How to regain control and get out of chaos
The work-from-home era is here to stay longer than anticipated, forcing businesses to navigate the challenges of managing their assets from afar.
When high-value asset data is scattered across multiple spreadsheets and documents, the management of data gets increasingly complex and difficult to control over time.
The data gets only more cumulative and businesses cannot guarantee that spreadsheets get updated in real-time when they are managed manually by the staff.
To regain control of their asset data and improve their remote asset management strategies, organizations need to streamline their data management processes. The solution lies in utilizing digital asset tracking tools that standardize asset management procedures and minimize data messes, unwanted operational costs, and compliance issues. Let's dive into the best practices of it!
First things first – It's time to make spreadsheets a thing of the past
Compromising the quality and security of asset data is often a counterproductive choice.
Using spreadsheets to keep asset data, especially in organizations with more than a few dozen employees, is a real hit-and-miss.
Depending on how well the sheets are taken care of by the staff, it is either detailed and accurate, or, as in many organizations, it is constantly missing key information.
A common example of this is when a remote-working employee leaves the organization and has to hand over the assets provided by the employer, such as IT hardware: laptops, monitors, and more. Even though the leaving employee hands over everything and fulfills all the offboarding regulations, there is no guarantee that the HR staff will process each employee's offboarding data picture-perfect accurately. Imagine dealing with hundreds of similar requests every day – this turns an HR specialist into a data entry clerk!
As a result, the organization faces ambiguity regarding the whereabouts of assets and the potential for financial loss when leaving employees who don't return some of the provided assets.
Plus, in cases where employees still have access to sensitive employer data, this creates huge security concerns and puts the organization at risk.
5 benefits of centralizing vital data in a single platform
One of the easiest ways to streamline the asset management processes is to onboard a digital asset tracking tool that centralizes all asset data in a single platform, allowing cross-functional workflows to be managed from one source. In a nutshell, we can define 5 key life-enhancing benefits of using an asset-tracking tool:
1. Improved asset tracking and visibility
One key asset management process such as tracking the lifecycle of assets, procurement, maintenance, and disposal is automated with a digital tool, the staff gains real-time visibility into how each asset is being used and by whom. This also reduces the inventory auditing time and effort.
Considering the example we have shared above, such an asset tracking tool would allow your HR staff to take data-driven (rather than assumption-driven!) steps in allocating company assets to new employees, and taking them from those leaving – even when the traffic of these assets from the company to the employee and vice versa is managed remotely.
2. Cost savings
Automation reduces human costs. Simply imagine the cost of having one or several employees who are assigned to do data validity checks, and compare it to the cost of having a digital tool doing the exact same task in the long term!
3. Enhanced collaboration
Digital asset management tools enable employees to collaborate on assets remotely, improving communication and making it easier to share assets across different teams and departments.
4. Improved asset security and compliance
A digital asset management tool can improve asset security by enabling you to track the movement of assets and monitor their usage. This helps you avoid security breaches and ensure that they are complying with relevant regulations.
5. Increased asset lifespan
By tracking assets more effectively, a digital asset management tool can help you extend the lifespan of your assets. This reduces the need for expensive replacements and upgrades, improving the return on investment for these assets over time.
Want to know more about digital asset tracking and see how it works in action? Watch our recent webinar that deep-dives into the use cases of it here.
This article is featured on the SITS Insight blog.
