Modern businesses that run on a lot of technology need to track the value, lifecycle, and performance of IT assets they use within their daily processes.
In this article, we’ll review the three main methods IT professionals use to manage asset management. By the end, you’ll have a better understanding of how this process works and why it’s an essential part of business operations. Read on to get all the details.
What are the Stages of the Asset Management Process?
There are five stages of the asset management process. Those stages follow the typical lifecycle of IT assets within a business. They are:
- Taking inventory of all assets on hand within a business.
- Purchasing new assets to replace old assets or expand business operations.
- Deploying new assets into daily business activities.
- Maintaining assets through daily processes and scheduled check-ins.
- Disposing of old assets or repurposing them to different areas of the business.
By following these five steps, IT professionals can stay on top of different assets used within a business. To help organize this process, they’ll typically use a combination of the following management processes, which can lead to confusion and loss of data integrity if not diligently monitored.
What Are 3 Methods That Are Used to Manage Asset Management?
There are several ways to implement asset management processes. In this section, we’ll review the three main options companies will typically choose. The best option for your company’s needs will depend on budget, the size of the company, and your preferred processes for tracking assets. The three main methods are:
- Manually managing assets
- Digital asset management software
- Asset management software into storage
Each option has its pros and cons, which we’ll break down in the following sections.
Manually Managing Assets
Many companies will choose to manage IT assets manually. It isn’t the flashiest solution, but it can be effective.
Manual asset management involves tracking IT assets and their lifecycles in spreadsheets like Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets. IT management teams would typically do manual inventory and either track data themselves or have a data entry specialist in the company put together the spreadsheets of information.
The main benefits of this style of management are it provides a flexible system, the software needed is inexpensive, and it’s easy to get started.
The drawbacks are that it may require paying longer employee hours to take inventory and track assets. It also isn’t the most advanced method of asset discovery within a company, so there is potential that some could go missed or untracked. It’s also harder to scale manual asset tracking. That means this method may not be the best for scaling or larger enterprise companies.
Ultimately, this option will be the best fit for small businesses with a low budget. As your company grows, you will likely want to invest in more advanced options.
Digital Asset Management Software
Digital asset management software will help provide a more comprehensive solution. This option is more easily scalable for larger companies that need to track a lot of assets.
The main advantages of integrating digital asset management software are it will offer more powerful tools like AI tagging and auto-indexing. This software will also often be able to integrate with other programs you use in your business.
The main downside is cost. You will have to pay a decent amount to get quality software. Some of these software programs can also be very comprehensive and harder to learn. That means it can take more work to integrate into business operations. However, hiring a knowledgeable IT asset management partner can make that process much easier.
Asset Management Built Into Storage
There are two ways to build storage into asset management. Those are physical storage for hardware and digital storage for software.
Digital Storage
You will typically be looking into digital asset storage management if your company uses a lot of different software programs during daily operations. Having asset management software that stores all digital assets in one place helps streamline tracking systems.
The main benefit is you get a lot of powerful features with these programs. It can also be easier to use than other management software since it streamlines the process of tracking IT assets that are in use.
The downside is the cost since getting started with a full digital asset and storage management system is a bigger investment. This software can also lock you into one vendor for asset and storage management since it combines them. So it could lead to less flexibility down the line if you’d like to explore other options.
Physical Storage
You must have physical storage systems to keep track of any computer hardware you have on hand. This can include bins, filing systems, cabinets, and bar code systems to create an organized management process.
Investing in a storage system for hardware assets is well worth it. It will save you a lot of money in the long term through efficiency and proper organization. Plus, it takes a lot of the frustration and headaches out of the equation when you need to locate physical equipment you own quickly.
Multiply can help you set up physical storage solutions for all hardware assets. We aim to create streamlined storage systems that will help your business function efficiently.
How to Manage Assets in an Organization
Along with using one of the three common methods for tracking assets, there are also processes to manage different assets within an organization. Asset management will typically be broken down into six categories. Each category has its own processes and procedures to stay on top of IT assets. Those categories are:
- Financial management for IT assets – covering all the budgeting and financial implications of these processes.
- IT asset inventory – to keep records of all assets on hand.
- IT asset procurement – to follow proper protocols for purchasing new assets.
- Software license management – to stay on top of all software and associated licenses used in a business.
- IT asset requisition – helps organize the process of removing assets from daily operations or moving them to other areas of a business.
- IT asset disposal – helps facilitate proper procedures for selling or disposing of old assets that are no longer needed.
Breaking down asset management into these six categories helps organize all these processes so things run smoothly. If you’d like help getting started with IT asset management, Multiply will be an excellent resource.
How Multiply Can Help
Multiply is a team of IT consultants that help with IT asset and data management. As you can see, a lot goes into managing all the different IT assets used throughout a business. While this can seem daunting, we can help you each step of the way to create more streamlined processes for success.
With Multiply on your side, you won’t have to worry about common frustrations or confusion that can happen when trying to keep track of all your IT assets. To learn more about how we can help, contact us today.
