Data Asset Management – Common mistakes even multinational
businesses make

Although many businesses find that with the increase in unit costs of IT equipment and an ever-rising demand for new assets internally, pressure on IT budgets can only grow. In this environment, IT Management within an organisation have to find ways to increase the lifespan of equipment.

This is not always a bad idea, reusing, refurbishing or repurposing assets can be financially prudent, logical and environmentally sustainable. However, in order for this process to work asset need to be carefully tracked and monitored. Poor asset management including the sweating of assets to breaking point can end up more costly and harder to replace. This can prove to be a more frequent and expensive issue in larger corporations due to the larger numbers of assets and intensity of asset use.

Fortunately, there are management models to ensure that assets are used, maintained, monitored and optimised. This allows IT managers to predict the lifespan of assets and plan for reuse, refurbishment and eventually replacement, all within a defined budget.

All assets have a finite lifespan, at some point fully working equipment with degrade over time. This degradation results in the reduction of productivity and reliability. In order to proactively manage the lifespan of these assets, management is critical. Without the tracking of an assets lifespan, it is impossible to predict when productivity and reliability will drop eventually to a point where equipment is no longer usable. What is more with older equipment, there are costs associated with increased maintenance, breakdown in workflow.

Tagging and monitoring assets can prevent these costly errors. Efficient lifespan management can allow for businesses, especially larger business with greater asset numbers to budget for repairs, updates, and replacements.

It may sound basic but in order for businesses to maintain assets, IT managers need accurate information on the current whereabouts of assets. It follows if assets are not where they should be then it is impossible to maintain them. Again, this is an issue with the very largest businesses, the more assets that a business owns the more assets that have the potential to either be misplaced or not where they should be. Using the right asset tracking software can help mitigate this issue as businesses can efficiently track the exact location of company property.

Some businesses no matter the size can be guilty of reactive asset management. Waiting for assets to reduce in productivity or break can result in unforeseen maintenance and unbudgeted purchase of new equipment. Regular maintenance checks of all equipment is the next step to manage equipment, but in terms of efficiency, smarter maintenance, and performance, tracking allows IT Managers to predict when and where to perform preventative actions on valuable assets. This enables equipment to be run more efficiently for longer.

Knowing when to sell or replace assets is a critical skill, selling of assets too soon can lead to equipment being unnecessarily moved on, whereas leaving it too late and sweating of assets can lead to a poor ROI in the long term. By monitoring an assets performance over time, it gives businesses the information they need to make a decision on when to sell and invest in new equipment.

S2S Group offers a range of services to help businesses manage their asset estates. By using S2S Group, organisations can benefit hugely by partnering with a trusted service provider. Contact our customer support team to find out exactly how we can help. S2S Group is highly certified and fully UK GDPR compliant, giving you further peace of mind you are working with a trusted ITAD partner.

S2S Group is an industry leading it asset disposal and management business. If your business requires a range of IT equipment lifecycle solutions including the management of data bearing assets and portable devices, please get in touch with our customer support experts. S2S Group is able to advise your company on a full range of topics and would be more than happy to discuss your unique requirements.