For any business, asset management is a vital, underlying part of operations. Without knowing what assets you own, the condition they are in and the associated costs, everything in your company – from customer service to the bottom line – can suffer.
System integrations offer a comprehensive solution that helps to improve the management of your assets, giving insight into areas that are performing well and those that need immediate attention. Over time, this can result in an efficient, cost-saving system that tells you exactly what needs to be done ahead of time with actionable information.
Asset Management
At its most basic level, asset management refers to a solid foundation of programs that can be used to optimize the efficiency and productivity of your assets. It covers a broad range of areas and includes not only physical assets such as buildings, vehicles, computers and equipment, but also financial assets. The goal of every organization should be to maintain a cost-effective approach to acquiring, developing, maintaining, upgrading and removing assets. It’s essentially a framework that encompasses the management of the entire asset life cycle.
Asset management software can keep a record of what assets a business owns, which are most valuable, how much they cost to operate, when they require any kind of investment or intervention, and when certain assets are no longer of benefit. This is exactly where system integration can help.
System Integration
While it may sound complex, a system integration is really quite simple. It basically is a method of developing automated, repetitive processes that move and exchange information across different business systems. For example, this might take the form of linking the billing and finance arms of your business in order to know which clients routinely settle invoices late or to identify gaps between expected income and actual income. Because the systems are linked and sharing data, it’s much easier to sift through the numbers and see where the issue lies.
Asset Management and Integration
System integrations can be beneficial when it comes to asset management, as it can link all your assets together with core business processes, which in turn drive true costs and benefits. System integration enables you to pull together large amounts of data from whatever systems you choose. This makes it easy to collate data, improve efficiencies and streamline processes.
For instance, a tangible asset like a van can provide data such as overall mileage, distance traveled in the last month and service history. An integrated fleet management system will know exactly when this van needs servicing and how much use it has seen in a certain timeframe. This means no costly, unexpected breakdowns. Instead, you have a connected system that tells you what you need to know ahead of time.
You can also use an integrated system to set and enforce standards for your assets, thus knowing when a certain asset is no longer of benefit or to drive asset improvement.
