There are many reasons to make an investment in an asset management system. The main reason being to enable your organisation to curb losses and expenditure through an optimised system of tracking and monitoring your organisations assets. Every time an asset is lost or you replace or repair something that was still under warranty yet you were unaware of it, you are losing money. This need not be so; with asset management software these costs can be saved.
A significant amount of time is spent in business tracking down items. Especially as equipment become more and more portable, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep track of who signed out particular items such as cameras; laptops; spare remote control equipment, all of which are also becoming more common in the workplace. In the office environment you have both moveable and stationary assets such as computers and their peripherals, furniture, fixtures and other equipment. Assets come in all shapes and sizes and keeping track of everything including their age and need for replacement is indeed a daunting task.
An asset management system will allow you to have all of the up-to-date information pertaining to the location, worth, specifications, and age of equipment. This is valuable information for a number of aspects including monitoring, business planning or preparation of business taxes to name a few. With this the guess work is sifted out and fast accurate data and reports are available conveniently.
Many good asset management software programmes with barcoding technology are available. Literally any business can find something suited to their unique needs. However, how does one go about choosing a product that’s right for you and your specific needs? With the variety that’s available one should begin with your budget, but without compromising the use of a reputed and experienced service provider. The next important factor is the type of hardware and operating system that you are currently using. There are systems that run on multiple operating systems and some that only run on a particular system. Each type of asset management software has its particular advantage; it is these benefits that ought to be taken into consideration.
After having considered the critical factors you now look at the operation of the system. Ideally you want something that comes with as few of its own peripherals as possible and allows you to upload your assets as quick as possible. Depending on costs you could have the hand held barcode scanning peripheral, cordless or not. A cordless scanner will allow you to scan all the information that you need and download it to the computer whereas with the latter you may need to move around with your laptop or plug a hand held device into wall power.
You can also select systems that have import options to bring over files and data that you already have on spreadsheets or other compatible files. Good asset management software systems will also allow you to categorise assets and add details about when these items are due for replacement. The other important information to input pertains to the warranty expiration on the different equipment. Some advanced systems actually allow you to print out a document in an asset register format as required for book keeping purposes. Ultimately, a small invest in time and money can save your business a great deal over the long-term. Asset management software is smart business management that makes a whole lot of sense.