It’s easy to see why a small business might shy away from investing in asset tracking software. Every penny is accounted for and investing in physical assets, that hold a value and have a clear application, is a more straightforward decision. What about managing those assets? Well, for a small business with minimal assets, then a software solution can seem like overkill. An ongoing and unnecessary cost. Afterall, it should be possible to keep on top of things well enough using a spreadsheet or paper records.
That may be true in the short term. But if you have plans to grow, this manual approach to asset tracking can quickly become a false economy. If you are a business that needs to operate in multiple locations, then not using asset tracking software from day one may well end up creating a lot of aggravation and, more importantly, costs.
What is Asset Tracking?
At its simplest, asset tracking is exactly what it sounds like- keeping track of the physical items a business owns. However, when people talk about asset tracking, they are generally referring to a set of technologies that are used to keep on top of assets.
Through a combination of different tagging systems and other tracking methods, it is possible to have a largely automated system for knowing everything you need to know about your organisation’s valuable assets. Where they are, who has them, their status and any associated essential info.
At the core of this essential business practice is asset tracking software. It’s the glue that holds everything together, and makes it possible to reap the rewards that true asset tracking offers.
Benefits of Asset Tracking
We’ve made the claim that avoiding an investment in appropriate software to keep on top of your business’ property is, at best, a short term cost saving and, at worst, a long-term headache and drain on resources. Below are just some of the benefits available to you by taking full advantage of asset tracking.
Reduce Admin Costs
This one might seem counterintuitive. Surely managing all that data generated through your asset tracking system will create admin, not reduce it. Well, this is where the interface and functionality of your asset tracking software saves the day. A clever software will only notify you of what you need to know, while making it possible to quickly find out specific information that will support business decisions.
When using technology to power your asset tracking efforts, the information updates a central database without a manual input. This massively reduces the admin effort involved updating spreadsheets and paper records.
Know When You Need to Upgrade
If you are relying on IT infrastructure to operate effectively as a business, then knowing when you need to upgrade is vital. However, this is important for all sorts of businesses. Construction companies have to make sure that their equipment is not only safe and up to code, but also capable of doing the job.
There are several easy to implement, straightforward ways of achieving this through asset tracking. Perhaps the most common way is to add dates to the data associated with an item so that you get notification when the item is due an upgrade. Simple. However, this is not always enough. It is possible to collect information on an item’s performance, and set triggers that give you insight into whether it is still reliable.
Increase Asset Lifespan
So, you've seen how you can upgrade your assets at the optimal time, namely, when they have started to become a drain. This avoids a situation emerging where operations are being weighed down with unreliable, unproductive assets. Great. But isn’t it just as important that your assets keep performing their function well for as long as possible?
Of course.
This is best achieved through a sensible maintenance schedule. In this way, the relevant people can be notified when an item needs to be serviced, thus ensuring you get the most bang for your buck.
Also, by making staff accountable for the equipment they are using makes unnecessary repairs less likely.
There is another possibility here. Say you are using a certain supplier for your PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) devices and the supplier advertises a lifespan for the product. Through asset tracking it will be possible to identify whether the performance of the product is up to scratch and give you the insight you need to negotiate a price reduction or change suppliers with confidence.
React to Issues Quickly and Effectively
You rely on your assets to operate efficiently. When breakdowns happen, they affect your ability to work optimally and this ultimately has a negative impact on profits. The insidious thing about this is that it is difficult to quantify. Maybe revenue is up, that can make it really difficult to understand any drag effect that equipment failures are having on profits.
Using asset tracking software you can respond quickly to issues as they arise. Easily access insurance or warranty information as well as useful contact details. Furthermore, you can spot patterns in breakdowns which can help you tackle staffing and supplier issues.
Protect Margins As You Grow
Through careful management and a well made and diligently implemented strategy, you are seeing the fruits of your labours in the form of growth. Revenues are up and profits are up. However, it is common to see profit margins reduce. There are loads of reasons for this, but the root cause is often that the systems of control that were effective before are no longer so.
Asset tracking is a clear example of this phenomenon. As a business grows, so does the quantity of assets you are relying on. So, manual tracking activities that seemed effective in the past may no longer be up to the job!
Increase Security of Valuable Assets
It sounds obvious but asset tracking is a great way of vastly increasing the security of your assets. If you have valuable assets out on the road, they are susceptible to theft. In fact, it is likely that if you have been operating for a few years that you have had some unfortunate experiences around missing property.
First things first, just having proper asset tracking in place is a surprisingly effective deterrent for thieves. But, if the worst does happen, it should be possible to launch an investigation that will yield results.
You can even take things one step further and set up geofences which means you will be notified when an asset is taken somewhere it shouldn’t be!
Mitigate the Risks of Scaling Up
It’s already been pointed out that profits and profit margins are at risk when you scale up. Asset tracking protects you from this through automation that can handle a huge amount of physical objects. The other way asset tracking can help here is by making it painless to add new assets to your register through image recognition.
