The world of technology is constantly innovating and evolving. With those constant changes, it makes it a must to manage the lifecycle of the hardware your business operations run on, such as computers.
This article will discuss the different stages of the IT asset management lifecycle. By the end, you’ll know the importance of each stage and how it can be implemented successfully. Keep reading to get all the details on asset lifecycle management.
What Are the Five Key Stages of Asset Lifecycle Management?
There are a few asset life cycle stages. The five key stages of asset lifecycle management are:
Taking inventory of current software and physical assets on hand.
Procurement of new assets as needed.
Deploying newly purchased assets into business operations.
Performing asset maintenance and auditing assets regularly.
Disposition of assets as they progress in their asset lifecycle and lose usefulness.
Each of these stages follows the typical asset lifecycle as you buy from beginning to end. Managing assets is critical in getting the most value out of an asset’s lifecycle. The following sections will discuss the asset management strategy and stages in more detail.
Taking Inventory of IT Assets
The inventory stage is a crucial part of the entire process of asset lifecycle management. Every other step is much more difficult to manage without a proper inventory system.
When you hire an IT team to help with asset management, they will implement strategies to account for all the critical assets you have on hand.
This can seem like a complex process to business owners who haven’t been keeping accurate track of what computer equipment they’ve purchased. However, IT professionals like the services team at Multiply are knowledgeable and have detailed discovery systems to help find and account for everything.
Once everything is accounted for, an asset management team can create a streamlined inventory system. This system is necessary to continuously:
Audit current assets
Keep track of routine maintenance
Add new assets as you purchase them
Remove assets once you dispose of them
As you can see, the inventory process is an ongoing part of the entire asset lifecycle. If this seems daunting, Multiply can help your business put a streamlined system in place that makes tracking assets and lifecycle management much easier.
Procurement of New Assets
The procurement stage will occur whenever it is deemed necessary to replace old assets that aren’t working as well or in cases of business expansion where additional technology is needed to keep up with demand.
A well-rounded asset management system can help immensely in this process. IT professionals are highly trained to understand what technology businesses need and how to source it for the most affordable prices.
When you partner with us at Multiply, we can assure you we’ll help you buy the right equipment at the right price that will provide value to your business for a long time.
Deployment of Newly Purchased Assets
Once you’ve purchased equipment, you now have the task of getting it all set up within your daily business functions. Many find this stage more complex than they initially thought it would be. However, it can go smoothly with the right IT partner on your side.
Provisioning is an incredibly important part of deploying new assets into your business ecosystem. It is how you ensure those new computers have the proper security, settings, and permissions to make your employee’s change in technology as smooth as possible. This can happen at the new hire stage, or when a large overhaul of assets is occurring. Working with an IT partner can allow for your internal team to still manage day-to-day functions while the external team plans time in the business schedule when replacing old equipment with new upgrades will provide minimally — if any — disruption to operations.
Routine Maintenance and Auditing of Assets
After IT assets are deployed, the cycle isn’t done yet. There is still a need for routine maintenance and audits to ensure the equipment is still performing well. This is why it’s important to have a maintenance strategy that uses maintenance data. Part of the system for asset management will include scheduling maintenance at specific times during the business cycle. There are a variety of ways to collect this asset data for audits, including self-auditing your employees and in-person audits of inventory in storage or repair.
Additionally, if in the audit process, it is determined the equipment has any issues, an IT maintenance team or professionals can ensure the problem is resolved as efficiently as possible in the maintenance stage.
Asset Disposal
The final stage of asset lifecycle management is disposition. Put frankly, there comes a time in every asset’s life cycle when asset performance is no longer meeting the needs of your organization. All assets age, require updates, and eventually won’t work as well as they used to. With regular monitoring, IT teams can plan for this part of an asset’s life cycle and identify when asset replacement is required.
When disposing of existing assets, an IT team will either try to sell them for the highest possible value or recycle them following popular regulations.
Asset management teams often have relationships with vendors where they can get good value out of each piece of equipment, which will help your budget throughout this process.
IT professionals will also remove any data from equipment, whether they are sold or recycled, to avoid any information leaks.
Asset Life Cycle Management Best Practices
Along with the five key stages, some best practices should be followed in asset lifecycle management. Best asset lifecycle management practices include:
Have a system in place to let you know which team members are responsible for different aspects of the lifecycle.
IT teams must communicate effectively with other employees and managers in a business. For example, if you’re replacing equipment, everyone should be informed.
Budgetary considerations should be made before investing in new IT equipment. This ensures the company’s bottom line isn’t drastically affected.
While manual asset management is possible, depending on the needs of your organization, it might make sense to look into asset management software. Asset management software can help with every step of the asset management lifecycle, including asset maintenance.
When you partner with Multiply throughout the asset management lifecycle, we can ensure these best practices are part of the overall system. We’ll make this process easy to avoid any headaches or frustration that are common in managing IT equipment.
How Multiply Can Help with Asset Management
Asset lifecycle management can feel overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to. Multiply is a team of IT consultants and senior service technicians that partner with businesses to create streamlined asset and data management processes. Multiply’s goal is to make the entire asset management process easier and bridge connections between every team involved.
Contact us to learn more about how Multiply can help!
