As corporate purse strings get increasingly tightened in this period of downturn, the need for organisations to perform IT asset management is becoming more of a priority.It is the IT manager whose role is to manage this process of auditing and tracking IT assets. Following up a number of contacts in IT departments of various organizations, I looked at some of the methods different companies are using to fulfil their IT asset tracking requirements.
Spreadsheets
Many IT managers are still using the somewhat unwieldy method of keeping their fixed asset register information in a giant spreadsheet.It basically works a little like this. The initial spreadsheet is built up with a manual audit of every piece of equipment and software in the company. The common details that are tracked are date of purchase, make and model, serial number, warranty info, location and name of user.Whenever new computer equipment or software is bought in the organization, this needs to be included on the asset register. The basic issue with spreadsheets is lack of scalability.For larger businesses the spreadsheet can become extremely complicated.Organizations using the spreadsheet technique also tend not to be able to react effectively to changes in the state of IT assets, such as repairs, depreciation, licenses and getting rid of equipment. It all depends on an extremely organised person making sure it is meticulously up to date.
Barcodes & RFID
Asset barcodes have been around for a while and are step up from manual data entry - each asset is given a specific barcode which stores all the relevant information from the asset register.A handheld barcode scanner is generally used to scan these asset tags, so that information can quickly and efficiently be obtained an update during regular asset audits. RFID, or Radio Frequency Identification, goes one step beyond traditional barcoding because they allow you to perform a hardware audit without physically scanning each asset. RFID technology also comes into its own when it comes to tracking mobile devices - laptops, PDAs and smartphones.
Fixed Asset Management Software
A number of software solutions exist to automate and streamline the whole process of asset management. Some will go down the intranet route, creating a bespoke solution which connects intranet users to the asset register database. At the other end of the scale there is specialist asset management software which covers all the fixed assets of the organisation, including things such as vehicles, containers, property and machinery as well as IT assets.With the increasing number of taxation and accounting regulations that every organization needs to meet these days, we are seeing a lot more systems tailored to compliancy, for example Sarbanes Oxley compliance. The best thing about this kind of solution is that by combining the needs of IT, accounting, helpdesk support, and operations departments you also have a combined budget with which to procure a far more powerful asset management system.
If you have any other solutions your company uses for asset tracking, I’d be interested to read your comments.
Thu, Jun 18, 2009
Accounting