How Asset Tracking Is a Must for Organizations with Multiple Locations?

For an individual counting of items in their pocket is easy, they simply can empty them on the table and can count what was inside; similarly, for a tiny or small enterprise, a simple walk around can tell them what they have.

Now when such micro small enterprise has a larger location the number of assets increases, and it takes much more effort than a simple walk. They do it on paper counting what things are kept where.

But for a medium-large enterprise, tracking of assets takes furthermore efforts. Paper writing is not sufficient, spreadsheets help in creating columns and rows of all their types of assets. Adding more locations adds more assets and makes the process further complexed.

So, when the scale was low - what was easier like a walkthrough or writing on paper or entering in a spreadsheet; becomes a real pain in the neck of all the departments as the scale grows.

In order to keep track of assets, it is important that organizations must perform effective asset management. It does not matter what the size of your organization is. So, you must invest in automated asset management software to retrieve effective asset management.

With the help of effective asset management, you will be able to do several activities easily that will help you in improving your productivity. Keeping track of assets will be simplified and paperwork will be eliminated so you can fetch records within seconds.

With effective asset management asset maintenance will be easy to perform asset performance will increase as well. It makes you more organized and employees' productivity increases. All these factors will lead to a better return on investment (ROI). When ROI increases, it will lead to better outcomes and the bottom line will be enhanced as well.

That is why a lot of organizations are using asset management software these days. According to Markets and Markets, “The global software asset management market size is expected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 18.1% during the forecast period, to reach USD 4.8 billion by 2026 from USD 2.0 billion in 2021.”

Also Read: How to Manage Assets at Multiple Sites from a Single Location?

What Is an Asset and Its Tracking Aspects?

An Asset would require numerous attributes to be related to it, like:

• First of the nature or type of the Asset which can be addressed as a Category.
• Then comes the difficult part of what current geographic area the Asset is at, which can be addressed as a Location.
• Assets require human interaction, who are linked to it either for usage or maintenance, they are addressed as Users.
• In an organization the users work as per role, this can be addressed as Department.

Tracking covers various aspects:

• It tells which category of Asset is located at what current location and is allocated to which user under which department. It can also capture other fields as well, the usage status, the condition, the past location, and users, any expenses incurred earlier.
• The term multiple has a multiplier effect, it magnifies the issues of spreadsheet or manual based tracking habits of organizations. The challenge of tracking assets at one location becomes an unfruitful proposition when locations are added.

What Is the Need for Asset Tracking in Multiple Locations?

Assets require some unique identification which would enable trackability. Such unique identification can be in the form of an Asset Code which further can be used for creating a machine-readable tag. This gives an automated approach to handling Assets.

Tracking gains more importance for organizations having multi-locations where each of these locations has multiple numbers of Assets, they all need to be tracked for either accounting, verification or maintenance purposes.

Each stakeholder department has specific utility from tracking. They want to know various things, like:

• The administration wants to know who has what and where it is kept.
• Finance wants to know what was bought when and at what rate.
• Operations want to know who has what and in how much quantity.
• Management wants to know what was bought for whom and where it is.

Tracking begins with first defining a track, what category of Asset was at which Location, allocated to which user, having which status, and what condition.

Then comes the role of punching every change in the system so that a historic log is created. Such a historic log has to be searchable using multiple filter fields for taking the true essence of tracking.

Also Read: Advantages of Cloud-Based Asset Management System Over Self-Hosted Asset Management

Tracking on Multiple Locations

Tracking at multiple locations gains more importance when one location can act as a fulfillment or replacement venue for the other location. It has to be known accurately such that when the need is correct details are fetched.

People's dependent method of tracking rots the crux of a healthy organization. Multiple locations act as little fiefdoms where at the mercy of the record keeper the Assets are placed.

This practice leads to under or non-utilization of Assets, encourages pilferage, partiality in terms of Asset allocation, parallel system of management, and other unethical practices.

When such people move positions or leave the organization the hidden treasure of Asset Tracking goes with them.

Tracking does not cost much, nor does it require huge manpower or efforts. All it takes a multi-location organization to track efficiently is a system preferably in the cloud which is offering such tracking features which if the organization adopts all its house would be in order.

It'll be able to build reports, extract data in spreadsheet format, and would be able to ingrain that into the organization's day to day working. Such that the practices of allocations are through the system which creates a transparent environment for everyone.

EndNote

On a humorous note, those professionals who are averting to system-based tracks are the ones who are encouraging malpractices by making the process and data hidden.

The management should keep in mind that nothing is above the well-being of the organization, and such system-based Asset tracking roots out all evil which has been happening at each location.

Asset Infinity is the leading asset management software and app provider. It enables you to track your assets using Barcode tagging, QR code tagging, RFID tags tracking, NFC tags tracking.

There are more features such as Auditing of your assets & Physical verification, Maintenance management, Utility Monitoring, and report on the equipment you can use from anywhere, at any time. Asset Infinity offers a free 14-day trial - no credit card required!

Also Read: Moving from Manual Asset Tracking to Cloud-based Asset Tracking

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. Why Is Effective Asset Management Essential for Small-Size Organizations?

Effective asset management is essential for small-size organizations because they do not have much budget, that is why they must utilize all the resources very efficiently.

2. What Is the Need for Asset Tracking?

Asset tracking is done to keep track of assets. Through asset tracking, assets are monitored so that they can be kept safe from theft & misplacement. Asset tracking helps in improving asset performance through collected data analytics.

3. How Is Asset Tracking Done?

Asset tracking is done through various techniques such as Barcode, QR Code (Quick Response Code), RFID (Radio-frequency Identification), NFC (Near field communication), GPS (Global Position System), BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy), IoT (Internet of Things).