How To Improve Asset Management and Security
The future of asset management requires organizations invest in digitization, which has the added benefit of improving security
You would be amazed at how many organizations still use archaic technologies to keep track of their workloads and vital pieces of information.
Fortunately, some companies have begun to make the push toward more cloud-based solutions for managing their data. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has increased this necessity as a greater number of people switch to working remotely.
However, hastily pushed software and hardware can have unintended consequences with IT managers unable to make such a massive switch in a short period of time. Whether your company specializes in tangible or intangible assets, it’s always a good idea to get started with making the business’ processes simpler to manage.
There are several steps any business can take, but the main takeaway for future asset management is for organizations to invest in digitization. Without it, it’s much more difficult to compare performance monitoring, financial data and asset management.
And that’s not even getting into all of the security practices offered by this new form of asset management. With just a few key steps, you can truly bring your organization into the 21st century with greater peace of mind.
Find a Reliable Team or Individual To Watch Over Your Company’s Assets
As a business owner, you’re in charge of numerous aspects of your business, but you shouldn’t be expected to look over everything.
In the same way you may hire someone to protect your site from security issues, you also need to hire someone who can digitize your business’ assets and ensure that they are kept protected. This is particularly important if asset management has never really been your forte.
Digital assets are exposed to a host of major security threats in today’s world, including ransomware, DDoS attacks, data leaks and insider threats.
Further complicating asset management is how much digital data and assets are stored on internet of things (IoT) devices, which have gone mainstream with more than 12 billion such devices in use for businesses alone worldwide. This widespread adoption of the IoT has only escalated digital asset security challenges, as IoT devices are highly vulnerable to high-risk attacks.
You should absolutely take the proper security measures to protect your digital assets right now. That includes using a password manager that will rotate out strong passwords on a daily basis, virtual private networks to encrypt information over your company’s internet that preferably come with L2TP encryption, storing all data in cloud storage services that come with HTTPS, and investing in cyber insurance.
While these kinds of measures will certainly be necessary for asset security, it’s also important to find someone to actually ensure that your assets remain safe. That being said, you simply can’t leave the job of managing and protecting your assets to anyone. You should find a person you can trust to have access to valuable information, so you want to make sure the person is not only qualified but dedicated to your company’s success and won’t give out useful information to other organizations.
Small businesses may only need one or two people to be in charge of this project, while larger corporations will need a huge team to handle it.
Determine Asset Life Cycles While Tracking Assets Regularly
Your team may be in charge of the nitty-gritty details. But as the business owner, you also need to understand what will take place and how the company will be impacted.
If you don’t already know the life cycle of your assets, both tangible and intangible, then it’s time you learn. You should know everything about key assets from the moment they’re purchased to when they’re disposed of. This will give you important data about when to best perform asset maintenance.
You’ll also know how to more efficiently purchase assets. For example, you may learn how often your office’s computers break down and need repairs. It may be more prudent to purchase a more expensive but more reliable computer so that you can save money in the long run.
Tracking assets also allows you to update them before they break down, which is a significant part of digital asset security. After all, you don’t want to be put in a situation where you have to close down temporarily so that you can fix something essential at your business.
This is exactly why the IoT has been so popular among businesses because they enable you to control and monitor your assets remotely.
In the midst of COVID-19, many businesses want to reopen safely. Lenovo recently rolled out a series of IoT products that help control the behavior within a space as well as control who is allowed in a given location. With this, companies can monitor how many people are in a given space and correct the issue when too many people gather, which poses a threat of spreading the virus.
In 2019 we saw numerous new trends for IoT. As more companies get back to the office, the needs of people will change. The ability to track what works and what doesn’t will ensure your customers and employees feel safe.
Install an Automated Asset Management Solution
You can’t do everything on your own. Through this digitization process, you’ll learn more about the depreciation of your assets. You’ll also see that your employees may utilize assets that slow down their work. It may not be broken, but it’s slowing down your business and preventing people from working at maximum efficiency.
A thorough analysis of this, in addition to other processes, will allow you to see where you can improve. You can have people take care of data accumulation, but there’s always the risk of errors.
Instead, many companies have opted for automated asset and data management solutions. The major online storage services such as Dropbox or Opendrive offer unlimited data storage for assets and already automate several processes for you, including asset maintenance, task management and smart syncing.
With these processes automated, you will save yourself a lot of time and hassle. You’ll also enhance the productivity and effectiveness of your business to respond to changing needs.
One of those changing needs will be a greater prevalence of remote workplaces, which are becoming the new normal to keep businesses operational. Employers will subsequently need to adapt to having a system in place where they can monitor assets digitally.
Conclusion
The face of conducting business around the world is about to change in a big way. From enhancements to digital asset management to digital marketing campaigns, more companies will acclimate to a world where more workers than ever before work from home.
The pandemic will eventually end. But once companies see what’s possible through innovations in their IT departments, they may not want to go back to the way things were even when things reopen.
