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All companies, however big or small, no matter what products or services they provide, have assets.
These assets may either be of a digital or physical nature, and one of the integral parts of running a company is making sure you track all these assets. Active asset tracking is an essential part of asset management, that if neglected, can lead to severe mismanagement, wastage of resources, and reduction inefficiency.
Unless a proper system is set up for monitoring, tracking, documenting, and servicing assets, the chances are that such assets will be lost, stolen, or wasted. Therefore, to ensure that all assets are correctly taken care of and utilized to the maximum, asset tracking software must be put in place.
Read more to learn more about asset management, tracking software, and the future of such practices.
Types of Assets:
- Physical Assets- These are assets that are present as hard copies of information. They include products, documents, and any physical object that adds value to the company.
- Digital Assets- Any digital material, be it a document, presentation, online service, or application that extends the company’s business comes under the category of digital assets.
- Tangible Assets- These can be felt, moved, and physically counted and accounted for, such as a particular product or device.
- Intangible Assets- These are commodities that add value to a company or business but cannot be physically felt or touched, such as intellectual property, talent, or even financial data.
- High-Value- These include assets that are extremely valuable and important to the company, such as expensive vehicles and computers.
- Low-Value Assets- These include small items or supplies that do not cost the company much to own or maintain, such as office supplies and refreshments.
- Human Assets- It includes all the employees and staff who work for the organization, and in turn, help in its growth.
Now that you know about the different types of assets read more to learn more about why we need to manage and track these assets.
Why Do We Need Asset Management?
- Makes it easier to compute tax by keeping a strict record of the company’s write-off losses and assets.
- Keep track of all the resources owned and used by a company.
- Helps in bringing down the overall cost of an operation or project.
- Better productivity and higher efficiency.
- Protects digital assets and makes the company’s operations more robust and secure.
- Prevents the misuse of data in the hands of cyber-criminals.
- Prevents workforce and machine underutilization.
- Address both local and global problems with authority and certainty.
- Optimize both the performance and the operation of the company.
Now that you know the importance of asset tracking read more to learn more about what the future of asset management looks like.
Future of Asset Management and Tracking:
While there’s nothing fundamentally different about asset management. Since it has been there since the dawn of civilization, the mode of doing so has changed drastically.
Our ancestors used to keep stock of supplies by using a ledger. However, with the advent of digital devices, the process of asset management moved from being a pen-and-paper task to being a digital endeavor. Making use of Excel spreadsheets and specific inventory management software.
Even with this high level of digitalization, we sometimes cannot keep up with the pace of inventory.
Hence, we have to keep evolving to fit the requirements of today continually.
Read on to find out a little more about future trends. That will shape asset tracking in the years to come.
Is IoT the Future?
IoT, better known as the Internet of Things, helps to tie machines and networks together. This technology can also be implemented in the field of asset tracking and management.
Thanks to globalization, more and more companies have complicated operations. And that spread across various domains and areas, making it harder than ever before to keep stock.
Being able to scale indefinitely makes it essential for companies to have a good communication network. And governing their asset tracking system.
Studies by Global Cyber Risk show that an average company has around 80% digital assets, with the rest being physical assets. Hence, most companies work like IT companies, which rely on devices and machines to process data and information.
IoT helps asset tracking software to transmit data seamlessly, And when used in tandem with big data analysis can help with efficient resource allocation.
Need for Data Analytics:
Every company in the world receives and processes tonnes of data every single day. So much so that it has become one of the most indispensable assets a company has. Due to the significant complexity and fast Scalability of today’s businesses. Most asset-tracking software needs to make decisions based on processed data.
Therefore, it is pivotal that such systems can handle the information it receives swiftly and efficiently. This is where big data analytics comes into the picture. Such analytics helps companies realize what their key interest areas are. What assets they are leaking, and how to plug those leaks? Such valuable insights go a long way in helping companies streamline their production. And better their productivity.
Future Developments and Trends:
01. Advancements in the field of geospatial positioning, location technologies, and position sensors will make it easier to keep track of tangible assets that can be monitored.
2. Indoor position sensing technology will make tasks such as inventory and maintenance more comfortable than ever before.
3. The use of multi-dimensional, multi-layered maps to control, track, and monitor assets will make the entire process more swift and efficient.
4. Advancements in the field of REST architecture will help in achieving interoperability between sub-divisions and systems.
5. As AI-powered systems become smarter and smarter, maintenance and asset tracking will become more comfortable than ever before.
6. AI systems will help in predicting which components need a constant check-up, which requires quick support, and which needs to be replaced. Similarly, indoor positioning systems help in identifying the precise location of these assets, creating a fully closed asset tracking loop.
