. I recommend search at software directory here is some useful site list. ¾ Asset Management Software ¾ Business Management Software Guide ¾ Electronic Document Management Software