Running a business isn’t easy work, especially without the help of any asset management features. It comes with its own set of challenges, which can either make or break the future of the company.
Every day, around 137,000 startups emerge across the globe. Why is it then that so few survive? The most common challenge is usually poor management.
For startups and small businesses, one of the primary resources are the assets they own. It is no question that huge costs go into acquiring them.
Therefore, in order to be of value to the company, assets should be tracked properly and well-maintained.
However, poor management at large translates into poor asset management. For small businesses that can’t afford to lose their assets, poor management involves:
- Mismanagement of assets,
- Lack of scheduled maintenance,
- Cluelessness about the location of assets,
- Inefficient flow of supplies, and
- Lack of control over the usage of equipment.
All these problems eventually snowball into a catastrophic result. With increasing operational costs and decreased equipment performance, many competent companies are forced to shut down.
The case for Automated Asset Management Features
As a startup or small business, you most likely have limited personnel to run the company. This means that everyone already has numerous duties to take care of.
In addition to all these responsibilities they are swamped with, it is foolish to expect them to manually keep track of company assets as well.
This is why there exists a need for automated asset management features in your business. Some other reasons for the need for asset management features are:
1. Save time by automating your asset management
You’re already spending all your time trying to keep your business afloat. You don’t have any time left over to squander over manual asset tracking.
By automating your asset management related tasks, you can save time that can be better utilized elsewhere to help build your company.
2. Lower costs with proper asset maintenance
Assets need to be kept in proper working condition so they don’t break down as often. Frequent breakdowns can cost the company insurmountable sums of money and lost working hours.
This calls for preventive maintenance rather than breakdown maintenance.
Proper maintenance can only take place if the process is automated, with repairs getting scheduled automatically and reminders being sent out beforehand.
This helps save money since you don’t have to replace broken assets as often.
3. Ease of scalability in the future
As a small business or startup, it’s important to keep your future prospects in mind.
If you wish to scale up your business, automated asset management software has the ability to do so as per your business requirements and industry trends.
Features of Automated Asset Management system
If poor asset management can lead you to such disastrous results, the next obvious question that arises is “How do we make sure that never happens to us?”.
The answer is simple: you find the right software features to help your business.
Large businesses aren’t the only ones who can benefit from automated asset management features. Such a solution can also help small businesses and startups stay on top of their assets.
An ideal asset management system offers many features for small businesses and startups. Let’s look at some of these below:
1. Low stock alerts
Keeping track of asset stock levels and when they need to be replenished can be quite demanding especially if you’re a small business and have to do it manually. This can take up a major portion of your time.
Lack of sufficient stock can also have detrimental effects on the workings of your business. It can disrupt important workflows, wasting your valuable business hours.
To help make this easy, a feature such as low stock alerts would do you good. You can begin by setting a low stock threshold.
Whenever your stock level hits the specified threshold level, the software sends automatic alerts to your vendors for stock replenishment.
The replenishment process can be automated if that is something your business requires. This way, you won’t even have to divert time and energy to deal with the issue.
Read More: How to Utilize Alerts in Asset Tracking Software for Better Team Collaboration
2. Manage access control
No matter whether you’re a startup or a huge business, there will always be the need to control employee access. There may be some assets or locations that you don’t want everyone to know about.
In such situations, having automated asset management software that allows you to control which employees can view what can be useful.
You can limit the visibility of items easily and even customize the visibility of your company operations differently for each employee.
This feature is especially useful if you have to manage various departments or teams or have to distribute sensitive company information across departments.
3. Location tracking
Asset misplacement is a major problem prevalent in most small businesses. It is hard to keep track of whether your assets are in the location they’re supposed to be in.
In addition, how will you make sure the assets are being used for the correct project?
This is where location tracking jumps in to save the day. It helps improve asset transparency by ensuring that all assets are used for the exact purpose they’re checked out for.
Automated asset management software comes equipped with printable QR Codes and Barcodes that you can then label your assets with.
Once this is done, you can easily scan an asset to find out its location and other useful information.
4. Recurring services and maintenance alerts
Recurring maintenance allows you to save time and money since you won’t have to replace assets as often anymore. Furthermore, it also improves the operational efficiency of your business.
With the maintenance alerts, you don’t need to manually track the maintenance history of your assets.
Whenever you have a scheduled service session due, the system sends out an automatic alert to the relevant department.
Alerts can be set up for different events, such as service initiation and completion. This way, you will always remain updated with the status of your assets.
You can also customize the alert messages according to your specifications.
With the recurring service feature enabled, you can keep tabs on the availability of assets. Once the asset becomes available after a service session, you will be duly notified.
5. Calendar and reservations
What happens if two employees try checking out the same asset on the same day? You’ll find yourself dealing with a booking conflict. However, the Reservations feature can easily help solve this.
With this feature, employees can easily reserve the required assets for a particular date beforehand.
The dashboard calendar shows reserved or pre-booked items as unavailable so other staff members do not end up booking the identical item for the same dates.
Manually tracking the checkouts, reservations or maintenance schedules of assets is a daunting task. However, with the reservations module, you don’t need to do that anymore.
Time for easy Asset Management is here
Startups and small businesses have to work with very tight budgets and ever-increasing costs.
In such situations, with today’s growing digital creations, startups and small businesses can benefit greatly from automated solutions.
Despite a limited budget, your company can excel with the help of technology and automation. An automated asset management solution saves you tons of time and costs.
It also makes tracking and maintenance of your assets a breeze. Take your business to new heights by investing in automated asset management software to lower costs and improve your ROI.
About EZOfficeInventory!
EZOfficeInventory is the leading asset management software. It allows you to track, maintain and report on equipment from anywhere, at any time.
