March is Asset Management Awareness Month!
It doesn’t sound like a very exciting month to celebrate, but IT asset management is extremely valuable. It can save thousands of pounds for businesses - as well as meeting best practices for security compliance….
Asset management and business budgets
Companies that have more than around 200 computer systems will need to log all of their company equipment on an asset register - a register that should be regularly monitored and updated.
Logging equipment is used for accounting purposes in terms of what assets the company holds, and the depreciation of those items, but logging the warranties of that equipment will let business owners know when those warranties are coming to an end and may need to be replaced.
Dan Ellis, EPX Technical Services CEO, says: “It is important to know when a computer, a printer, a monitor will need replacing.
“Here at EPX we log our client equipment in our systems, and as well as monitoring them to ensure they are working correctly, we make sure we are aware when a warranty is due to expire.
Stakeholder reports and business planning
“If a warranty will expire within a year or if the computer is going to become end-of-life within a year, we produce reports for stakeholders within the organisation, combined with the estimated replacement value of those machines so that a company will have a year to budget for the replacement of any equipment.”
Different pieces of equipment bought at different times will have varying warranties and life spans. Due to this, the team here at EPX works to put together five-year reports for companies with hundreds of computer systems so they can include it in their budgets and any relevant business plans.
Asset management and equipment location
Not only is asset management used to budget for computer replacement, but it is also critical to monitor where equipment is moving around your business.
Equipment is often moved from office to office and is often in the hands of homeworkers - how do you record whether former employees have given their equipment back? Once returned and logged, the equipment can be used for a new staff member once securely erased.
Security compliance
“We record the serial numbers for all of the computers and relevant equipment and, with our systems, you can look at any computer you have ever had, and we will be able to show you the quote, the invoice, all the technical issues experienced and a PDF file confirming it was securely destroyed at the end of its life cycle,” adds Dan.
“Security compliance is the active steps an organisation must take to protect its assets and meet security - and legal - requirements. This is the kind of thing that asset management is extremely valuable for.”
Support for IT asset management
If you are looking for support with your existing asset management or as part of a wider IT strategy to grow your business please do get in touch with our team.JTNDZGl2JTIwaWQlM0QlMjJzbGlkZUJ1dHRvbiUyMiUyMGNsYXNzJTNEJTIyc2lkZS1idXR0b24lMjIlM0VHZXQlMjBJbiUyMFRvdWNoJTNDJTJGZGl2JTNF
