Asset Tracking System: A Management Information Tool

Many US companies, large and small, continue to rely on a conventional spreadsheet approach to try to keep track of their fixed assets in an attempt to ensure the company is SARBOX compliant. Asset tracking is capable of being used for more than a accountancy compliance issue. It is an integral part of informed and sound management.

That’s especially important with IT asset tracking. In today’s society, IT and business go hand in hand. One issue is the fact that these high value assets like laptops, notebooks, peripheral devices and other items like the Blackberry are also highly portable, and thus tend to “disappear” although still on the books. Computer components may also be replaced, upgraded or replaced during the products functional life. Software is frequently installed, uninstalled or upgraded. Usually the changes are internal and “visible” as a result.Central to inventory depreciation softwaretracking system should be a centralised database including information on invisible software assets in your IT network – how many programs and if they are licensed or not? A single audit should have the capacity to cover multiple locations and thousands of assets. It should also be fully compatible with inventory management systems. The asset tracking system should also be able to easily handle and manage both mobile and fixed assets.Asset tracking performed thoroughly and professionally can be a long process, but there are software packages and new technologies that can speed things up.

Systems that utilize RFID asset tracking use simple, hand held scanning devices to provide an accurate, validated, and consistently current database. The actual “real time” data from these systems means you can have full confidence in compliance with any auditor. Once the audit data has been uploaded into the asset or inventory register, managers can get reports detailing total assets and informed suggestions about possible actions (dispose, relocate, upgrade etc) for each of the assets located in the audit.